As I write this, I’m working on a Mac Pro that I bought several years ago. At the time, the computer was state-of-the-art and capable of handling all kinds of tasks. For me, it was a perfect solution: it offered me the flexibility to run three monitors, had the power to handle some video editing, and was running OS X – an operating system, I believe, is superior to Windows.

But now years later, I’m lamenting my purchase of the Mac Pro. Although it’s still chugging along, it’s not working as well as it once did. And despite my best attempts to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of this supposedly high-end computer, it’s falling short on several fronts.

While all this has been going on, Apple has been launching new Macs at a torrid pace. Since my Mac Pro purchase, the company has launched two new Mac designs – the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display – and continued to update the iMac with outstanding design ideas. But it’s the Mac Pro that, save for a slight upgrade, has been ignored by Apple.

Now, I know that I’m not alone in wondering what is happening in Cupertino. Over the last few years, we’ve all been watching with baited breath as Apple hits the stage to unveil new Macs, hoping that a Mac Pro will be one of them. But each time, we’ve been disappointed. Apple’s customers have even e-mailed CEO Tim Cook to ask what in the world is going on. His response? Be patient.

Still, it’s hard for us to be patient. We’re watching our friends running Windows doing far more than we can with the Mac Pro. And it’s making us think twice about making the leap to a custom-built Windows desktop that, while not ideal, could actually deliver the enhanced power we need.

I’ve been holding off taking that plunge because I believe Apple has something up its sleeve for the Mac Pro. The trouble is, I just don’t know how much longer I can hang on. Yes, my Mac Pro is still doing its job, but it’s getting harder and harder to complete tasks. And I’m becoming more frustrated by the computer by the day.

So, I need to ask, Apple: where in the world is my new Mac Pro? If you’re not going to launch a new one, just put us out of our misery and tell us. If you are, make it quick; we’re losing faith that you’re actually going to launch a replacement. And the sooner we lose faith, the sooner you lose us to a Windows PC.

I never thought I’d say it, but it’s possible that I might just have to ditch my Mac Pro for a custom-built PC. Don’t make me do it, Apple. Don’t. Make. Me. Do. It.

The source is quoted as having specifically said “Mac Pro,” and so it is not currently know whether this means the refresh will be in the form of a tower or miniature tower or something else altogether. And while the plan is to announce the new Mac Pros this month, the source is reported as saying that the timeline could get bumped to next month or June.

As with all rumors of this nature, there’s no way to know whether or not it is true – Apple certainly won’t confirm it – and Mac Daily News says that it is not able to confirm the information either, only repeating what it was told by someone who has supplied them with correct information in the past. Because of this, we’re filing it away into the rumor folder for now, but will be keeping an eye out.

As we reported on January 31, Apple has stopped selling Mac Pros in Europe, with reasons being cited as “[Mac Pros] are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date.” Sales were discontinued on March 1, following low demand and a noted lack of big updates from Apple.

[via Mac Daily News]

While the Mac Pro has been slowly dying off the past couple of years, due to lack of demand and what seems like no interest from Apple to give the series a big update, the discontinuation of the Mac Pro in Europe actually has nothing to do with this lack of demand from users. This only affects Europe and a few other surrounding nations, so Mac Pro sales will continue in all other countries as usual.

The new product certification standards in Europe appear to have something to do with a few internal components in the Mac Pro systems, such as power supply parts and various wiring. It’s currently unclear exactly which aspects of the Mac Pro line don’t meet regulatory standards, but any new Mac Pro systems will not be shipping over to Europe after March 1.

Resellers in Europe will be able to continue selling existing Mac Pro systems that have already shipped over, even if the March 1 date has passed, but starting at that point, no new shipments will be going to Europe. Apple has announced that a redesigned Mac Pro will come sometime this year after the company barely updated the line in June 2012 with outdated processors and no big improvements.

[via MacRumors]

The iPad mini will undoubtedly be a fan favorite, as will the fourth-generation iPad. The new iMac is downright beautiful with a thinness that has yet to be matched. Even the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, which is admittedly expensive, should attract quite a few customers.

But the only part of the market that Apple didn’t touch at its event was the power segment. Apple had products for mobile customers and casual users. But what about those of us who need power and sophistication?

Apple has once again updated its Mac line without once mentioning the Mac Pro. That computer, which is used heavily in the corporate design world, hasn’t been updated in two years. And so far, it’s as if Apple doesn’t really care. In fact, the company has gone out of its way to ignore the computer while it attempts to wow us with its other products.

I’m starting to wonder if Apple hates the Mac Pro. For months now, we’ve been hearing whispers that a new version of the desktop was in the works, only to be disappointed when it goes missing at Apple’s many press events.

According to some reports earlier this year, Apple executives have promised an update. So far, however, there’s been no public explanation for why the computer has been ignored. I’m not saying that Apple has to update the Mac Pro today (though it would be nice), but I do believe that the company should at least provide an explanation.

Right now, there are countless Mac Pro users that are stuck with an obsolete computer, not knowing what they need to do. Should they ditch Apple’s product and go buy a high-end PC? Should they wait Apple out to see if it updates the Mac Pro at some point soon? Apple, for some reason, doesn’t want to provide them with an answer.

Not providing them with an answer is a big mistake. Eventually, designers will need more power, and if Apple doesn’t allay some fears soon, they’ll go elsewhere. And when they go elsewhere, they might never come back.

It’s odd to me that the Mac Mini, a product that was largely ignored by Apple for so long, has received more updates in the past couple of years than the Mac Pro. The Mac Mini is a cheap product that likely has a razor-thin margin. The Mac Pro could be a cash cow for Apple.

And yet, here I sit, writing this on a Mac Pro, wondering why Apple doesn’t see things the way I do. Yes, I know Apple is successful and it has made many smart moves, but this time around, I think it’s making a mistake.

Mac Pro users are arguably Apple’s most loyal and trusted fans. They’re buying the company’s most expensive product, and in the past, acted as evangelists when there weren’t that many products worth drooling over. It’s about time Apple shows those folks some respect and delivers a new Mac Pro.

Two models in the Boot Camp files point to the MP60 (MacPro6,x) and IM130 (iMac13,x), the sixth-generation Mac Pro and 13th-generation iMac. Apple Insider references Tim Cook’s email to a customer regarding the future of the Mac Pro, speculating that Apple could remove optical drives entirely to shift professional customers into new high-speed solutions like USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt.

The iMac is also due for a refresh, although the iMac 13,2 model has cropped up before in Geekbench benchmarks. That reveal a machine sporting Intel’s latest desktop Ivy Bridge processor along with 4GB of RAM. The benchmark result could have been fabricated, however. John Poole, a curator of user submitted scores to the service, says that some results have come through in the past from  Hackintoshs bearing the iMac 13,2 number.

Apple Insider notes that the removal of the optical drive from the iMac makes more sense, allowing additional space inside the machine for components, or letting designers slim down the chassis. According to sources, Apple is said to have worked on two models internally that slim down the current design, bringing them closer to modern day LED TVs. Overall the move away from optical drives makes sense: the company doesn’t include an optical drive with the MacBook Air, and dropped the optical drive on the next-generation MacBook Pro in order to slim down the laptop.

If you’re a manufacturer looking to push Windows 8 to your tablet, you’ll be looking at $85 USD a pop for Windows RT. If you’ve not seen enough of the Retina quality MacBook Pro, you can check out the new Every Dimension promo complete with rotating notebook. The app known as Voddler has launched on Nokia Lumia Windows Phones exclusively.

A complete refresh of the Mac Pro has been confirmed by Apple. Epson is bringing four new PowerLite 1700 series projectors to the light. Google Street View has once again had a legal case brought against it in the UK.

