You know what they say: one iPod does not a Digital Hub strategy make. Plenty of people agree, and feel that the iPod is clearly just the first in a long line of digital appliances that Apple will eventually ship as a fleet of high-tech gadgets built to orbit its various and sundry Macs. Of course, being generally contrarian types, we often take issue with what "they" have to say, and given the existence of some pretty capable third parties making their own devices, we're not entirely convinced of the inevitability of the "Apple's making everything" scenario. But heck, it sure makes for some darn fine rumormongering, and who are we to stand in the way of progress? So we figured we'd round up a few of the more interesting "digital spoke" whispers floating around, toss 'em at the suspended ceiling tiles, and see if we can get any of 'em to stick point-first. Er, metaphorically speaking.

First up: iPod revisions. Well, the fact that the iPod is going to undergo an upgrade in the not-too-distant future probably is a dead cert, seeing as Toshiba will be shipping a 10 GB version of its teensy hard drive within the next thirty days or so; the question, however, is whether Apple is just going to bump up the product's storage capacity, or if something more significant is waiting in the wings. As faithful viewer Don points out, Mac OS Rumors is figuring on the latter option, claiming that iPods slated for later this year will boast such niceties as included Pro Speakers and a built-in FireWire CD-RW drive. Our own sources tell us that after that version ships, Apple will move even further away from the iPod's original ultraportable form factor to integrate a professional turntable, a mixing board, a smallish circular saw, a hibachi, and a portable gasoline-powered electrical generator. The tentative advertising campaign is reportedly going to be built around the phrase "iPod: two thousand songs in your U-Haul."

Moving on, surely you've heard all sorts of murmurs about Apple possibly whipping out an iCam, thus returning to the consumer digital camera market that it created eight or nine years ago with the QuickTake. Personally, we've always been slightly skeptical that Apple would tackle the digital camera again, primarily because there are so many companies out there like Olympus and Canon that are far better equipped to build a quality product at a reasonable price; the iPod was an attempt to make an MP3 player "done right," but the existing digital cameras on the market are far more mature and well-done than the MP3 players Apple sought to outdo. Nevertheless, if you're jonesing for an Apple-branded digital camera with an iPod-style hard drive, a blazing FireWire interface, seamless integration with iPhoto (and iMovie, given the iCam's alleged DV movie clip mode), and the legendary Apple fit and finish, you might like to drool over the iCam rumor over at Your Daily Mac as unearthed by faithful viewer John Mitchell. We're not getting our hopes up for a Macworld Tokyo unveiling as specified, but we're always happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Last but not least, what Digital Hub is complete without a PDA? And unlike the available digital cameras out there, the current crop of PDAs is arguably a lot farther away from the ideal Macintosh-style experience. If Apple were so inclined, it could make some huge improvements in this arena-- heck, even selling the same Newton MessagePad 2100 from four years ago would be a leap ahead of a lot of the dreck out there. Well, for those of you who continue to dream the impossible dream, faithful viewer Keith Isley points out three weeks' worth of rumors and discussion about "Navi," Apple's alleged "Newton 3" project. A Darwin-based, OpenGL-interface handheld that can run Cocoa Mac OS X apps with a quick recompile? Whatever, chief... belief-wise, somehow we're just not feeling the love. But if these mythical beasts ever do see the light of a store shelf, sign us up, because our digital hubs sure could use some shiny new spokes.