The word on the virtual street is that Apple is hoping to surprise most pundits by launching new iPods on September 5th, weeks before originally thought.

It’s on a Wednesday, not a Tuesday [Apple’s usual launch date] but that’s down to a long weekend over there, according to the deep throats smuggling info out of Apple to Ars Technica. Rumour has it that four new iPods in the Video and nano lines will be unveiled, including a video iPod with the iPhone’s big touch-screen and video-capable nanos. They may also use a new operating system based on Apple’s OS X.

It could all come to nothing but Apple has already unleashed the legal lapdogs on MacRumors, 9to5mac.com and our US Gizmodo cousins, for showing alleged photos of the new square nanos with a video screen.

We’ll know soon enough so keep your iPod fund in your pocket for a couple of more weeks to be on the safe side.-Martin Lynch

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