Hold off on buying a new macbook / macbook pro for just a bit (1 Viewer)

New hotness probably not too far off:
http://gizmodo.com/5465724/are-these-the-first-core-i7-macbook-pro-benchmarks

Even if you would be satisfied with current gen, likely able to get the leftovers at slightly cheaper closeout prices.

In general, anyone in the market for a Mac should check the Buyer's Guide at macrumors.com before plunking down their cash. MBPs have an average refresh cycle of 200 days; it's now been 245 days since the last refresh, so they are overdue, and as Sam points out, the next gen should have the mobile Core i5/i7 parts. I expect them within the next month. Like the iMacs last fall, there will probably not be a press event - they'll just show up on the Apple Store some Tuesday morning.

While Apple won't be attending, Macworld Starts tomorrow. The Expo begins thursday:
http://www.macworldexpo.com/home

Seems like a perfect week for a hardware refresh to me.

really just comes down to a matter of "how soon is soon"?
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/macbookpro/

Right on, Sam. MacRumors says this in a post about Macworld:

While Apple will not be in attendance, there has been some whispers that Apple may launch MacBook Pro revisions this Tuesday.

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Makes perfect sense to me as well. Watch out for Apple Store downtime tomorrow AM.

Also, the MacBook Air is due for a refresh. It'll be interesting to see where Apple goes with that model in the wake of the iPad.

It really comes down to how Apple wants to go with this. I see three distinct possibilities here.

-1 they really don't care when Macworld takes place one way or the other any more, which is how they have characterized it
-2 they DO care from the perspective that they could get a nice bump in sales by selling 'to the faithful' who are already gathered and once a few of em buy the gear pre show, showing it off to the others gathered there make them go viral. Assuming there is something serious to show besides just moar megahurtzes. Like Bluray for example. =)
-3 they want to stay out of the Macworld Limelight alltogether and wait until the show is over on purpose (spitefully or not) to have the virtual stage all to themselves.

Which of the three do you see as the most Apple-ey? I say, sadly, #3. Remember iLife needs an update too. Is the time to launch iLife 10 now or is waiting all the way to WWDC the right thing to do, or if you are Apple do you have another special event prior to WWDC to do existing platform refreshes? If that's your strategy you really need to have some tricks up your sleeve. Anyone who thinks that WWDC will see a return to focusing on OSX for desktops instead of it being an iPhone / iPad Rah-rah session hasn't been paying attention to the last 4 years...

Sam

Edit: more rumors!
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-to-upgrade-macbook-pros-tomorrow-ahead-of-macworld-conference-2010-2

Bestbuy just updated SKUs, new lappies a LOCK for tomorrow!

The Apple Store is down...

...and it's back up.

Looks like all we have new is Aperture 3 (yeah!!). But no new lappies. I'm sure they're coming soon, but not this week apparently.

Ponderous.... Flipping ponderous, man...
http://www.spike.com/video/casey-kasems-death/2675184 (probably nsfw)

We've been had, gentlemen!

Yeah, and I was all prepared to either rush out and buy a $2k laptop today or remind anyone who did that buying a $2k laptop that couldn't even view Blurays that they were idiots =p

It's like getting coal for Christmas =(

So what rumor-mongers should be ignored, for future reference?

If you're asking based on who got this specific rumor wrong, it's basically all of them. There are sites that are more reliable/accurate than others, but this isn't the first time that Apple fooled nearly everyone.

Originally Posted by DaveF

So what rumor-mongers should be ignored, for future reference?

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This was all based on (1) New MBPs are overdue and (2) The current MBP SKUs disappeared from Best Buy's inventory system. We know they're coming - it's just a matter of when. I still think we'll see 'em before February's out.

this isn't the first time that Apple fooled nearly everyone.

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Apple didn't fool anybody. We all fooled ourselves!

Gruber nor MacBreak Weekly haven't discussed new MBP rumors in the past week, so I didn't expect anything new until I saw this thread. So I figured it was an isolated rumor.

Too true. But in fairness to those who were reporting new MBPs, it wasn't solely based those two factors. There was also the fact that Intel is releasing their new CPUs (which traditionally Apple has early access to), as well as reports "in the wild" of seeing the new MBP 6,1 in weblogs (which admittedly can be easily faked). I think a confluence of all four factors really made a new release of the MBP seem imminent.

That said, I'm glad when they put the Apple store back online they finally took the "New" tags off of the iMac, Mac Mini and Macbook. I thought they should have been removed a month ago, or more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig S /forum/thread/297885/hold-off-on-buying-a-new-macbook-macbook-pro-for-just-a-bit#post_3659091

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/forum/thread/297885/hold-off-on-buying-a-new-macbook-macbook-pro-for-just-a-bit#post_3659091

Leo Laporte and co were talking about these expectations on the newest MBW, so now I'll believe the rumors are earnest

We've got it all wrong guys, they WERE scheduled for this week but Steve Jobs had a revelation and change of heart and they've been held back to add Bluray BTO options! =p

Surest sign that new Macbooks & Pros are coming: Instant rebates on existing stock. http://bit.ly/aIwBL1