Sony has brought two new contenders to the Android ring with the Xperia tipo dual with multi-SIM-card capabilities and the Sony Xperia miro with a lovely Facebook focus. Finally check out our new review of the first set of headphones ever produced by the amplification company Marshall – they’re Pitch Black and ready for action!

Having said that, it looks like only the Mac Pro will see new life breathed into it. MacWorld confirmed with Apple that the email from Cook is the real deal, while Forbes has managed to establish that email is specifically talking about the Mac Pro and not the iMac. That doesn’t mean an iMac refresh isn’t coming, just that Apple wanted to ease people’s minds regarding the future of the professional desktop product.

The Mac Pro did see a sneaky update after Apple’s keynote on Monday, but with a very minor specification update. Apple is now using slightly faster CPUs, reportedly due to Intel has dropping production of the old CPUs. The design of the desktop, meanwhile, remains the same, and there’s no Thunderbolt or port upgrades to be found. Those waiting for something a little more substantial will have to hold tight until 2013.

[via Marco Arment]

There were some doubts raised over the future of the desktop models that Apple currently offers with such a heavy focus on notebooks, but Pogue was told by an Apple executive that updates to both models are coming: “An executive did assure me, however, that new models and new designs are under way, probably for release in 2013.”

A MacRumors reader has also shared an email he received from Tim Cook when questioned over the lack of a Mac Pro update. Tim Cook responded with the following: “Our pro customers are really important to us…don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year.” There you have it. Updates are on the way, so you’ll just have to sit tight until next year for Apple to unveil the magic.

The Mac Pro 2012 will have these processors updated over the two 6-core 2.93GHz Intel Xeon X5670 processors it has been working with for a couple of years and will begin at just $2,499 from the Apple Store today. This version has a 3.2GHz single quad-core Intel Xeon W3565 processor, while upgrades can go up several thousand dollars and can bring two Westmere-EP E5645 chips at 2.4GHz. This upgrade was certainly not mentioned in the main chute this week as it’s certainly not the jump that the MacBook Pro Retina display upgrade nor is it on-par with the software magic shown in iOS 6.

What it does present, on the other hand, is a tower that’s certainly powerful in its own right even though it’s not had a real significant upgrade for a couple of years. Head to the Apple Store today to pick up the new model and check out the rest of our WWDC 2012 news through our giant WWDC 2012 portal!

For those of you just tuning in, head to our timeline below to get up-to-date on no less than a whole batch of rumors and leaks that have just appeared in the past 24 hours! There’s no lack of excitement surrounding this event, especially since it’s set to not only bring on new software, but a set of new hardware options as well.

What you’ll find today is that you’ll have a new computer, a brand new operating system on your mobile devices like your iPad, iPhone, and possibly even your iPod touch, and you’ll find that the software you’ve got on your still-fabulous desktop machines will be upgraded to a whole new level of connectivity! This may well be the incoming tide of mobile connected to desktop that we’ve been waiting for! Stay tuned as this even starts in less than 20 minutes!

This event’s contents have been teased more than any other event the entire year thus far, without a doubt, and now that we’re less than an hour away from the opening of the final curtains, there’s nothing more important than getting YOU set up to get in tune with the news as it explodes! First you’re going to need to be in tune with our [WWDC 2012 portal] for the full low-down on every single news blip as it arrives. For up-to-the-second coverage of the event you’ll want to head to our http://live.slashgear.com/ page to see Live updates from the event room – we’ve also got photos coming in as they’re photographed as well!

If all the rumors are true, we’ll be seeing a new MacBook Pro range, a refreshed MacBook Pro Classic range, a Mac Pro tower (FINALLY) updated from its 2010 iteration, a new version of iOS, and maybe some Apple Maps. This event will very likely be splitting time between hardware and software, this bringing on excitement from not only the mobile world, as it was last year, but the desktop world as well! Stay tuned and get pumped up!

Exactly what form that new hardware will take is still unconfirmed, though there’s no shortage of rumor about what we can expect. According to the latest talk, a split in the MacBook Pro line is possible, with a refresh to the existing models accompanied by a new 15-inch Retina Display version borrowing some styling cues from the MacBook Air.

As for the Air, that’s also expected to see an upgrade, more than likely to feature Ivy Bridge 3rd-gen Intel Core processors. The Mac Pro, languishing without an update for two years now, is also overdue a refresh.

We’ll be live-blogging the whole WWDC 2012 keynote from 10AM PST (1PM EST; 6PM BST) over at http://live.slashgear.com/ with all the big news filtering through to the SlashGear homepage.

The entry-level “classic” design notebooks would have 4GB of RAM and 500GB hard-drives, the insiders suggest, with customization possible to increase processor power and internal storage. There’s no sign of an upgrade to the existing 17-inch MacBook Pro, which some expect to be retired altogether.

Reported “classic” MacBook Pro base configurations:

13.3 inch: 2.5GHz dual core processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive
13.3 inch: 2.9GHz dual core processor, 8GB of RAM, 750GB hard drive
15.4 inch: 2.3GHz quad core processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive
15.4 inch: 2.6GHz quad core processor, 8GB of RAM, 750GB hard drive (BTO upgrades to 2.7GHz quad core and 1TB HD will be available)

Specifications for the new-design MacBook Pro – which, its been theorized, will launch alongside the updated “classic” models, with a thinner chassis, high-resolution display and no optical drive – have not leaked, at least according to this particular batch of sources, and neither do we know hardware details on the expected MacBook Air refresh.

However there are indications that only one size of Retina Display MacBook Pro will be offered, a 15-incher that could serve to replace the 17-inch. That will be accompanied by a rebranded USB SuperDrive, ditching the Air-specific label so as to be suited to both the ultraportable and the new slimline flagship.

Interestingly, a new MagSafe connector is also rumored, with an adapter tipped to convert between the existing style and the new connection. No details on what, exactly, that connection could introduce have been revealed, though it’s worth noting that Apple patented a combination MagSafe/Thunderbolt hybrid back in late 2010. A new Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter is also supposedly on the cards.

As for the Mac Pro, the leaks say three new variants are on the cards, one of which is a server model. It’s been two years since Apple changed its high-end desktop, and so features which are now common on the rest of the range – such as Thunderbolt connectivity – are likely to also make an appearance.

Reported Mac Pro base configurations:

Normal configuration: 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and the ATI Radeon 5770 graphics chip.
Normal configuration: 2.4GHz 12-core processor, 12GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and the ATI Radeon 5770 graphics chip.
Server configuration: 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, Two 1TB hard drives

Update: 9to5Mac has followed up with what are purportedly MacBook Air specs for today’s refresh.

MBA 11.6/1.7/4/64FLASH-USA
MBA 11.6/1.7/4/128FLASH-USA
MD845LL/A – MBAIR 11.6/2.0/8/256FLASH-USA

We’ll be liveblogging the WWDC keynote from 10AM PST today, so join us at http://live.slashgear.com/ for all the details.

Apple’s range has been steadily expanding over the past few years, as the company fleshes out its own take on a balanced computing portfolio. Having famously avoided joining the (arguably short-lived) netbook fray, instead positioning the iPad as a tablet mid-point between smartphone and laptop, Apple now has two tablet variants, a few notebook lines, several desktop options and more.

It’s arguably time, then, for that range to contract some. Apple has always been about paring things back to the essentials, and that leaves some excess fat that could be trimmed. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most obvious candidate, already a minority seller in comparison to more popular 13- and 15-inch variants. Although it might come as a disappointment to mobile media editing pros, binning the 17-incher in favor of a push around the 15-inch and an external display makes more sense for Apple’s bottom line.

Mac Pro addicts have been crying out for a new model for months now, meanwhile, though Apple has perhaps been waiting on a new generation of capable processors to make an upgrade worthwhile. Again, though, the fear is that the Mac Pro range could contract altogether – one variant rather than the quad, six and eight core options currently presented – targeting the top-flight crowd, with everyone else expected to make do with either the iMac or, again with a large display, Ivy Bridge under the hood, and a clutch of Thunderbolt-connected peripherals and drives, a new MacBook Pro.

