By the looks of the invitation, I’m guessing it’ll be called the iPalette and will have a thumb hole in the side to make it easier to hold.

The event is booked for 10am Pacific time on the 27th, which WolframAlpha incorrectly tells me is 6am NZDT on the 28th (it’s actually 7am NZDT). I’ll be tracking it live, and doing my damndest to get my hands on a review version of whatever is announced.

Of course I will laugh my head off when it turns out to just be multi-coloured iPhones or something like that.

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It’s all a bit third-party, but we have a tweet from a fellow New Zealander who states that a local Apple reseller has “confirmed” a March release date for an Apple tablet:

A apple reseller in new Zealand has confimed a march realise date for the tablet !!!!!!!! More info in a weeks time to follow

We only have a couple of Apple resellers in New Zealand, with MagnumMac being the most visible.

The cynic in me says this is just a local employee parotting what has already been speculated by the Wall St Journal. Why would a Kiwi reseller have any more information than any other resellers worldwide? The alternative view is that someone has royally screwed up by breaking a non-disclosure agreement. Let’s run with the latter explanation, it’s much more exciting.

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January is always a bumper month for gadgets. There’s the inevitable orgy at the altar of CES, and almost always a major Apple announcement. This year Google have also slipped in early with their Nexus One Android phone.

CES

As is customary, you’ll want to follow the big USA tech blogs for your CES coverage. There’s no way I’m ever going to keep up, unless I developed some method to automatically post press releases from my email to this blog. I would caution you that the majority of CES coverage is a torpid melange of pointless incremental product updates and banal releases. Exhibit A: Sony have announced no less than twelve compact digital cameras. Perhaps some consumer expert at Sony has decided to target the buried-by-cameras fetishist market segment in 2010?

There is one small shining light out of CES 2010: the Parrot Ardrone. Just watch this video:

Apple iTablet

Either Apple is about to pull off the biggest jape in consumer electronics history, or they’re announcing a tablet-like computer on or about the 27th or January. Stay tuned.

Google Nexus One

In an utterly different style to Apple, Google’s Nexus One phone was leaked far and wide when they gave one to every Google staffer back in December. This week they officially announced the phone’s release in the USA, with hints at an imminent European release. Don’t hold your breath for a New Zealand release, but there’s nothing stopping you getting a mate to buy one in the USA then using it on Vodafone’s network.

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Free applications from the Android Market have been available since at least day one of the HTC Magic release in New Zealand. Apparently local currency conversion has stopped paid applications up until now.

Today, our dedicated Android forum member, Rob, has just posted a note saying that paid apps quietly appeared last night. I guess the currency issue has been resolved. You can check out some of the top-selling paid applications on the Anroid Market here.

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Skeletor

Overall, if you were expecting something huge from Apple’s “Only Rock and Roll” event, you’re going to be disappointed. The biggest shock was FM radio in the new iPod Nano. Even the video camera in the device had been widely telegraphed, and the lack of video in the iPod Touch is something of a disappointment.

So rounding it all up:

• iTunes 9 with improved Genius (including Genius for Apps) and finally App organisation (you can arrange which screens apps will appear on before syncing to your iPhone or iPod Touch).
• iTunes LPs – single download (note: not this single-file format we’ve been hearing about), including photos, video, liner notes, lyrics.
• iPod Touch 8GB gets a price drop to NZ$349, and we get speedier 32GB and 64GB models for $519 and $699. Bear in mind you won’t get OpenGL|ES 2.0 on the $199 model, so we’ll see some game compatibility issues cropping up there I think.
• More games – notably Madden from EA and Assassin’s Creed.
• iPod Classic gets a capacity bump to 160GB for NZ$429
• iPod Shuffle gets colours at the standard $99 price, and a new “special edition” 4GB model for $129.
• iPod Nano is the biggest change-up, with video camera (640×480 resolution, so there’s no way it’s competing with the Flip-type HD cameras), and FM Radio (!). NZ$259 for the 8GB, and $318 for the 16GB models.

And that’s it. No tablet. No Apple LCD TV. Just an incremental bump in iPod lineup. All of which are available as of now from the NZ Apple Store with 24hr delivery.

And I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, but Steve Jobs was back, and looking anorexic. The guy is sick. More power to him, and I’ve known other people who have opted to “die with their boots on” rather than go out with a whimper.

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