Remember when Apple events used to be about exciting new products? All the hype about today’s announcements seem to be revolving around two things. Firstly, whether Steve Jobs will show up in person to speak, and if so, if he’ll be thinner than Posh Spice (is she still called that?), and secondly, if Apple will announce that the Beatles tracks will finally be arriving in iTunes.

(I’d admit that I’d be more excited if they would be arriving on Spotify as I have no intention of buying them digitally. I don’t buy digital music really. Being over 30 makes me of the CD generation, so if I want music enough to want to buy it, I prefer to own the best quality possible on disc, and rip it myself to my iPhone. But I digress).

Indeed today is Beatles day, as all the CD’s have been released fully remastered - and in both stereo and mono - and from the reviews, a fine job of it has been done on them too. I’ll naturally have all the existing albums on CD, and will be picking up the new box set when I can afford shelling out £170! Also released is the Beatles Rock Band, on all the gaming console platforms.

So it would make some sense for Apple to round it off announcing the Beatles on iTunes based on the remasters - perhaps in a special Yellow Submarine limited edition iPod?

So far though the rumours are contradictory - Sky News, quoting Yoko Ono, has said that that the deal has been done,  while EMI has come out denying that the deal has been done - apparently the sticking point is DRM, which seems a bit old hat these days doesn’t it?

As for Jobs, one could argue that such is the debate over his health that brining him on stage would overshadow any announcement of products. However, he’s a well known Beatles fan, and if Microsoft got Paul and Ringo onstage for E3, surely Apple could do the same for a Beatles iTunes announcement? If that happens, I can’t imagine he would want to let anyone else handle that.

However, if there’s no Beatles news, then why wase Jobs on what pretty much eveyone is saying will just be an iPod refresh.

So here are the Apple event rumours in a nutshell.

- Steve Jobs will appear in person

- Steve Jobs will not appear in person

- Apple will announce the Beatles on iTunes

- Apple will not announce the Beatles on iTunes

- iPod touch and iPod nanos will have cameras added

- iPod touch to get 64GB version

- The iPod classic will get shelved (boo hoo)

- The iPod classic will not get shelved (boo hoo)

- no announcements of new Macs, MacBooks,  or MacBook Pros - or a tablet

My prediction - no Beatles on iTunes, and no Jobs and just cameras on iPods, making this one of the most low key Apple events of recent times. Either way, I plan to Live Blog from the event so if you’re still interested, check back later.

With the hype surrounding the possible release of an Apple tablet, the invitation that many tech publications have received for an Apple event on 9 September, should knock the idea that one will be appearing very soon firmly on the head.

The event features the tagline ‘”It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” and features one of Apple’s distinctive dancers, striking a pose while holding an iPod, or possibly iPhone. Either way, the rumours are that this is just an iPod refresh, with the expectation that cameras will be making their way into the back of the iPod touch, and maybe ever the Classic, though that does seem a bit weird.

It’s also being held on 9/9/09, which is also the date that the Beatles catalogue is coming out remastered on CD, and that Beatles Rock Band is being issued on all the gaming consoles. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this coincided with the announcement of the Beatles music finally becoming available on iTunes – special edition Yellow Submarine iPod, preloaded with every Beatles album anyone? That’s my bet.

Thing is, if you’ve got an iPhone, it’s hard to get excited about iPod’s anymore. The advantage of an iPod are that it’s cheaper, you don’t get interrupted automatically by phone calls when you’re doing something vital, (like almost nailing a race when playing Need for Speed on the train morning), and you also don’t get woken up when your wife’s iPhone alarm goes off at 6:30 at top volume just because you’d increased her ringer volume the day before so she’d hear her phone when out and about.

Apple – is it too much to ask to have a separate volume control for the ringer and the alarms on an iPhone. If they announce nothing me than that on 9 September, I’d be happy.

If you’ve got your hopes set on a Palm Pre this Chrimbo then you might want to hold off on updating iTunes.

When the  Pre first launch in the US, Palm reasonably made a bit of a fuss that its shiny new phone could sync music with iTunes - making it a real pull to those considering switching to Palm but who had already invested in iTunes music. (The Pre didn’t work with copy protected music but was less of an issue seeing as iTunes has ditched DRM).

