Sources in a position to know tell me Apple (AAPL) is indeed planning a media event later this month at which the company will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like this. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday, Jan. 27, not Tuesday, Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

No definitive word on what that product is, but I think we all have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal offers some details – it cites people “briefed by the company” who say Apple plans to ship the tablet in March, and that it will feature either a 10 or 11-inch touch screen. The paper also cites analysts who “currently believe” the machine will cost $1,000, which may include a Kindle-like built-in wireless plan.

Incidentally, this won’t be the first time Apple has scheduled a special event on a Wednesday as opposed to Tuesday, which it has historically preferred for such things. The “It’s Only Rock and Roll” iPod event held last September, which was also rumored to be scheduled on a Tuesday, was ultimately held on Wednesday, Sep. 9. Evidently, Wednesday is the new Tuesday.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Apple Pitching Tablet to Publishing Industry; Spring Launch Expected
• Time (Finally) for the Tablet? Apple Developers Supersizing Their Apps for January Event.
• The Apple Tablet Is Delayed? So What?
• $1.9 Billion in Capex? What’s Apple Planning?
• Apple’s Tablet: Read Different?
• Imaginary Demand for Mythical Apple Tablet Exceeds All Estimates
• Apple Tablet Coming to AT&T?
• New From Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster: The Apple iPad
• Rumored Apple Netbook Actually an E-Book?
• iTablet: Apple’s Killer App for Higher Ed
• iFugly

Add this to the news that Apple has reportedly booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco “for several days in late January,” according to the Financial Times, and it’s pretty easy to connect the dots: It’s a very good bet we’re getting a look at this thing within the next 30 days or so.

A mobile industry source tells me developers have been told that while the mystery device will be shown off at the event, it won’t be ready to ship (Dan Frommer at Alley Insider relays the same news).

Announcing a product before launch used to be unusual for Apple (AAPL), but it’s a pattern the company has practiced more recently, notably with the first iPhone. And if Apple is indeed coming out with a new product that will require developers to rethink their approach, it makes a lot of sense.

I’ve asked Apple for comment, but I’m not holding my breath.

My source says Apple’s instructions to developers indicate that the tablet–or at least the thing the company is showing off next month–will be based on the iPhone OS and rely on the same iTunes Store that has moved two billion apps in a couple of years.

If so, it will mean that some people who have been guessing at what Apple is planning may need to go back to the drawing board.

Magazine publisher Condé Nast, for instance, has been working on a digitized version of Wired magazine that would run on Adobe (ADBE) software. But the iPhone’s OS doesn’t work with Adobe’s Flash platform, and if that holds true here, Condé Nast (and Adobe) is going to have to think of something else. Same goes for many Web video distributors who rely on Flash.

But first things first. Let’s take a look at this thing, whatever it is, and see what it actually can and cannot do before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

This morning, Apple (AAPL) broadcast invitations to a product launch gathering to be held that day at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The invite features another variation of the iconic iPod silhouette and the tagline, “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” so presumably the event will focus on music, as expected.

Beatles fans will no doubt note that Sept. 9 is also the day the group’s Rock Band videogame will arrive at market. Coincidence, or could Wednesday be the day the Beatles catalog finally comes to iTunes? We’ll find out next Wednesday.

Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will take the CEO job at a music discovery site called Playlist, a move that had been speculated last week, after he did not end up taking another position as head of MySpace Music.

Van Natta’s arrival at Playlist was not the only news for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up–former AOL exec Bob Pittman’s Pilot Investment Group is also investing an undisclosed amount of money in Playlist. Pittman will also join its board.

Playlist has previously raised several million dollars, said sources, but the new funding is many times that, to total about $18 to $20 million.

The move to Playlist is an interesting one for Van Natta, who has looked at a number of jobs since leaving the high-profile social-networking site earlier this year.

He has talked to a wide range of companies, sources said, including Microsoft (MSFT) and a range of start-ups, as well as with MySpace, which is owned by News Corp. (NWS). (News Corp. also owns this site).

Those talks between Van Natta and MySpace to run its new music initiative did not pan out for a variety of reasons.

But he has long expressed a desire to become a CEO of a company, rather than just head to another executive job within a larger company, so the move to run a start-up is not a surprise.

