The Apple rumour mill is an unpredictable, capricious and captivating experience. If it's not busy guessing the nature of the next iPhone, it is discussing the iPad 3's supposed specs. And if there are no Apple mobile murmurs, it's looking at what might be next for the MacBook range, or even the old faithful iPod.

And, since Steve Jobs started blabbing about having supposedly "cracked" the Apple TV set, we've another iDevice to add to the tech gossip grapevine.

Actually, make that three iDevices as the latest rumours suggest that we'll be looking at that many Apple iTV sets purportedly going on sale in late 2012.

Quoting sources in Japan, SmartHouse has stated that the three size variations will include a 32-inch model and a 55-inch one too.

"But what has Japan got to do with Apple's production?" we hear you cry, as you're no doubt well aware of the tech giant's Chinese production lines. The word on the rumour street is that Sharp is on board to produce the LCD sets. LCD to start that is - Sharp's OLED-like IGZO tech could be used on future variants.

There's plenty of talk that Siri and other voice-like applications will be the key functionary for Apple's living room assault - backing up Jobs' quote from Walter Isaacson’s authorised book where he said:

"I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine."

There's also plenty of talk that the iTV platform could cost quite a bit more than your average internet enabled TV set.

But, if we know anything from our past dealings with games of Cupertino-whispers - the final products aren't always as the rumour mongers suggested. We expect to see plenty more fuel added to the iTV murmur fire before we see any Apple TVs in the shops....