Nvidia GT 650M GPU & 2.7GHz Ivy Bridge CPU in New MacBook Pro

The big question surrounding the next refresh of the MacBook Pro laptops is whether Apple has opted for a significant redesign or just upgraded the internal spec. There’s increasing evidence to suggest the latter.

A leaked spec sheet last week suggested there is no redesign. Apple is planning to keep the MacBook Pro pretty much the same except for an update to an Ivy Bridge range of processors. Now we have more evidence to suggest that this is the case, but also that Apple has opted to use a Nvidia GeForce GT 650M GPU.

Leaked images have appeared that claim to be shots of the revised 15-inch MacBook Pro components. There’s two things to note in the shots. The first is the use of the new Nvidia GPU, but also that the layout of the board is very similar to the existing MacBook Pro. If the shots are real, it confirms Apple isn’t messing with the overall design of the laptop too much.

What Apple will offer is a new range of MacBook Pros with some serious performance on offer. Intel Ivy Bridge processors including 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz, and custom 2.7GHz parts will be coupled with a GeForce GT 650M GPU using 1GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory.

These Pros certainly won’t struggle running anything the Mac App Store or Steam has to offer. All we need now is confirmation from Apple, which could happen as early as today if they intend to use WWDC to make the refresh announcement.

Source: Geek

Tags: Apple, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Laptop, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Notebook, Nvdia

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8 Core Xeon E5 Processor in New Mac Pro

A recent rumor came up, suggesting that Apple will announce a new Mac Pro at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The machine is said to feature Intel Xeon E5 series processors with six or eight cores, as well as Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

Refreshing the Mac Pro Lineup

Prior to this, a list of purported Apple part numbers has emerged, a couple of day before the 2012 WWDC kicks off. The list suggests that Apple will refresh majority of its Mac products, including the Mac Pro. In fact, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple made a remark that the Cupertino-based company will release a new and that they are less likely to phase the product out.

The news came out after professional video editor Lou Borella created a Facebook petition group called We Want a New Mac Pro. The group’s goal is for the company to give an indication whether people should wait for a new desktop tower or come up with another plan.

Inside the New Mac Pro

In addition to the mentioned specs, the desktop tower will boast 1600 MHz memory with 8 channels—a far improvement from the 1333 MHz memory that it available on previous Mac Pro generation. The memory enhancement can be attributed to the USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt support.

Carrying a moniker of K5B, the machine will also have SATA III/SAS 6 GB-per-second drive connectivity, and native PCI-Express 3 support for video cards. The SATA III/SAS is deemed as a major boost for the solid-state drive’s speed. On the other hand, the PCI-Express 3 support with 40 lanes per socket will have enhanced RAID arrays and video cards.

There were also claims that the machine’s onboard memory controller has been moved to the CPU itself, which could improve its performance big time.

No Ivy Bridge Processor on Mac Pro this Time

What’s missing in the new Mac Pro is the Intel Ivy Bridge processor. It was reported that Apple will upgrade its MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and Mac mini to the manufacturer’s latest chip this year. However, the desktop tower is unlikely to have the Ivy Bridge, probably because it can’t handle voltage the same way its 32 nm Sandy Bridge kin can.

Other than the Mac Pro, Apple is also expected to update its 15-inch MacBook Pro, 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air, and 21.5 and 27-inch iMac next week. Meanwhile, the rest of the MacBook Pro lineup, as well as the Mac mini, will get a refresh later this year.

Source: Amog

Tags: Xeon, Processor, Mac Pro, IMac, Desktop PC, Apple, Xeon E5, Intel

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Ivy Bridge MacBooks, iMacs may soon reach consumers in june

The new 2012 Ivy Bridge Macs might be coming soon to a store near you, according to a couple of recent hints. Details revealed yesterday by benchmarking site Geekbench point to a MacBookPro9,1. Powered by Intel's Ivy Bridge chip Core i7-3820QM quad-core running at 2.7Ghz, the name and number would seem to indicate the successor to Apple's current 13-inch pro laptop.

However, MacRumors believes that since the i7-3820QM processor runs at 45 watts, it's more likely to surface in the beefier 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro units. Another Geekbench benchmark page appears to tip off an upcoming new iMac. With the name and number iMac13,2, the new model would appear to indicate a 27-inch iMac. Powering the new iMac is Intel's Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770 quad-core chip clocking in at 3.4Ghz.

