Apple to host Mac event next Tuesday

Unlike past events in which the company drafted and issued digital invitations through e-mail, word of next week's event was initially spread Tuesday afternoon via phone calls from Apple's media relations personnel.

AppleInsider was told, and Gizmodo confirms, that the event will be restricted exclusively to Mac announcements. In speaking to journalists by phone, Apple representatives were reportedly very clear in expressing that no iPhone or iPod product announcements were in the cards.

The event will begin at 10:00 am PDT at the Apple Town Hall on the company's Cupertino-based campus — the same venue used for the introduction of the Intel-based Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi last February. Once again, seating is said to be extremely limited.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is widely expected to use the gathering to take the wraps off a new generation of 20- and 24-inch iMacs, which were first detailed back in March and later pinpointed for a release in late-July/early-August. It was also reported by AppleInsider in recent weeks that each new iMac would come bundled with a new super-slim keyboard, purported photos of which subsequently turned up on the web.

Jobs is also more than likely to use Tuesday's event to provide demonstrations of the company's long-awaited iLife '08 and iWork '08 software suites.