Apple’s new iPhone is, generally, not expected to make its debut until later in the year, but iOS 6 is already known to be on the schedule for WWDC. As we’ve seen the company do before, a showcase of ten or eleven top-tier features is most likely on the cards, something to whet our appetites ahead of its probable release alongside the new smartphone. Despite persistent analyst talk of a smaller iPad, that seems highly improbable at this stage; a peek at Siri for the new iPad stands a better chance of appearing, though Apple will presumably continue to shy away from adding multi-user support for the tablet. That, after all, might tempt you to buy just one for the whole family, rather than one each.

As for the glitter, expect an Apple TV SDK but not, yet anyway, the much-discussed Apple television. Although some have predicted a late 2012 debut for the all-in-one set, the most recent whispers has Apple still mired in negotiations around cable-cutting packages of content. From everything we’ve heard to-date, Apple wants its television to be more than just “a TV with Apple TV built-in”, and for that it needs a game-changer in content, too.

On a similar level, the Siri SDK for third-party developers may well be missing from this week’s show; or, if it’s present, in a diluted form rather than broad interaction with any old app. The complexity of understanding a broad range of commands – not to mention the likely impact on Apple’s voice servers – means we may see a far smaller palette of third-party Siri functionality initially, with Apple likely in no great rush to open the floodgates to its still-in-beta service.

Nonetheless, we’re still expecting some fireworks from next week’s show; even if Apple “only” delivers a new line-up of Macs, that alone would be enough to get the cash registers ringing. SlashGear will be liveblogging the whole WWDC 2012 opening keynote, so join us from 10AM PST on June 11 at live.slashgear.com for all the news as it happens!

FolderWatch developer Brothers Roloff makes no extra mention of the Retina provision in its detailed release notes, and it’s possible that this is a speculative feature-add rather than something based on Apple’s own roadmap. However, with each title being approved by Apple before it drops into the Mac App Store, that perhaps seems less likely.

Exactly which models will offer Retina Display graphics and which will not is also something of a mystery at the moment. The screen technology has been linked with the new MacBook Pro line-up, though not necessarily with the refreshed iMac, and while Apple’s Mac Pro is also expected to receive a long-overdue upgrade, it’s not clear whether that will be accompanied by high-res Thunderbolt Displays.

There’s more on what to expect at WWDC 2012 in our full wrap-up ahead of the developer event next week. SlashGear will be liveblogging the keynote – with iOS 6 details also likely to be on the agenda – from 10am PST on July 11, so join us at live.slashgear.com for all the news as it happens!

[via TNW]

There’s also a pair of new iMac 21.5-inch machines, along with a pair of 27-inch iMacs. Accessories include a new Airport Express, along with multiple cheaper products – each described as “standalone kit” – guesses to the identities of which haven’t been made.

Perhaps of most interest to the WWDC crowd are the three new Mac Pro systems listed. Apple’s top-end desktop has been long overdue an upgrade, and some worried that the company might axe the range altogether in favor of pushing high-power MacBook Pro machines paired with external displays. That, though, doesn’t appear to be the case.

What none of these product codes tells us is exact specifications. Earlier this month we heard chatter of Retina Display upgrades for the MacBook Pro models, though not for the iMac, though that contrasted with other purported specs.

SlashGear will be at WWDC 2012, and we’ll be liveblogging the whole keynote – complete with new products – at live.slashgear.com on June 11 at 10am PST.

The discounting follows reports last month of Apple resellers such as J&R having trouble sourcing stock of certain Mac models. The 15-inch MacBook Pro, one of the mainstays of Apple’s line-up, was particularly constrained, it was suggested, indicating Apple was ramping down its own stocks in preparation for an updated version.

Exactly what that updated version will include has been the subject of great speculation over the past months. While previous refreshes of the Mac line-ups have generally left the aesthetics of the desktops and notebooks unchanged, focusing instead on the internal specifications, this next upgrade is believed to be more comprehensive, certainly for the MacBook ranges.

Apple is believed to be pushing its OS X machines to follow the path of the iPhone and iPad, with Retina Displays offering hugely pixel-dense LCD panels, while the inclusion of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors is pretty much a given. More interesting is talk of USB 3.0 connectivity, something Apple has so far avoided in favor of Thunderbolt and, before that, FireWire 800.

When, exactly, the new models will drop is uncertain, though supply chain whispers have suggested a June arrival.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Those notebooks using Intel GMA 950 or Intel GMA X3100 GPUs are apparently out of luck, but the list also includes the 8-core Mac Pro from 2007 and the mid-2007 Mac mini. However, if you have one of the following models you should be okay:

• iMac (mid 2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, 2.4/2.2 GHz), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Gradually phasing out support for older hardware is usual practice, though it’s unlikely to be met with pleasure from owners (unless they’ve been looking for an excuse to upgrade). Still, OS X Lion should be supported by Apple for some years to come, if you’re stuck on the existing version of the platform.

For more on OS X Mountain Lion, check out our full hands-on preview.

The deal is apparently on top of any existing promotions, which given Apple already gives employees a 25-percent discount off new Macs adds up to a significant saving. Because of that, the Mac mini is said to be excluded from the $500 cut since it’s only $599 to begin with.

That’s not the only caveat. Only Apple staff who have been employed with the company for at least 90 days will be eligible, and the discount is only available once every three years. The promotion is expected to begin in June.

Even if all Apple’s staff take advantage, the discount scheme shouldn’t make too great a divot in the company’s bank account. Profit alone for the most recent financial quarter amounted to $13.06 billion, on revenues of $46.3 billion.

The Mac Pro refresh has long been overdue as the machine has not been updated since July 2010. The update has been waiting on Intel’s new Sandy Bridge-based Xeon E5 processor, which was originally set to launch in late 2011, but has been delayed to early 2012. However, rumors suggest that the issues in the chipset could delay the Xeon E5 until March.

Other upgrades to the Mac Pro include the graphics card, which has been hinted at in the developer builds of OS X 10.7.3. References can be found in the upcoming platform to support for AMD’s “Tahiti” line of graphics cards, suggesting that the high-end Radeon HD 7970 or the 7950 could be an option in future configurations.

[via MacRumors]

According to AppleInsider, sources familiar with the situation claim that Apple management has been mulling over the future of the Mac Pro since May of this year and that the company’s sales execs agree that the days for the Mac Pro are numbered, at least in its current form. One of the main factors being that sales have plummeted for the high-end workstation in both the consumer and enterprise markets, making it not a very profitable product line for Apple.

Furthermore, Apple’s introduction of the high-speed 10Gbps Thunderbolt connector port has made it easy for the company’s other products such as the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini to take on many of the tasks once limited to the Mac Pro. For instance, the MacBook Pro can now connect to many peripherals to boost performance, including fast external storage, multiple external displays, and even special external housings with conventional PCI Express slots for expansion cards.

Although the Mac Pro provided hardcore professional users the ability to configure up to 12 cores and 64GB of RAM, it’s possible that Apple could beef up its iMac and Mac mini to offer close enough performance while getting rid of the Mac Pro without too much of a dent on sales while further simplifying its product lines.

[via AppleInsider]

Starting form the bottom of the series is a quad-core 1.8Ghz Xeon with 10MB of level 3 cache and no Hyperthreading at a $202 bulk price point. At the high-end, it offers 1.8GHz to 3.1GHz eight-core processors with Hyperthreading, and 20MB of cache, 70W to 150W power use for a price ranging from $1,106 to $2,057. This series has only one dual-core chip with the E5-2643 that’s clocked at 3.3GHz and sports 5MB of level 3 cache, Hyperthreading, and 80W power usage, but is priced at $884.