How do we know this information is legit? These types of benchmarks have appeared in Geekbench's database in the past before the new machines actually hit the market. MacRumors considers it feasible that the results are for actual Macs slated to launch sometime soon. Geekbench has been on the money with such predictions in the past, says CultofMac, which noted that the benchmark site revealed specs on the 2010 MacBook Pro two months before its debut.

Price drops from Best Buy may be another sign that new Macs are on the way. The retailer has trimmed prices on the entire Mac lineup, including MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, iMacs, Mac Pros, and Mac Minis. The price cuts range anywhere from just $30 for a Mac Mini to $200 for a Mac Pro. But any efforts to trim prices across the board is usually a sign that retailers are trying to clear out current inventory in anticipation of new products in the pipeline.

Still more writing on the Mac wall comes courtesy of 9to5Mac. Referring to "trusted sources in Apple's supply chain," the site says that Apple is prepping a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with an ultra-thin design, high-resolution Retina Display, and USB 3.0 ports. Recent reports floated the idea of a Mac hybrid, a model that would combine the power of the MacBook Pro and the light and thin design of the MacBook Air

But 9to5Mac's sources discount those reports, claiming instead that the new 15-incher would stick with the current design of the MacBook Pro and add the ultra-thin body. But it's the Retina Display that seems to be hogging the spotlight on the rumored new Mac.

Taking a page from the new iPad, the display on the new Mac was described by the sources as "jaw-dropping" and "definitely the most important Mac innovation in years." No launch date has been revealed or confirmed for the new Mac models. But some sources expect the latest lineup to debut around June.

Source: Cnet

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Intel Ivy Bridge iMac and MacBook Pro revealed in benchmarks

As we edge ever closer to June, more and more signs keep cropping up that Apple is poised to refresh its line of iMacs and Macbook Pros with Intel’s new Ivy Bridge chips. The latest tip comes from benchmarks posted to GeekBench with new iMac and Macbook Pro models featuring the new platform, providing detailed scores compared to old models, plus an idea of what processors we can expect to see.

The first entry on GeekBench is for the iMac13,2, which Cult of Mac believes corresponds to a 27-inch model featuring a quad-core Intel i7-3770 clocked at 3.4Ghz. The new iMac received a score of 12,182, coming in slightly higher than current Sandy Bridge models which score around 11,500. GeekBench also holds benchmarks for a new 13-inch MacBook Pro running an internal version of Mountain Lion and an Intel i7-3820QM running at 2.7Ghz. Benchmarks of Ivy Bridge chips have showed a 10-15% increase over Sandy Bridge chips, although Intel’s integrated graphics have also seen a big boost.

The HD 4000 shows a 20 to 100% improvement over the HD 3000 found in the Macbook Air and Macbook Pros depending on the scenario. Rumors have indicated that the upcoming 15-inch MacBook Pro would receive an Air-esque variant, dropping the optical drive and slimming down the chassis. High resolution icons found in Lion and Mountain Lion have also pointed towards high-resolution displays for the Macbook Pros. Stock levels for the current 15-inch MacBook Pro are also low, a tell-tale sign that a refresh is on the horizon. Source: Slashgear

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Apple Readies OS X for Retina Display MacBooks

Apple has been preparing its operating systems for high resolution Macs, adding evidence to the rumor that the next generation line-up of MacBooks will have Retina displays.

The OS X 10.7.4 update recently released by Apple was hiding some changes that may seem minor at first glance, but could indicate that Apple is about to launch something major.

Apple Insider reports that Apple's built-in TextEdit application's icon's highest quality version has been increased to 1024-by-1024 pixels, double that of the previous 512-by-512 pixels in the icon before the update. The increase in pixels readies the icon for a Retina display.

The file size of the icon also grew from 209 kilobytes in OS X 10.7.3 to 1.7 megabytes in 10.7.4, reveals the report.

This could this mean that Apple's new MacBook line-up, which is expected to arrive within weeks, will feature Retina displays like the one found on the new iPad, which has 3.1 million pixels, a million more than a HDTV.

Apple describes a Retina display as having pixels that are "so close together, your eyes can't discern individual ones at a normal viewing distance."

When Apple launched the beta of OS X 10.7 Lion, the App Store icon and the Launchpad icon were increased to 1024-by-1024 pixels, and in February, some cursers were improved to a higher resolution.

In April, Intel revealed that its new Ivy Bridge processers have been built for Retina display, which also indicates that Apple will launch Retina display MacBooks, as the company is expected to be the first to use the new chips in its products. The Ivy Bridge processor could power 2560-by-1600 displays, which is an impressive four times the amount of pixels currently found in the 13-inch MacBook Pro's display.

