Sony will begin its latest attempt to fight back against Apple’s dominance in the digital media field on Wednesday, when it unveils a new music and video subscription service to run across a range of its devices.

The announcement is expected to be made in Berlin at the IFA technology show, just hours before Apple’s own music-themed press conference in California, which is expected to include updates to its iPod, iTunes and Apple TV products.

Sony started with an ad campaign and is now planning to announce a “me too” service on the day of Apple’s announcement. It’s an interesting strategy, I’m not sure if it’ll get much attention from the announcement. It’s unfortunate that they couldn’t get this announced before Apple’s event.

Apple Inc., preparing to announce a new set-top box that delivers video to consumers’ TVs, will include programming from Netflix Inc., according to three people with knowledge of the plans.

The big question remaining is whether Netflix streaming will be built into the OS or if it will be an app?

But for those who aren’t Netflix subscribers, the Wall Street Journal’s Shira Ovide reports that ABC and Fox are on deck to offer 99-cent TV show rentals through iTunes.

I guess 99-cent rentals from two major networks is better than none but this isn’t going to make me go all-in on iTunes quite yet. Add NBC, CBS, and a few major cable networks to the list and I’ll get really interested.

Another bit worthy of note regarding tomorrow’s Apple event is that Apple will be live streaming it on their website using HTTP Live Streaming. You’ll be able to watch the event live on either a Mac running Safari on Snow Leopard, an iPhone, iPod touch, or an iPad. My initial reaction to this announcement is that there is no reason for Apple to deal with the headache of live streaming for any reason other than to show off the technology that will be used to stream TV shows and movies through iTunes.

Historically Apple has held events in September to announce new iPods and other music-related products. And make no mistake, there has been no lack of rumors since invitations went out just a few days ago.

Although the guitar image in the invitation implies that music will be the focus of the event, this doesn’t rule out the possibility of a “one more thing” announcement at the end of the event unveiling a new Apple TV. This seems even more likely when you consider the numerous reports of a new $1-per-episode price point in iTunes for TV shows.

Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney claims that someone with connections inside Apple has told them that Apple will be announcing $1 TV shows soon, likely at this upcoming event. But instead of $1 per episode, that fee would give you access to the entire catalog of a given TV show. E.g. pay $1 per month for the Office and have access to all of the shows episodes as long as you continue to pay the fee.

Cult of Mac’s information doesn’t jibe with Bloomberg’s reports of $0.99 TV show rentals with 48 hour viewing windows. I suppose we’ll have to wait until Wednesday for more information, unless somebody leaks it early.

Apple’s iPod announcements haven’t been left out of the rumor mill, though. Jeremy Horowitz reports in iLounge that The fourth-generation iPod touch will lose the dome shaped back and go back to one that looks more like the first-generation iPod touch’s back. He has heard that the rear-facing camera will be there and that the iPod touch will likely have a microphone and not a camera flash.

There have also been rumors of a much smaller iPod nano that would use that 1.7-inch touchscreen that was floating around last month. iLounge has published images of, what are claimed to be, cases for the next-generation iPod touch and iPod nano. Adding more credence to the rumor, Neil Hughes and Kasper Jade report on AppleInsider that the iPod nano will be shrunken to a size more similar to the iPod shuffle’s size but will retain its 30-pin dock connector.

In the aforementioned AppleInsider piece they also mention the possibility of a new iLife suite the the potential for a 3G-capable iPod touch. Like I said, there is no lack of rumors. There’s even rumors of an iTunes update that will add more social features.

But just like most other Apple events, it is highly unlikely that all of the rumors will be incorporated at this event. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on an iPod touch with FaceTime, a new iPod nano that will use that 1.7-inch touchscreen, some sort of $1 price point for TV shows, a new iOS based Apple TV, and iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch (not iPad).

Unfortunately, I have to work on the day of the event so I won’t be able to follow along at home as I usually do. But if a $99 Apple TV is announced, I’ll come home with credit card in-hand to place my order.

The BlackPad will include Wi-Fi technology so it can connect to the Internet wherever the wireless technology is available, including a home or office. When not near such Wi-Fi “hotspots,” people could connect wirelessly to their mobile phone with Bluetooth technology and then to the Internet. The device will not be able to connect directly to the cellular network the way some iPads can, two people said last month.

