Macotakara mentioned that a brand new ultra-thin 15″ Mac Notebook with getting closer into production.

According to Asian source, Apple seems already to have finished to develop MacBook Air 15″ LCD test component to add its line-up and to go product development of it.

Macotakara is calling the new notebook a 15″ MacBook Air, but we aren’t entirely sure that would be the name.

Back in April, we had heard reliable confirmation that the 2012 revision of the MacBook Pro would carry a new case design. iLounge had described it as a “milestone” release. Later, in July, we heard that Apple was already finishing up work on this ultra-thin 15″ Mac Notebook.

At this point, it seems clear that Apple’s next MacBook Pro revision will carry this new design, which many believe will take cues from the current MacBook Air designs. What’s not clear is how Apple will integrate the new models with the current MacBook Air models. The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines seem destined to converge over time.

In fact, Intel believes that Air-like “ultrabook” designs could make up to 40% of the consumer laptop market by the end of 2012. Apple just updated their MacBook Pro line with faster processors, which places their next revision sometime in the first half of 2012.

It’s been few months since Apple introduce the new MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt, and now the MacBook Pro is getting a healthy midlife speed bump to refresh itself on the wooden shelves of Apple store. And the good news is that there’s no increase to the price! For a start, you can now splash out on a faster AMD Radeon HD 6770M discrete GPU with your 15-inch or 17-inch lappie. Even better, there are some CPU improvements to be had: the 13-incher gets the option of a 2.8GHz Core i7 or a 2.4GHz Core i5 dual-core processor, instead of the previous entry-level 2.3GHz i5 (and it also gets its HDD notched up to a minimum 500GB, or max 750GB). The 15-incher now goes up to a quad-core 2.4GHz i7 — the same speedy processor that comes in the updated 17-inch variant. Just in time for the year end shopping?

SOURCE via Apple

Computer Choppers’ latest luxury overhaul is about as Cribs-worthy a laptop as we’ve ever laid our hard-working eyes on. Just like this 24-carat stunner before it, the shiny setup gives something a little extra to that Apple logo, by way of Marilyn’s favorite gems, but sets itself apart with the addition of a rather unexciting paisley pattern. If you’re the type who flushes hundos, though, you can ditch the paisleys for your very own custom design. As is often the case with these things, the price isn’t listed, but frankly, we’d hold out until they replace those black plastic chiclets with something fit for the Diamond Princess. Now all you need is a 24-carat iPhone to match this.

SOURCE via Computer Choppers

It’s been more than two months since Apple unveiled its Thunderbolt Display, and the gadget sadists over at iFixit are just getting around to picking the thing apart — quite literally. So what has this dive into the 27-incher revealed? Well, for starters, the iFixit crew found that the LG-made LCD display in this Thunderbolt monitor appears to be the same one found in Dell’s UltraSharp U2711, though favoring a cursed glossy finish. That’s also the same setup we saw in Cupertino’s 2009 iMac. This teardown also features a slew of chips from the likes of Texas Instruments and Broadcom and a miniature subwoofer. For more under-the-hood discoveries and a healthy helping of disassembled Thunderbolt Display components take a stroll on over to the source link below.

SOURCE via iFixit

VMware has just announced Fusion 4, the latest version of its virtualization software, and, as you’d expect, it pledges to play nice with Apple’s newly minted OS. In addition to fully supporting Lion features like Spotlight, though, it makes Windows look more like, well, a Mac.

The software includes improved support for Expose and Spaces on the Windows side, and adds the ability to use Mission Control and launch Windows apps from Launchpad. Additionally, you can run Lion as a virtual machine within Snow Leopard and VMware makes vague claims about improved performance, 3D graphics and resource-hogging. It’ll cost $50 through the end of the year, with the price jumping up to $80 in January.

Fittingly enough, VMware picked up on the fact that Apple’s moving away from optical drives, and instead chose to ship the software with a USB drive (you can also download it and do the whole drag-and-drop installation thing). Oh, and if you bought the last-gen version of the software on July 20th or later, you’ll get the new version gratis.

If you’re trying to make a name for yourself in the incredibly crowded portable storage space, you can innovate and create something totally awesome, or you can do this. The mDock from mLogic is an external hard drive, port extender and port blocker all rolled into one pricey coffin-like chamber of fail. $219 will net you an eternal resting place for 500 gigs of data, while $299 ups the ante to an entire terabyte.

Plus, with a pair of front-facing USB ports, you can add a third-party portable storage yokel for the less-than-princely sum of 50 bucks. If you haven’t already gathered, the mDock is designed for mMacbook Pros, but there’s also the iMac-mountable mBack (curiously not the iBack), designed with Apple’s familiar desktop flavor in mind.

Most ports that are blocked by the mDock are replicated on the silver brick, including the Magsafe. The only restriction appears to be a lack of pass-through for Thunderbolt, but you do get a mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors.

