They likely announced this to set expectations. They don’t want headlines like “Apple Fails to Deliver Next iPhone on Time”.

They want to make sure that everyone knows that this event will be about software and nothing else.

From what I have understood of following the company for the past years is that it does not really bother satisfying tech blogs. So this is still weird behaviour for them.

I would not go to the extent of blatantly calling out an iPhone 4S to be announced but the following should add up to something:

1) Apple recommending journalists to personally come for the event 2) Already announcing what was widely believed by many to be the highlight of the show. Point to note is Apple had never before this announced the name. So to do it in a non grandeur way via a PR article is so not Apple.

Something is cooking. Can't really smell what it is though.

This is still strange for Apple. Speculation and then 'failing' to meet speculation always happened around Apple events, but still Apple didn't care.

Wether they do it to set expectations or not, this is the first time they give a list of what they will announce.

EDIT: spelling.

Nah, Apple does care. They are very good at playing the expectations game and have gotten better with time.

Their invitations have become less cryptic and outright explicit (http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/02/apple-hints-at-ipa...), probably precisely because disappointment about a lack of flashy announcements was fast becoming a big deal after Apple events.

There will always be stupid speculation – also before next Monday – and there will always be people complaining – also after next Monday – Apple just doesn’t want that to turn into the main thing.

That press release is in context not much more explicit than above invitation to the iPad event. It’s just a different tool.

Maybe they have some external reason to care about it this time, like the impact on stock prices or something? Analysts making stuff up and then being disappointed has caused stock volatility in the past, and Apple may want to avoid that this time.

You're on to something. Apple is announcing this now so journos get it out of their system before the show, and are primed to write about the real event.

Apple wants everyone talking about the same thing on show day, and leaking the small stuff is the way to do it.

I'm hanging out for an Apple TV app store. It'll be absolutely huge when it happens.

Glad to hear Steve will be presenting. It would have been kinda fun if they set the expectation that he wouldn't be there and made us sit through an hour of Phil Schiller, just for Steve to run out on the end to have a one more thing moment.

(Ticker tape and lasers are optional.)

I don't see an Apple TV store happening soon. They don't want apps that compete with iTunes. Probably they would welcome games, but Amazon VOD? Never. Netflix is the one exception because it's too big to ignore.

There's been a quiet battle going on for 10+ years to work out who will own your living room entertainment experience.

One of the theories about why MS dumped so much money in to the XBox over the years was that it was really a trojan horse that was trying to be the hub of your media centre. The problem with the XBox is that it stays switched off when you're watching broadcast TV, which is still what most people do in their living rooms.

Whoever can get in between you and "broadcast" (or VOD) TV content and control that experience has just taken control of a multi billion dollar market.

Soon enough when you switch on your TV you'll be presented with a customised line up of viewing across different channels/sources, lists of what your friends and favorite celebs(/brands/whatever) are watching, suggestions of new shows you might like, enhanced experiences around live content (polls on news topics on CNN, click to buy the track that's playing on Glee, etc), and, most importantly, targeted commercials.

I'm utterly convinced it's inevitable.

Sadly, GoogleTV didn't do this.

All I want is Android style widgets (ie, Google Voice SMS app or RSS feed reader) overlay or with TV inset (like your cable/dish box showing menu + current stream).

Agreed, this would be incredibly disruptive.

GoogleTV's first iteration sucks, but I think the Market alone will change that. There's a netflix app and the Al Jazeera Live app is pretty good. If you get a dozen big names (BBC news, CNN, etc) delivering their content directly to consumers via apps, then it will become a viable replacement for basic cable. Adding the full range of things Android can do, along with their rental service will only be icing on that cake.

> Netflix is the one exception because it's too big to ignore.

That, and they've probably struck a lucrative deal.

They might let VOD on - in exchange for a 30% cut :)

iOS 5 is definitely going to be a major part of the keynote. The question is what iOS 5 will actually entail.

I'm confident that notifications are going to be a part of it, but when they plan on dedicating the whole keynote to software releases, one wonders how they can sell it.

iCloud, iOS 5 - maybe some great stuff for developers such as Apple-hosted databases. Personally, I am crossing my fingers for an iBooks overhaul, but that's probably too optimistic.

What kinds of things would you like to see in an iBooks overhaul?

Cloud-synced bookmarks and notes - preferably with a social profile like that of Kindle[1][2]. The way I read books is to make a lot of notes and highlights; I know some people don't do this, but this helps me summarize books more easily and "reread" them, if I need to. Picking out your favourite passages of Aesop, The Art of War and The Prince is extremely convenient. That not how everyone reads and digests books, but it's definitely how I do - and I assume that many students will want to do the same with their textbooks.

The book selection is also very meagre[3] (at least in this country), but more important, some of the available free books are typeset from hell. It's just a copy-paste of Project Gutenberg and similar endeavours, which are not formatted for iBooks at all. This does not inspire me to buy any iBooks, and it leaves me to wonder how the (free) book user experience can be so bad, when Apple make such an effort of vetting apps from trivial ailments.

Another, perhaps minor, thing is that I can't highlight across pages, which drives me absolutely bonkers.

If I were an author (or worked for one) and wanted to release a book on iOS, would I distribute it via iBooks or create a native app for it like Al Gore did? I honestly don't know, and I have a feeling that my hesitation has more to do with the shortcomings of iBooks than the allure of making a standalone app.

[1]: https://kindle.amazon.com/profile/Craig-Mod/52461

[2]: I'm sure it would be in Steve Jobs's best interest to make us forget Ping as soon as possible. Better to replace something vapid with something slightly high-brow.

[3]: It doesn't even have A Song of Ice and Fire!

iBooks doesn't have a social profile, but it does have syncing of bookmarks, notes, and progress to other iOS devices. Not accessible from the Web or your Mac (since there's no iBooks for Mac), though... anyway, I definitely agree with you about iBooks' shortcomings.

Yeah, I know it cross-syncs, but the back-ups process is a real pain, and if people lose the back-up, they risk losing everything. It also bothers me ever so slightly that I can't read the iBooks in iTunes.

How about not making it so closed and limited? The Kindle app lets me read my books on my PC, my Mac, my BlackBerry, iPad, iPod Touch, Kindle, and the list goes on.

Buy a book on the App Store and you're confined to ONLY iOS devices.

agreed. I miss the shocking 'oh, and one last thing…'. watching steve jobs present is highly entertaining sometimes.