Apple Keynote Speech Looms, But Tablet May Still Be Missing [Updated]
Two years ago, Apple showed off the iPod Touch at an event much like the one that's supposedly happening around September 7th, and let's not forget the remodelling of the iPod Nano. But this time around, the rumor-mill is working in over time, and in standard Apple fashion, they're not providing any kind of answers yet. They haven't even cemented the idea of an event, or its exact date. So, what should we expect? A tablet? Something worth far less fanfare?
Apple tipped off the music industry executives, which would lead us to believe that the announcement has something to do with incorporating music in some fashion or another. There's the "cocktail" feature that Apple has been working on, which provides full-length albums with album covers and other surprises. Of course, it's not hard to get album covers, even if you've got downloaded music on your computer that you may not have necessarily downloaded from iTunes. So, if it does have something to do with music, we can hope that it's something revolutionary, even for Apple.
And maybe that revolution would be something Apple has refuted in the past, especially when talking about netbooks. As we've seen recently, the rumors revolving around an Apple Tablet (iTablet) are picking up speed, and the announcement of any kind of event from Apple around this time seems almost too good to be true. But should we really expect them to announce a tablet? Especially considering to whom the announcement was geared towards, unless this tablet has some unparalleled music interconnectivity, it'd be a pretty big surprise. And, if Apple doesn't announce a tablet, there's bound to be some incredibly unhappy fanboys out there.
Update: Sources close to "The Loop" are saying that there won't be any mention of an Apple tablet at this upcoming event. You saw us mention that we thought it was odd that Apple only informed music executives, well, that seems to be what the point of this event is all about: music. Whether this means we see some kind of new iPod, or hear Apple talk about that iTunes update that integrates social networks, including Last.fm. At this point, it's a bit disappointing, but Apple could come out and surprise everyone. We'll just have to wait and see.