Developers and enthusiasts have hoped that official support for Augmented Reality (AR), the display of data on top of a view of the real world, would come to the iPhone in early September. Today's announcement of a big Apple event on September 9th that's focused on the iPod, however, gives reason to suspect that the next version of the iPhone operating system will spend more time in the oven.

AR startup Acrossair reportedly told the LA Times in July that Apple told it that official support for AR was coming in iPhone OS 3.1. Acrossair may have introduced the hope that 3.1 was coming in early September. It's still possible that we might see AR support in a week and a half, but other developers tell us they wouldn't be surprised to see some more beta versions tested before it launches.