Adding to claims made by 9to5mac earlier today, Bloomberg now says Apple will take the wraps off thinner Mac notebooks that feature Retina Displays and Flash memory at its developer-centric show next month.
Citing multiple unnamed sources, Bloomberg says the new MacBook Pros will be less than 0.95 inch (24mm) thick and sport Intel's third-generation Core series chips, code-named Ivy Bridge.
The report is the latest to suggest Apple is on the verge of updating its Mac portable line with a thinner design. Earlier today Apple blog 9to5mac said Apple was "putting the finishing touches" on a revamped version of its 15-inch MacBook Pro with a higher-resolution display and USB 3.0, all with the removal of the optical drive to shrink it down in size. Bloomberg's report makes no such mention of that feature disappearing.
Numerous rumors pointed to last month as the time when Apple would unveil new Mac notebook models to coincide with the release of Intel's latest generation of chips. Apple's last refresh of the MacBook Pro was in October when the company added a speedier processor, more storage, and upgraded graphics capabilities. It's been a bit longer for the MacBook Air, which was refreshed in late July to coincide with the release of Apple's Lion OS X software update.
It makes sense that Apple would wait until its developers conference to take the wraps off a higher-resolution screen technology. Developers would likely need to update parts of their software to take advantage of the new option. In recent months, Apple has been outed updating some of its own apps and icons to make use of the hardware feature.
Bloomberg noted, via a source, that next month could bring a release date for Apple's next OS X release, dubbed Mountain Lion. Apple took the wraps off that OS in February, giving developers time to ready their apps ahead of its release, promised in "late summer".
Apple's WWDC kicks off on June 11 in San Francisco. Like last year, Apple has promised it will show developers "the future of iOS and OS X". The show is also rumored to bring some changes to Apple's iCloud service.
BY: Josh Lowensohn