I think it’s wise of RIM to use a different OS for their tablet. BlackBerry OS just isn’t cutting it anymore on cell phones and I doubt they’ll be able to make it work on a tablet. It’s time to start from scratch.

On the other hand, not including 3G in the BlackPad sounds like an awful idea. I own an iPad with 3G and even though I’ve only paid for one month of data and only used it over one weekend, I’m still incredibly happy that I have the option.

Being able to tether your BlackBerry device to the BlackPad for 3G data may be their saving grace but I think it’s shortsighted at best. Unfortunately, if RIM has already decided to keep 3G chips out of the BlackPad than tethering exclusively to the BlackBerry is their only option. But, what happens if a BlackBerry and BlackPad owner decides to switch to another handset that doesn’t support tethering with the BlackPad?

Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It’s real, and it’s being built by HTC. No surprise there, since HTC churned out the Nexus One for Google.

Why hasn’t Google realized that Chrome OS is splitting their market into two groups, the manufacturers and customers that choose Chrome OS and those that choose Android.

Android has a lot of momentum at this point, don’t screw it up.

The name “Roadrunner” has appeared in logs before but never with the HD moniker and certainly without a 640×960 display resolution.

webOS is dying for new hardware and a device with a higher resolution display wouldn’t hurt. Nothing else is known about the Roadrunner HD at this point but I’m anxiously awaiting more leaked details in the future.

From what I hear we should expect to see the iTV launch in September.

He expects there to be an iTV App Store, simple photo and image sharing from your iPhone, and the ability to control the iTV from your iPad.

It’s hard to tell how much of his predictions are wishful thinking and he has been hit-and-miss with his previous rumors. But, I personally believe the iTV will be announced in September and I do expect there to be a new section in the App Store to go along with it.

We now know (via a trusted source) that the company is actively and heavily developing a brand new gaming platform, ecosystem, and device (possibly alongside Google) which are already in the late stages of planning. And we’ve got the goods on it.

The device that will launch alongside the new platform has been described to them as a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard (think PSP go). The display will be between 3.7 and 4.1-inches with WVGA or better resolution.

The handset will run Android 3.0 with a new area of the Android Market specifically for their high-end PSP-quality games. God of War, Call of Duty, and LittleBigPlanet are all possible titles for the platform.

This could pose a real threat to Apple. Games is one area that iOS has excelled at, but if Engadget is right with their assertion that this new platform could launch as early as October, Apple’s going to have a serious fight on their hands.

Several people familiar with Mr. Papermaster’s situation said his departure was driven by a broader cultural incompatibility.

Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn’t been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn’t appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn’t used to Apple’s corporate culture, where even senior executives are expected to keep on top of the smallest details of their areas of responsibility and often have to handle many tasks directly, as opposed to delegating them.

Well, that explains it nicely. Papermaster failed with the iPhone 4 antenna but that wasn’t the only reason he got canned, just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to introduce a tablet computer in November to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans. […]

RIM plans to call the tablet Blackpad, according to one of the people familiar with the company’s plans. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, acquired the Internet rights to blackpad.com this month, according to the Whois database of domain names.

It’s unfortunate for RIM that they won’t be able to push this thing out earlier than November, that leaves an extra couple of months in the holiday shopping season where the iPad is the only tablet in town. But, at least they plan on getting it out before the end of the year, HP isn’t planning to release their webOS tablet until early next year.

Apparently the box won’t be capable of handling (or enabled to handle) 1080i or 1080p video. Instead it will only push out 720p clips. The word — and cause for much internal debate, we’re told — is that this has something to do with the A4′s inability to crank on higher resolution content

The current Apple TV is not capable of playing back 1080p or 1080i content however the rumor that Engadget reported on a few months ago stated that the new set-top box would be capable of 1080p playback. Apparently, that is now off the table.

The folks at Engadget have also heard that the upcoming Apple TV will be getting applications and will be renamed to the Apple TV’s original name, “iTV.”

I’m anxiously awaiting Apple’s iTV announcement, which could happen anytime between now and the end of September.

