Apple lovers seem to grasp at straws of information about the latest rumors for iPods, Macs, software, and the unannounced.

Here’s the latest: iTunes 7 has ”buttloads” of mobile phone clues. Clues? Yes, clues about Apple’s new cell phone. Maybe. After all, no one knows for sure.

It’s fun trying to figure it out. The most recent clues came from Apple in iTunes 7. According to Gizmodo’s gadgets section, there are scads of strings of clues to be viewed by anyone foolish enough to dissect iTunes.

If you know how, and I’m not claiming that I do, you can pull apart some Mac files and see what’s inside. Inside the latest iTunes update are bunches of references to video formats on a mobile phone.

There’s also references to managing and editing music and videos on a mobile phone, as well as instructions on what to do when the phone doesn’t have enough space to hold all your music, photos, and, here it comes-- movies.

See? The reason iTunes 7’s first release was so buggy is because it didn’t contain all the clues. Without clues, no software works the way it’s intended.

There’s references in iTunes for voice memos, obviously a feature from a cell phone with voice recording capability. I have to admit, it’s clues like this that have an effect on the buying public. Me.

I’m ready for a new cell phone and figured Apple wouldn’t have anything available until later next year. These clues say something could be in the works and sooner rather than later.

Based on these clues in Gizmodo are you willing to wait awhile for an Apple cell phone?

About the only thing left to get frenzied about is the timing.

Macworld 2007 seems logical, but I’m convinced that Apple’s getting better at spreading out their announcements.

Thing about it. What’s on tap already for Macworld in January? iLife ‘07 is a given. OS X Leopard for sure, as that’s probably the big news for 2007. There’s gotta be another demo of iTV.

And an Apple cell phone? Whew! That’s plenty.

In between we should see a refresh of the MacBook and MacBook Pro models to the Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs.

Otherwise, you gotta be impressed with Apple’s revamp of the entire product line in 2006. Everything has been updated.

I heard about the bugs in iTunes 7, and to date still haven’t downloaded it.

But then I’m in Europe, and all the movies and most of the TV isn’t available to us yet.

So I’m ‘clueless’.

The iPhone should be a resounding success in Ireland, where over 85% of the population have cell phones.