Gadget lovers were dreaming of iPods, iPads and bargain-rate Internet television Wednesday as Apple prepared to unveil its latest creations at a music-themed special event here.The technology world has been rife with speculation regarding what Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs will introduce.In its usual cryptic style, Apple sent out email invitations last week revealing little more than the place and time of the event, which will be held at 10:00 am (1700 GMT) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco.By Tuesday, the theater had been decorated with a giant banner of an acoustic guitar with a sound hole in the shape of the culture-changing California company’s logo.The safest bets were that Apple will roll out improvements to its line of iPod media players.Apple traditionally upgrades its iPod line in September to position the trend-setting portable devices for the year-end holiday shopping season.”It is time for the iPod Touch update,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley. “They tend to refresh the iPod now. The only thing that is heavy speculation is if they will mention Apple TV.”
The iPod Touch was expected to be upgraded to get “pretty much everything” already included in the latest generation of the iPhone except phone capability, according to Enderle.The iPod Touch is expected to inherit features like video chat and a crisper resolution screen from the iPhone 4.There was also talk that cameras, front and back, may be added to the iPod Touch and an iPod Nano with a small touchscreen may be unveiled.