iPhone 4.3 Coming Very Soon , In-App Subscriptions, Personal Hotspot, and the iPad 2

All signs have been pointing to Apple releasing iOS 4.3 in the very near future, with speculation that Apple’s 4.3 announcement could even come next week. Most speculation is centering on an Apple announcement taking place within the next 10 days.
Besides an iOS 4.3 announcement, Apple is rumored to be announcing the iPad 2, the Verizon iPhone’s “Personal Hotspot” feature on AT&T, and an official release of in-app subscriptions.
Whether or not all of the speculation is accurate, it’s evident that Apple will be holding an event in the near future…


Apple recently announced “The Daily,” an iPad-only news app by NewsCorp, with the parallel announcement of in-app subscriptions (for reoccurring services like news publications, etc.) coming to iOS. However, even though The Daily has been released, there is no current in-app subscription backend for iOS. Verizon is sponsoring The Daily as a free product for the next two weeks.

Perhaps Apple is waiting to officially announce in-app subscriptions at their own event next week.
MacRumors addresses John Gruber’s position, in light of The Daily, on the date of the next Apple event,

“In his review of the Verizon iPhone, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber lays out his argument that iOS 4.3 will appear within the next two weeks to provide support for in-app subscription payments for The Daily before the free two-week trial runs out.”

From Gruber’s review,

“The Daily requires a subscription – either $1 per week, or $40 per year. They’re using a new in-app subscription payment system from Apple for this – but these in-app subscription APIs aren’t in iOS 4.2. So The Daily launched today, free for a limited time. They announced at the event that this initial free two-week period was brought to us by: Verizon.”

The New York Times has made the claim of a February 13th Apple event date. In David Pogue’s review of the Verizon iPhone, he praises the functionality of the Verizon iPhone’s “Personal Hotspot” feature.
In his review, he originally said, “Many other app phones have it - AT&T’s iPhone gets it on Feb. 13.“ This statement was later removed from Pogue’s review and rephrased to say, “AT&T says its iPhone will get it soon.”
This infers that Pogue either let the cat out of the bag too soon, or got the date wrong. (February 13th is a Sunday.)

MacNotes.de has reported that the iPad 2 preview will be Apple’s “One More Thing” announcement at an iOS developer event next week. MacNotes.de reports that,

“Our sources from the accessories business told us Apple is planning an event next week where they’re going to showcase the iPad 2 as well.”

A post from 9to5 Mac has revealed some interesting information about the iOS 4.3 firmware,

“iOS 4.3 seems to strongly imply that the Verizon will have its own iPad. The firmware describes iPad 2,1, iPad 2,2 and iPad 2,3, which suggests three models in WiFi, 3G GSM/UMTS and 3G CDMA flavors.”

In all reality, no one knows what will exactly come out of the next Apple event. But all signs are pointing to there being one within the next 10 days, and that it will center around iOS 4.3.
Also, the iOS 4.3 beta 3 was recently seeded to develepors, which is telling of how close 4.3 is to going live.
The GreenPois0n jailbreak was just released for iOS 4.2.1, so hopefully the jailbreak community won’t have to wait too long for a 4.3 untethered jailbreak.
What do you think about these rumors? Does an Apple event taking place in the next 10 days miake sense to you?