Edible Apple

You can now pencil in September 9th on your calenders as the day Apple will announce a refreshed lineup of iPod’s and perhaps a new version of iTunes as well.  Citing sources close to Apple, John Paczkowski of All Things D writes that the scheduled event will most likely take place in San Francisco – but if you’re hoping against hope for any inkling of a tablet announcement, you might be in for a disappointment.  Paczkowski bluntly writes that the upcoming music-themed media event will involve absolutely no discussion of Apple’s rumored tablet device.  And it makes sense – I mean, if Apple is truly planning to unveil an Apple tablet, it makes more sense to center an entire event around its unveiling, as opposed to having it share the stage with some boring ole’ iPods.

Lastly, there’s no word as to which Apple executive will be handling the event’s presenting duties, but a tweet from CNBC analyst Jim Goldman on Monday night reads:

Jobs’ return to the stage VERY LIKELY at the $AAPL event.

Note the caps boys, note the caps.

Before you blow off the tweet as being just that, we should point out that Goldman has had much more access to Apple executives, and Jobs in particular, than almost any other media personality over the past few years.  For a while, Jobs made a habit of stopping by to talk with Goldman on CNBC shortly after announcing a brand new product.

If Jobs does indeed return to the public eye this September, we can only imagine what sort of media response will ensue.  Like it or not, Jobs’ first foray in public will most likely result in a slew of stories focusing on how healthy he looks and how much weight he appears to have either gained or lost.  There’s just no getting around it so better to get it out of the way sooner than later.

And as for the products, which is why this media event is being put on in the first place, Apple is expected to add a camera to the iPod Nano and a video camera to the iPod Touch.  Also, Apple is expected to announce iTunes 9 which is rumored to include support for Blu-ray and will reportedly also include the integration of social media sites such as Twitter and Last.fm.

Finally, Goldman also writes that a iTunes/Beatles announcement is also likely, but we’ve been through this song and dance so many times before that we’ll believe it when we see it.