Apple prepping updated MacBook Pros?

Although it's only been a couple weeks since Macworld, the Apple rumor machine is still going strong -- this time with news of updated MacBook Pros. Apparently a utility called MiniBatteryLogger that provides public tracking stats recently got a record from a machine identifying itself as a "MacBookPro4,1" -- current machines being "MacBookPro3,1." That jives with entries for the same machine in dev builds of 10.5.2, and apparently the machine posted from an Apple IP address -- which means, thrillingly, that Apple has updated MacBook Pros somewhere in development. We would have never guessed. Still, let's hope we see them sooner rather than later -- we might be ambivalent towards the MacBook Air, but we're definitely interested in scoring a multi-touch trackpad.

[jason @ Jan 31st 2008 3:02PM]

does anyone really care? They should focus on the getting the iphone2 out with 3G and 16GB before thier stock drops below $100

[Ashwin Narasimhan @ Jan 31st 2008 3:09PM]

Apple's not going to $100 without a 2-1 split at $200.

[jason @ Jan 31st 2008 3:20PM]

As you know its down 60 points in the last couple months and a update to the macbook pro isn't going to make the stock rise any unless they figure out a way to make them afforadble!

[Marcin @ Jan 31st 2008 3:05PM]

thrilling?

really Engadget? its thrilling to spend 2500 to 3000 on hardware updates every six months?

[Hax Or @ Jan 31st 2008 3:05PM]

this blog post is a whole lot of nothin.

[Matthew @ Jan 31st 2008 3:09PM]

Faster processors are nice but the multitouch addition is kinda a snore. We want real touch Apple. How far away it the MacBook Touch dammit!

[Barry @ Jan 31st 2008 3:14PM]

Uh, I'll pass on touchscreen laptops. It makes me vomit with rage when people try to touch my screen. Multitouch touchpads are just fine, thanks.

[pito189 @ Jan 31st 2008 3:28PM]

"Vomit with Rage" that made me laugh out loud and show people in my office who also enjoyed it.

[Urnamma @ Feb 1st 2008 1:35AM]

This is actually Apple news that I want to hear, though I'll have to kill OSX asap if I get a new one. Ubuntu foreva.

[Evan @ Jan 31st 2008 3:12PM]

Hurry up Apple! I'm ready to buy a new computer (my current one is over 2 years old) and I would love a 17" MacBook with LED backlight, but your constant failure to deliver the anticipated updates is driving me nuts! There's only so long you can keep people like me on a thread before we give up and go with a non-Apple PC!

[Chris @ Jan 31st 2008 3:14PM]

The're coming within two months. I have a friend who interns at Apple and he told me yesterday.

[kjb434 @ Jan 31st 2008 3:35PM]

And steve has drawn and quartered him from releasing this top secrete information?

He'll probably disappear soon.

[cypressmac @ Jan 31st 2008 4:11PM]

Aha, because he is Jobs' right-hand man right? I call absolute bs...

[jason @ Jan 31st 2008 3:23PM]

who wants to spend $3000 on a mac labtop when u can get a decent windows version for $500!

[MikeLong @ Jan 31st 2008 3:25PM]

OSX

[Nathan Kwarta @ Jan 31st 2008 3:27PM]

you get what you pay for.

[SallyHats @ Jan 31st 2008 3:29PM]

a 500 windows laptop does not comapare to a 3k apple laptop in any consideration...

[celya @ Jan 31st 2008 3:32PM]

All I can say to this comment is eugh, what are you thinking? comparing a mac laptop with a cheap windows laptop?

Thanks but no thanks, I rather pay more for less headaches. Plus you don't have to pay $3000 you can get a decent one in the lower thousands.

[Andy S. @ Jan 31st 2008 3:35PM]

"jibes." Not "jives."

[James @ Jan 31st 2008 3:36PM]

Who needs a beautiful, intelligent girl! I can go to Tijuana and get taken care of for $5! Or if I build myself a girl from parts on NewEgg it's even cheaper!

