Late fall tends to be iPod updating season in Northern California (rumor has it that Apple sells a lot of the things thanks to some sort of winter solstice holiday), so it should come as no surprise that rumors of an iPod refresh have been emerging with increased frequency as of late. Just last week, we saw leaked photos of new Nanos that seemed too ugly to be true until they were essentially confirmed by Apple a day later. Most of us were turned off by the short, stout iPods upon seeing them but for the few of you who found them fetching, you now have a date to mark on your rumor calendar: Sept. 5th. According to the usually reliable folks at Ars Technica, that’s the day that Apple will unleash its new iPod lineup. New Nanos are pretty much a given and new full-size iPods, sporting touchscreens and a scaled-down version of the iPhone OS are expected as well. There are also two dark horses that could make a showing at the event: a third iPod (not counting the lowly Shuffle) that would sit between the Nano and the widescreen video iPod in the lineup and the oft-rumored iPhone Nano. I’d be a little skeptical on both of these fronts but Ars Technica‘s inside sources insist that “this is a ‘Wow’-level event.” This is all unconfirmed at this point, though iPod fans are advised to hold out until next for any Apple picking.

For more on the rumored launch next week:
– see this Ars Technica article