Rumor: New Macs to Be Announced at WWDC

By Jane McEntegart
published

Rumors point to a massive Mac update at WWDC next week.

This week might be all about E3 and Computex, but June is a busy, busy month for the tech and electronics industry. Next week Apple is holding its annual developers conference in San Francisco, better known as WWDC. Though the majority of the event focuses on software, Apple has been known to talk hardware at WWDC. From 2007 through to 2010, the company launched a new iPhone. This year it's expected Apple will wait until the fall to announce the iPhone 5. However, that doesn't mean 2012 will be a hardware-free WWDC.

9to5Mac reports that Apple is planning to update four of its five Mac lines at WWDC. This includes two configurations of 15-inch MacBook Pro, 11-inch and 13-inch Retina display MacBook Airs (two configurations of each), a new iMac, and possible upgrades to either the Mac mini or Mac Pro line.

As far as specs are concerned, 9to5 has also got a spec sheet for the MacBook Pro (via Weiphone forums). There's no indication or confirmation from Apple if this is genuine (no surprise there), but if it does turn out to be accurate, the new MacBook Pro will pack a Core i5-3210M CPU, 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt.

WWDC is scheduled to kick off next week, from June 11 - June 15. Tune in next week to see if there really will be new Macs in stores this summer. 

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Jane McEntegart
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DroKing
    Intel HD4000? Lol for the WIN!
    Reply
  • ap3x
    DroKingIntel HD4000? Lol for the WIN!
    Just in case you did not already know this but the MacBook Pro has 2 separate graphics processors that it switches between for power efficiency. The Intel is the low power graphics and uses shared Mem. When an application demands the MBP automatically switches to the ATI or Nvidia processor. The Intel is built in and the ATI or Nvidia uses the PCIe bus.

    If you want to run the faster processor 100% of the time all you have to do is disable automatic graphics switching in the energy saving section of the System Preferences.

    Secondly, before people start talking about the spec that is mentioned in this article being outdated or obsolete. Macbook Pro's processors, displays, graphics, disk, and memory are all configurable. The spec above is probably the minimum spec available. You can get the I7, SSD, Higher end graphics, and everything else just as you could with most laptops out there.
    Reply
  • fantasticles
    ap3xThe spec above is probably the minimum spec available. You can get the I7, SSD, Higher end graphics, and everything else just as you could with most laptops out there.
    Sure, just costs you an arm, a leg, and a liver.
    Reply
  • ap3x
    FantasticlesSure, just costs you an arm, a leg, and a liver.
    Not sure about that entirely. If you look at the laptop in it's entirety and compare it to others you will probably find that although there is a premium, that it is not nearly as steep as people make it out to be. Things like the switching between graphics processors for power efficiency gains, IPS displays and other stuff that does not show up in the spec sheet make a difference.

    I realize that most here prefer Windows based machines and there are some seriously nice ones out there especially from ASUS but the MBP is a solid machine and are very reliable. There is allot going on in the engineering of these things.
    Reply
  • brizzelsprout
    ap3xNot sure about that entirely. If you look at the laptop in it's entirety and compare it to others you will probably find that although there is a premium, that it is not nearly as steep as people make it out to be. Things like the switching between graphics processors for power efficiency gains, IPS displays and other stuff that does not show up in the spec sheet make a difference. I realize that most here prefer Windows based machines and there are some seriously nice ones out there especially from ASUS but the MBP is a solid machine and are very reliable. There is allot going on in the engineering of these things.
    Yay for someone with an actual informed opinion and not just blind fanboyness!

    Well said sir!
    Reply
  • memadmax
    I won't pay an arm a leg and a liver for something that will just sit there collecting dust.... oh, yea, I guess we would use the thing to "surf" the internet once in a while....

    This is what happened to macs that I have bought before... and, unless they open up the OS a bit(LOL!) it will continue to happen...
    No thanks.. I don't want an expensive electronic "art conversation piece" in my house....

    But it's Magical!
    I'm cereal!
    Reply
  • molo9000
    Rumor: New Macs to Be Announced at WWDC
    dun dun duuuuun


    Let's hope they finally remove the optical drive from the MacBook Pro line. Nobody uses that anymore.
    Reply
  • 11796pcs
    I applaud ap3x's comments for going beyond the usual "Mac's suck" comments that are always found in Apple articles on this site. Still though, there is quite a price premium with Macs. For most people, the few hundred dollars that separate Macs from PCs is not a small chunk of change. And remember that once you buy a Mac you still have to pay for a proper OS (not OSX or Windows 8 basically) unless you're going to have your relatively powerful Apple hardware just do web browsing all day.
    Reply
  • AidanJC
    molo9000dun dun duuuuunLet's hope they finally remove the optical drive from the MacBook Pro line. Nobody uses that anymore. I use mine heaps, It would be a huge pain to lug around an external DVD drive too..
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    11796pcsI applaud ap3x's comments for going beyond the usual "Mac's suck" comments that are always found in Apple articles on this site. Still though, there is quite a price premium with Macs. For most people, the few hundred dollars that separate Macs from PCs is not a small chunk of change. And remember that once you buy a Mac you still have to pay for a proper OS (not OSX or Windows 8 basically) unless you're going to have your relatively powerful Apple hardware just do web browsing all day.
    Windows 8 is an excellent OS. If you dislike Metro, then install Classic Shell and now you have an OS that beats Windows 7 in pretty much every practical way. You might applaud ap3x for not being biased about Macs, but then you go on to be biased about Windows 8.
    Reply