Apple To Hold Media Event September 1st

It’s finally going to happen. Apple sent out the media invites yesterday afternoon to the select few media outlets to participate in a media event on Wednesday, September 1st. That’s a week earlier than BusinessWeek’s prediction of September 7th, and three weeks later than our previously rumored prediction.

Apple notably uses September to introduce new iPods and to announce new features to the iTunes software. The rumors for this year include a highly rumored and speculated Apple TV update and possible re-branding with a $99 price point and iOS, many sources are predicting a 4th generation iPod touch with dual cameras for face time and an A4 processor like the iPhone4, an iPad refresh or 7” iPad is also rumored.

Do you have any predictions of your own? Share them in our comments section.

My Predictions

I predict we’ll see a new 4th gen iPod touch with a higher resolution display – not retina however, unibody design, A4 processor, dual cameras hopefully HD on the back so we can shoot video and edit in iMovie. I also believe we’ll see a microphone and the new gyroscopic sensor.

I think we’ll see an update to the Apple TV as well. I am skeptical about iOS being on the Apple TV but I can see how applications could play a roll in the functionality of the Apple TV.  Content providers could use applications to deliver content. Netflix?  I think we’ll also see a unibody design for the Apple TV.  Faster processor is a must. I think we might see a display port alongside HDMI, I think they will axe component connections to save space. USB port will also support addon dvd drive-ala, macbook air drive.

There have been many rumors, so it’s hard to make a prediction about everything. I think we’ll also see an iPod classic update and an iPod nano update, shuffle will probably keep the same design but go up in capacity and down in price.  We have seen rumors of a 1.7” touch LCD device floating around. If anything, I think this could be applied to the classic or nano, bringing back the phat stubby design.

iTunes update is a no brainer. Feature wise, I have no clue. We’ve heard rumors of social networking features. I will predict we might see a name change.  iTunes may become iMedia since iTunes is no longer music only.

iWork 10, iLife 10, and Final Cut Studio 4.  I know I am wishfully thinking, especially since ePub export was just added to iWork, it’s hard to say if we’ll see iWork 10, but we can hope for some new features.  iLife 10 is a more likely candidate to receive updates. I think iPhoto will get some new updates to go along with Aperture 3 features.   Final Cut Pro / Studio needs an update badly, we need better 64bit support and a new interface to go along with the new Aperture 3 UI updates.

Other than that I don’t know what else Apple could release.  Rumors of a 7” iPad are plausible, but I don’t see them refreshing or updating the current model of iPad, it’s too soon to update it, especially since Apple is just now catching up on production of the current iPad. We’ll see the iOS 4 update for the iPad however, but I know for sure we will not see new hardware unless it’s a 7″ model to go alongside the current full size iPad.