Canada

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Montreal-based blogger Rene Ritchie is shown in a handout photo. In the high-stakes world of Apple rumour-mongering, two Canadian bloggers, including Ritchie, have built sterling reputations for accurately revealing details about new iPhones and iPads well before the company does. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

On Tuesday, the world's attention will turn to California, where Apple is set to make a product announcement that will undoubtedly flood Facebook and Twitter with countless posts lusting after what's expected to be a smaller, more mobile 20-centimetre iPad.

Apple's product launches are closely guarded secrets, but leaks are inevitable.

In the high-stakes world of Apple rumour-mongering, two Canadian bloggers have built sterling reputations for accurately revealing details about new iPhones and iPads well before the company does.

It was five months ago that Montreal-based Rene Ritchie forecasted that Apple would be releasing its new "iPad mini" sometime this month for between $200 to $250. Whether he was right will soon be revealed, but past posts on his iMore.com site accurately reported details about the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 and the "new iPad" before Apple made its official announcements.

So what's his secret? Ritchie says he has various sources within Apple and at other manufacturing, retail and mobile carrier companies that feed him information from time to time.

"I'm just lucky enough that I get enough pieces that I can start to put things together," says Ritchie, 40, who notes that he sweats every prediction he makes.

"I'm really, really careful, I consider our readers' attention really valuable and I don't want to just throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks.

"I'm very patient, I try to wait until I'm really sure of something until it seems, I don't want to say confirmed, because nothing is ever confirmed until Apple puts it up on stage, but I just take my time."

Other elite tech bloggers have come to trust Ritchie given his spot-on coverage over the past year or so, says Jim Dalrymple, another Canadian who's looked to for Apple scoops.

"Rene in the last year has nailed the last two or three events that Apple has had, so its been interesting to watch him," says Dalrymple, who co-runs the website The Loop out of his home office in Bedford, N.S., just outside Halifax.

Although it's widely thought a smaller iPad will highlight Tuesday's event, Dalrymple says there's always room for surprises.

"There's some things only Apple knows, there's no doubt about that," he says.

"Tim Cook, the engineers at Apple and the executives there, they're the only ones that know for absolute certain what's coming."

Apple's event is scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.