Apple special event invite a fake?

A Flickr user has posted what looks like an invitation to an Apple "special event" on 22 February at the Moscone Center in San Francisco bearing a close-up photo of an Airport Express Base Station. At first blush one might assume that Apple may be announcing an update to the Airport Express that would allow streaming video.

In my Macworld Expo predictions article I speculated that Apple would release the "Airport Ultra" (my name) that would essentially be an Airport Express with the addition of video broadcasting. It could come bundled with a new application called AirTV that would allow you to stream video to a television in High Definition via a built-in HDMI connector.

Apple has been paying attention to the Airport Express lately, especially when you consider that they quietly added the ability to stream iTunes to multiple AirPort Expresses simultaneously in the AirPort Express Firmware Update 6.3.

But there are problems...

First, the invitation itself. As many savvy readers have commented under the Flickr picture there's problems with the invite. The kerning in Apple's Myriad Pro is really bad between the A and P in "Apple" and between the S and P in "Special." Also, there's a consensus that Apple has never shown the actual product being announced on the invite.

Second, content. Apple isn't really prepared to offer streaming video yet. The videos for sale on the iTunes Music Store are only 320x240 which is less than half the resolution of a standard definition television picture, let alone HD.

Third, none of the usual recipients of Apple invitations have reported receiving an invite to this "event." Check out two other versions of alleged invitations to the Feb 22 event at TUAW, but don't hold your breath though, the fakers spelled the word February wrong on one.

If Apple announced that the ITMS was going to sell high resolution television shows using the H.264 codec (HD anyone?) in addition to streaming video, that would be one hell of an announcement.