This pallying up with iTunes unsurprisingly didn’t go unnoticed by Apple, and so, even less surprisingly, the latest iTunes update breaks it. Ostensibly, it’s about bug fixes, but really it’s all about Palm. To Apple’s it’s the biggest bug of all.

The message? Apple are meanies.

The fact is though that Apple was never going to sit back and let its potentially most serious competitor  muscle in on its iTunes monopoly.

There are ways round it though - through third-party programs that sit between the device and iTunes, such as Salling Media Sync and The Missing Sync for Palm Pre, which has been doing the Mac, Palm Sync thing for years. The former has a free version available and apparantely the paid for version enables ‘faster sync’. The latter costs $40.

To be honest if your set on using iTunes and your non-Apple device you might as well pay-up and let some other company worry about having to deal with Apple’s ploys - it’s cash yes, but life’s too short.

And as others have also commented, this sort of shenanigans might focus some attention on Apple’s iPod/iTunes hegemony.

So Apple’s iPhone 3GS has arrived and I must admit I’ve finally bitten the bullet and gone for one. But having seen the speed improvements first hand and web browsing is better than ever, which makes it all the more disappointing that Flash support is still missing from the iPhone.  Many web pages don’t work as intended and many sites now use Flash video, which won’t play on the iPhone.

This makes it all the more galling that the new HTC Hero, claims to have actual Flash support – not Flash Lite, but proper Flash. This is something of a one-up for HTC, and gives is a strong claim to be head of the pack for web browsing.

A video from Adobe, shows Flash working on the Hero, although we’d have to play with one ourselves to get a jusdgment on how smooth it is in reality. In the video the Adobe presenter says that 80 per cent of Flash content should work on the device out of the box, and that it is working on a Flash 10 client, presumably to take care of the rest of them.

Are we going to have to wait until next year’s iPhone with probably dual core processing to give us Flash? Come on Apple, give us what we want.

My favourite story of the week is the proof that the new Find My iPhone feature, a new addition to Apple’s Mobile Me service.

The story (from this entertaining blog post) in a nutshell – bloke in Chicago leaves his iPhone in a bar - remembers that he’s just activated Find My Phone feature on his phone, and the next day is sent an email saying that the service has located his phone.

He starts sending messages to the phone, warning the new owner that he knows where the phone his, and that he’s a comin’. He takes a 3G enabled laptop with him and literally chases down the would-be thief, and is soon reunited with his iPhone.

It’s a well written, nicely paced story – you can hear the theme music in the background as you read. Look out for the film version, coming to a screen near you. My favourite part - the description of how they felt once they’ve recovered it: “We laughed triumphantly, adrenaline racing, feeling like the Jack Bauer trio.”

Truth-be-told, as the comments on the blog indicate, it’s fortunate that he and his intrepid pals didn’t get seriously ass-whooped by whoever had ‘borrowed’ his device – and it turns out the guy was scared of the messages appearing by magic on the device.

So has Mobile Me finally got itself a killer app?

So it’s been a couple of days since Apple announced its latest updates, and we’ve had a bit of time to calm down. So, have we calmed down?

As everyone expected, the new iPhone was start of the show, and last week I put up my list of what I was hoping to see from the new device.

So how did I do?

Firstly, what I got right. Well much of the improvements were part of the iPhone 3.0 OS update, so cut-and paste, GPS, push notifications, and the landscape keyboard we pretty much knew would be coming. The improved winding (scrubbing) sensitivity, we’ll wait and see how it turns out when we actually get hold of one.

On the hardware side, I was pleased to see there’s a 32GB version, and video capability thanks to an overdue 3-megapixel camera.

So, what did I get wrong?

Well firstly, there’s no higher resolution screen – its remains where it is at 320 x 480 – so I now think that will come in next year’s version that we all now expect to be a major hardware update.I  was also disappointed not to see a 4GB version introduced with the entry level model now the 8GB iPhone 3G.