This new lineup could boost the number of cores on systems across the board, especially on Apple’s next-gen Mac Pros, which are expected to get refreshed in early 2012. The lower end dual-core model would certainly benefit from the new series, such as with the E5-2620, which would boost it up to 6 cores while maintaining about the same pricing. The lower-end single-core Mac Pro models may use Intel’s E5-1600 series processors that’s also scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2012.

[via MacRumors]

The same sources apparently accurately predicted the details around Apple’s iMac launch in early May. The Mac Pro is long overdue an update, and various rumors are circulating around what the company may have done to the latest-gen hardware. Popular among graphics professionals, musicians and anybody else in need of high-performance crunching, there’s talk that the new Mac Pro could use a rack-mountable chassis and in effect replace both the previous desktop and Apple’s discontinued Xserve.

As for the Mac Mini, that update is expected to be a more minor one, replacing the Mini DisplayPort connection with Thunderbolt, and swapping out the processors for Intel’s Sandy Bridge chips. A RAM and hard-drive bump are also highly likely.

Other specifications, however, are unclear for both machines. Tong’s sources say the refresh could take place as early as the last week of July, though an early August refresh is more likely. Apple is also believed to be readying a MacBook Air refresh, again using Sandy Bridge chips and Intel’s high-speed connection, and also held back until OS X Lion is ready for public consumption.

It’s not the first time I’ve talked about potentially revolutionary Apple changes. Back in November, rumors around the MacBook Pro refresh earlier this year suggested some of the hardware and design decisions Apple might be making: bypassing USB 3.0 for Thunderbolt (then known by its Intel Light Peak codename), dropping optical drives, and switching wholesale to SSD for storage. Obviously not all of those panned out: the early 2011 MacBook Pro line got its Thunderbolt connection, but SuperDrive lived on and so did traditional hard-drives.

Now the rumor machine has reignited, spitting out something with even more game-changing possibilities than mere drives and ports. Sources claim Apple is looking to switch from Intel’s x86 processors to ARM-based chips, potentially as early as in mid-2013, as big a platform evolution as the transition from PowerPC in early 2006. The company plans, it’s suggested, to use 64-bit ARM processors like NVIDIA’s Project Denver – first in notebooks but then likely across the desktop range as well.

It’s a shift that could have far-reaching implications, not just for Intel’s bottom line. ARM processors, as we’ve seen in smartphones and tablets, are capable of all the multimedia and gaming performance users expect – like 1080p Full HD, supporting multiple displays, accelerated encoding/decoding of graphics and real-time processing – while simultaneously demanding far less power than their x86 counterparts. The iPad’s lengthy battery life is partly down to the fact that its slender chassis is fair stuffed with Li-Poly cells, but also that its Apple A5 processor handles everything iOS throws at it in an efficient manner.

Now, the demands of iOS – and what we ask of a tablet or phone – are obviously different to what we expect from our notebooks and desktops, but there’s still plenty of overlap. Browsing, video editing and playback, messaging and email, a little gaming: they’re all common tasks, and well within the capabilities of ARM chips. Much of it will come down to OS X, and how Apple’s engineers re-compile it for the change in processor architecture, as well as how it handles existing OS X apps running on the new platform.

We’ve seen a similar – though far smaller scale – transition from Apple before, with the Apple TV. The first-gen model used a Pentium M processor, thrown out for the second-gen version in favor of the same Apple A4 chip as in the iPhone 4 and original iPad. Transparent to the user, plenty of work going on behind the scenes. Apple would likely look to taking easy steps forward with a MacBook ARM transition too, perhaps starting with machines that have less demanding use-cases (or are treated by many as secondary computers) like the MacBook Air. That has already borrowed heavily from the lessons Apple learnt in making the iPad and other mobile devices, with its instant-on technology and all-SSD storage.

So, what might these new MacBooks look like? Optical drives certainly look to be on notice: Apple has made its disdain for Blu-ray clear, and the latest murmurs suggest the company is looking to shift even significant software releases, like OS X Lion due this summer, to digital delivery via its Mac App Store. SSDs across the board were perhaps too expensive for 2011, but by 2013 that may be a different story; Apple will also be able to offset any capacity shortcomings using its imminent cloud-storage services. Don’t underestimate what the company has been learning from WWAN options on the iPhone and iPad, either. By mid-2013, 4G networks like LTE and WiMAX will be far more prevalent, potentially giving Apple’s portables a high-speed hookup to the cloud.

There’s also a change in aesthetic tipped, with Apple’s next MacBook Pro refresh expected to bring a significant reworking of the notebook’s physical design. Some have suggested that might see a shift from all-aluminum to carbon fiber, but whatever the material we’re guessing it will be lighter and more portable. Throw in ARM chips and you’re looking at a potentially long-lasting, easily carried notebook with the possibility of cross-platform OS X/iOS apps and lashings of connectivity.

Apple was criticized by some during the PowerPC transition for abandoning what made the company’s computers unique: after all, anybody can buy an Intel processor and put it in a notebook or desktop. Shifting to ARM would certainly address that, with Apple already owning a fabless semiconductor company, 2008 acquisition P.A. Semi, to design custom chips that would once again make their mainstream range distinct. Dumping Intel wouldn’t be easy, in either hardware or software terms, but it could be the decision that seals the deal on Apple’s ascendance.

The deal may be enticing, but if you don’t want to regret picking up an older generation iMac just a day before the new one is released, then hold on tight. We reported last week that a refreshed iMac was likely to arrive on May 4th. Speculation had been building up on the refresh due to reports that there were constrained supplies of the current model iMac on retailer inventory sheets. Delays on shipping iMacs for online orders until May 2nd, also further supported this claim.

The new iMac will likely feature Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processor chip along with Apple’s new Thunderbolt connector port. Your attempt to save $70 off by purchasing the current-gen iMac on sale could make you lose out on the added performance and speed of the next-gen iMac, just days away. Either way, you can check out the sale here.

[via MacNN]

According to the sources, the Mac Pro prototype has a new “stacked” drive system with two discs per sled, adding up to greater hard-drive density than before. The exact nature of the sleds is unknown, but Apple is believed to have designed them with both traditional HDDs and new, high-speed SSD storage in mind.

Beyond that it’s all speculation, but Thunderbolt seems an obvious inclusion. 9 to 5 Mac suggests a Blu-ray drive, though whether Apple would reconsider its “bag of hurt” stance remains to be seen. As for whether this particular design will be the model to make it to production, that also is undecided; it’s expected to be only one of several prototypes under consideration.

It’s hard to get attention when there are thousands of apps out there; harder still if you want to price your apps at any more than a few dollars. We judge in the first few seconds, based on price and a couple of star reviews. There’s no motivation to surprise and delight the user later on, as they explore the software, because there’s every chance they’ll never get that far. If you’re not upfront about every last thing that makes you special, then the user will take their dollar and hit next.

Arguably a similar commoditisation has happened in hardware. Our devices are simply portals to our apps. With that, the hardware itself has become devalued: smartphones, PCs and tablets all contracting to a median point. Oh yes, there are plenty of Android phones out there, and there’s iPhone too, but there’s little in the way of real hardware differentiation. It’s a box that runs our apps, and we want to pay accordingly.

There was a time when the wild card was Apple’s own products, when they were the premium option with pricing considerably higher than anything in the PC sphere. It’s still, to some extent, correct – you’ll pay more for a MacBook Pro than you will food a similarly-specified PC notebook from Dell or HP, though in many cases those Windows rivals simply won’t offer elements of the Apple proposition, like an all-metal chassis and Thunderbolt – but the gap is decreasing. It’s more obvious in Apple’s iOS range, with iPods and iPhones the obvious picks when the competition is basically priced the same.