That variant is slightly more affordable, with pricing ranging from $169 for 1TB to $349 for 3TB, but you’ll forgo the dock-like USB hub and headphone jack. There’s no word on when to expect this to arrive in stores.

SOURCE via mLogic

It seemed that Apple is beginning to ship the new 27″ Thunderbolt Display to stores and resellers this week. This means that customers should be able to see and buy the devices very soon.

The new 27″ Display adds Thunderbolt compatibility, allowing the displays to act as a docking station using a single Thunderbolt cable. The new display includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera, 2.1 speaker system, three USB ports, one Firewire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a second Thunderbolt port to enable daisy chaining.

The new display also allows the ability to run two displays off of a single Thunderbolt port on Macs offering enough graphics horsepower to support the pixel load. Apple introduced the new display back in July. It is presently available for pre-order for $999.

SOURCE via MacRumors

We all know that Intel has not invented the Ultrabook – perhaps it invented the name, but certainly not the form factor (even if Intel says that Ultrabooks are not just about the size, but about the user experience.)

Apple just patented the design of the MacBook Air, which is really the image we imagine when we talk about an Ultrabook.

Patent infringements on ornamental designs are not pursued as often as technology patents, and it is unlikely that Apple would go after Intel as long as the chipmaker is delivering the hardware for its computers, but this patent surely is interesting in the light of Intel’s $300 million fund to support the launch of its Ultrabook idea. Could go Apple go after Acer, Asus and Samsung, once those firms are releasing Ultrabooks?

However, history has told us that PCs look different than Apple computers and there may not be really an issue as Ultrabooks are unlikely to resemble the visual appeal of the MacBook Air.

Apple has filed two patents that could hint to the company’s intent to get rid of printer drivers, but don’t expect them to be in the next update for Lion thought.

Apple has three ways of enabling printing without drivers, with a focus on compact mobile devices. The first is a simple, Google-like cloud-print solution. A second model targets a universal printer access via a discovery protocol and expanded network printing protocol (as well as support for postscript printer description files). The third model relies on traditional printer drivers. The entire concept is described as walkup printing, a term that is already marketed by Xerox.

The cloud model is questionable as Google is providing such capability via Chrome and Chrome OS, but the use of Bonjour as discovery protocol as well as IPP as network printing protocol (npp) are interesting approaches

In another patent, mentions a new document-format-preferred key, “which enables the printer to specify a ‘preferred’ document format out of all of the document formats that are supported by the printer” as well as a new “URF-supported key.” This URF key can be used to provide printer configuration data, such as supported bit depths, maximum copies, supported duplex printing, specific finishings such as stapling, and media types. The patent notes that the key can be added to Bonjour and to the transport protocol “as a new printer description attribute for the IPP protocol.”

SOURCE via Conceivably Tech

Over the last few years, we’ve grown used to 3G-enabled netbooks, MIDs, tablets and more. Now it seems Apple was, at one point, considering the technology for its line of MacBook Pros as a prototype MacBook Pro 3G has appeared for sale on eBay. The notebook in question, a 15-inch Macbook Pro from 2007, has a retractable antenna on the side of the display/lid as well as a SIM card slot.

The seller says he purchased the laptop as a non-functional parts machine from someone on Craigslist. However, when he received it, he quickly realized that this was a very special MacBook Pro. There was the aforementioned antenna, the red motherboard of an Apple prototype, a fully integrated cellular modem and a SIM slot…

“Upon removing the top case it was immediately clear this was no normal Macbook Pro: the circuit boards inside were bright red as opposed to the normal blue! Further inspection found multiple differences from the stock version, most notably a feature never seen in a Macbook laptop of any kind:  what appears to be a fully integrated cellular modem and SIM slot.  There is an extendable cellular antenna located at the right top side of the display assembly (The antenna is marked with “Tyco  Proto / #006″ when slid out), and a standard size SIM card slot located underneath the memory cover on the bottom of the machine.  The SIM card board is connected to the logic board via a connector not found on production machines.  The solder footprint for it is still present on the production boards and not populated, which is interesting.  This would seem to suggest that it was a last minute decision to remove the cellular functionality before going into mass production.  The optical drive is marked as a “Sample for Evaluation”.  Rather than a normal EMC Number the specifications lapel simply says “XXXX”, and the serial number does not show up in Apple’s online database.   Rather than use the machine for parts I of course had to put the time into repairing it to its original condition and see what happened!

Without a doubt, the biggest question here is does the integrated 3G actually work? Sadly, it doesn’t appear so.

“I have unfortunately been unable to get it working with my SIM card, though it is seen by the operating system and recognized as a modem device usable to connect to the internet with various configuration options,” eBay seller abhw752579 writes. “It is entirely possible it can be made to work by someone with more software and driver experience than me but I can make no guarantees.”

Bidding currently stands at $30,100.99, but it doesn’t end for another three days. Apple has not commented on the sale.