On October 20 Apple will be holding an event entitled “Back To The Mac.”  The invitation shows an Apple logo tilting back to reveal a lion.  It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Mac OS 10.7 will be unveiled at the event, and it will be called Lion.  We likely won’t hear anything about a release date for the next Mac OS X version as those releases are typically about 18 months apart.  If Apple continues with that pattern, we can expect Lion by February 2011, though we’ll have to wait and see how far along the project is next week. {Gizmodo}

Other possible announcements include a hybrid iMac with iOS and Mac OS X.  If not a hybrid, then an iMac with multitouch built into the next OS 10.7.  Apple knows what it’s doing when it comes to touch, and seems to think it is the future of computing.  That paired with the patent it was granted for what looks like an iMac that can bend to a more touch-friendly position.  Seems like a natural thing for the iMac form factor, and one that artists, gamers, developers and those who just like touchscreens would enjoy. {CrunchGear}

The other strong rumor is a new MacBook Air.  It seems stock is dwindling on the current MacBook Air.  Not to mention the fact that the model feels a bit long in the tooth, it still has a mouse button that has been missing from other MacBooks for a while now.  There are also new processors that could fit in the MacBook Air to make it a logical choice as an ultraportable again. {CrunchGear}

Other possibilites include adding in Nvidia Optimus and/or the new GeForce 400 series GPUs.  Without getting too technical, that would mean much better and faster graphics, and better battery life through graphics handling.

What should we not expect? A new iPad or a Verizon iPhone.  For the former, wait until early 2011, likely March or April.  For the latter, all rumors point to a January 2011 release, and a mid-2011 refresh that will see the iPhone work on both CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) and GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile) networks – taking away any international roaming advantage that AT&T currently has. {TechCrunch} Strong as the rumors may be, don’t believe it until Steve Jobs gets on stage and announces it.

Much has been said about Apple’s stance in their closed App Store, and how the apps that are submitted to it are reviewed.  There have been many complaints by developers that Apple has rejected their apps for reasons they were not aware of.  Not to mention the fact that Apple recently banned third-party development tools from being used for apps that make it into the store.  Today that changes.

Apple has finally released it’s App Store Review Guide to tell developers exactly what not to do with their apps.  Many of the points could already be inferred, but there are some new rejection points including “apps that duplicate apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them.”  So, it could be that we’ll see no more flashlights, or tip calculators.  It could pose an issue for the myriad of Twitter apps in the App Store that all essentially do the same thing, but offer different experiences and interfaces, which could make a huge difference to users.  There’s also “we have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted,” which could be very subjective decision. We could easily take out half of the games that we don’t find entertaining at all, but someone out there might find enjoyment from. {Engadget} While we’re definitely in agreement on not needing any more Fart apps, if that’s what consumers want, why limit their choices? After all, with Apple getting a portion of most app revenue, duplicate apps don’t exactly hurt the bottom line.

The document as a whole is very interesting, even if you aren’t a developer of any sort.  It’s written in a very friendly manner, in a way that you could imagine being penned by Steve Jobs, or someone within Apple trying to imitate a Jobs announcement.  The guidelines themselves aren’t too unreasonable.  Apple is understandably concerned for kids, since most parents would never enable parental controls.  It may be frustrating, but if you really need porn on your phone, there’s always Safari aka the portal to the world wide web of skin and sin.

Along with the App Store Review Guidelines, Apple has decided to lift the ban on third party developer platforms.  That means that those who want to use Adobe’s Flash to iOS app converter can now do so, as well as game developers who use platform such as Unity 3D.  This also explains why we were able to see the Epic Citadel app in the App Store, since Unreal 3 is a cross-platform graphics engine.  This means we could see more of those magazines that Adobe was working with to create iPad apps, and more graphically impressive games using the Epic’s Unreal 3, id Tech 5, and Unity engines. {Gizmodo}

The biggest added feature in iOS 4.1 was actually promised to be a part of iOS 4 by Apple, and that’s Game Center.  Game Center is seemingly Apple’s version of Xbox Live for iOS games.  It will feature achievements, and allow you to challenge your friends that have Game Center compatibility.  The feature will be coming to all iOS devices that are capable of upgrading to 4.1, with one exception.  Though the iPhone 3G will be upgraded to iOS 4.1, which should improve stability and the speed of the OS, it will not be able to handle Game Center apparently.  The second generation iPod touch, which came out around the same time as the iPhone 3G will have Game Center, so it seems that small increase in performance (iPod touches always seem to have more powerful processors as the same generation iPhones) is the minimum for Game Center. {Gizmodo}

This isn’t the only feature that’s been left out on the iPhone 3G.  It, as well as the second generation touch weren’t able to support  home screen backgrounds which were introduced in iOS 4.0.  Nor were the devices able to support the multitasking in iOS 4.  So it’s really nothing new, but it’s obvious that Apple is trying to keep people to the two-year refresh model, which perhaps not coincidentally lines up with the timeframe of most contracts.

These images were revealed on macrumors.com

This week, an image leaked out of an iPhone parts supplier that looks an awful lot like a new iPod Touch face. The face has two holes: the standard large hole for the home button, and a smaller hole on the other side of the screen that could possibly house a front-facing camera {Mac Rumors}.  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen leaked iPod Touches with new features.  Last year there was a model making the rounds that including a camera on the back of the device,  Tear-downs even revealed what could have been a spot on the board for a camera sensor.  Alas, we were given a mere iPod nano with a back-mounted VGA camera for shooting low-res video.

A front-facing camera is fine, but Steve Jobs made it very clear at the iPhone 4 announcement that FacTime works better than say Skype because it only requires a phone number, not a buddy list.  That seems to exclude the iPod Touch from getting in on the FaceTime action.  However, in the latest iOS beta, iOS 4.1 beta 3, a feature was added to allow Face Time with just an email address {Engadget}.  Presumably this is the work-around for iPod Touch owners.  It wouldn’t seem too limited since Face Time can only be done over WiFi at the moment, anyway.  Plus, it will allow those who want an iPhone 4 for FaceTime, but don’t want to switch carriers, or who don’t want to buy a smartphone, to finally use FaceTime.  They will likely still need an email address, however, which means we’ll all have to walk grandma through setting up a Gmail account.

Now, the rumor-mill is abuzz over the possibility that the next Apple TV will launch with the ability to rent TV shows from iTunes.  Renting isn’t new to iTunes, but it’s only available for movies at the moment.  Movie rentals through the iTunes Store typically cost $3.99 for SD movies, and $4.99 for HD movies.  Some, however, go for $0.99 for SD (standard definition) and $1.99 for HD.  The rumors for the TV Rentals would place single episodes at $0.99, which would be $1 less than owning the SD version of most shows. {CrunchGear}

These TV shows would likely be streamed to Apple TVs rather than downloaded, which would mean no waiting for the episode, just buy and watch instantly.  As always, the rentals would be available for 30 days until you start watching them, and then another 24 hours after starting the show to watch as many times as you’d like.

This would be a big deal for the Apple TV, but also for other iOS devices, the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.  Being able to stream rented TV shows for $0.99 would be a great thing for those who travel a lot.  It would eat up a bit of the 2 GB data cap on AT&T’s network, but with WiFi it wouldn’t be a problem at all.  Now, if only Apple would bring out cheaper plans to rent full seasons as the shows release, that would be even greater.  A rent-as-shows-come TV service paired with Hulu Plus and Netflix could easily replace Cable (minus the sports, of course).