Interestingly, this release could finally push me to purchase a new television for the bedroom. My current bedroom TV is an old 27-inch CRT that would need to be replaced if I stick with my current plan of retiring my current Apple TV to the bedroom when the iTV is released. If anybody has any suggestions in the 32 to 37-inch range I’d love to hear about them.

I don’t know anything about negotiations with Verizon, and I doubt anyone does other than the highest-level executives at both companies. But I do know that engineering-wise, the wheels are turning on N92, the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4. It’s certainly not in production yet, and hasn’t reached DVT status (device verification test — like Gray Powell’s infamous stolen unit), but it is, a few little birdies claim, at EVT (engineering verification test). That’s one step below DVT, which is one step below production.

The interesting thing about John Gruber’s piece is that he doesn’t seem to have any sources telling him that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, only that a CDMA iPhone is moving forward.

I’ve always off-handedly mentioned to friends that I expect the iPhone to come to T-Mobile before Verizon but I wouldn’t be surprised if Sprint was Apple’s next carrier of choice. One could argue that Apple would choose Verizon as their second carrier to add the most potential market share — and I’m not opposed to this idea. But, what if Apple decides to go with Sprint or T-Mobile instead because of Verizon’s recent anti-iPhone marketing campaigns?

The other rumor of interest in Jeremy Horowitz’s rundown is that Apple is pushing up the release of a new iPhone to early 2011. He is unsure as to whether it will be a slight hardware revision to the iPhone 4 that will fix the antenna issue or if this will be more substantial, but this is what he’s hearing.

Some of these rumors are a little hard to believe, especially the ones I decided not to write about (like the seven-inch iPad or the three-inch touchscreen iPod), but the early 2011 iPhone hardware revision doesn’t seem too far-fetched. It’s not unheard of for Apple to make slight changes to their hardware mid-product cycle and it would give them an opportunity to minimize the impact of the iPhone 4′s antenna problem.

But, iLounge isn’t the only place publishing rumors about upcoming Apple products, Hardmac has received a mockup of the next-generation iPod touch which depicts a rear-facing camera and flash. Unfortunately this mockup doesn’t include a front-facing camera which does put a dent in its credibility. A front-facing camera with FaceTime has been rumored to be coming to the iPod touch for months and MacRumors has received images from an iPhone parts supplier of the iPod touch’s front LCD and bezel which does have a hole for a front-facing camera.

Coming hot on the heels of all these iPod touch rumors is word that Apple has added email-based FaceTime support in iOS 4.1 beta 3, which was seeded to developers earlier this week. MacRumors’ Eric Slivka reports that iOS 4′s Contacts application gives users the option to make FaceTime calls using either a phone number or an email address. There is no word on how FaceTime calls would be made using email addresses however this would presumably allow iOS devices without a cellular connection to perform FaceTime calls.

There’s a whole slew of Apple-related rumors flying around right now. And these rumors will only heat up as we move closer to September, when Apple will announce new iPods (as they have for the past several years). I’m excited about the announcements, I have a feeling that expanding FaceTime to the iPod touch will add a tremendous amount of momentum behind it — I wouldn’t be surprised if FaceTime becomes the de facto standard for video calling by this time next year.

Mark Gurman:

We’ve heard that iWork for iPhone will come with Pages and Numbers as a universal binary for all iOS Devices.

I missed this when it was originally published two weeks ago. It looks really slick and I can’t wait for the release.

The new Apple TV was already starting to sound great but earlier this month The New York Times revealed that several sources have told them that Apple was building a completely redesigned user interface for the new Apple TV.

NewTeeVee has also heard rumblings of some changes to TV show pricing in iTunes.

Ryan Lawler reporting for NewTeeVee:

According to sources, Apple is trying to get TV programmers to let it rent individual TV shows for 99 cents each, as opposed to the $1.99 it receives for sales of standard-definition episodes and the $2.99 it gets for selling HD episodes. […] Unlike its current TV and movie sales through iTunes, the new service will move content into the cloud and stream it to users, rather than having them download videos.

I’m incredibly excited about this Apple TV update. I’ve been a huge fan of the device since it’s launch and it has been the centerpiece of my home theater for over two years now.

A $99 Apple TV running iOS, 99 cent TV show rentals, brand new user interface, and a focus on streaming content. If all of these rumors are true, I see a lot more people cutting the cord soon.