14 DAY TRIAL // Members of the media have started receiving invitations to a “Rock and Roll” event scheduled for September 9, hosted at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. In what has remained an annual tradition at Apple, the company continues to focus on music, iPods and iTunes in fall, going by the banner attached to the invitations. It is yet unknown which of the company’s execs will be delivering the keynote address.
“Please join us for an invitation-only event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 9 at 10:00 a.m. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. Please arrive early,” Apple says. The invitations also include directions to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Company watchers believe Apple will most likely introduce something new, whether it’s camera-enabled iPods, an enhanced version of iTunes, Blu-ray support across its Macs, a media-focused tablet device, or all of these yet-unconfirmed products. It is worth noting that Apple typically introduces new iPods in September. Currently, the iPod line doesn’t look like it’s in need of a refresh, but upgrades are always welcome. Plus, the iPod touch still has room for hardware boosts.
What is less likely to materialize is, of course, the much-hyped Apple tablet. At least two people close to Apple have said they’ve not only seen prototypes of the device, but actually touched it. The latest such report even mentions Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as the OS running on one of the machines. If Apple is, indeed, actively working on a Mac tablet, analysts believe it won’t be unveiled and released until 2010.
Last year, Apple’s “Let's Rock” event saw the introduction of new iPods, as well as the discontinuation of older models (the 160GB iPod classic). iPhone OS 2.1 was also announced on September 9, last year. An update to the current iPhone OS version is also expected to ship at this year’s event (iPhone OS 3.1), with AT&T finally unlocking MMS for iPhone users in the US.