Wuh-oh, time to stomp on the brakes, folks-- looks like there's a smattering of circumstantial evidence implying that a fourth-generation iPod won't be hurtling earthward anytime soon. Of course, that depends largely on your definition of "soon," but we know some people think the new devices must be slated for an intro any day now, what with thirteen months having passed since the third-gen models made their debut. And that might still happen, sure, but like we said, there's at least one hint that the new models won't show up until-- and this is where the relative nature of the word "soon" comes into play-- September. Frankly, time moves so quickly for us these days, September might as well be tomorrow, but we know that for some of you that's an awfully long time to wait for a new iPod to arrive.

See, here's the thing: faithful viewer mrmgraphics sent us an InfoWorld article about Toshiba's 1.8-inch hard drives, which are the shrimpy lil' storage device of choice for discriminating non-mini iPods everywhere. And apparently there's a new model that's been announced, which will let you pack a whopping 60 GB of data onto a drive that you could accidentally swallow. (Well, provided you're a carthorse or a hippo or something, or you have a freakishly wide esophagus. Sure, the drives are small, but your average homo sapiens isn't going to accidentally inhale six of 'em or anything like that.) If Apple ever pops these babies into its new 'Pods, you'll be able to stuff 15,000 songs in your pocket, give or take a few thousand. Because, as we're sure you'll all agree, everyone should have a full month-and-a-half's worth of music with them at all times. It should be a law or something.

Well, we've got some good-and-obvious news and some less-good-and-less-obvious news. First of all, Toshiba "has already found a customer in Apple Computer Corp.," who has an unspecified number of the higher-capacity drives on order. So unless Apple's planning on sticking 60 GB teeny-drives in some mysterious non-iPod device, provided you've got the cash to blow, you will in fact be able to do that 15,000-songs-in-your-pocket thing before long. (That's the bit you can file under "duh.") But don't go committing felonies for funding just yet, though, because those 60 GB drives won't go into mass production until "July or August," implying that Apple might not be able to get them into a shipping product until up to a month after that. That fact, in conjunction with new info from some of the site's "most reliable sources," has prompted AppleInsider to report that the fourth-gen iPod now won't arrive until September.

Of course, Apple could introduce fourth-gen iPods without upping the current storage capacity, although it doesn't sound likely. And the flip side is that Apple could also bump the current third-gen models up to 60 GB come September without bothering to upgrade anything else, as they've done in the past-- although that's a really long time to go without a fourth-gen upgrade, so we doubt that, too. So yeah, sounds like there's a major iPod revision scheduled for the end of summer; plan accordingly. And if you were hoping to buy a fourth-gen iPod loads sooner than that, well, consider the up side: lugging around a whole extra six ounces of consumer electronics at the height of summer might well have given you heatstroke. So consider yourself lucky.