[CBAM @ Jan 31st 2008 3:51PM]

Decent PC for $500 vs a new MB Pro? No thanks! That is like comparing my daughter's Fisher Price 1.3 MP camera to a Sony 10MP camera.

C'mon now lets be realistic when you compare what is decent. You get what you pay for.

[Dax @ Jan 31st 2008 3:43PM]

Considering the aluminum design in 5+ years old, they best do more than just bump the specs.

[Cowicide @ Jan 31st 2008 3:47PM]

Color me excited once Apple (finally) releases some MacBook Pros that have the LARGEST SCREENS (and highest resolution) in the world. You know, something "pros" would want in a MacBook? Thin isn't "in" for power users on the go... I want a PHAT MAC that hauls ass and carries a wide load in the screen dept.. It's embarrassing if you go to a store and see all those PC laptops with screens that dwarf even the largest screens on the MacBooks.

If Apple doesn't move on this pretty soon, I'm tempted to get one of those PC laptops with the giant screens and put a hacked copy of OS X on it and if that doesn't work well, maybe even switching to Ubuntu depending how that OS develops in the near future. Apple will first lose a hardware customer and then maybe even a software OS customer. They'd better get on it like yesterday.... or I'm gone and if Ubuntu keeps getting better, I will NOT be alone. B-I-G-G-E-R SCREENS, APPLE. And, of course... they desperately need to go further with customizable GESTURES built into the OS. They should purchase xGestures and go from there.

You children will use gestures... your children's children will use gestures... why aren't you? You can NOW with xGestures, fools.

The Cow hasth spokeneth.

[BK @ Jan 31st 2008 4:55PM]

"Pros" would get a 17" @ 1900x1200

[Fernando @ Jan 31st 2008 4:00PM]

Now please apple, don't cut any obvious feature, you seem to be doing this a lot lately.

[mushy @ Jan 31st 2008 4:03PM]

I wonder if we'll have to hear about it being the fastest MBP ever!!

[Curtis @ Jan 31st 2008 4:22PM]

My guess is there will be a whole story just about how it's faster then the old ones. Then the following hours after that will feature stories about how it's faster then the macbook, the ibook g4 and g3, the iPhone, the iMac, a microwave, a blender, and who knows what else.

[Fnet @ Jan 31st 2008 4:02PM]

Engadget, Shame on you , are you still getting more juice out of licking Apple and Steve Jobs ASS?? Please report things that make atleast a bit of sense.

[Brian Foley @ Jan 31st 2008 4:32PM]

Touchpad would be a nice addition. What I really want is a Penryn chip. More processing power with less power draw, gotta love that!

I'm still split between 15" and 17" though. I'd like the extra screen real estate, but then I'm not sure I want to lug that big of a machine around. Not to mention I'd need a new bag to carry it in...

[Ayle @ Jan 31st 2008 4:54PM]

The page layout is screwed... what the hell is happening?

[ReggieXuk @ Jan 31st 2008 5:51PM]

whats wrong with this posts comments section?

[huh @ Jan 31st 2008 7:41PM]

There is definitely validity to people preferring an $800 notebook to a $1200 one. And the $800 notebooks are fine. Most people browse the web, use some officey apps, maybe play some games. The considerably cheaper computer will do these things just as well, if not better. But there is, definitely, a problem with Windows, specifically complexity and virii. Vista seems to try to solve problems by going down a more convoluted road, rather than simplifying things (Those who do not understand UNIX are doomed to re-invent it, poorly.)

I think Apple is missing the boat with the Air, but possibly they're biding their time. From the people I run into, who are by no means computer elites, the brand is gaining a lot of credibility. Who knows, maybe in subcultures I'm not aware of Dell, Toshiba or whomever are larger "talked about" brand names for their special features, but it definitely seems possible for Apple to become a dominant mainstream player.

But I think it'll be a few years, when a computer becomes more generic, and it could just as easily be be a "smart phone," "game console," "laptop," "notebook," "desktop" etc that could be from a much larger group of players.

