RUMOR: SONY PSP 2 TO BE ANNOUNCED JANUARY 27TH

According to “trade sources” being cited by blog MCV, Sony will announce the update to its PSP gaming system — the PSP 2 — on January 27th in Tokyo, Japan. The report claims that, “Publishers were informed late last year of the plans, with some of Sony’s biggest parties already at work on titles for the high-specced [sic] device.” No information was provided that would indicate what exactly those new specs may be.

GOOGLE CHROME OS EVENT CONFIRMED

Google just announced an event in San Francisco for December 7th, which promises "exciting news about Chrome." Naturally, we're expecting that to be the announcement of a Google-branded netbook that runs the Chrome OS, in addition to the launch of the Chrome Web / App Store. Interestingly, it's pretty short notice for this sort of announcement, and it's also conflicting with the D: Dive into Mobile conference which is happening a few miles north on the same day. We don't know if that's poor planning on Google's part, a sign of last minute adjustments in the product, both, or neither, but either way it's going to be a pretty exciting week!

RUMOR: GOOGLE TO LAUNCH BRANDED NETBOOK WITH CHROME OS DECEMBER 7TH

Rumor has it Google will be holding an event on December 7th to announce a Google branded netbook running the hotly anticipated Google Chrome OS. The netbook is rumored to be an Atom-powered laptop that isn't going to be a mass market device -- there will only be around 65,000 units available to Google's closest "friends and family" -- and that the Cloud-based OS is still very much in a beta, non-consumer-friendly state.

This all lines up with TechCrunch's report that Google will be launching its Chrome Web / App Store very soon, as well as yesterday's launch of Chrome 8, which supports those aforementioned Chrome apps. (Companies like TweetDeck have already started demoing their browser apps.) Don't forget that those apps are going to be a large part of the OS, so it would make sense for Google to talk about 'em in tandem. The pieces sure do seem to be fitting together quite well, and while we still have lots of unanswered questions, we're feeling confident that we'll be getting some official answers on all this Chrome-ness very soon. [Engadget]

RUMOR: APPLE AND NEWS CORP ANNOUNCING iPAD ONLY NEWSPAPER

It seems like Apple and News Corp are indeed in cahoots on The Daily, a new iPad-only newspaper that would be the first support the iTunes subscription billing, and rumor has it, it will be announced December 9. The 9th, the rumors state is a Thursday, so it's possible it will get pushed to the week after, perhaps arriving along with the Mac App Store. [Gizmodo]

APPLE TO ANNOUNCE BEATLES COMING TO iTUNES TOMORROW

Today Apple announced something big was coming to iTunes and teased "Tomorrow is just another day. That you will never forget". A number of sites are betting Apple will announce The Beatles and their back catalog have finally been signed. The announcement itself gives us a couple of clues. The first is the wording and the use of "Another Day", which is a Paul McCartney song. The second is the hands of the clocks used. They mimic the position of the hands on the cover of their album Help!. [Geek]