It's Showtime! Apple to unveil new iPhone, movies and more?

OK - the rumor mill is in full effect this week, so I'll try to cover all the bits and pieces about what is and isn't real in the world of Apple. Obviously, this is all based on speculation, insinuation and a little bit of dreaming, so take it all with a pinch of salt. After all, I did publish something ealier in the year about a rumored plasma TV with a mac mini stuff inside it's inner workings that never appeared.

So, confirmed is a press "invite only" event on the 12th September called "It's Showtime", so at least we only have a week or two to wait before we find out the real deal.

Rumor number one is downloadable movies on iTunes (and shouldn't they change the name if this is indeed the case?). A supposed leaked list of initial movies is here, which looks heavily weighted towards Disney films (which sort of makes sense given Jobs is the major Disney shareholder).

Related to this is the possible release of a video iPod, although Think Secret thinks that isn't going to be released until early 2007.

What else, well, a 23 inch iMac with bigger and better processor, new and updated iPod Nano's as well as bigger drives for the existing iPods.

And of course, there's the usual iPhone rumor, this time I believe started by an analyst tracking Apple.

I think that some of these rumors must at least be true, and it looks like the stock market definitely thought so, with Apple up a few points more than everyone else in trading today. Now this I like, given I have one or two shares....

So, stay tuned to a computer on September 12th, when all the latest and greatest will be revealed. I'm just hoping it's not going to be as disappointing as the last few hyped up moments (like WWDC), where what's imagined is way better than what's announced. Am I the only that wants to go back to the good old days when everyone was surprised by Apple announcements, adn there was a genuine excitement for weeks afterwards?