The September 12 Paris Expo and that San Francisco event is right around the corner, and people are still guessing what new trick Steve Jobs has up his sleeve (Apple's hot new products are usually released or announced in events like this). People thought it would have been the upgunned Core 2 Duo iMacs, but they were released early. They're also placing their bets on Apple's new iTunes movie lineup, but word is that there's something else, something bigger about to be unwrapped.

A New York Times writer has one theory: a living room Mac.

"Digital convergence," the idea of a digital home entertainment network, fusing together the PC, TV, cable, internet, DVD, and other entertainment devices, is nothing new. Lately, it is being aggressively pursued by computer firms. Apparently Microsoft is researching on internet television technology, which would allow internet servers to provide video entertainment in the same manner as cable companies. And Intel introduced back in January the Vivi, a microprocessor system that it hopes will be at the heart of PC-based digital entertainment.

It's something Apple hasn't fully dipped into, however. Entertainment-wise, more or less it's all locked up into iTunes, iPods, and Mac computers (both PCs and notebooks). But with movie distribution through iTunes already on its way to becoming a reality, could the prospects of a home entertainment Mac box be far behind?

One downside the NYT writer foresees is that such a Mac box would have to compete with all the other market players (Microsoft, Intel, all those start-ups) dedicated to "digital convergence." It's not what everyone expects from an industry innovator that wants to put out something new. A more likely approach would be another tough nut to crack: wireless streaming at home.

It's of course a nut that WMP11 also claims to have cracked (Microsoft claims that the new Media Player will stream through a wireless network as well), but Apple also has the AirPort Express peripheral on its side. The AirPort's already streaming wireless audio to room speakers - how much of a "next step" is video content to a TV?

A big next step, it seems to engineers. Says Steve Perlman, a former Apple engineer, the problem of bringing broadband to the home - "the last mile" - has largely been solved. The real problem is "the last hundred feet," reliably delivering digital media to living room entertainment devices like the TV through Internet-based networks like Wi-Fi. There's a lot of interference from other devices, like microwave ovens and wireless phones that gets in the way.

But has Apple really cracked that nut, and will you finally be able to watch iMac-loaded iTunes videos on your TV? Or will Jobs unveil a Mac box that will sit on a living room floor rather than on a work desk? Or is all that rambling for that NYT writer idle speculation?  With that special event in spitting distance, we'll soon find out. And we'll be telling you what it is.