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The Apple CEO is scheduled to speak to the company's annual developers' conference for an hour and a half, kicking off at 6pm BST. That much we know. What no-one knows is what he will say, but that has not stopped the speculation.

Jobs will almost devote much of his presentation to the forthcoming OS X 10.5. This will be the first time that the finished version will have been seen outside Apple. Jobs previewed a number of new features at last years Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), held later than usual in August, so this time around all the speculation has centred on what the 'top secret' feature or features will be.

Some are convinced that it will be some kind of virtualisation software that enables OS X to run Windows applications. But if that is the case why did Apple go to the trouble of updating the Boot Camp beta just last week? And would Apple be happy with a load of Windows applications cluttering up the OS X interface?

Others believe that Leopard will sport a handsome new 3D interface, powered by the Core Animation technology Jobs previewed last year and looking not unlike the Time Machine application he showed off at the same time.

But the late runner in the 'top secret' stakes is a new Internet platform powered by Google, that

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will supplement or perhaps replace .Mac.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple's board last year and has already intimated that he is there for a reason.

'We're a perfect back end to the problems that they're trying to solve," Schmidt said recently. 'They have very good judgement on user interface and people. But they don't have this supercomputer, which is the data centres. What they have is a manufacturing business that's doing quite well.'

Whether that just means that Google will provide the back-end while Apple continues to develop a .Mac-style interface remains to be seen. But the possibilities are intriguing, from iTunes libraries securely hosted on the Net so you can access them from any device to Google Apps reskinned for OS X.

When it comes to hardware, speculation centres on a rumoured fourth-revamp of the iMac, with a new recycling-friendly aluminium case, and the much-anticipated 'MacBook nano', a compact, lightweight laptop with Flash memory for near-instant booting. Potentially it could employ Intel's Robson platform . If such a machine is unveiled and nano is its name, then expect the Mac mini to be renamed and given its ageing hardware, revamped.

Developers in the San Francisco convention centre can expect to at least see the iPhone, which goes on sale on 29 June. It is unlikely, however, that they will get their hands on a software development kit that will let them build fully-fledged iPhone applications - Apple is not going to foist that on developers when there is only one session dedicated to iPhone during the whole

It is possible that Apple will announce that some third-party development will be allowed, but it will be a surprise if that amounts to anything more than providing specifications for creating or repurposing existing Dashboard widgets.

Four hours from now we should know.