WWDC 2012 is approaching! June 11-15 will mark another year of product releases, more than 100 sessions for and labs with Apple engineers, and many, MANY rumours. With just under a month to WWDC MacPedia thought it might be best to voice our opinions on the hottest rumours. Let’s get started.
2012 MacBook Pro
Although not completely out of date in terms of product life span (Apple averages 267 days between updates), the 205 days since the previous update on the 2011 MacBook Pro is becoming a bit long in the tooth. Release of Intel’s new IvyBridge CPU chipset has put a lot of pressure on Apple to upgrade to the “latest and greatest” technology (we agree!), and Apple has always been known for their reliability to change to new technology.
What to expect:
- Thinner: Ethernet will be dropped (don’t worry, ThunderBolt is compatible with Ethernet via an adaptor), allowing for a much thinner chassis to be produced. We expect it to lose about 1/3-1/4 it’s thickness.
- NVIDIA GPU: Apple and NVIDIA have always partnered well, we expect the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics card to be in the 2012 MacBook Pro.
- Retina Displays: With the hype around Mountain Lion supporting High Resolution displays and the New iPad’s beautiful Retina Display, it seems logical that Apple will bring this technology to their Apple Mac lineup. This would give the 15″ MacBook Pro a screen resolution of 2880×1800 pixels. Wow.
- Two ThunderBolt Ports + USB3.0: Seems a logical enough decision to us, so why not!
- Benchmarks: Preliminary benchmarks have apparently already been leaked on popular benchmark tool GeekBench. With the identifier of “MacBookpro9,1″, the 32-bit version scores 12,252 points with an Ivy Bridge i7-3820QM CPU @2.7GHz. The current MacBook Pro 2011 scores 10,500 using the Sandy Bridge i7-2860QM. A 20% increase in performance, is that worth it to you?
What not to expect:
- Price reductions: When does Apple ever do this?
- High initial availability: Demand for Ivy Bridge CPUs is high – expect a 2-4 week wait before Apple officially releases them in their stores!
- 802.11ac: 1 router exists thus far compatible with 802.11ac. So unless Apple releases a new Time Capsule at WWDC, don’t expect this.
2012 iMac
Similar to the mobile lineup, the iMacs are expected to be released with some new upgrades, mainly the desktop Ivy Bridge chipset and CPU. At 379 days between updates, it’s officially the longest wait time ever on an iMac refresh cycle.
What to expect:
- New Ivy Bridge Chipset: Carrying an Ivy Bridge i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz CPU, the new iMac (supposedly high end) will Geekbench 12,183, compared to 11,500 on the current top-of-the-line i7-2600 Sandy Bridge CPU.
- New GPU: As expected, the iMac will support the latest release of GPU. NVIDIA or ATi? We don’t know.
- Two ThunderBolt + USB3.0: As expected!
- Retina Display: Rumours say that the 27″ iMac will sport a 5120×2880 IPS panel. Can you believe that? We’re having trouble as well, but wouldn’t it be nice!
What not to expect:
- Easy to replace user hard drives: Apple is becoming more and more protective of this sleek, all-in-one unit. For their eyes only, apparently.
- FireWire: It’s dead.
- 802.11ac: We’ve said it before. Not likely.
Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion is just around the corner. Last year, Apple announced a “late summer” release date, so July-August. We expect an update about 10.8 at the very least, and at least a demo!
Other Things
Some other important things to note – MacBook Airs, Time Capsules, and Mac Mini’s are all rumoured to be updated as well. If MacBook Pro’s are refreshed, then it’s almost a sure thing that the Mac Mini will be – but we aren’t so sure about the MacBook Air just yet. All aforementioned products are near their end of life cycle.
That’s it! Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that these rumours come true.
