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What will Apple launch tonight? Here's our guesses...

Stuart Dredge
What will Apple launch tonight? Here's our guesses...

Speculation about the Autumn launch lineup.

Tonight, Apple is holding its traditional September event to announce new products and services. So what will the company announce?

Here's ME's guesses:

New iPods

It's about time for a refresh of the iPod touch, and it would make sense for any new model to match the iPhone 4 for specs.

That would mean a higher-resolution Retina Display, and two cameras, including a front-facing one to support Apple's FaceTime video calls.

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Alongside this, there has been speculation that Apple may retire its iPod Classic tonight, leaving the iPod touch as its top-tier music device. The wider trend: for Apple, iPods are now about apps as well as music and video.

However, there may be a new, smaller iPod nano announced too.

iOS 4 update and Game Center

Developers have had the latest version of iOS 4 in beta form for a few weeks, so it's widely anticipated that it will be made available for consumers tonight too.

From a mobile entertainment viewpoint, the key feature may be the consumer launch of Game Center, Apple's social gaming community. If so, expect demos tonight of how Game Center works, and a few new games that support it.

This being a music-themed event, ME wonders if Apple could extend its iTunes LP content to work on iOS devices - interactive albums.

Apple TV and TV rentals

Online buzz around Apple's plans for its Apple TV set-top box have reached fever pitch this week, with the expectation that the company will drop the price of Apple TV, and tie it in with some kind of streaming/rental/subscription model for TV shows and films on iTunes.

Business Week claims Apple has partnered with Netflix for streaming films via Apple TV, while the Wall Street Journal maintains it will offer 99-cent rentals of TV shows from Fox and ABC. It may well do both.

Apple TV isn't, of course, a mobile device - but there would be two main implications of all this for ME readers.

First, if a new Apple TV runs the iOS software, it would open a path for iPhone developers to take their apps to TV screens - big news for games in particular, but also other kinds of apps.

Second, any TV and movies rental/subscription service could also work on iOS devices, particularly the iPad.

iTunes in the cloud?

For much of this year, Apple has been rumoured to be taking iTunes to the cloud - although this could mean a number of things: a web-based version of the desktop store; a Spotify-style all-you-can-eat streaming subscription service; or a cloud locker service for people to stream their music collections from multiple devices.

Or all three. Record labels have debunked the cloud locker rumour, claiming that Apple doesn't have the necessary licences.

However, that doesn't rule out an announcement tonight - it would just mean that Apple is taking the line that it doesn't need a licence to let people store their collections in the cloud - big news if so.

This week, though, speculation has focused more on a more webby version of the iTunes Store with more social features - the latter could be incorporated into the store's iOS clients.

Big stats

Steve Jobs will provide an update on the App Store tonight, likely announcing that 250,000 apps are now available, but also possibly providing a downloads and/or revenue milestone.

We may also receive an update on the number of active iOS users / devices, and some other figures to pump up the iOS ecosystem in the minds of consumers and developers.

Wild cards

A date for when iOS 4 will come to iPad? A redesigned iPhone 4 to solve the antenna problem? An on-stage burning of an Android robot effigy? Don't rule out a surprise tonight that hasn't been tipped in all the pre-event speculation.

ME will be reporting live on the launch, and for the first time Apple will be livestreaming video on its own website. It all kicks off at 10am PDT / 6pm BST.

Tags: apple