[David Takahashi @ Jan 31st 2008 10:06PM]

rofl.
that comment by Curtis was hilarious.

[Chris Adams @ Jan 31st 2008 10:15PM]

Big thing people forget is Apple's hold their value. You can get ~50% of your investment back after 3 years of ownership with most any Apple product on eBay. It does not work that way with a Dell. Plus the organic relationship between the OS and the hardware is simply not matched with any other computer/electronics vendor. Let the crapware fanboy laud his $500 laptop right into the trash can....

[Haxornick89 @ Jan 31st 2008 11:47PM]

there is no such thing as a good windows machine... they all suck

[Evan @ Feb 1st 2008 12:34AM]

If the current MacBook Pro's have the capability for multi-touch (scrolling, clicking, etc.), could Apple not enable more multi-touch gestures through a software update?

[Kelmon @ Feb 1st 2008 5:48AM]

I won't be in the market for a new Mac for a few more years but I will say that the MacBook Pro is the finest laptop that money can buy (I have a 17" C2D version). No, they aren't the fastest but they are perfect mobile laptops with the power to do pretty much most things. There is absolutely no way I would go back to a Windows-based laptop after this one. I use my laptop for everything for at least 8-hours each day so price is not an important factor.

[huh @ Feb 1st 2008 10:18AM]

@Chris Adams: if you spend $1400 on a mac and can sell it for $700 three years later (which I think is an exaggeration) or spend $900 on a PC and sell it for $350 three years later, you've still spent more on the Mac. I definitely agree on the "organic" point, but it really doesn't matter that much to the average person.

@Kelmon: you think the 17" MBP is portable? Hahahaha.

I had a 15" MBP, it pretty much melted before my eyes. Fan made a lot of noise, paint came off, latch didn't work well. More of a jewelry box than a computer.

Ubuntu, with the upcoming tickless kernel and pluggable displays (finally!) should be a real contender this spring.

[Hanii Puppy @ Feb 10th 2008 11:20PM]

•

The fan is whisper quiet, the latch works perfectly, and the macbook pro doesn't have any paint, so how can it

[Smithers @ Feb 1st 2008 10:56AM]

I must say that macs do hold their value over PC's. I just sold a dual g4 in November 07 for $600 and that machine was 5 years old maybe. A good powerbook will run you a couple hundred still and those are G4's. I don't think there's ANY 5 year old PC you can get a few hundred dollars for regardless of manufacturer or the original retail price. But then again,

You get what you pay for

[chaitanya @ Feb 7th 2008 1:29PM]

Does any one suppose that the MBP upgrade announcement will coincide with the iphone sdk release date?

[Hanii Puppy @ Feb 10th 2008 11:33PM]

• Although, if you spend the $400 for a full version of windows, the $≈600 on antivirus software and subscriptions, and around $500 in repairs, then you have a PC you've paid $2,400 for over the course of sell for $350, while the mac will still retain it's value without you having to spend money on making it retain it's value.

• it depends on what you're used to. if you have a backpack designed for a 17inch laptop, then it's perfectly portable, but if it's designed for a 15inch, then you run into trouble.

• The fan on the macbook pro is whisper-quiet, the latch normally works perfectly (despite apple's claims that it catches on your clothes easily), and the macbook pro has no paint on it, so how can it come off?

• Any free operating system has unlimited value for money as it doesn't cost you anything, but the main problem with ubuntu, or any form of linux, is that the developers aren't organised enough and rely heavily on the work of other people (ie shipping it with FireFox and aMSN) for make their platform worthwhile, but never really knowing where they're actually going with their projects. to quote someone (who i can't remember), i'm more scared of an army of sheep led by a lion than i am of an army of lions led by a sheep.

[Chris @ Feb 18th 2008 11:13AM]

Regarding Apple machines retaining their resale value, this is absolutely true. I sold my Sawtooth G4 tower (450Mhz) a couple of years back when it was nearly 5 years old for $350. I just sold my MBP 1.83Ghz (CD) for $1200, and that was two years old.