CEO Tim Cook remains tight lipped as ever while bloggers and news gatherers strain and struggle to see what Apple has planned for the WWDC next week, but the following seem to be the spokes of the rumor wheel...
-By 12 PM EST, the apple store went off-line twice in a 12 hour period, leading some to speculate that Apple was preparing to launch updates. In all likelihood however, the off-line status is probably the result of Apple preparing for the upcoming conference.
-Apple has announced that there will be a keynote speech (the speaker is expected to be Cook) at the beginning of the conference, but has not yet said what plans, if any, would be addressed. Possibilities include anything from revamped MacBook Pros, to the new iPhone.
-On that iPhone note, technology.gather cites a "recent article" that says "Apple still has to complete the design for the next gen iPhone 5." This came the day before alleged schematics of the new iPhone hit the web, and the same day that shots came out comparing the framework of the new iPhone to the older model. But while both the schematics and side by side shots seem to support the idea that Apple will be giving the new iPhone a larger screen, CEO Cook recently shot that idea down, saying at a conference this morning, "One thing is that we're not fragmented. Look at the percentage of users who upgraded to iOS 5. We have one App Store. We have one phone with one screen size, one resolution. So it's pretty simple if you're a developer."
-Looking beyond the iPhone (I know it's difficult, but just try to bear with me), Boy Genius Report heard from "a trusted source" that Apple will demonstrate a new version of the Apple TV operating system. Makes sense, after all, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phillip Schiller said "We have a great WWDC planned this year and can't wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers. "The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world." iOS will power Apple's new iPhone. Patently Apple has also reported that Apple has filed a patent application for something called the iPen, described as "a stylus that gives feedback with vibration, and would feel differently depending on how the pen is pressed or how quickly it moves across the screen."
Unless something else leaks, we'll have to wait for the WWDC on June 11th.