In an interview this afternoon, Van Natta told me he got very intrigued by the possibilities at Project Playlist, which was the first iteration of the start-up and in which he is an investor, due to its viral growth.

And, indeed, Playlist has grown quickly to become one of the larger music communities on the Web, claiming that more than 38 million music fans monthly, sharing playlists via its Web site and also widely distributed embeddable widgets. The site has tens of millions of daily page views, according to surveys.

To get to those big-scale numbers, Playlist essentially has offered users a giant linking service for music, not unlike Google (GOOG) with all information, pointing users to promotional, free and sometimes illegal music and music video tracks all over the Web.

Those links to illegal music have resulted in a lawsuit aimed at Playlist from the music industry, sources said, a sadly typical experience of many online music services.

The usual tactic for the music giants: Sue first and shake down later.

Under Van Natta, I would guess, Playlist is likely to reach out to music companies and strike deals.

The company also needs to settle on its main business plan, which appears to me to have been less important than its explosive growth.

Playlist currently does have some small amount of advertising on the site, and seems to be making most of its scratch from sending leads to ringtone sellers.

Van Natta did not want to reveal specific strategies for Playlist going forward, only noting the opportunity is large.

“Discovery around music is exploding on the Internet,” said Van Natta. “And the company that does the best job of taking advantage of that is really going to be huge.”

That said, there have been a lot of music-aimed efforts like Playlist in the music space, with a lot of different business plans and varying degrees of success, ranging from the Apple (AAPL) behemoth iTunes site, which sells single songs, to the CBS (CBS) music service, Last.fm, which relies more on advertising revenues.

Other contenders in the space include the Rhapsody subscription service from RealNetworks (RNWK), music discovery service iLike and many others. MySpace has also waded deeply into the music space, and Facebook is also reportedly weighing its own service.

Van Natta was one of Facebook’s earliest and most prominent execs, serving in jobs like COO and also Chief Revenue Officer while there.

He came to Facebook in the fall of 2005, after a stint as VP of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at Amazon, and was part of the founding team of A9, the Amazon search company.

“I am excited to be building a company again,” said Van Natta, who has taken many months off since he left Facebook in February.

9:56 A.M. (PDT)
The Apple store is down in anticipation of today’s event–always a good sign at an Apple affair. Inside the theater, there’s little decoration aside from the white Apple logo onstage.

10:00 A.M.
Lights dim. And it’s showtime! Jobs takes the stage; not looking like he’s won any competitive eating contests lately, he offers up the obligatory “reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” joke and then quickly moves on to the topic of the day: music.

10:02 A.M.
Jobs notes that there are now 65 million iTunes accounts with credit cards and that iTunes is the number one music distributor in the world.

“We’re adding something to iTunes today,” says Jobs. The first addition: HDTV shows. The second…wait for it: NBC is coming back to iTunes and bringing all its shows with them. And in HD.

10:10 A.M.
Jobs announces iTunes 8 and as expected, it includes HD support, an iPhoto-style browsing feature and the rumored “Genius” feature, which automatically creates playlists from songs in users’ iTunes libraries. Genius is an opt-in service. It collects media preferences from all participating iTunes users and algorithmically analyzes them to generate “Genius” playlists. The more you participate, the smarter Genius gets, says Jobs. It works with movies and TV too.

Jobs gives the audience a quick demonstration of the Genius feature and moves on to the iPod. He notes that the iPod has a 73.4 percent market share in the U.S. and that 90 percent of all cars in the U.S. offer iPod integration. Cumulative sales of the iPod since it was first announced are over 160 million.

10:15 A.M.
First iPod announcement: The 80GB iPod Classic has been upgraded to 120GB at the same $229 price point. Second: The new iPod nano–it’s the vertical device that’s been rumored. Very slick. “It’s the thinnest iPod we’ve ever made,” says Jobs. It’s got a new curved aluminum design, enhanced user interface, an accelerometer to put images into landscape mode, built-in Genius support, 24-hour battery life for music or four hours for video and a “shake-to-shuffle” feature that does what you’d expect. Jobs shakes his nano to demonstrate as it shuffles to a Dean Martin song. “Uh-oh. Now you guys know I listen to Dean Martin.”

10:24 A.M.
The new nano is apparently far more environmentally friendly than its predecessors. Jobs says it is the cleanest, most toxin-free iPod Apple has ever built. It comes in eight colors, in 8GB and 16GB models, and they’re shipping today.

