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No new iPhone? Just cut and paste? All this iPod 3.0 fuss about that?

What the Faithful will really be hoping for, at the iPhone OS 3.0 preview show today, will be some clues about what hardware it will run on. Will it be the iPhone Nano? What about the pull-out keyboard? Whatever it is, it will be much more than "just cut and paste."

New hardware has been predicted for the show, with a Tablet computer high on the list, says Seth Weintraub. This forecast looks more like entrail-reading than inside info, but does include fairly solid rumours from Apple suppliers.

He says: "I 've got a pretty good idea that Apple is going to be releasing more iPod touch/iPhone platform devices. Why? Well, for one, they've said so in a job posting at the end of last year." Quoting the advert:

The software developed by the networking team runs on a broad spectrum of platforms, including Macs and Windows, and from servers down to a growing number of embedded devices including iPhone.

Weintraub also points to other reports which suggest a device with a ten-inch screen.

Video recording software/firmware updates are also being eagerly awaited - and widely forecast. It would be possible: there already is an independent app which will use the iPhone's camera to record footage. But Claudine Beaumont has stuck her neck out and said "That won't happen."

What she does expect, high on many lists, is background multi-tasking - the ability to start an application, switch to another and leave the first still running.

Sadly, that's the one feature several "informed sources" are saying definitely won't be included! Time, perhaps, to admit that nobody actually knows what Apple will announce?

Any number of web sites are using the Apple event for personal gain, of course. Gizmodo always does a "live blog" from these events. Scott Kleinberg is pleading for new Twitter followers for his Chicago Tribune blog; he'll be tweeting from the show, he says. Then he rather spoils the impact by admitting:

"...but sometimes when the ol' Internet connection gets bogged down jumping back and forth between sites - I'll also be on the phone talking to some well-placed sources as well - I can't always guarantee those updates. Of course, Twitter has crashed during past Apple announcements, so it's always a guessing game."

The one thing nobody is predicting, of course, is a Steve Jobs appearance at the Cupertino, Ca event. Shall we go with that? There does have to be some surprise...

Mockup via this blog

So, that "growing number of embedded devices" I think will be a ten inch tablet. The ten inches figure I get from the three different reports out of China that Apple is developing a touch screen in the 9.5-10 inch area for release in Q3 (summer).