What will Apple announce at its music event? By noon or so tomorrow, we’ll know all there is to know. Let’s wrap up the period of blissful ignorance, rampant rumors, and informed speculation with our traditional Technologizer community predictions.

As usual, I surveyed you guys and asked you to give your best guesses at what the news will involve. For questions in which you could choose only one answer, whatever answer got a plurality of responses counts as the prediction. For questions that let you choose multiple answers, any answer that more than fifty percent of you chose counts as a prediction. (I’ll note the percentage that chose each answer).

* You don’t think Apple’s going to announce an array of new stuff at the event–in fact, it’s only going to unveil three new products:

–a new iPod touch (88%)

–a new iPod Nano (71%)

–a new Apple TV or “iTV” (60%)

* (You don’t think there will be a new iPhone, iPad, iPod Classic, iPod Shuffle, MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, iLife, iWorks, Mobile Me, movie/TV service, or, pretty much, any other new Apple product, period.)

* You think the iPod Touch will get cameras on both its front and back (60%), but don’t think the iPad will get any cameras at all.

* You think the iPad will get at least some of iOS 4’s major features, such as multitasking (59%)–but that it won’t get most or all of them.

* If there’s a new Apple TV, you say it’ll run iOS and have third party apps.

* You’re very confident that Steve Jobs will host the event (87%). And almost as confident that there will be no news involving the Beatles coming to iTunes (82%).

* I asked about a bunch of musical artists who might perform at the event’s conclusion. For the record, the top vote getter only got 5.6 percent of your votes. But it was…Paul McCartney. And Ringo. (I won’t be at the event, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the protracted negotiations between Apple and the lads delay their performance until next year’s event.)

I also gave you the ability to provide free-form predictions. Here are some of the ones you provided:

I think they will start pushing payments and near field communication (nfc).

They may not launch it today but they are going to announce something to do with payments through iPhone OS and probably includes nfc.

They will push forward with iOS (stole name again from Cisco – just like iPhone) on a bevy of entry level consumer devices, no programming or intelligence necessary.

Apple will introduce a streaming music/movies subscription service. Streamed music will be at a lower bit rate, but you will be able to stream anything in the Apple catalog. iPod Classic will begin phasing out, but may find new life by having touch screen replace click wheel.

New iTV will act as an accessory to iPhone/iPod touch; use WiFi or bluetooth to connect devices for use as controllers for games or remotes for navigating iTV.

Prepare to be underwhelmed by a cosmetic only Touch and shuffle update; new form factor like iphone on Touch and no screen on the Shuffle; The “iTV” will have a ship date of Nov.2010; Apps in Jan. 2011

iPod classic and shuffle will disappear, in favor of the touch and nano respectively. This emans no more clickwheel and iOS everywhere.

Apple will announce 6 million iPads sold. 99¢ movie rentals might also be in the cards. And iPhone on T-Mobile.

Oh, and four of you say Lady Gaga will close out the event tomorrow. Okay by me, but she’s playing in Saint Paul, Minnesota tonight, so she’ll have to rush to San Francisco to make it there for a morning mini-concert.

Paul and Ringo aside, most of your prognostications sound sensible to me. Once the event’s come and gone, I’ll tally up how we did.

 
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