New Macbook Pros with new touchpads, Penryn due in 3 weeks

With MacWorld comes all good things; okay, perhaps not the Macbook Air, or updates to the Apple’s wireless router, but know that good things spill forth from Cupertino in all arenas shortly after MacWorld.  For those of you who aren’t completely enamored with the new Macbook Air, rumor has it that the real Clydesdales of the Apple portable lineup, the Macbook Pros, are due to receive the bigger trackpad (and yummy features) of the Air and an updated processor.

 This latest rumor comes spilling forth from AppleInsider; purportedly, people “familiar” with this year’s product roadmap have leaked info that the next Macbook Pros, which will be released soon, will be equipped with the larger trackpad and an upgraded Penryn-based processor, pushing speeds of 2.6 Ghz and toting 6mb L2 cache.

  If the new Macbooks, which are supposedly going to be released in a few weeks, were ready for MacWorld, why didn’t they make the release?  Apparently an executive decision was made to push the release back a few weeks.What that says to me is that Apple didn’t want any of the thunder stolen from the Macbook Air; apparently Steve really is serious about the tiny little portable.  He obviously didn’t know that the Air would come off as just hot air to the critics.

The good news is that the updated Macbooks should give a little boost to Apple’s outlook on 2008.  If you’re considering getting a Macbook Pro, wait a while.  Three weeks might not be a realistic date, but sometime this quarter you should definitely be seeing the new Macbook Pros roll out.    

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• Built-in iPod docks for MacBook Pros?
• Will the MacBook Air receive an update? Sources claim yes; Expect Penryn processors and a higher capacity battery
• New MacBook Pros on January 27, too
• Will the updated MacBook Pro be released today? The Apple store is closed.
• MacBook Pro part numbers materialized in inventory systems. Is the waiting over?