But ohmygod- the prices! Nicole has already let rip at those crying into their milk at the fact that they won’t be able to upgrade without paying through the nose to get out of the rest of their contract – but even for first time buyers, the iPhone 3Gs is a very expensive proposition. O2 wants £275 for a 32GB one, and that’s with a £35 a month tariff. Ouch.
I can’t decide whether it’s down to the recession or a little bit of greed on O2’s part – the reality is probably in between the two.

So why can O2 do so a thing? Well, it knows it can. After all, it’s not as if people can look the the iPhone prices, decide it’s too much, and decide to go for the new kid on the block, the Palm Pre on another network – because if rumours are to be believed in the UK, O2  has that baby wrapped up too.

So yup, if you’re a gadget freak – it’s got you by the short and curlies…

Also galling is the fact that if you do go for the 3Gs plunge now, the only options are an 18-month or 24-month, meaning that next year’s, possibly heavily revamped model will be out-of-immediate reach.

But when you want something new and shiny, the words ‘possibly’ and ‘next year’ are not likely to register too much. I’m not sure if I can hold out. Now, I’m sure I can find a grandmother down the back of the sofa I can sell… or something.

There’s no guarantee that Apple will announce a new iPhone at WWDC 2009 this evening, but if it doesn’t it’s going to make everyone look a bit silly as the internet tubes are naturally full of iPhone buzz.

That said if you’ve got iTunes on your computer you many have noticed Apple update pushing out version 8.2 of iTunes – supporting the new iPhone 3.0 software, of which we already know plenty, so the timing is apt.

Some analysts have suggested that Apple should hold off on the new iPhone to take it what the Palm Pre is doing, and then counter it, but I don’t think that Apple will take that approach – I’m sure it had a good idea of what the Pre would be capable of before the phone’s release last Saturday.

Here then is a list of some of the things I would like to see in the new iPhone, though I’m sure I’m going to be disappointed in my regards.

•    Higher resolution screen – Likehood - medium

The 3.8in 800 x 480 screen on the HTC Touch HD is fantastic (it’s best feature by far) and I’d love to see Apple match that. I doubt it’s going to increase the size of the 3.5in display, but more pixels to up that dot pitch would be great.

•    32GB capacity model –likelihood – high

When I was using an iPhone it was fantastic for music and video but as I owned an 80GB iPod (5th gen) I really missed having all my stuff available – a 32GB model is really needed, especially with all the app that are out there.

•    4GB capacity model – likelihood – medium

However, not everyone really needs all that space. A 4GB model would bring the price down and make it more affordable for more casual users

•    MMS - likelihood – likelihood  - high

This feature may be ‘old skool’, but it’s still a quick and easy way of sending snaps to other users – especially for those who don’t have email on their phone. Rumours are strong Apple has finally succumbed – let’s hope so.

•    Front video camera  - likelihood - low

I think I was one of the only people who actually used to make video calls – back when my wife and I both had Sony Ericsson V800s. However, the concept that the network 3 has actually launched itself on has died a death – for a number of reasons but if there’s any company that can improve the experience surely it’s Apple.

•    Video recording – likelihood - very high

Rumours suggest the new phone will be dubbed the iPhone video (although other rumours also go with iPhone 3Gs), so this one’s pretty likely. The quality is likely to be very average, and why we should get excited about a feature that most phones have had for years it anybody’s guess.

•    Cut and paste – likelihood – very high

This was a much bemoaned missing feature – and it’s announced as part of iPhone 3.0 OS. Good.

•    Turn by-turn-GPS – likelihood - very high

Google Maps is great on the iPhone, but why it’s taken so long to offer turn by turn direction support I’m not sure. Hopefully now we can see fully fledged navigation packages from the likes of Co-Pilot and TomTom

•    Bluetooth data - likelihood  - low

Bluetooth support has always been poor – but in iPhone 3.0 we’re promised support for the Ad2P profile so users can now use iPhone wireless headphones. But what about data support. I can’t use the iPhone with my TomTom as it won’t accept data connections – frustrating.

•    Flash – likelihood – very low

Will Flash support still not becoming to the iPhone it could get left behind, especially if it arrives firs on the Palm Pre.