When testing OS X Mountain Lion, which is predicted to launch in June at Apple's WWDC in San Francisco, developers have also found double-resolution icons.

Source: Pcworld

Tags: Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro, MacBook Air

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Apple MacBook Pro 2012 to come with a large battery and SSD drive

The rumor that Apple may cut down the size of MacBook Pro 2012 to the size of MacBook Air seems a wishful thinking. Apple is not going to do it. Apple evidently works to add a more gigantic battery, an SSD boot drive and HD drive to the new MacBook Pro so as to increase its usability. There was a talk that the gap between MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will be blurred with the new version of MacBook Pro. The case seems to be different and Apple is working to launch the Pros with the same size and features of its predecessor.

Apple doesn’t fit in disk inside its flagship notebook, the MacBook Airs. The recent report says that MacBook Pro will certainly have an HD drive along a SSD boot drive. That means the device may not become smaller in size and weight. The laptop will not sport a DVD drive, certainly. “What do you think of such a possibility? With all that extra battery, the MacBook Pro could potentially have a much more densely-packed set of pixels in its display or could of course allow for days of battery time without worry,” asks SlashGear’s Chris Burns.

MacBook Pro 2012 and other rumors
The new version of MacBook Pro is expected to come out of cover in a couple of months. The tech world is keenly waiting for the newest version of Apple’s laptop computer. Here we make a look into the major features that are expected to enrich the MacBook Pro upgrade apart from the SSD drive thing.

To discontinue 17-Inch MacBook Pro: It is a prominent MacBook Pro rumor of the day. Some rumors have gone on to state that Apple may cut off the large 17-inch version of MacBook Pro with the 2012 upgrade. Research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has broken up the rumor that Apple would drop the 17-inch MacBook Pro from its lineup due to feeble sales. Indeed, Ming-Chi Kuo is an analyst known for making many accurate Apple rumors. “Apple is likely to stop making the 17”-inch MacBook Pro this year due to falling shipments, in order to maintain a lean product line strategy,” the analyst says.

To mount Ivy Bridge: It is indeed a sensible rumor. Intel has so far launched its third generation Ivy Bridge processors. The successor to the current Sandy Bridge processors will certainly appear in the device. Possibly, MacBook Pro may be the first device to get the Ivy Bridge processors.

To run on Mountain Lion: The upcoming version of OS X, the 10.8 Mountain Lion may likely run on the new MacBook Pro. The Mountain Lion is known for its integration of more iOS features with Mac OS and Apple TV’s interaction function and much more. “Apple’s Mac business in 2Q12 will be boosted by several factors. Three of which are: (1) Mountain Lion, which integrates iOS features with Mac OS, Apple TV’s interaction function, will be launched in June; (2) upgrading to Ivy Bridge; and (3) back-to-school demand,” Ming-Chi Kuo in his MacBook Pro rumors.

Thinner and smaller: A report says that the redesigned models of MacBook Pros will include 13-inch and 15-inch models. Also, the machine will be far slighter and thinner. Apple has been evidently working to make its MacBook Pros smaller and more user friendly product. The upgraded 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros in April and it may get initial shipments estimated to hit 900,000 units.

Estimated sales: According to Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will sell out 5.32 million units of the MacBook Pros series in 2012. The company can ship more models of the laptops with its more advanced features.

Conclusion
Let us wait for the new MacBook Pro at the upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference. Many Apple fans and analysts now think that Apple may release the laptop at its developer conference. Since the new Mountain Lion is not ready for release, Apple may have to delay the release date of its MacBook Pro.

Sourec: Novnews

Tags: Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro, Ivy Bridge

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MacBook Pro 2012 amps up with SSD and battery

While the common rumor thus far for the new MacBook Pro 2012 models has been that they’ll cut down the size to MacBook Air levels, a new tip today says that’s simply not the case. What we’ve got here instead is a new case with no optical drive and the space that was used up by the optical drive being used for a much more gigantic battery and an SSD boot drive to take down costs for the unit substantially – that SSD being just for the OS. This notion was accompanied by the illustration you see below.

What you’re seeing here is an illustration, not an actual real set of images of the casing of the MacBook Pro 2012. The top image is indeed real, the bottom is an illustration of what would happen if Apple went the way we’re speaking about here. It’s not unlikely that this will be the way of the truth in the very near future – Apple has presented a non-disk future in its MacBook Air models for several generations now, and with the Mac App Store live and in action for software, we’ll see the MacBook Pro 2012 models hitting stores with no room for a DVD without a doubt.

