Macbook ultraportable and Penryn Mac Pro due for Macworld, 3G iPhone in June?

We've taken a "don't stop believing" approach to Apple ultraportable rumors up to this point, and there's no reason to think these "fresh" predictions from CNBC's Jim Goldman are anything different, but they at least serve as a nice refresher in the lead up to Macworld in January. Goldman predicts the new Pro laptop will be half the thickness of the MacBook Pro, the hard disk will be replaced with NAND storage, and Apple will be selling the thing for $1,500 -- the same price the black MacBook currently goes for. He's purportedly citing sources that claim to have seen the product, and says that the laptop is supposedly due to show up at Macworld. Jim's sources also say that the 3G iPhone is supposed to hit shelves by late May or early June of next year, which beats out some industry predictions of a late '08 release.

Of course, since it's just a month before Macworld, it's about time the rumor mill heated up a little beyond incessant Macbook and iPhone rumorings, and MacBidouille is stepping up to stoke the flames. The French rag is claiming that the Mac Pro will get bumped to an 3.2GHz eight-core Penryn setup (totally believable) featuring NVIDIA QuadroFX graphics (sure) with a BTO Blu-ray burner available (maybe), and that DVD Studio Pro will be renamed Disk Studio Pro and refocused on BD authoring (another definite maybe). On top of that, MacBidouille also claims that OS X 10.5.2 will be released, and that it will be "the largest and most important intermediate system update ever released by Apple." We're a little less sure we buy that, but as always, only time and Steve will tell.

[Thanks, L2 and Mark]

Read - Jim Goldman predictions
Read - MacBidouille predictions

[gregrb07yahoocom Posted Dec 6th 2007 11:33PM]

Im in china, and you do have a point. The Chiense market is the same. Also in Asia "Face" (pride, wanting to appear good in front of others) is a big thing. Perhaps thats a factor in selling people what they dont need so they look cool.

I will eat my words though if the new device is a tablet with touch screen only... that would be something! For that price, it would actually be good value for money, and do wonders in Asia.

Fingers crossed! :)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 6th 2007 11:50PM]

"I need somethign cheap and light for websurfing and word."

They did release an extra-ultra portable... which surfs the web and stuff... it has a touchscreen keyboard... maybe you've heard of it?

[gregrb07yahoocom Posted Dec 7th 2007 12:08AM]

Can u edit word documents on a phone? The iphone is a well designed phone, but its way too small to do any serious wesurfing and it cant edit word documents, and if it did its still too small. Also the touch screen trypign suits some people, but I tried it and didt like it on such a small screen.

iphone is a phone.

[dinino345 Posted Dec 6th 2007 9:20PM]

its rather intresting having a read of this post, as the heat turns up and everybody begins to speculate, thats when you realized how smart apple really is with there 'no chatter' policy about upcoming products. 1 small leak...and apples has you right where they want you to be:D

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 7th 2007 2:28AM]

Apple is so last season, I used to be a die hard Apple fan but now they are bocoming more and more like any other electronics company.

Maybe they will come out with a real new revolutionary product - multitouchscreen pc anyone?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 7th 2007 5:32AM]

Yeah, I mean, they're *so* early 21st Century. No one pays attention to what they're doing anymore...

Honestly, love 'em or hate 'em, if you can name any single company that has as much impact on design in their market, I'd love to hear about them.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 14th 2007 7:28AM]

I would seriously Kill for the ultra portable... watch out, i want one!