•    Push notifications - likelihood - high

The iPhone famously can’t do multi tasking, something that WinMo phones do – even if they don’t do a great job of it. Push notifications would enable developers to get info out about their app without if having to be fully running – e.g. Messenger type apps, or Twitter. At the moment, if you get a phone call, your messenger app would show you as offline. It’s promised though for iPhone 3.0 software- htis could be mega.

•    More sensitive scrubbing – likelihood- medium

I’ve always found winding forward or back though video (scrubbing) a lot harder on the iPhone than on the classic wheel on the iPod. Apple has apparently improved the sensitivity for iPhone 3.0 – let’s hope its true. Well I do, anyway.

•    Landscape keyboard – likelihood – very high

Why oh why oh why, was the landscape keyboard not available on all apps. We’re told that it is now in iPhone 3.0.

•    Document viewing – likelihood – low

Though you can view attachment on the iPhone, you can only do it by accessing the email they are sent with – there’s no way of saving them to the phone for access later. I don’t believe this behaviour is changing for iPhone 3.0 OS. So we’re going to end of this list on a downer.

I have to admit that I’m mildly excited with the news that the release Windows 7 release candidate will be available on Friday. (I must stress mildly, I’m not that sad. Am I?)

FYI it will be available for Technet and MSDN subscribers sometime next week, while the great unwashed will have to wait until next week – 5 May. (Actually, that’s the wrong way round isn’t it – let’s face it, MSDN and Technet subscribers are far more likely to be unwashed – I’m not so sure about the great bit… anyway I digress).

As I was saying, the point it, that I’m actually going to bother do download and install it as soon as I can.(Hopefully it will install directly over older builds). You see I’m rather enamoured of Windows 7, and I’m running it, as many of the techie sorts are over the way at PC Pro, on my main machine.

Having given up the ghost on my official Windows XP powered Dennis Publishing laptop, on account of it being as slow as a very slow thing on a particular sluggish day in Slowland, I had the opportunity to use a MacBook Pro as my main work machine. Nice.

And for a good while I did, running Windows Vista inside Parallels, in order to get the best of both worlds. I did this you see, as I wanted m Mac grooviness (not enough people use the word groovy anymore I feel), but I also couldn’t give up on Outlook and Xobni, a powerful combination that I like a lot, especially considering Microsoft’s Outlook equivalent for Mac, Entourage is frankly, rubbish.

However, as Windows 7 beta wouldn’t run under Parallels on the Mac I had to install in on yet another machine – but since I’ve got it all going the MacBook Pro has stayed in the draw, which is a bit of a waste of a Macbook Pro if I’m thinking about it.

In fact, I’ve just come to the realisation that if I had to spend my own money I think I would actually prefer a Windows 7 machine over a Mac. As great as Mac OS X is, I don’t think it’s got any great draw over Windows – especially for a work machine. More specifically it’s also about the application – I like Office 2007 a lot more than Office 2008 for the Mac, which feels dates – and if I want to use Outlook and Xobni, then I might as well do it natively.

Thinking about it, on a Mac the best apps as far as I’m concerned are still iPhoto and iMovie – which means that for me, the ideal machines would be an iMac at home and a Windows 7 machine at work. And as for fun, well I guess it’s not a PC either these days – it’s a console.

So a PC for the boring stuff and a Mac for the creative stuff. It seems then that old clichés are still true.

Today Dell announced some new notebooks with a difference. Instead of the usual sensible slate grey, or even oh-so-daring blue shades, the three new notebook are adorned with some funky new artwork designed, produced by three different artists. Check them out on the Dell web site here.

Each of the three new designs comes under the

I have to admit that after looking forward to it for some time, I was underwhelmed by the Bullet train experience. Of course, initially it was a thrill to see that iconic snub nosed carriage at the front, but it whizzes past in a flash and then you just get on, well, a train.

Naturally, I was expecting the inside to be as cool as the exterior, but really it’s just a train that goes very fast. That said, it’s impressively quiet on the inside, especially considering you’re doing over 200Km per hour (130 miles per hour).

I was slightly surprised that there was no Wi-Fi access on the train at all either