Well, they’ve gone and done it again. Just when I was about to launch into a series of columns touting the great features in Apple’s new iPhoto ’08 photo managing and editing application, Apple has announced another upcoming “Special Event”.

Tech media types received an email this week containing an iTunes-Cover-Flow-looking graphic with the words “The beat goes on” emblazoned on it. The event will be held next Wednesday, September 5th.

What could it be about? iMacs? Nope. Brand new models just a few weeks ago. iLife? Nope. New version along with the new iMacs. Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”? Nope. Still in the finishing touches stage, and scheduled for release sometime in October. Let’s see. What hasn’t been upgraded in awhile?

You guessed it. iPods. The flagship “video” iPods (30 and 80 GB hard-drive-based models) were last updated on September 12th, 2006. One year ago. That’s about 100 days longer than the average upgrade cycle for all previous versions of iPods. They’re due. It’s not that they’ve been eclipsed in the marketplace – they’re still selling very well (after all, what’s the alternative – the Zune? Oh, please).

However, in a sense, Apple has “upstaged” the iPod with the iPhone’s gorgeous, larger, higher-definition screen. I have both, and although you can’t carry around 40 or 50 movies on the iPhone as you can on the iPod, the viewing experience on the iPhone is far superior. The only feature the iPod has over the iPhone when it comes to watching movies is the ability to hook the iPod up to a TV.

So, I think new “video” iPods will be announced next week. I expect them to have the same screen as the iPhone, the same touch-screen interface, and use the same “light” version of Mac OS X as the iPhone. Will they have immense hard drives (both Seagate and Samsung have announced 120 GB hard drives in iPod size), or will battery life vs. size dictate a move to flash RAM? We’ll see next Wednesday.

The video iPod’s little brother, the nano, is also rumored to receive a facelift. Some rumor websites recently published a photo of the new nano, which Apple quickly demanded be removed, which may point to the photo’s authenticity. The new nanos, in a variety of colors, look like flattened versions of the old video iPod, with a small video screen.

All will be revealed next week.