Rack-mountable Mac Pro to arrive with Air and Lion this week

By Jason D. O'Grady July 11, 2011, 8:55pm PDT
Summary
The MacBook Air is due for a refresh any day and a new rumor suggests that the venerable Mac Pro could get upgraded at the same time. Could be a Lion, Air and Pro trio — as soon as tomorrow.
Topics
Apple MacBook Air, Apple MacBook, Apple MacBook Pro, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady
Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.
David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. In the recent past, he founded Ziff-Davis' Storage Supersite, served as news editor for Ziff Davis Internet and held several executive editorial positions at eWEEK. In the 1990s, David was editor of Ziff Davis' award-winning MacWEEK news publication as well as its successor title, eMediaWEEKly, which focused on multiplatform professional content creation. His byline can be found online and in print publications including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press' Mac Bible and Popular Photography.
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If you’re in the market for a new MacBook you’re undoubtedly aware that the MacBook Air is due for a refresh any day now. A new rumor making the rounds (via 9to5Mac) claims that the Mac Pro could get upgraded at the same time.
The new line was rumored to be launching in the last week of July or the first week of August, but it looks like Apple is getting them out earlier (or we just got the part numbers super early, which is unlikely). The new Mac Pros are may feature a re-designed enclosure that is both narrower and rack-mountable. A faster, 16 core model is also a possibility and Thunderbolt is an obvious addition. As expected, a new Mac Pro Server model will also debut
My guess is Lion will launch with the new MacBook Air, and Mac Pro tomorrow because Apple’s had enough time to image the machines with the Lion GM build and still stay inside its 30-day delivery window. And Apple likes to announce things on Tuesdays, so there’s that…
Although it’s far too late, I have two requests for the new MacBook Air:
A backlit keyboard is a must (it was in the 1st gen model!)
A LED battery gauge like the one on the MacBook Pro
And tower PCs? Srsly? Who’s buying towers these days, anyway?
Image: MacTechDish
Related posts:
Rumor: Apple soldering MacBook Air SSD to motherboard (and why it’s a bad idea)
My wish list for the June 2011 MacBook Air
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