That’s right folks, it’s almost iPhone 5 time! After months (years?) of speculation, rumor and more, tomorrow Apple will officially unveil the next generation of its famous iPhone lineup.

We’re still not sure if it will actually be called iPhone 5 (our guess is it will just be ‘iPhone’, much like the latest iPad dropped its number) but still, exciting times are upon us. One bummer though regarding tomorrow’s announcement, it’s reported that although the new hotness will be unveiled in all its glory tomorrow, you won’t actually be able to pre-order it until Friday the 14th.

The reason for the wait? Nobody really knows (except Apple, of course) but we can speculate that Apple wants to keep building anticipation for the device and also give partners and its retail stores a few extra days to get ready for the big ordering frenzy that’s sure to come.

A couple more days really isn’t all that bad, is it? After all, you’ve waited this long. So, who’s gonna pre-order as soon as they can?

Today at a press conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the next generation iPad to an enthusiastic crowd. The new device, officially dubbed the iPad (not iPad HD), features a host of new improvements over the iPad 2 and looks to become a huge seller for the company.

As we predicted yesterday, the new device will feature the 9.7-inch Retina Display with 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution, Apple’s new Apple A5X processor with quad-core graphics and the camera from the iPhone 4S with 5-megapixel resolution.

In addition, the new iPad will feature 1080p HD video capture with built-in stabilization, no Siri but a new “Dictation” app and the one thing ww’re most excited about, 4G LTE support for both AT&T and Verizon Wireless here in the U.S.

So, a great bunch of new features that will surely lead to to millions of new iPad owners. It will retain the same pricing structure as the previous iPad, with 4G LTE coming at an average $129 premium. It is available for pre-order today and will ship on March 16.

However, that’s not all Apple revealed today.

I find it funny that even with everything happening at CES in Las Vegas this week one announcement from Apple about an event next week and the entire tech news world shifts forces to them. Sorry CES, nobody seems to care all that much about you.

To what event am I referring? Well, as I mentioned last week, Apple was rumored to be planning an education-related event for sometime in January. As you can see from the pic above, they’ve now sent out invitations to said event and it’s definitely scheduled for the 19th of this month.

Now that we know the event is education-related does that mean Apple is announcing a new textbook initiative with major publishers to bring school books to the iPad? I think it might. I also think we might see a bit more during this event such as new publishers added to the magazines available in the Newsstand app as well as some new publishers added to iBooks.

Sadly, I would doubt Apple will also announces a new iPad next week. I think they will wait on that one for another month or two. Of course, whatever happens we will find it all out come January 19. Should be interesting.

It’s only the first real work day back from the New Year’s holiday (aka January 3rd) and already speculation about Apple and its upcoming products is well underway. This time around that speculation is directed at a media event insider sources are saying will take place in New York at the end of this month.

According to AllThingsD, the event won’t be centered around an iPad 3 announcement or have anything to do with a the television Apple is supposedly developing. In fact, as the event will reportedly be hosted by Apple’s Senior VP of Internet Software Eddy Cue, it’s much more likely it will concern publishing or advertising.

That’s probably a pretty good bet considering New York is still regarded as the advertising and publishing capital of these United States. Let’s assume, based on this info, the event will center on publishing and advertising.

That means we might expect an announcement about new magazines joining Apple’s Newsstand initiative or maybe we can look forward to an updated app that combines iBooks and Newsstand into one, much like Amazon does with its Kindle app for iOS. That would be nice.

Whatever ends up being announced, you can be sure some people will be happy and others will lament that the event wasn’t all about a brand new iPad 3. Rest assured people, Apple will release an iPad 3. It’s just a matter of time.

Until then, try to enjoy your iPad 2 and remember there are people much less fortunate than you are out there. I’m talking about, of couse, those people still using the original iPad.

Poor bastards.

At an event held this morning at Apple’s Cupertino campus, newly minted Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled what many were expecting: a brand new iPhone. Dubbed the iPhone 4S, the device is cosmetically very similar to the current iPhone 4 but features a host of internal improvements which may appease fans eagerly awaiting an iPhone refresh.

In addition, Cook announced the release data for iOS 5, the software that powers Apple’s lineup of devices including the iPhone and iPad, as well as updated iPods with price cuts and an intelligent assistant, dubbed Siri, which enables user to verbally interact with their iOS devices.

Here’s the highlights of today’s event:

• Apple made the iPhone 4S official. It features the same Retina Display but features Apple’s dual-core A5 processor and a dual-core graphics chip.

• The iPhone 4S battery can provide 8 hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours of browsing time on 3G and 9 on Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video playback or 40 hours of music playback.

• Apple has redesigned the iPhone 4S antenna to switch between two antenna to send and receive. Hopefully how you hold the device won’t matter now.

• The iPhone 4S features HSPA+ 14.4 support, though Apple isn’t branding it as “4G.” It’s also a world phone, so one device will support CDMA and GSM/WCDMA networks around the globe. That means it will work on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks in the U.S.