For the iPad 2, Apple is even leading the field, with Android alternatives struggling to achieve the same eye-catching price points just as they chase the functionality. It’s having an interesting affect at the company’s top-end, too. Just last week I heard of one would-be Mac Pro buyer, met with blank faces at an Apple reseller when asking about the high-end desktop. Not that they didn’t know enough about it; they simply didn’t know it existed in the first place. Surely you must mean an iMac, they said, or are you confusing things with an LED Cinema Display plugged into your MacBook Pro?

Now, that’s likely just one dumb vendor with an eye on Apple’s glitzier, more consumer-friendly line, but it’s a sign of the shift all the same. Keeping Apple as our example, the company used to be best known for its high-end, quality notebooks and computers; now that reputation has shifted to iOS. In the industry more generally, where once the focus was on notebooks and PCs, the speed-battle between Intel and AMD, now we’re only really curious about smartphones and slates. So you’ve got a 0.2GHz-faster chip in your laptop, and can load Excel 2-percent quicker? Cool story, bro.

With that, the attention has dropped into a lower price bracket: cheaper mobile devices, cheaper instant apps. Apple has redefined the value of software (just as it did with music and movies) to build a structure around their hardware and, more importantly, their ecosystem as a whole. Developers face releasing their hard-crafted wares – and make no mistake, it’s still expensive, in time and money, to build a good application – into a market near-saturated with titles, where attention spans are minuscule and prices match.

When an app was $40 you stuck with it, learnt its foibles, saw past a poor first-impression gleaned from the 30 seconds after hitting the icon. When an app is one of a few hundred thousand, priced at a buck or even free, it’s a whole lot easier to bin anything that doesn’t instantaneously appeal. And yet, when it comes to upgrade time and you’re looking at the shelves of devices, you’re far more likely to pick the platform which runs all those $0.99 apps that quickly added up to a significant software investment.

Ask any retailer and they’ll tell you, it’s easy to drop prices but it’s incredibly difficult to put them back up again. At least, if you want to remain in business for long, or unless you offer some commodity – gas, food perhaps – that consumers can’t do without. Decide that your wares, whether content, software or something else, are worth more than the status quo, and prepare yourself for a significant battle.

We’re watching the publishers doing that now, trying desperately to wrench away pricing control from retailers like Amazon and set their own figures as to what they – and many of their authors – believe the content is worth. In return, they’re being decried as “old media” and told to get with the times: content is cheap, the fickle customer is king, and the app store gatekeepers call the shots.

Cheap apps are certainly good for consumers on the face of things: more software for less money. Problem is, when you teach people that apps are worth $0.99 then they start to believe that. App piracy may not be all that widespread, when the cost of entry is so low, but in the process developers are making mere pennies on their hard work. Meanwhile there’s little incentive, with the current state of consumer attention span, to invest in anything that offers any great depth. Why think of the long-tail when your uses will already be overlooking your app by then, or when you can sell them another quick hit via a $0.99 in-app purchase.

So, on the one hand cheap new toys and all the low-guilt software you could hope for to run on them. On the other, zero-attention-span apps and little incentive for developers and content providers to do more than glean a few launch day headlines before moving on to the Next Big Thing. I’m as guilty as the rest in downloading and discarding, downloading and discarding, but I do miss the days when we’d invest more than a couple of taps in figuring out how software worked, how it could help us, and how the blend of that and our devices could better work in our lives.

One of the shots revealed a $1,199 price tag for one model, thought to be the 13″ Pro. A refresh of the Mac Pro and a new “mainstream” iMac are also expected for the near future. The new machines were delayed by a serious issue with the Sandy Bridge processor. Apple’s most optimistic estimate was given as March. It appears they were right.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

The next iteration of the MacBook Pro line was earlier tipped to launch in 1H 2011. The new Mac and MacBook pros will run Sandy Bridge processors. A “mainstream” iMac is also expected to launch during the first half of this year. Four new MacBook Pros gave been tipped.

Intel’s terribly embarrassing Sandy Bridge recall is believed to have delayed the new MacBook Pros and Mac Pros. Apple is reported to have estimated no chance of shipping until March. Intel believes that the fixed chipsets will not be ready in volume until April.

Whatever the truth is, we won’t have to wait long to learn it. If Wednesday passes with no announcement, expect a long wait for the MacBook refresh.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Alternatively, there’s the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server, as first announced back in 2009; you’ll get two of those to a 1U space. Pricing for the Mac Pro server – which Apple claim is over 25-percent faster at certain tasks than the Xserve – kicks off at $2,999, while the roughly quarter-powered Mac mini server starts at $999.

According to Electronista‘s sources, Apple has been testing 2.5GHz through to 2.7GHz Core i5 and i7 mobile processors for its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, together with dual 2.5GHz Core i3 chips all the way up to quad-core, 3.4GHz Core i7 chips for its desktop iMac and Mac Pro machines. Sandy Bridge is expected to make its official debut at CES 2011 in January, with the long period of testing leading to speculation that Apple will release updated machines sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, CNET‘s sources suggest that the Sandy Bridge GPU will be the sole graphics chip on 13-inch and smaller notebooks from Apple, while higher-end notebooks will look to AMD’s Radeon line-up. The benefits of Sandy Bridge include a smaller overall CPU/GPU package, since the graphics chip is integrated into the processor itself. It would also allow Apple to bypass ongoing legal issues between Intel and NVIDIA which have constrained its choice of GPU/CPU pairings.

The company reckons that, with its new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine, the Quadro 4000 for Mac can process up to 890 million triangles per second. That’ll show its hand in supported apps like pple Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Autodesk Smoke, Mathworks Matlab and Adobe Creative Suite 5, for image and video processing.

It’ll also work in Windows apps running under BootCamp, and if you have a pair of cards you can have four displays running simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, all this performance doesn’t come cheap. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU will be priced at $1,199 when it arrives later this month.

Press Release:

It’s Here — NVIDIA Quadro Delivers NVIDIA Fermi Architecture to the Mac Pro

Award-Winning Professional Graphics Solution Delivers Blazing Fast Performance on Software From Adobe and Others

SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 11/16/2010 — NVIDIA announced today the expansion of its award-winning line of NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics solutions to the Mac platform, bringing the computational and visualization breakthroughs enabled by NVIDIA Fermi architecture to Mac Pro users.

For professional users operating on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, this means the wait is over. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics processing unit (GPU) for Mac is optimized to accelerate workflows and drive a range of top professional applications. For example, the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS5 software leverages NVIDIA CUDA™ parallel processing technology to enable film and video professionals to work unconstrained. Other examples include visual effects and image processing applications from The Foundry, including NUKE and STORM, and MATLAB from MathWorks.

“Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, accelerated by NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, have redefined the non-linear editing workflow, delivering huge productivity gains,” said Ginna Baldassarre, senior product manager at Adobe. “Adobe looks forward to working with NVIDIA to help more Mac users reap the benefits of real-time performance and the ability to create compelling, multi-layer projects with multiple HD or higher resolution video clips, all while instantly viewing results.”

The Foundry is a leading developer of visual effects software for film and broadcast.

“The Foundry’s software has been used to help create visual effects for many Hollywood blockbusters, including ‘Avatar,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Star Trek,’ ‘District 9,’ ’2012,’ and ‘Transformers,’” said Bruno Nicoletti, Founder and CTO, The Foundry. “The Quadro 4000 is a powerful GPU blockbuster for the Mac.”

MathWorks MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, numeric computation, data analysis, and data visualization, all of which benefit tremendously from fast double precision, a unique Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac feature. Graphics features, including 2-D and 3-D plotting functions, and 3-D volume functions required to visualize engineering and scientific data, are available in MATLAB.

