'Rock and Roll' is the name of the event, but you can bet Apple's press announcement tonight is much more about technology, product evolution and branding than hairy blokes with guitars. Still nevertheless with a few hours to go the jury is out on whether tonight will be like The Smiths reforming and playing Wembley or a Chas and Dave reunion gig in your local pub.

So to help you decide for yourself here are the top rumours of what Apple may or may not announce today. We do know there will be a new iPod Touch and a new Nano. But what else?

1 An iPod Touch with a built in camera - Well everyone thinks this is going to happen including US retailer Best Buy who even put it on their site yesterday. The theory runs that people would take their Touches out and about a bit more if they had a built in camera. So Apple will probably lob in the same 3.0 mega pixel one that is one the iPhone.

2 A Beatles iPod classic - Yep another limited edition iPod, only this time one worth having. The theory is that it would contain all the Fab Four's recently remastered albums and probably have Macca giving it the thumbs up engraved on the back.

3 The death of the iPod Classic - Well this is unlikely as Apple will probably continue to sell the old models, but by not announcing a new version Apple could well be consigning the iconic flagship of the Apple fleet (well circa 2005) to the dumper. Well where else can they take it? More storage? A bigger screen?

4 An iPod nano phone - Now this would be left field. A cut down version of the iPhone has been rumoured for a long time and with Android phone appearing every twenty minutes maybe now is the time to launch it. Btw Best Buy has apparently already confirmed a new iPod nano.

5 An Apple tablet PC - Another rumour that gets trotted out every few months. Again it would make sense to launch something that was somewhere between the iPhone and the Macbook Air. Alternatively Apple can unveil its own netbook - think a Macbook Air but half the size and even skinnier with a 10inch screen and running the iPhone's OS. Now that could work.

5 Project Cocktail - Like this one a lot, it's a way of repackaging albums on iTunes so they include interactive content including lyric sheets, photos, cover art, sleeve notes and other freebies. The iTunes store needs something innovative and different and this would fit the bill.

And one that is very unlikely, but you never know...

1 Apple pulling out of mobile phone market - Not as daft as it sounds. The iPhone has been a hit in the UK and US but not many other places in the world. Maybe it might make sense to licence the iPhone OS rather than offer the hardware too.

Today is going to be a big day for Apple. At 6PM UK time we'll get the low-down on the next generation of iPods with tremendous innovations such as a three mega pixel camera popping up on the iPod touch and maybe an iPod classic with even more storage. Well hopefully it will be a tad more exciting than that.

There's also a huge rumour that today is the day that The Beatles back catalogue finally arrives in iTunes.

The theory runs that...
• The remastered CDs are being launched today
• Beatles Rock Band edition goes on sale today
• It is the 9/9 2009. I am sure Lennon would have liked that

Oh, and Yoko Ono told Sky news it would be announced today.

Unfortunately EMI, which own the rights to the best back catalogue in the history of rock ever, have said it won't be happening and Sky News has started to back track. So is this is a disaster for digital music? Course not.

Personally don't give a fig whether The Beatles back catalogue is available on iTunes or not. Tunes as momentous as A Day in The Life, Tomorrow Never Knows and err Octopus' Garden deserve to be heard in the best sound quality and that does mean the remastered CDs. Besides, who really is going to buy The Beatles stuff on iTunes? I am guessing that anyone who has an iPod probably likes music and viz a viz probably has at least a few of The Beatles albums in their collection on CD. Ok, so iTunes might be good for grabbing a few of the good tracks from the weaker albums like Beatles for Sale, but really is this big event - don't think so.

I think it would be much more momentous if The Beatles tracks ended up on Spotify free for all. There's an argument that says the Fab Four have become so much part of our national psyche/heritage call it what you will, that like the FA Cup Final, The Last Night of The Proms, The Ashes, they deserve to be available freely to everyone.

