Welcome to the first in a new series from TiPb, where we take the often outlandish, sometime surreal predictions of iPhone analysts and pundits, blogeratti and the 'net elite, and compare them to the potentially equally precise prognostications of a... magic 8-ball (running on an iPhone, of course!)

This edition kicks off with Gene Munster, who boldly states Apple will sell 13 million iPhone 3Gs this year, and 45 million next.

Magic 8-ball? "Most likely"

Next up we have Diggster Kevin Rose, with a multitude of maybes:

• Apple Event on September 9th? "Very doubtful"
• Firmware 2.1 debuting on sleeker iPod Touch? "Most likely"
• iTunes 8 with music recommendations? "Cannot predict now"
• New, candy-bar Nano with rounded widescreen? "It is certain"
• Massive iPod price drops across the line? "Don't count on it"
• Mac OS X with Blu-Ray? "Ask again later"

Lastly, iDealsChina is rumormongering GPS for the iPod Touch? "Cannot predict now"

Who's right? What's left?

When a story breaks -- if it breaks -- we'll come back and compare results. And we're betting on a pretty even race, you?

(Special thanks to K. Michaels for the inspiration).