Jim Dalrymple at The Loop reports Apple sent out invitations for a media event moments ago. The event is scheduled for October 4th and it’ll take place at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.

Looking at the invitation posted by The Loop, it’s clear Apple’s keynote will focus on the iPhone – the tagline for the banner is “Let’s talk iPhone” – and, curiously enough, the image features four of Apple’s stock apps for iOS: Calendar, Clock, Maps, and Phone. We wouldn’t look too much into a possible hidden meaning on this image, but all these apps were mentioned in a rumor that claimed to have details on Assistant, an upcoming software feature of the iPhone 5. Obviously, the image itself is a representation of the event’s details (October 4th, 10 AM at Infinite Loop), but it’s not like Apple hasn’t hinted at upcoming features/products in invitations before.

Apple is widely expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone at is next keynote. Speculation surrounding the device in the past months has failed to pinpoint exactly how the next iPhone will look like, and iPhone 4-like parts surfaced this summer suggested Apple could also plan a minor “iPhone 4S”  upgrade. Others claim the “iPhone 5” will be a completely redesigned device with thinner form factor, and possibly a bigger screen. Either way, the next iPhone is rumored to feature the company’s A5 processor, 1 GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera – as for the iPhone5-iPhone 4S speculation, you can read more about it in our rumor roundup and retrospective.

At WWDC in June, Apple announced iOS 5 with iCloud integration would ship “this Fall” to customers. iCloud is cross-compatible with iOS devices, web browsers, PCs and Macs – OS X will need an update to version 10.7.2 (currently in beta with developers) to work with iCloud. Other software updates expected to hit with iOS 5’s release are iTunes 10.5 (required for iOS 5 device syncing) and iPhoto 9.2 (for Photo Stream integration).