“The visualization features in the Quadro 4000, coupled with GPU-accelerated computation for algorithm development and deployment with MATLAB and Parallel Computing Toolbox, are a powerful combination of capabilities for the Mac platform,” said Silvina Grad-Freilich, manager of parallel-computing marketing, MathWorks. “We are pleased that our Mac users will be able to leverage Fermi-grade computational performance in their applications.”

The high-end NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac, with 256 NVIDIA CUDA processing cores and 2GB of fast GDDR5 memory, delivers exceptional graphics performance across a broad range of design, animation and video applications. With new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine technology, the Quadro 4000 for Mac can process up to 890 million triangles per second¹, enabling professionals to design, iterate and deliver higher quality results in less time.

The Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac also provides additional display flexibility through a DisplayPort and a DVI-I (Dual Link) connector built into its bracket, and a 3D stereo bracket for optimal stereo connection to the system. A DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable is also included to enable mini-DisplayPort only Apple displays. Additionally, users can enable up to four high resolution displays from a single Mac Pro using dual NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac boards.

The NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac enables dramatic increases in computing performance. Minimum system requirements include Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later with MacPro3,1 (early 2008), MacPro4,1 (early 2009), or MacPro5,1 (mid-2010). The Quadro 4000 processing unit for Mac is designed, built and supported by NVIDIA to provide best in class performance, reliability, compatibility and stability with professional Mac applications. NVIDIA and its ISV partners believe it’s the right choice in providing the dependability that video production and graphics professionals require.

Availability and Pricing
The Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac ($1,199 MSRP, USD) is available this month at Apple.com, select Apple resellers and system integrators, and from authorized distribution partners including: PNY Technologies in the Americas and Europe, ELSA in Japan, and Leadtek in Asia Pacific.

To learn more, visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.
Follow NVIDIA Quadro on YouTube and Twitter: @NVIDIAQuadro.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the GPU in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from tablets and portable media players to notebooks and workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. The Company holds more than 1,600 patents worldwide, including ones covering designs and insights that are essential to modern computing. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.

(1)Raw throughput number calculated by graphics processing clusters, GPU clock rate, and triangle throughput.

Apple has pulled the curtain off the Mac Pro Server, which is set to start shipping in “two to four weeks.” The workstation is a new addition to the Apple Store, and it features a single 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor, 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM, and two 1TB hard drives. You also get ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory, and an 18x SuperDrive.

New purchasers will also get Mac OS X Server with unlimited license versions. The base price for the new server begins at $2,999, and will have free shipping, once it ships. Of course, you can start upgrading the Mac Pro Server and see $3,475 price increases, if you felt so inclined.

[via Apple]

The geeks at iFixit have taken the new PlayStation Move controllers and torn them down. Inside the black case are some parts that can be replaced easily like the battery and vibration motor while others are permanently attached to the board inside. A sweet gaming mod turned up early in the week that has 11 different consoles, a projector and other gear crammed inside a replica of R2D2. The thing has a GameCube, N64, NES, SNES, Atari 7800, PSP, DreamCast and other consoles inside.

We reviewed the Clearwire Rover Puck Monday and while it is cool in a 4G area, travel outside that area and you get squat. The thing doesn’t support 3G networks as a way to cut the price of the device. A report from an analyst surfaced that points to a new iPad coming in 2011 with a smaller 7-inch screen and a pair of cameras. Presumably, those cameras would be for FaceTime and shooting photos.

Rumors surfaced that ARM might be acquired by Apple. ARM came back and called those rumors “complete nonsensical” though it wouldn’t be the first time something was denied outright and then turned out to be true. Leica unveiled its sweet M9 limited edition Titanium digital camera. The thing gets a titanium case and a few other new features.

Headcase unveiled the coolest case ever for the iPad called the Etch A Sketch Case. The case makes your iPad look just like an Etch A Sketch; all it needs is an app for actually drawing and a couple white knobs that actually work. Panasonic unveiled a 3D lens that will be launching soon that allows any micro four-thirds G-series camera to shoot 3D images.

Sony officially launched the 3.50 firmware update for the PS3 that brings support for Blu-ray 3D flicks. The update adds little else to the mix. Scosche freedomMIC for the Flip line of camcorders. The mic has a wireless section that attaches to your lapel.

We reviewed the Mac Pro for 2010 and the unit we got hands on with is a mid-range machine. We liked the machine and it did well running Windows 7 in Boot Camp as well. AT&T has said that it isn’t worried about losing customers if the iPhone goes to Verizon. I still say they might not loose current customers because of contracts, but new iPhone customers may migrate to Verizon instead.

Quirky unveiled a cool new backpack that charges your gadgets with its own internal battery called the Trek Support. It can charge three gadgets at one time that use USB ports and is up for pre-order for $130. ThinkGeek unveiled a new pizza cutter that looks like the Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek. It’s the geekiest and coolest pizza cutter in the history of pizza.

An analyst has cited sources that claim the iPhone 4 for Verizon will go into production in December. This is great news for Verizon fans and hopefully it proves to be true. Kensington unveiled a cool new iPad case called the KeyFolio that has a keyboard inside. The keyboard connects to the iPad using Bluetooth and has rubber keys to keep from scratching the screen of the iPad.

A tip points to a couple new INQ Mobile Facebook phones in 2011. The phones could potentially be on AT&T in the July or August time frame of 2011.

ThinkGeek pulled the wraps off a new iPhone case that adds a keyboard to your iPhone called the TK-421. The Bluetooth keyboard lets you type all you want with real keys and versions are available for the 3GS and iPhone 4. Marvell has unveiled a cool tri-core processor for smartphones and tablets. The processor is the Armada 628 and has a single low power 624MHz core for the functions of the smartphone or tablet and two faster 1.5GHz cores for other tasks.

The WeTab tablet has gone on sale and landed in its own video unboxing. The thing sells for €449 for a 16GB version and has some nice specs. SteelSeries has unveiled a new keyboard called the Shift that has interchangeable key sets. This is the latest version of that old Ideazon Zboard that SteelSeries snapped up a while back.

The iPhone, iPad, and iPod were all turned into cool DIY walking robots. The bots are complete with an animated screen with eyes that flick back and forth. A geek has created the most awesome costume in the history of Halloween. The costume is a full size version of the power loader from the Aliens flick.

A concept mobile phone from Mozilla called the Seabird surfaced late in the week. The coolest feature is the multi-angle pico projectors inside the thing. The Notion Ink Adam tablet may launch in several colors when it hits the market. The thing has a camera with extra swivel range for easier photo taking among other nice features.

The iPhone 4 may well be on the way to the Verizon network, but will Verizon accept Apple’s contract terms? The thought is that the iPhone on Verizon may risk the Android market it has carved out for itself. Thanks for reading this week’s edition! See you next week!

From Around the Web:

Apple’s FaceTime a Missing Feature in the Middle East: It looks like some interesting things are happening to the iPhone 4 that’s getting ready to launch in Middle Eastern countries like Yemen, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. TUAW noticed that the official Apple pages, where the iPhone 4 is gloriously shown off, doesn’t actually showcase anything related to the FaceTime video calling feature. Speculation is robust, with people thinking that the image shown on the Apple site, whether it be the woman’s face or her hair, is causing the confusion — but one thing is for sure, FaceTime is nowhere to be found in the features section of the iPhone 4 in those countries. With the device set to launch in the region soon, it looks like we’ll find out the reason sooner than later.

R3 Media Network

SlashGear

RIM BlackPad Tablet Getting Announced Next Week, Maybe
NVIDIA Kepler Coming in 2011, Maxwell in 2013
Motorola Droid X Getting Android 2.2 Tomorrow
Mac Pro 2010 Gets Reviewed

Android Community

GMail Gets Updated for Android 2.2 Devices
Samsung Galaxy Tab Having Trouble Scaling Apps?

