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Andrew Mager has posted (via iPhoneSavior) an image from outside the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco where Apple will hold its "Let's Rock" media event on September 9th, 2008.

The large multi-story banner shows one of Apple's iPod silhouette ads clearly suggesting a major iPod-related event. Persistent rumors have predicted that Apple will introduce a tall iPod Nano, a new iPod Touch, as well as iTunes 8. There are also suggestions that Apple could introduce the 2.1 iPhone firmware with some previously unannounced features.

A few last minute tidbits:

- We've heard a few more reports of Apple telling reporters that this event will be a "big deal" and urging them to come. While it's hard to read too much into this sort of hype, it does not appear to be typical practice for Apple.
- DaringFireball suggests that there will be iPhone news at the event.
- While we won't be providing live web coverage, we will offer links to all available coverage as well as SMS updates via Twitter.
- The event will take place on September 9th, 2008 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

Despite having some initial doubts, Arstechnica now believes that Kevin Rose was correct and that iTunes 8 will be arriving on September 9th alongside the expected iPod updates.

Also expected is the iPhone 2.1 firmware which had been also reported with the original rumor.

One new tidbit, however, is that Ars was told that there are parts of the iPhone 2.1 firmware "that were specifically removed from developer seeds in order to keep them secret from the world." If true, that means there may be some surprise features that will be announced on September 9th.

Developers may note that Apple has ceased delivery of iPhone 2.1 firmware betas over the past few weeks, which is consistent with it having been declared Gold Master in anticipation of the upcoming release.

Apple is holding a special media event to announce their new products on Tuesday, September 9th.

Engadget posts what is claimed to be an actual photo of one of the new "tall" iPod Nanos. Rumors have been persistent that the iPod Nano would see a return to the "tall" form factor next week. The larger screen will reportedly allow for better viewing of video content.

The image also appears to be the same source image as an obscured iPod Nano photo published by MacNN earlier this evening. They felt confident that this was a "verified authentic photo" of the new iPod Nano. As well, they reported that the other Nano colors would be "more vibrant" than the current pale hues of the 3rd generation iPod Nano.

A number of individuals are speculating that Flight 404's Magnetosphere iTunes visualizer is likely to be "trippy" iTunes 8 visualizer described by Kevin Rose.

Magnetosphere had been available as a free download from the developer's site until a few months ago. The author has since responded to an inquiry by Allan White that the plug-in had been "sold to a third party".

Other example videos of the developer's impressive visual work:

- Magnetosphere (High quality QuickTime version).
- Magnetosphere Revisited
- Turbulence w/ flares
- Magnetic Sphere

Update: Kevin Rose confirms that the Magnetosphere is the "visualization [he] saw in a build of iTunes 8.0".

Apple is continuing its steady stream of developer releases of the next version of Mac OS X 10.5.5 with a new version seeded to developers just last night.

The latest version (build 9F32) provides more minor fixes but continues to have at least one known issue with Mail search. Beyond this, Apple has addressed approximately 129 bugs and issues since the previous public release of Mac OS X 10.5.4.

The timing of release is difficult to predict, but will eventually be available as a free download to current Mac OS X 10.5 customers.

As promised, Microsoft has started running their new ads using comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The ad has already been spotted by a number of readers.

The first in presumably a series of ads show Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in Shoe Carnival. A YouTube video (via Macenstein) is available.

Seinfeld was reportedly paid $10 million for his work in this series of ads. The goal of the ads are to revamp Microsoft's image.

Imagination Technologies announced today that they have secured a new multi-year, multi-use license agreement which gives an unnamed company access to the company's wide range of current and future PowerVR graphics and video cores.

As a result of this new agreement, it is expected that Imagination’s IP cores will feature in a number of new SoCs to be used in this company’s future products. Under the terms of the above licensing arrangement, Imagination will receive on-going licence fees as well as royalty revenues on SoCs incorporating Imagination’s IP.

It's been widely speculated that Apple is the licensee for Imagination Technology's graphics cores. Apple currently uses the fourth-generation PowerVR chipset in the iPhone and iPod Touch.

EETimes ties this together with rumors that Apple had also acquired a major architectual licensing deal with ARM, which also powers the iPhone. If true, Apple is positioning itself to deliver custom chipsets based on existing iPhone technologies for future devices.

Apple's recent acquisition of P.A. Semi certainly brings this speculation into the realm of possibility.

According to CNet sources, Apple will not be introducing an iTunes subscription service next week.

My sources say that they don't expect Apple to announce anything to do with music content, and they are sure Apple won't be rolling out an iTunes music subscription service.

According to the article, Apple simply has not acquired such licensing from music labels at this time.

The rumor was revived after a claimed transcript of events was broadcast to several sites. These supposed transcripts are easy to fake, however, and have never been found to be accurate.

Still the possibility of Apple introducing a subscription service has some basis in reality, as the earlier rumors have described that Apple has been in negotiations for this possibility.

Alibaba, a B2B marketplace, has a photo (via Zollotech) of what appears to be the 4th generation iPod Nano that is expected to be released next week.

We can't be for sure if this represents a photo of the actual device, or simply a mockup based on circulating dimensions, but it does show what appears to be a dock connector on the bottom of the device. The image also correlates with all circulating rumors about the new iPod Nano.

Apple will be holding a special event on September 9th where the new iPod Nano is expected to be released.

Apple's patent applications provide a glimpse into what might lie ahead in our future. For example, we saw an explosion of multi-touch patents in the year before the iPhone's release. And while many of these concepts may never come to market, they provide an interesting look into the direction of Apple's research.

One of the most recent patent applications from Apple is entitled Multitouch Data Fusion and is authored by Wayne Westerman and John Elias (formerly of Fingerworks). Westerman and Elias have been prolific publishers of multi-touch patent applications and likely helped establish the multi-touch technology behind Apple's iPhone. While many have since hoped to see some sort of advanced multi-touch interface for Apple's Macs, only limited multi-touch support has been included into Apple's notebooks.

In Multitouch Data Fusion, however, Westerman and Elias are already exploring the use other inputs to help improve and augment multi-touch interfaces. These include:

- Voice recognition
- Finger identification
- Gaze vector
- Facial expression
- Handheld device movement
- Biometrics (body temp, heart rate, skin impedance, pupil size)

The patent application gives examples of how each of these could be used in conjunction with multi-touch to provide a better user experience. A few highlights are provided here:

Voice - Some tasks are described as being better suited for either voice recognition vs multi-touch. For example, if a user's task is to resize, rotate and change the color of an object on the screen, multi-touch would be best suited for the resize/rotation tasks but changing of color (or inserting text) may be better suited to a voice command.

Finger identification - the article suggests that using built in cameras (such as the iSight) with a swing mirror could provide an over the keyboard view of multi-touch gestures. This video information could be used to better distinguish which fingers are being used in which position. In conjunction with the touch input, this could be used to create more specific and accurate gestures.


Gaze - tracking where the user is looking could help pick windows or objects on the screen. Rather than resorting to moving a mouse pointer to the proper window, a user could simply direct his gaze at the particular window and then invoke a touch gesture.

Facial expression - detecting frustration on the face of a user could provide help prompts or even alter input behavior. The example given is if a user is incorrectly trying to scroll a window using 3 fingers, instead of 2, the computer may be able to detect the frustration and either accept the faulty input or prompt the user.

Many of these technologies are likely years away from the market, but continue to provide an interesting peek into Apple's future.