UPDATE: ArsTechnica [1] cites sources at Apple claiming that there will be an Apple Event on September the 5th. MacScoop has also received an anonymous / unconfirmed report earlier this week claiming there will be a special event on early September.
The iPod rumour flow has been growing and growing during the past few weeks. Now it appears clear that Apple is preparing to totally revamp its iPod lineup very soon. Here's a brief refresh with the latest iPod rumours.
The iPod-centric speculation especially heated-up this week with 9to5mac.com bringing up not only pictures showing [2] the next iPod nano line-up but also description [3] of what they call the "Touch Pod", basically a long rumoured phone-less iPhone.
Though the iPod nano picture generated [4] a bit of controversy regarding its veracity, it was later removed upon Apple legal request by several sites who had published it (you can still see [5] a zoomed and incomplete version on MacScoop). The main difference in the design is that it looks shorter than the previous version, with a screen taking half of its size, and that it comes in new colors (except silver and black which are still in the rumoured line-up).
As for the "Touch iPod", so they call it, 9to5mac claims it does have pictures of it but will not publish them because of obvious legal reasons. However they provide a few details which could help us to verify if the report was accurate in the future:
" • Outside rim is black, not silver like the iPhone and more flush with the screen like the 5.5G iPods not rounded like iPhone
• No ear speaker or microphone for phoning
• Thicker - slightly"
But other reports regarding the forthcoming iPod line-up followed on Thursday, with AppleInsider claiming [6] Apple will present four new versions of the iPod, as opposed to currently three standing in the line-up, in an announcement scheduled on mid-September.
The report adds that the new iPods will drop their Pixo-based operating system for a Mac OS X based one, similar to the one we can find on the iPhone. By the way, it is also confirmed that the interface concept videos posted on MacRumors [7] a few weeks ago and removed at Apple legal request are indeed "genuine Apple material".
Regarding the iPod shuffle, the site expects a minor line-up refresh as well.
If the two of the reports are to be believed, they remind us earlier MacScoop revelations. On January, we claimed [8] Apple was working on a Widescreen iPod featuring the same Multi-Touch based user interface as the iPhone. In addition, on a report posted before even the iPhone was unveiled, MacScoop had also claimed [9] that Apple would use Mac OS X as core for its future handheld devices' software, including iPods. Now the iPhone is on the market, it appears pretty obvious that Apple will follow the stripped-down Mac OS X strategy for its iPod as well.
A first wave of iPod-centric speculative reports started late last month on the August 7 event expectations and continued earlier this month while some sites like Engadget started [10] feeling the responsibility to advise against buying an iPod for the moment.