SlashPhone

Samsung Intercept Heading to Virgin Mobile
Samsung Wave Sells 1 Million Units in Europe

Our review unit slots into the middle of the updated Mac Pro range, with two of Intel’s 2.4GHz quadcore Xeon E5620 CPUs, 6GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB video card. With a 1TB 7,200rpm hard-drive it comes in at $3,499 – for $1,000 less you can have a single 2.8GHz Xeon quadcore and half the memory, while for $1,500 more there’s the dual 2.66GHz hexacore Xeon flagship. Still no Blu-ray – not even the option – so it’s a standard 18x SuperDrive, four PCI Express 2.0 slots, five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports. Networking options include two-gigabit Ethernet ports, Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi a/b/g/n.

There’s no shortage of graphics choices, either: the Radeon HD 5770 has Dual-Link DVI port and pair of Mini DisplayPort connectors. As for audio, there’s a digital optical input and output, plus analog in/out on the rear panel, and a headphone socket on the front (along with two each of the FireWire and USB ports). We’d love to see USB 3.0 or even eSATA there too, but sadly Apple hasn’t seen fit to install them in this particular Mac Pro generation.

Take off the side panel – an easy task with the flip-up (and lockable) latch on the back – and Apple’s unusual interior layout is revealed. Everything is sectioned off, with the processors and memory at the bottom in a pullout tray, the PCI Express 2.0 slots in the middle, and then the four 3.5-inch hard-drive bays slung above. Each bay has a drive carrier that a standard SATA 3Gb/s drive clips into, before slotting – cable free – into place. Our review unit had a single 1TB drive, but you can specify up to 8TB of traditional HDDs or up to four 512GB SSDs and an optional RAID controller for drive redundancy (RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 0+1 supported).

Slick design, a sensible layout and plenty of ports are no use at all if the core system doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain, and happily the 2010 Mac Pro is capable of some serious crunching. We performed some of our benchmark testing natively in OS X, and then other elements in Windows 7 Ultimate running in either Parallels or Boot Camp. It’s common for Mac Pro owners to spend at least part of their time in a dual-booting or multimode environment, depending on the software tools they’re reliant on, and so we felt this would give a more balanced view of the desktop than OS X figures alone.

We started out with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance. Tested natively in OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard (with the latest patches and updates installed), the Mac Pro scored 14,378. In comparison, a 2009 Mac Pro – with a single Xeon 2.66GHz processor but 12GB of DDR3 memory, a configuration costing roughly the same as the machine in today’s review – scored 9,600.

We then booted into Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit using Boot Camp, and the Mac Pro scored 11,451. Loading Windows in Parallels – which allows you to run both Mac and PC apps at the same time – saw a Windows 7 Geekbench score of 6,017, while scores using VMware ranged from 5563 to 6017. It should be noted that these virtualization scores were calculated when Parallels and VMware were running in four core mode; although they scored higher when using all eight cores, that leaves no resources for the host OS and isn’t advisable in real-world applications.

In contrast, Lenovo’s hefty ThinkStation C20 workstation, with its 8GB of DDR3 memory and dual 2.66GHz Xeon X5650 processors scored 19,565 in Windows 7 Professional. You pay considerably for those extra 5,000 points, however, considering the ThinkStation C20 is a $6,774 machine (almost double what Apple is asking for this Mac Pro).

We then turned to PCMark Vantage, which runs in Windows 7 rather than OS X and rates a system across seven categories (Memories, TV and Movies, Gaming, Music, Communications, Productivity and HDD) and then a final score. We tested the Mac Pro three times in all, using Boot Camp, Parallels and VMware, and had pretty consistent results across all batches. In Boot Camp, using the full 6GB of RAM, the PCMark score was 8,377, with particularly strong scores in Communications and Gaming.

In Parallels, with 4GB of the RAM assigned, the system scored 8,689 overall, with Communications and HDD ahead. Finally, in VMware, the PCMark score was 8,066 with Music and HDD leading the way. It’s important to remember that, in both virtualization setups, the software is emulating hardware so the GPU performance is less than when running a native OS. The Mac Pro fell behind the C20 by 1,400-2,000 points in these situations, but it’s still an impressive showing considering both the price difference and the fact that the PCMark testing was done in the Apple machine’s non-standard OS.

Day to day, then, there’s little you can throw at the Mac Pro and expect to slow it down. We processed HD video while watching different content, browsing with multiple tabs in several windows, and with several other apps running in the background, and we couldn’t get the Apple desktop to break a sweat. It’s hard to imagine the everyday user that would require such a machine; most would likely be better served with an iMac, given that model’s cheaper price and brilliant IPS display. Still, the absence of USB 3.0 and Blu-ray – on both iMac and Mac Pro – does still rankle a little, given rival PCs have offered both for some time now.

If you’re involved in frequent video, audio or image editing, however, or any sort of CAD or other processor-intensive application, then the Mac Pro deserves serious consideration. Strong performance not only in OS X but when running Windows 7 – particularly in Boot Camp – offers the best of both worlds for the platform agnostic, and while the Mac Pro’s upfront sticker price may seem high, compared to native Windows machines of similar build construction it’s actually surprisingly competitive. For those who want the very highest performance, the dual hexacore Mac Pro is an expensive option, but this midrange model arguably delivers the best balance of crunching power and price.

Video demo after the cut

The end result?  A quieter machine with comparable performance – as you can see in the video demo below – but putting out only 37.5 dB of noise, versus the 50 dB from the stock Mac Pro.  Both machines were running at 47-degrees centigrade, despite the overclocking of the liquid-cooled model (which uses a 240mm radiator).

Now for the bad news.  While we can think of plenty Mac Pro users who would jump at the chance to quieten their computer while boosting performance, Asetek tells us this is a custom job and isn’t available for purchase.  That’s because of the socket 771 chip used in this particular Mac Pro; however, the new models use socket 1366 chips, and so you could feasibly hack together a few Corsair Hydro Series coolers to do something similar.  No straightforward boxed offering, then, so it’s time to start pestering Apple to offer factory-fit liquid-cooling options.

As well as the processor, memory and solid-state storage, there’s an ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU with 1GB of its own GDDR5 memory and an 8x SuperDrive DVD burner. Still no Blu-ray option, of course, and no USB 3.0 ports either; instead Apple gives you four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, audio in/out (each combining analog and digital), gigabit ethernet and a Mini DisplayPort that, on this larger iMac, also functions as an input for hooking up your MacBook Pro. On the side, as well as the slot-loading optical drive there’s an SDXC memory card reader (backward compatible with SD/SDHC cards, naturally) while inside there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. The latter is used with the bundled Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse; the Magic Trackpad launched alongside the new iMacs is an optional extra.

While all-in-ones may not be particularly known for their upgrade potential, Apple has made great use of the 27-inch iMac’s internal space. The SSD is an option, but so is pairing a regular hard-drive with a solid-state counterpart, each occupying its own internal bay. The 27-inch model comes with a 1TB, 7,200rpm HDD as standard: you can upgrade that to 2TB or swap it for the 256GB SSD, or combine either HDD with the SSD. That could be useful for digital media pros looking for the system speed an SSD brings together with the relatively cost-effective storage a traditional HDD delivers. At this stage, you can’t combine two SSDs, however.

Our wish-list for the iMac gets smaller with each iteration, and right now is pretty much limited to Blu-ray, USB 3.0 and eSATA. Given Apple’s general antipathy toward the former, it looks unlikely that the company will include Blu ray any time soon; instead they’re betting on digital delivery through iTunes. USB 3.0 and eSATA are trickier: Apple helped lead the way in ditching legacy connections, which might lead you to assume they’d also be at the forefront in these faster ports, but so far there’s no sign.

