5 predictions for tonight’s iPhone launch

The town hall at the Apple Campus in Cupertino at 6pm GMT will be home to the tastiest gadget news this side of the border. Those who have been camping out online for iPhone news have patiently waited for this day, this esteemed hour. What will come of the launch? We predict the results:

No iPhone 5, A definite iPhone 4S
File this one under “rumour”. No one knows what Apple is planning, with many of the sources only positive regarding the release of the iPhone 4S. Already, pricing for the iPhone 4S has been tentatively released — US$299 for a 64GB version. Also rumoured is an October 14 launch date. The image below lists the iPhone 4S in Apple’s iTunes 10.5 Beta.

Despite iPhone 5 cases being ordered by AT&T, no evidence points towards a launch of the fifth iPhone. The iPhone 4S may be the star of the show.

Voice assistant, iOS 5 killer app revealed
Are you aware of the personal voice assistant feature for iOS 5? Sources have described it as “World-changing” and say that Apple is “mainstreaming artificial intelligence”. The voice assistant will require a powerful processor, as it is so advanced it may only function correctly on the rumoured 1GHZ dual-core processor of the iPhone 5 and 4S.

It’s all in the cloud
Hopefully the iCloud will appear during the presentation. This is Apple’s answer to cloud computing and an attempt to market a product towards the everyman. The launch date of iCloud is unknown but slipping it into today’s speech is a possibility. This is the Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft cloud killer, so Apple is putting all of its eggs into one basket with iCloud.

The end of the iPod, or a fresh new start
With click-wheel games being discontinued on iTunes, is this the beginning of the end for the iPod? Reports state that iPod stock is drying up across the US, but this could point towards a new version of the iPod primed for the iPhone launch later today. With a lack of updates at last year’s Apple event, the current iPod may be heading for oblivion.

Polo neck potential?
Tim Cook, new CEO of Apple has a large polo neck to fill. Steve Jobs was famous for stepping onto stage at the end of the Apple presentations to announce “One more thing”. This always indicated an exciting new gadget which Jobs would proudly reveal, such as the shuffle, the iPod Touch and the iPod Nano.

Jobs was the “innovator-in-chief”. Cook is a competent leader, but instead will depend on the collective knowledge of Apple geniuses to deliver breathtaking products. Cook has immense respect and love for Apple, but will he deliver the same impact as Jobs? Tonight will reveal all.