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The stars have been further aligning up lately on the new MacBook Pros. If you are thinking about making an Apple laptop purchase hold out for a week or so. MacRumors thinks it will be within two weeks and some new battery specs have hit the interwebs. Also we've been hearing stories from retailers that new SKU's for MacBook Pros are hitting the streets (anyone care to elaborate?)...So our predictions are as follows:
- No big announcement and not released at Macworld so just minor upgrades, not major overhaul (bummer)
- Same basic design/form
- May be packaged with 10.5.2
- Keyboard like MacBook Air
- Most likely bigger multi-touch trackpad that looks much like the MacBook Air's - same functionality
- 45nm Penryn chips will be marginally faster and save 10%ish on battery usage, upgraded graphics cards as well
- Same price points, 3 models - two 15's and a 17 (now LED screened)
- Hopefully, but sadly doubtful 3G or WiMAX (We know we keep saying it but hopefully Apple will listen)
- Possibility being thinner package and of SSD option or hybrid config
Despite persistent rumors of MacBook Pro updates, we've yet to see the rumored Penryn, Multi-touch trackpad MacBook Pro revisions. However, there appears to be ongoing evidence that the MacBook Pro updates are imminent.The current MacBook Pros which were released in June carry a system identifier label of "MacBookPro3,1". One reader notes that an application called MiniBatteryLogger provides public battery tracking logs, and recently revealed an entry with an identifier of "MacBookPro4,1". "MacBookPro4,1" is presumably the identifier for the unreleased MacBook Pro revisions. The author of the application states that the identifier is obtained automatically from the system, though there are no guarantees that it wasn't faked.
However, this same new "MacBookPro4,1" identifier has also been found in the latest developer seeds of Mac OS X 10.5.2 from Apple. In contrast, the public version of Mac OS X 10.5.1 does not contain the "4,1" identifier.
In many ways, all this does is verify what we have presumed to be true... that MacBook Pro revisions are coming, and soon enough that the Mac OS X 10.5.2 will support them, but it's still somewhat reassuring for those waiting patiently for the new MacBook Pros.
Update: We've received confirmation that the battery log information came from an Apple IP address, so it is believed to be authentic.
A bit on the personal note: I really would like to see the backlit black keyboard demonstrated on the Air in the MBP. A SSD option might be sweet too.