Everything is wrapped up in what’s perhaps the slickest chassis in Apple’s line-up today, a smooth unibody aluminum expanse with a simple one-legged desk stand. Opt for the included wireless peripherals and a WiFi network connection and you can hook up the iMac with a single cable, for power, which snakes neatly out through a purposefully cut hole in the leg. Up front, most noticeable is the 16:9 aspect 27-inch IPS LCD panel, running at 2560 x 1440 resolution with 375 cd/m2 brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Hidden behind the glass bezel is an iSight webcam, a microphone and an IR port for use with the optional Apple remote, while underneath are stereo speakers each paired with a 17W amp.

The display remains a key selling point for the iMac, being bright, color-rich and having very broad viewing angles. Think of it as the desktop’s equivalent of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display; only a few PC manufacturers offer LCD displays that can compete, and it’s rare to find one integrated into an all-in-one machine. Obviously the iMac is at home with movie playback in Full HD, though of course with the absence of Blu-ray you’re limited to digital content downloaded or side-loaded in 1080p HD resolution. Standalone media performs well, with the iMac’s speakers belying the absence of a dedicated subwoofer; thanks to the digital audio output it’s straightforward to add a 2.1 or 5.1 surround sound system too.

With its superlative specifications, though, it’s likely content creation rather than consumption that iMac buyers prioritizing this particular model would be occupying themselves with. It’s certainly easily capable when it comes to processing video, audio and images. At the risk of getting geekier, though, there are some good reasons why this is the best iMac to-date.

We ran Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the quadcore iMac scored a massive 10099 points. In contrast, last year’s Mac Pro – with a quadcore 2.67GHz Xeon processor and 12GB of memory – scored 9600. The current generation entry-level iMac – with a Core i3-550 dual-core running at 3.2GHz is scoring around 6700 in Geekbench; the machine positioned at the same point in Apple’s range late last year scored just 4,650. More importantly, perhaps, is the increase in L3 cache, with the 8MB in the new iMac matching the old Mac Pro (the old iMac lacked L3 cache completely). Put simply, the L3 cache is used as a high-speed store for data being processed: the more you have, the faster the computer can crunch through whatever it is you’re working on. Meanwhile the FSB (Front-Side Bus) is the same 4.80GHz on the quadcore iMac as it is on the old Mac Pro: that’s the speed of the pathway between CPU and Northbridge, and a potential bottleneck if it’s not high enough.

When you start factoring that performance increase in with Apple’s pricing, the new iMac’s appeal gets even greater. First off, consider that – without the SSD – you’re getting Mac Pro (i.e. flagship) performance, plus a brilliant 27-inch display, for less than you’d pay for the current entry-level Mac Pro with a quadcore 2.8GHz Xeon ($2,199 versus $2,449). On top of that you’d need to pair the Mac Pro with a display; the 27-inch LED Cinema Display, using the same panel as the iMac we’re testing, will be $999 when it arrives next month.

Now, the Mac Pro obviously has some benefits of its own: the four hard-drive bays, faster SuperDrive, speedier CPU options and greater connectivity, for a start. For most users though, balancing high performance with price, the iMac’s combination of a slimline form-factor, huge amounts of processing power and integrated display will likely hit the sweet spot that previously only an entry-level Mac Pro would’ve filled.

From that perspective, the $2,799 of our review unit ($2,199 if you opt for the 1TB HDD instead of the SSD) starts to look a whole lot more reasonable. Yes, it’s overkill for most, but that’s why the 27-inch Core i3 version (at $1,699) is on offer; that model itself delivers around 45-percent more performance (as measured by Geekbench) than its predecessor. Factor in the quality of the display, design, construction and usability of OS X, and the iMac is not just a fitting flagship but a well-rounded alternative to traditional workstations. For all those reasons it comes highly recommended. Feel free to drop me questions in the comment section or visit  apple.com/imac for more details.

iMac Mid 2010 Core i7 Specification

If you want dual hexacore chips then you’re looking at $4,999; that’s upgrading the basic dual-CPU Mac Pro, which in itself is $3,499, with a pair of 2.66GHz Xeons.  Other options include up to 32GB of DDR3 memory, four hard-drive bays to be filled (with optional RAID) and a choice of ATI Radeon graphics with either single or dual-card setups.

Ports, meanwhile, include four FireWire 800, five USB 2.0, analog and digital audio in/out, and then of course whichever graphics outputs are supported on the ATI video cards.  New Apple Mac Pro machines ship within 7-10 days.

[Thanks Simon!]

The new quad-core Mac Pro range kicks off with a $2,499 machine, which includes:

– one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of
fully-shared L3 cache;
– 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
– ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold
separately);
– 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
– 18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
– four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
– five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
– AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
– Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
– Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

Meanwhile the new 8-core Mac Pro starts at $3,499 and includes:

– two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of
fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
– 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
– ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold
separately);
– 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
– 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
– four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
– five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
– AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
– Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
– Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new Mac Pro machines will be available in August, with options including the new Magic Trackpad, twin DVD burners and internal RAID.  Hexacore machines will kick off at $4,999.

Press Release:

Apple Unveils New Mac Pro With Up to 12 Processing Cores

CUPERTINO, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today unveiled a new Mac® Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation.* Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals.

“The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion possible configurations, our customers can create exactly the system they want.”

At the heart of the new Mac Pro’s performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

For the first time, Mac Pro customers have the option to order a 512GB SSD for the ultimate in reliability and lightning fast performance. With the ability to install up to four SSD drives in the system’s internal drive bays, the new Mac Pro can provide ultra high-speed disk bandwidth and random disk performance, two times faster than the average performance of a standard disk drive.** Mac Pro also now features two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port. The additional Mini DisplayPort output allows customers to connect two LED Cinema Displays without an additional graphics card or adapter and the dual-link DVI port supports legacy DVI-based displays up to a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Every Mac Pro comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse and customers can also order Apple’s new Magic Trackpad as an option. The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touch(TM) gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. With its glass surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad allows users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to support single button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click. Magic Trackpad is available separately for $69.

Continuing Apple’s commitment to the environment, Apple’s desktop lineup is a leader in green design. The Mac Pro meets stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.*** The Mac Pro enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and the interior is designed to be more material-efficient. The Mac Pro uses PVC-free internal cables and components and contains no brominated flame retardants. The new Apple Battery Charger provides a convenient and environmentally friendly way to always have a fresh set of batteries for your Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. The Apple Battery Charger is available as an option for $29 and comes with six long shelf life rechargeable batteries.

Every Mac also comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife®, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhoto®, with breakthrough ways to organize and manage your photos by who appears in them and where they were taken; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand® which offers a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.

Optional Apple professional applications include Aperture®, Final Cut® Express, Final Cut Studio®, Logic® Express and Logic Studio®.

Pricing & Availability

The new Mac Pro will be available in August through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

– one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of
fully-shared L3 cache;
– 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
– ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold
separately);
– 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
– 18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
– four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
– five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
– AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
– Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
– Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:

– two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of
fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
– 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
– ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold
separately);
– 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
– 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
– four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
– five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
– AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
– Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
– Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

Configure-to-order options include:
– one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac
Pro;
– one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac
Pro;
– two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the
8-core Mac Pro;
– two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the
8-core Mac Pro;
– two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
– up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
– up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
– up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
– up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
– Mac Pro RAID card;
– dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
– up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.

Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at www.apple.com/macpro.

*Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 2.93 GHz units, all configured with 6GB of RAM. Based on render performance of Maxwell Render 2.0.3 using Benchwell’s sculpture.mxs. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

**Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units configured with 6GB of RAM, 1TB 7200-rpm hard disk drive and 512GB solid-state drive. Testing conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 128KB request size, 8 outstanding IOs, and 150GB test file. Average rotational media performance calculated by creating the test file on the outer, middle and inner sectors of the drive and averaging the results from all three measurements. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

***EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit www.epeat.net.