10:30 A.M.
Jobs announces two new pairs of Apple headphones. The first features a robust cable controller that allows users to control volume, etc. The second is a better set of in-ear headphones. He quickly moves on to Apple’s new iPod Touch. It’s similar to its predecessor, but thinner, and features a better speaker, a better UI, Genius-support and built-in Nike+iPod support. It also features App Store–100 million apps have been downloaded from the App Store in the two months since it was launched.

10:39 A.M.
After a quick demo of the iPod Touch, Jobs invites Phil Shiller to the stage to demonstrate some new games. First up: “Spore Origins,” which truly looks just incredible. “My creature has eyes … but no brain,” says Schiller. The game uses the device’s accelerometer to steer spore creatures through the universe as they eat and get eaten.

10:43 A.M.
The next demo: Gameloft;s Real Soccer 2009. With an instant-replay feature, it seems pretty robust. Last up: EA’s “Need for Speed.” Also quite impressive from a graphics and game-play standpoint.

10:45 A.M.
Jobs returns to the stage and notes that the new iPod Touch’s environmental footprint is similar to the Nano’s. It’s got great battery life, App Store support, tons of games, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models and starts shipping today,” he notes, adding that “we think it’s the funnest iPod ever” before introducing Apple’s newest iPod Touch commercial.

10:47 A.M.
Jobs announces iPod Touch 2.1 and iPhone 2.1. iPhone 2.1 resolves a number of issues that have been troubling the device. Reception issues, dropped calls, overlong backups–2.1 should remedy all these things. “iPhone 2.1 is a big update,” he says. “It fixes lots of bugs. You’ll get fewer call drops. You will get significantly improved battery life, for most customers. We have fixed a lot of bugs where if you have a lot of apps on the phone, you’re not going to get some of the crashes and other things that we’ve seen. Backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster. And so just a lot of bugs have been fixed.”

iPod Touch 2.1 available today. iPhone 2.1 available Friday. “This is our strongest iPod line-up ever,” says Jobs as he does at every event like this. He then welcome’s Jack Johnson to the stage.

10:57 A.M.
Jobs returns to the stage to thank Johnson. Seeing the two onstage together, it’s hard not to think about how thin Jobs looks next to the singer. He certainly seems healthy, though.

And … one more thing?

Apparently not. “Go out and buy some of these great products. Thanks for coming.” And that’s it. Time to download “Spore” for iPhone, I guess.

For the record, Apple (AAPL) is trading lower today, as of this writing.

9:56 A.M. (PDT)
The Apple store is down in anticipation of today’s event–always a good sign at an Apple affair. Inside the theater, there’s little decoration aside from the white Apple logo onstage.

10:00 A.M.
Lights dim. And it’s showtime! Jobs takes the stage; not looking like he’s won any competitive eating contests lately, he offers up the obligatory “reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” joke and then quickly moves on to the topic of the day: music.

10:02 A.M.
Jobs notes that there are now 65 million iTunes accounts with credit cards and that iTunes is the number one music distributor in the world.

“We’re adding something to iTunes today,” says Jobs. The first addition: HDTV shows. The second…wait for it: NBC is coming back to iTunes and bringing all its shows with them. And in HD.

10:10 A.M.
Jobs announces iTunes 8 and as expected, it includes HD support, an iPhoto-style browsing feature and the rumored “Genius” feature, which automatically creates playlists from songs in users’ iTunes libraries. Genius is an opt-in service. It collects media preferences from all participating iTunes users and algorithmically analyzes them to generate “Genius” playlists. The more you participate, the smarter Genius gets, says Jobs. It works with movies and TV too.

Jobs gives the audience a quick demonstration of the Genius feature and moves on to the iPod. He notes that the iPod has a 73.4 percent market share in the U.S. and that 90 percent of all cars in the U.S. offer iPod integration. Cumulative sales of the iPod since it was first announced are over 160 million.