What do you think of such a possibility? With all that extra battery, the MacBook Pro could potentially have a much more densely-packed set of pixels in its display or could of course allow for days of battery time without worry. With 30% more battery capacity, there’s no knowing what you could do with the power. The SSD Boot Drive is just as likely – why not do such a thing with that space? Expect both of these additions this summer.

Source : Slashgear

Tags: Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro, Laptop

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MacBook Pro 2012 rumors suggest WWDC 2012 launch a done thing

Apple’s MacBook Pro 2012 rumors suggest that its launch during the forthcoming WWDC 2012 launch is a done thing now

World Wide Developers Conference is set to be held early June. Apple was able to sell the event in merely two hours. At a time when many tech giants struggle to sell their events the demand for Apple events seems to be going up and up.

There are rumors indicating that Apple is going to introduce several products during the WWDC 2012. Some reports have suggested that Apple may introduce its much awaited iPhone 5 during the event in June. Other reports indicate that Apple will introduce its forthcoming MacBook Pro 2012 during the high profile event. Besides, Apple OS X Mountain Lion will certainly see the light of the day during the event.

Meanwhile there are numerous reports about the forthcoming products launch during World Wide Developers Conference 2012. These reports suggest significant improvement in Macbook Pro 2012 version. A report in DigiTimes says that that Apple may be readying an ultra high-resolution MacBook Pro for as early as second quarter (Q2) 2012. Apple is likely to launch its new MacBook Pro lineup with a display resolution of 2880 by 1800, setting a new round of competition for panel specifications in the notebook industry, according to sources in the upstream supply chain. So the reports almost confirm that Apple MacBook Pro 2012 will come with retina display that will make it all the more enticing for its fans.

Digitmes report needs to be accepted as it has to its credit several rumors that have been proved true in the past. Meanwhile another report suggests that the MacBook Pro that will come with retina display will be a 15″ model which currently carries a native resolution of 1440×900 pixels. By doubling the resolution in each dimension, Apple would achieve four times the number of pixels and provide developers an easy way to scale existing artwork. For Apple fans this must be a great news and would indicate better sale prospects for the company in the days to come

MacBook Pro was expected to be introduced in the market in late 2011, but the wait continues even now and may end only in June. But the delay was caused due to the delay in arrival of Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform. Meanwhile there is another report that suggests that Apple may unify Macbook Pro and MacBook Air. A report says, “…shift will likely see a unification of Apple’s notebook lines under the MacBook Air design aesthetic, covering the full range of 11-inch to 17-inch sizes”. But to be true, there is no basis to really believe this news as of now.

Tags: Ivy Bridge, Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro

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New MacBook Pro to be built with Liquidmetal: Pro and Air to be combined

There are several interesting reports that suggest that the new MacBook Pro 2012 will be built with Liquidmetal. Reports also suggest that Macbook Pro and MacBook Air may be combined

MacBook Pro 2012 seems to be very close. Its release date hasn’t been made clear by Cupertino based technology major Apple, nonetheless there is every reason to believe that its launch is not very far off.

There are rumors that suggest that Apple is planning to combine MacBook Air with the increased power of MacBook Pro. This will bring out a revolutionary product that will be portable, but will come with increased power.

Now there are several other interesting rumors that when combined, bring out the whole truth. A report while detailing the new material with which the forthcoming MacBooks will probably be manufactured with says that lightweight Liquidmetal is more solid, though it is lighter and scratch-resistant than the existing aluminum unibody.

Meanwhile a report while detailing as to what Liquidmetal is says, “Liquidmetal’s revolutionary class of patented alloys form the basis of high performance materials utilized in a broad range of military, medical, luxury, consumer, industrial, and sporting goods products. By working with Liquidmetal, the design of your product will be of the most innovative design and possess superior performance. Our amorphous metal alloys will enhance your product design while redefining the strength paradigm simultaneously”.

The Cupertino based tech giant Apple is reported to have an exclusive agreement with Liquidmetal Technologies to use the material since 2010. But so far its usage has remained negligible and the only thing Apple has produced with this material is a SIM ejection tool. As per rumors, the rear panel of the upcoming iPhone 5 is to be solidified with the Liquidmetal. In the meantime another report in a leading Apple blog suggests that the forthcoming MacBook Pro will come loaded with Intel’s third generation Ivy Bridge chips and USB 3.0 ports. The first thing is almost predictable and it is expected that MacBook Pro will be the first device to hit stores with the Ivy Bridge microprocessor, which Intel has officially announced a few days back. But we need to wait a bit more to allow things to become clearer regarding speculations about Lequidmetal.

