If you keep everything secret, rumors become predictions–until reality proves them wrong. Surrounding the tight-lipped world of Apple, the rumor mills have recently cranked into high gear prognosticating possible new announcements of a camera-equipped iPod Touch, or iPad, or iAnything since it is all just speculation at this point.

For example, an August 5 posting on the MacRumors blog claimed, "An iPhone parts supplier sent us these photos of what are claimed to be the front LCD and bezel of the upcoming 4th-generation iPod Touch," it said. "The new part clearly shows a front-sided hole that would leave room for a front-facing FaceTime camera."

They even ran the photo to the right, copied here from the Web.

On August 9, the Hardmac blog proclaimed, "We are now sure that the new iPod Touch will have a camera in the back, but we still have doubts about the front camera."

So let me join the game in this my premier Display Daily entry with a prediction that is freely given, and worth twice the price.

I’ve been tracking several other developments that lead me to guess what we may be about to see is actually the long-anticipated introduction of a pico projector into the Apple line of handheld computing gizmos.

Consider these points:

After the humiliation of the new antenna in the latest iPhone 4, Apple needs to retake the cutting edge and a pico projector would be a real headline grabber.

At February’s Macworld Expo 2010, one of the Best of Show winners was the SHOWWX pico projector from Microvision that has long touted its easy connectivity to Apple devices. As most Display Daily readers know, Microvision’s PicoP display engine combines modulated red, green and blue laser light sources and creates images using a single multi-axis scanning mirror. It is also one of the most compact pico engines available making it tiny enough to be embedded in a cell phone.

Is it just coincidence that Microvision’s SHOWWX already comes with a cable for connecting to an iPod Nano, iPod Touch, or iPhone? Maybe not.

And my sources estimate that costs for a scanning mirror type pico projector can be very low, once the costs of the RGB lasers comes down. That’s still a big if, as picos need low cost lasers to hit their sales targets and the laser makers need high volume markets to bring the cost down - the quintessential chicken and egg scenario.

Since the SHOWWX projector uses lasers as its light source, the image never needs focusing. Just shine it on a wall, desktop or your girlfriend’s back and the picture stays sharp no matter where she runs. That may grab the attention of Apple lovers when you start beaming out images to impress friends at your favorite water cooler or watering hole.

The SHOWWX projector already has a resolution of WVGA (848 x 480) but Microvision’s "Second Quarter 2010 Report" revealed they have upped their PicoP technology’s output to 15 lumens of brightness and described a prototype that’s now 720P HD-ready. Is this bright enough for water cooler demos? Yes, but with a relatively small screen size. But in a darker bar or restaurant, larger images are possible.

Maybe that is why during an August 5th Webinar, Alexander Tokman, President and CEO of Microvision dropped the hint that "HD content is coming to mobile devices and we believe this positions us well as the preferred choice for premiere customer-focused projector solutions."

The scarce availability of green laser diodes has limited the sales and pricing of such picos so far. But on June 3, market analyst Yole Développement of France predicted "the green laser diode market size will reach around $500M by 2016, which will represent more than 45 million devices." But is this prediction based on the success of picos to drive down the price? (More chicken and egg)

Many also predict that LED’s will dominate as light sources for embedded pico projectors, but I feel this underestimates the "cool factor" of the infinite-focus capability of laser images. In my opinion, they throw pictures that are sharp as a pin and stable as a light saber. And, I don’t think speckle will be a major drawback for adoption of these devices.

After remember, the latest iPod Nano already has a built-in video camera and the iPhone 4 has two. But adding yesterday’s technology to another Apple device can be dangerous as Mark Papermaster, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering found out (he lost his job as reported in the New York Times on August 7th.)

So a pico projector could add the pizzazz that Apple wants, stoking the fires of the Apple aficionados. And more importantly, it adds a level of credibility and inevitability to the pico concept. We will see if I am right.