Macworld Expo: The wait is nearly over

With just hours to go until Steve Jobs makes his keynote speech at Apple's Macworld Expo event in San Francisco, the Mac fanatics' favourite game - guess what new products Apple will be showcasing this year - is almost up.

The speculation has been rife and three major announcements have been flying around the Mac rumour sites, as the Mac mafia indulge in some second guessing. The top three bets have been a new iWork office suite, a 'headless Mac' - a low end desktop without monitor - and a flash-based iPod.

Apple itself has been doing its very best to squash the rumours and has even been getting litigious in an effort to stop any more rumours.

silicon.com's readers have been having their own punts on what the announcement will be.

The largest percentage - 22 per cent - have their money on the headless Mac, followed by 18 per cent who believe the 'surprise' to be unveiled at Macworld will be a flash-based iPod. The Apple-branded mobile comes next with 12 per cent of the vote and then the Apple home entertainment centre with ten per cent, according to a recent poll of nearly 300 silicon.com readers.

The remaining 38 per cent aren't interested in speculation, answering: 'Who cares? Get a life'.

While all four products in the poll are reasonable bets to join the Apple stable, rumours hours before Jobs' keynote centred on the flash-based iPod being the biggest announcement to come out of the San Francisco conference, based in part on the presence of consumer electronics press at an Apple event in Paris today.

Jobs will put Apple devotees out of their misery later tonight - the keynote speech will begin at 5pm GMT.

For those who can't watch in person, Apple will make the speech available from its website at 2am GMT.