Apple Special Event Predictions: iPods With Cameras, Beatles

August 31st, 2009

Apple just announced a special, music-related event for September 9th at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. The tag line is a Rolling Stones lyric, “It’s only rock and roll and we like it.”

Speculative predictions as to what will be announced:

• New iPods: Specifically, the addition of a camera to the iPod Touch and iPod Nano and larger storage capacity.
• Beatles finally hit iTunes: The Beatles Remastered albums available for download through iTunes.
• A Beatle-branded iPod (similar to the U2 one) containing the entire Beatles Remastered box set (all the Beatles albums).
• Steve Jobs makes an appearance following his medical leave.
• (No tablet).

Timing is perfect for a Beatles announcement. Evidence for:

• Apple usually has special events on Tuesdays. The ninth is one day later, Wednesday.
• 9/9/09 coincides with the release of the Beatles Rock Band video game, but more importantly, the Beatles Remastered box set. All the Beatles’ albums have been remastered using higher bit rates and the latest technology, and reviewed to be a noticeable improvement over the CD releases from the late eighties. The Beatles’ music up until this point have also been unavailable for download, one of the few major artists still holding out.
• The new Beatles CDs each contain “mini documentaries” covering the creation of each album, a perfect fit for an iTunes download and a video-playing iPod.

So, new iPods with cameras and Apple Corps finally links up with Steve Jobs’ Apple. It all makes nearly too much sense. And icing on the cake would be Steve Jobs, returning from his medical leave, announcing the whole shebang.