As you may or may not be aware, Apple have announced that tomorrow (September 1st) they will be holding a special event (invitation pictured left) for reporters, bloggers and analysts, presumably with the intention of announcing their next latest and greatest inventions. There’s also much speculation regarding what exactly will be the headline announcement, with the general consensus pointing towards new iPod Touch and Nano, given the music themed invitation that was sent out.

This has been backed up by recent rumours of an iPod Touch touting front and rear cameras which would tie in with the pictures of what are supposedly cases for the new iPod Touch and Nano (right). The speculated cameras would in all likelihood  allow the iPod Touch to benefit from the iPhone 4 Wi-Fi only FaceTime and would perhaps explain why Apple, for now at least, have chosen to keep FaceTime Wi-Fi only across the board. It’s also said that the cameras would allow the new Touch to support Apple’s new iMovie software, allowing on-the-move video recording and editing. It’s also rumoured that the iPod Touch will utilise the Retina Display technology found in the current iPhone 4. The rumoured iPod Nano however, is likely to simply be a smaller, re-designed unit with a larger memory.

Whilst we agree with the majority, that tomorrow will see the announcement of a new iPod Touch and iPod Nano, we feel it’s worth mentioning the other announcements we could potentially be seeing tomorrow in place of or as well as the iPod Touch? Well, here’s a run down of what we think these could be:

A ‘Cloud’ based iTunes

There were rumours circulating only a month ago regarding a wireless iTunes streaming and synching functionality which would undoubtedly be in addition to a new iPod announcement at tomorrow’s event. Apple has already moved below the radar to add the ability to stream music from MobileME in it’s latest update, a move which is said to be a test run for the larger iTunes update and would make sense given the possible damage that could ensue if it were to go wrong upon release.

TV show rental

Again, this is another rumour which has been ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ around the internet, which would see Apple give the option to essentially rent a TV show for a few days for $0.99 (likely to be £0.99 too knowing the Apple currency converison rates) as oppose to the current set up of having to purchase the show for $1.99.

Apple TV Update

There is rumoured to be a new version of the Apple TV winging its way to the market and we’ll give you three guesses as to what it’s called… Yeah, you’ve got it, the iTV (law suit filed in 5, 4, 3…) The iTV is rumoured to have a built in 16GB memory, the ability to run applications and the possibility of streaming iTunes to iPads/Phones/Touches through a Wi-Fi connection.

A new tablet

This is probably the least likely of all the possibilities we’ve outlined so far, somewhere up there with the pink elephants or flying farm animals of the swine variety, making an appearance but it’s still worth a mention. Ever since the iPad launched, there has been speculation as to whether Apple would release a 7 inch tablet to co-exist alongside the current, larger iPad. The recent tablet rumours from Samsung, LG, HTC/Google et al, would suggest that they believe there will at some point, be a smaller tablet, given that each is looking to release tablet into this exact space as oppose to taking the iPad on head-to-head. Now, we’re not suggesting that there won’t be an iPad Mini on the horizon somewhere but we doubt very much that we’ll see anything concrete this year.

Well, i think that’s about covered everything unless Apple really pull an Ace from their sleeve and in all likelihood, tomorrows announcement will be the new iPod Touch/Nano as expected, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the announcement of the cloud based iTunes in tow. Whatever happens, make sure you check back at the blog tomorrow for our coverage of the announcement(s).

When it was first announced last year, the iPad received a mixed reception with many critics dismissing it as an oversized iPhone/ iPod Touch. Despite this, Apple’s Tablet device has gone on to achieve phenomenal success and carve out a market many thought simply didn’t exist.

Now, following Apple’s success it would appear other manufacturers are falling over themselves to release an iPad rival. RIM (the guys behind BlackBerry smartphones) have previously been rumoured to have a tablet in the works going under the codenames “Cobalt” and “BlackPad” sporting an 8.9 inch touchscreen display running BlackBerry 6 OS. And, whilst it had gone quiet on the BlackBerry tablet front for some time, rumours have heated up once again with the news that RIM have bought the domain name blackpad.com. And, with RIM holding a press event on the 3rd of August, could we be treated to our first glimpses of the BlackPad?

On to Palm now who, prior to their acquisition by HP, were the subject of frequent rumours around a tablet running WebOS (the OS powering the Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones). With HP already committed to Microsoft Windows with the Slate, it had seemed that WebOS fans hopes had been dashed but the WebOS tablet is very much alive once again with the news that HP have filed an application to trademark the name PalmPad. So, it would seem that not only are HP and BlackBerry keen to join the tablet revolution but they’re also acknowledging ‘Pad’ as the recognised name for such a product.

Keep an eye on the Blog and we’ll keep you up to date on all the latest tablet news and we’ll also be all over RIM/BlackBerry’s press conference on the 3rd of August to give you all the gory details.