Apple Inc. has invited the press in the US at a special event inside the familiar Moscone Center in San Francisco, where it is expected to announce a new line, iPhone-esque of iPods.

The event will take place at the Moscone West exhibition centre in San Francisco and will begin at 10 a.m. (local time). The current generation of iPods has been introduced to the public back in 2005 and since then the Cupertino, California-based giant has only revamped its line of iMacs and MacBooks.

The invitation shows a silhouetted figure as those we've previously seen on iPod ads and reads the slogan "The beat goes on", which refers to the end of the Beatles' last press release.

The rumor mill started churning, well, all sorts of rumors but the most important things we should expect on Wednesday (and that are worth mentioning) have generally been mentioned since the debut of the iPhone, on June 29. The first one refers to an iPod with an iPhone-inspired user interface and Wi-Fi connectivity. Some have even spoken of a touch sensitive iPod, although, despite Apple’s technical prowess and renowned design skills, would be quite difficult to accomplish, considering the dimensions of the iPod Nano for example.

DigiTimes went even further, quoting Taiwan-based sources from Inventec Appliances who have declared that Apple’s next iPod would be a flash-based gadget, with a widescreen touch-interface, which should ship "at the end of this month or early October." The device, previously dubbed iPod Touch, would also sport Wi-Fi connectivity and, of course, the iPhone-like interface.

Most customers however are generally expecting a roomier iPod, with at least 80GB of storage space, according to different comments posted on sites that deal with the problem of the new iPod.

Back in July, senior JP Morgan analyst Kevin Chang, declared that Apple might actually build an iPhone Nano, which should be cheaper than the standard 8GB and 4GB models (sold for $599 and $499 respectively).