For once, it seems, Apple has managed to keep a pretty tight lid on what is actually happening at a big launch do. But as we countdown the hours until tonight's long awaited iPhone 3.0 event, it is possible to make a couple of educated guesses.

For start there is the almost certain appearance, at long last, of the ability to cut and paste in the new iPhone 3.0 OS. Just what has taken Apple so long to implement this simple, and let's face it pretty essential bit of functionality for any real smart smartphone, the Goddess alone knows. However, God of Digg, Kevin Rose, reckons that it is definitely coming and will involve a simple double tap and drag action. Nice. Why should we listen to Rose? Well he does have a habit of getting the inside track on Apple launch developments, and many of them turn out to be correct. Which is a shame if you were expecting to see MMS picture messaging support because Rose reckons that's a no no this time around, and the same goes for video recording.

VentureBeat, meanwhile, is suggesting that there could be a lot more than updated iPhone software on offer at the 3.0 event tonight. It is wondering if we will see the launch of an Apple Tablet. Seth Weintraub over at Computerworld agrees, arguing that instead of trying to compete in the netbook market, Apple will use it's "big lead in touch technology" and look to "innovate in other ways rather that release a similar type of product to a mature market."

Personally, I do not expect to see any such big announcements tonight. I think it will pretty much all be iPhone business. After all, we have already just got the new talking iPod shuffle and only a couple of weeks back Apple announced an updated desktop range with prices that caused consternation in some parts of the world. Which brings me nicely to one prediction I do think will come true:

Philip Michaels over at Macworld is pretty sure that a tech reporter will probably "declare that Apple’s announcement failed to live up to expectations." Nobody is going to put money against that happening! The rest will be revealed in just a few short hours from now, and you can be sure that DaniWeb reporters will be bringing you all the news from the event.