Jerked Chains: Is Apple Pulling A Fast One? Again?

Nobody jerks the media chain like Apple. Nobody. Nobody pulls the football away at the last second better than Apple. Nobody. Except, maybe Lucy.

October 12 will bing a new video iPod. No it won’t. It will be new PowerBooks. No, it won’t. It will be dual-core PowerMacs! No, something else.

It will be music videos from the iTunes Music Store. No, it’s too early for that.

What’s going on here? The Mac rumor sites have ground themselves into a fine powder that’ll get blown away sometime late morning on October 12 when Apple announces… something.

Alexis and Ms. Hambi got themselves into a lather and outright predicted a video iPod and music videos will be announced.

So did a bunch of other rumor sites. A day later, they’re busy retracting those predictions as Think Secret says to Think Different. New iPod? Yes. Video? No.

Hmmm. Are you getting dizzy? Me, too.

Forbes Magazine says Apple will announce an iPod with video. Sometime this year. Bank of America upped the potential AAPL stock price because of belief in an iPod with video.

MacDailyNews says the venerable BBC of the UK has already announced, prematurely, a video iPod.

How would they know? The BBC would love to have their video archives available for download by the iTunes Music Store. iTMS would love to have more video to download.

Except, what would you play it on? Just your Mac?

Even Apple’s announcement leading to the October 12 event has Mac rumor folks in a separate tizzy. You’d think that red curtain was a remnant from the Shroud of Turin. Red curtain. Theatre. ‘One more thing…’

No doubt about it. Chains are being jerked all over Macdom this week.

Apple wouldn’t make a big splash over upgraded PowerBooks or PowerMacs, would they? Would they? Apple wouldn’t announce yet another iTunes capable cell phone. Would they?

Is it a big enough deal to call everyone in to a theatre to announce a slightly modified, larger capacity, iPod with photo? Uh uh. That doesn’t make sense.

Hmmm. Now, if Apple CEO Steve Jobs knows we know about an iPod with video and music videos from the iTunes Music Store, then he’ll pull a switcheroo on us, and announce something else, like new PowerBooks and PowerMacs.

However, if we know that he knows we know about the PowerBooks and PowerMacs, will he announce something else entirely? Yes. But if we know that he knows that we know he knows what we know, he’ll almost certainly go back to the original idea and introduce iPods with video, and music videos from iTMS.

Whew. I’m glad I have that all straightened out. It was getting confusing there for a moment.

So, when October 12 comes next week, and the red curtain goes up, what’ll we get? iPods? iPods with video? Music videos from the iTunes Music Store? An Airport Express that does video? iTunes that will broadcast video to the Airport ‘Video’ Express that sends audio and video to your TV?

Will we get new PowerMacs and PowerBooks? Hey, I just thought of this. What a great opportunity to announce the first Intel-based Macs. Yeah, that’s what’ll happen on October 12. New Macs with new chips.

No, wait. Wait. CNet News says it’ll be an iPod video. Uh, scratch that. The San Jose Mercury News says it’ll be a Mac mini tricked out to be a TiVo.

Hmmm. Maybe Apple is buying TiVo. Yeah, that’s it.

Whew. I’m nauseous. I need a vacation.