At the moment I have strong feeling that tonight's Apple shindig might just be a bit of damp squib. I hope not, but for me anyhow a camera on an iPod Touch and even a few fab tracks on iTunes simply won't cut it.

What do you think?

The Sony Walkman B140 is very nearly a true MP3 player, except it plays WMA files as well. There's no poncey video screen on this 26g device, just a 3-line LCD that tells you what music's playing. What it does do, though, it appears to do very well.

It takes just 3 minutes of USB charging to get 90 minutes of listening time but, if you're not in any hurry, it'll offer 18 hours of playback after a 70 min's wait. They come in 2GB and 4GB models, in pink, orange, red and black, and even with an FM radio too.

Features-wise there's a very early 90s sounding Bass Boost but, best of all, I'm just glad to see small MP3 players sticking to the USB roots for both charging and music transfers. Cables are so two Tuesday's ago.

The "MP3s are a bit rubbish" spiel is almost getting as tired as the "megapixels do not a camera make" lecture but all the same it's nice to see a gadget that's doing its best to iron out the kinks in your crushed up music tracks. That's the job of the Radiopaq Sound Jacket which is a rather swish, brushed metal looking add-on for the 4th gen iPod Nano.

It works as a dynamic graphics equalizer, reacting automatically to the music played from the mini-pod in order to bolster and enrich the sound in all the right places and with any luck should make them sound good. A lot of players - like the Philips GoGears - have these kind of features built-in, so you'd hope Radiopaq has got something really special going on here or I'm likely to pan the hell out of when I get to try one out for review.

There's all sorts of graphs explaining how you get more frequencies through it and that it improves the quality of sound by 60% but it rather smells like nonsense to me. Not saying it doesn't work, just that quantifying an audio sensory experience by numbers is utter tosh.

The jacket powers off the pod which is both good and bad. No annoying batteries or charge time but your Nano is going to go flat quicker; 12 hours listening time is what they say.

It's yours for £69.99 as soon as they get it on the Amazon shelves and, with any luck, it'll actually be worth it.

Radiopaq

Not content with unleashing their latest mini-PC range, Archos also used today's launch event to announce the arrival of three PMPs to add to their line-up.

The vision range's flagship PMP is the touch-screen Archos 3 vision. It's just 9mm thick and it only weighs 56g. The touchscreen is 3-inches with a resolution of 400x240.

It has 8GB of storage and supports multiple media formats including...deep breath...MP3, WMA (non protected files), WAV, OGG, FLAC, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV (non protected files), FLV, AVI, RM, RMVB, JPEG, BMP and GIF. It ships with a cable for TV playback and it also plays FM radio.

Playback time is 14 hours for audio and four for video. A cool feature is the FM transmitter which allows you play back your audio via any radio you can sync with it - iTrip stylee.

The real good news with regards to the Archos 3 vision is the price. £89.99 is very reasonable for a touch-screen PMP.

Sony has announced a range of mini USB-based MP3 players that should more than rival the iPod shuffle in the gym bunny market.

The Zappin name comes from its functionality which allows users to listen to a five second clip of a song before deciding whether or not to play it. Handy if you're working on your guns and you need to find the exact tune to pump you up when you're unable to move your head to look at the LCD screen.

The players have 2GB of storage, can play WMA as well as MP3 and also have a built in FM radio. The battery life is an astonishing 18 hours from a single charge and the Zappin only weighs 26g. Drag and drop is supported so no need to install any software.

No price has been confirmed by Sony. Sorry about that.

(via Akihabara)

Reports from Japan indicate that Sony is looking at more than just mobile phone handsets in terms of utilising Google's open source operating system, Android.

Rumours of an Android based Walkman and also a personal navigation device (PND) are true, according to an analyst speaking to Japan's Nikkan, and should hit the market next year.

The thought of two of the biggest tech institutions teaming up may seem terrifying for some but it could be great news for consumers. With Sony already attempting to connect the user experience between its existing products, the possibilities when you throw Android into that mix could be monumental.

(via Engadget)