on with Amazon, whose Kindle ­ a kind of iPod for books ­ has proved popular in America?

According to industry commentators, a Taiwanese manufacturer has received a substantial order for 10-inch touch-screens from Apple - possibly expanding the iPhone to a more useful size for reading digital books and watching films.

Where ­ however ­ would an Apple tablet, an iPad if you will, leave the iPhone? Connectivity is key to portable computing. Some rumours suggest the new device will have 3G connectivity built in ­ making it, essentially, another mobile phone ­ and there's been talk of Apple negotiating a deal with US mobile network Verizon.

But will people want to pay a second monthly mobile phone tariff for a second Apple device? In fact, will they want to carry a second, larger, heavier Apple device, at all? Wasn't convergence at the heart of the iPhone's success - the iPod, mobile phone, PDA, web browser, camera, satnav and mini-TV all-in-one?

If the new device can make calls, will it be anything more revolutionary than a big iPhone? And if it can't make calls, then it probably should.

Anything except a full-on second coming from Steve Jobs will seem like a let downIf an iPad isn't to be a retrograde step, it will have to offer some serious computing, too (especially if it's to compete in the netbook market). It's hard to imagine touch-typing ­ where feedback is everything ­ on a glass screen. And Steve Jobs has been pretty clear, in the past, that offering cut-price computing doesn't appeal. "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk," he said last October. It's an unlikely ad slogan.

What seems likely is that there will be an early September Apple event; after all, there almost always is. The iPod lines will get a refresh in time for the new college year and Christmas; iTunes might earn a few extra features.

The danger for Apple is that the giant vacuum created by their own characteristic secrecy and silence has been filled so completely that anything less than an all-singing, all-dancing product launch delivered personally by a post-liver transplant Steve Jobs ­ - a full-on second coming ­ - is going to feel like a giant let-down, and will be reflected in the company's share price.

If Apple has anything to deny, they should break their silence and deny it - either officially or through "the usual channels" now. Otherwise, roll on September 9 and the newest iconic gadget to wear the Apple badge.