10:15 A.M.
First iPod announcement: The 80GB iPod Classic has been upgraded to 120GB at the same $229 price point. Second: The new iPod nano–it’s the vertical device that’s been rumored. Very slick. “It’s the thinnest iPod we’ve ever made,” says Jobs. It’s got a new curved aluminum design, enhanced user interface, an accelerometer to put images into landscape mode, built-in Genius support, 24-hour battery life for music or four hours for video and a “shake-to-shuffle” feature that does what you’d expect. Jobs shakes his nano to demonstrate as it shuffles to a Dean Martin song. “Uh-oh. Now you guys know I listen to Dean Martin.”

10:24 A.M.
The new nano is apparently far more environmentally friendly than its predecessors. Jobs says it is the cleanest, most toxin-free iPod Apple has ever built. It comes in eight colors, in 8GB and 16GB models, and they’re shipping today.

10:30 A.M.
Jobs announces two new pairs of Apple headphones. The first features a robust cable controller that allows users to control volume, etc. The second is a better set of in-ear headphones. He quickly moves on to Apple’s new iPod Touch. It’s similar to its predecessor, but thinner, and features a better speaker, a better UI, Genius-support and built-in Nike+iPod support. It also features App Store–100 million apps have been downloaded from the App Store in the two months since it was launched.

10:39 A.M.
After a quick demo of the iPod Touch, Jobs invites Phil Shiller to the stage to demonstrate some new games. First up: “Spore Origins,” which truly looks just incredible. “My creature has eyes … but no brain,” says Schiller. The game uses the device’s accelerometer to steer spore creatures through the universe as they eat and get eaten.

10:43 A.M.
The next demo: Gameloft;s Real Soccer 2009. With an instant-replay feature, it seems pretty robust. Last up: EA’s “Need for Speed.” Also quite impressive from a graphics and game-play standpoint.

10:45 A.M.
Jobs returns to the stage and notes that the new iPod Touch’s environmental footprint is similar to the Nano’s. It’s got great battery life, App Store support, tons of games, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models and starts shipping today,” he notes, adding that “we think it’s the funnest iPod ever” before introducing Apple’s newest iPod Touch commercial.

10:47 A.M.
Jobs announces iPod Touch 2.1 and iPhone 2.1. iPhone 2.1 resolves a number of issues that have been troubling the device. Reception issues, dropped calls, overlong backups–2.1 should remedy all these things. “iPhone 2.1 is a big update,” he says. “It fixes lots of bugs. You’ll get fewer call drops. You will get significantly improved battery life, for most customers. We have fixed a lot of bugs where if you have a lot of apps on the phone, you’re not going to get some of the crashes and other things that we’ve seen. Backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster. And so just a lot of bugs have been fixed.”

iPod Touch 2.1 available today. iPhone 2.1 available Friday. “This is our strongest iPod line-up ever,” says Jobs as he does at every event like this. He then welcome’s Jack Johnson to the stage.

10:57 A.M.
Jobs returns to the stage to thank Johnson. Seeing the two onstage together, it’s hard not to think about how thin Jobs looks next to the singer. He certainly seems healthy, though.

And … one more thing?

Apparently not. “Go out and buy some of these great products. Thanks for coming.” And that’s it. Time to download “Spore” for iPhone, I guess.

For the record, Apple (AAPL) is trading lower today, as of this writing.

As usual before yet another big Apple event, the psychic friends network is in overdrive in anticipation of the iconic computer company’s “Let’s Rock” media gathering in San Francisco tomorrow.

At this point, I think Apple could announce a change in the color of its bathrooms at its Cupertino HQ and it would be mayhem among the Mac faithful.

Nonetheless, even though what will be announced is likely to be a series of incremental improvements for Apple’s line of music-playing products–iTunes, iTouch and, of course, the iPod–and even the possibility of a revamped design, it’s astonishing how striking the hype is around the event.

Of course, that kind of passion from core users is a blessing for any tech company, and it is hard to quibble with Apple’s stellar ability to market every jog and tittle of its product development as if it was the second coming.

But the most intense focus will more likely be on Apple’s leader, CEO Steve Jobs, whose gaunt appearance at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June set off a flurry of discussion about the exact state of his health.

That talk has since been less frantic, despite the fact that there actually has been no clear announcement from Apple (AAPL) on the delicate subject (and Jobs’s colorful off-the-record chat with the New York Times’s Joe Nocera does not count, folks).

In any case, because AllThingsD.com cannot resist either, Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski will be there liveblogging “Let’s Rock” from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with all the news that’s fit to post.

And, of course, everything else too.