As an Apple Fanboy, this is the most wonderful time of the year, other than Christmas. Even three years before I made the switch to Mac, I paid close attention to Steve Jobs and his zen approach to introducing teh new hotness.

Last year, Stevie introduced the iPhone. That was absolutely huge. It was a five year project that was in the works ever since the launch of the original iPod back in 2002. If you pay close attention to all of the latest cellphones, it's clear everyone is stilling trying to play catch-up by adding multi-touch hotness and true mobile web browsing.

So what is Steve gonna unveil this year? Obviously we won't know until Tuesday morning because Apple is notoriously good at keeping their lips shut, and even more notorious at seeding false information to outsiders. But based on rumblings in the blogging community, their history in product cycles and a little melv-intuition, here is what I predict:

• iTunes Video Rentals — It's been leaked countless times that Fox, Disney and more studios are on board.
• Apple TV 2.0 / Mac nano — It's the only logical compliment for the new iTunes Video Rentals service. Added ability to download movies right from your TV.
• iPhone Updates — Definitely new software features. Possibility of a 12GB model and price cut on existing 8GB model. Definitely no 3G network support yet.
• MacBook Air — An all-new line of slim pro notebooks. Possibly the rumored sub-notebook, but I don't think so...not just yet.
• New Cinema Displays — They're overdue for new form factors and screen sizes.
• No iPod Updates — Too soon. They were just updated before the holiday season.

Those are my more probable predictions. But there's one more thing...my ultra crazy pipe-dream prediction:

• Google Integration with .Mac — With the CEO of Google on Apple's Board of Directors, I think the two companies will try to double team on Microsoft and Microsoft Office. Someday I see a tight integration between Apple iWork and Google Docs. That is, the ability to work on Word documents on your Mac, and have it all save onto your Google account. You'll be able to edit your Word & Excel documents anywhere you want, whether it's on your computer, in your web browser or on your iPhone.

That's all my predictions for this year's expo. Whatever they announce, it should be awesome...just as long as it's not an all-new iPhone. In which case I will have to shoot myself.

// inspired by sherwin at properscoundrels.com