Tags: Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro

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Intel releases Ivy Bridge: New Mac models coming soon?

Intel on Monday unveiled the Ivy Bridge processor family, the third generation in the company’s line of Core processors.

The set of quad-core processors released Monday are made for desktops, all-in-ones, and high-end laptops. Intel has eight Core i7 processor models: two for the desktop, two designated as Desktop Low-Power, and four mobile models. Intel also has five Core i5 processor models: three for the desktop, and two designated as Desktop Low-Power. Intel also has a new Core i7 Extreme Edition processor, which is a mobile processor.

The Ivy Bridge processors are the first processors that are created using Intel’s 22 nanometer (nm) process technology, which means that the processors are smaller than the previous 32 nm processors, called Sandy Bridge. The smaller design will contribute to a speed improvement, but it may not be a dramatic one.

According to Intel, the dramatic improvement, as a result of the 22 nm process, will be with power consumption. Ivy Bridge is much more efficient than Sandy Bridge; at the Intel Developers Forum last September, Intel said that Ivy Bridge supports DDR3L, the low voltage (1.35v) DDR3 standard, as well as configurable TDP (thermal design power), DDR I/O power gating, and power-aware interrupt pairing.

Another major change is with the built-in graphics-processing unit (GPU). Previous Core processors had built-in GPUs, so the fact that Ivy Bridge has a GPU isn’t new. But the built-in GPU isn’t usually considered a GPU that’s ideal for games or graphically demanding work. Macworld Lab’s experience is that the Sandy Bridge GPU (the Intel Graphics 3000) is enough to meet the minimum requirements of some games and graphics apps, and not enough for the most demanding of software.

Intel in its Ivy Bridge press release says that the Ivy Bridge built-in GPU, the Intel Graphics 4000, is capable of “two times better 3-D graphics performance” than the Graphics 3000.

New Macs coming soon?

The release of Ivy Bridge brings hope to Mac users yearning for Mac hardware news. The ideal candidate for the Ivy Bridge processor is the iMac; the current iMac model was released last May—almost a year ago. Because of the iMac’s all-in-one design, we could see new iMacs with Ivy Bridge’s Desktop Low Power processors. It’s possible that the Core i7 Extreme Edition processor could be featured as a build-to-order (BTO) option for the top-of-the-line 27-inch iMac.

It’ll be interesting to see what Apple decides to do with the graphics processor in the iMac. The current iMac uses discrete GPUs, but older iMac models have used integrated graphics in the most-affordable 21.5-inch models—for example, the $1199 21.5-inch 2009 iMac had an integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU. If Apple decided to rely on the Ivy Bridge’s Intel Graphics 4000 for some iMac models, it’s an indication that the company feels that it can provide at least the minimum performance needed for some games and graphics apps.

The Mac mini, which was updated last July, will probably see an upgrade after the release of an Ivy Bridge iMac.

What about new laptops? If the MacBook Pro is considered a high-end laptop, then it’s easy to conclude that the mobile versions of the Ivy Bridge processors released Monday could make their way into the new MacBook Pro. However, rumors of a 15-inch MacBook Air and a revamp of Apple’s laptop lineup persist. If Apple does have plans for such a laptop, it may not use any of the just-released Ivy Bridge processors. Intel plans to release the Ivy Bridge processors for ultrabooks “later this year,” according to Intel’s Ivy Bridge press release, through some reports say as early as June. The ultraportable model of the Ivy Bridge processor seem like the kind that would be used by the MacBook Air.

And finally, there’s the poor, neglected Mac Pro. In recent history, the Mac Pro has used Xeon processors, and Intel released new Xeon processors in March. But there are no signs from Apple that new Mac Pros are imminent, even though there seems to be user demand. Macworld Lab found that a 27-inch 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac with an SSD is faster than a BTO 3.33GHz Xeon Westmere six-core Mac Pro, and if a new Ivy Bridge iMac is released before a new Mac Pro, the performance gap between the iMac and the Mac Pro will only widen. Perhaps that’s Apple's plan all along.

Source: Macworld

Tags: Apple, MacBook, Mac Pro, Ivy Bridge

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