Rumor mill: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and T-1000 updates in 2011

There are hints this week that the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV will be updated in early 2011. It's isn't really a risky guess, since they're all likely to be updated within the next nine months (heck, September is nearly here, so let's toss in the iPod, too). Still, here's what the crystal ball revealed this week.

First, the tea leaves have predicted that an iPhone bearing Verizon branding will soon be upon us. Manufacturer Pegatron* is supposedly poised to mass-produce the new handsets in December for an early 2011 rollout. The CDMA phones will feature a metallic back and internal antenna, according to DigiTimes.

Additionally, it's been suggested that a spiffy new 9.7-inch iPad will emerge with the ARM Cortex-A9-based processor and 512MB RAM. Both DigiTimes and iLounge also suggest that a 7" iPad is forthcoming, which makes our iPod touches say, "You might as well just use me."

Don't discount the idea of an Apple-branded killer robot from the future, either. Macrumors cites the Baltimore Sun reporting that Apple now has a distribution deal with Liquidmetal Technologies to use the California firm's 'amorphous metal' technologies in consumer electronics products. Just be careful not to accidentally create Skynet, guys.

Of course, the long-neglected Apple TV is rumored to be getting the huge revamp Engadget first tipped to back in May, with "a user interface similar to the iPhone" (that means iOS on board, one would think), no hard drive and lots of support for the social networking sites that the kids like so much these days.

Will these products be updated within the next nine months? Yes, probably...and you didn't even need mystical powers to figure that out.

[Via Macsimum News]

*Which totally sounds like it belongs in a 1950's Japanese sci-fi movie.