Some new speculation over at Think Secret has pegged a possible MacBook Pro update for next month. The update is rumored to about the new LED-backlit 15-inch displays and could come within days of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote during the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11.

According to Think Secret, their sources tell them that Apple's order for the displays called on a delivery schedule of mid May. Based on the standard schedule that the company has used in the past, there will be a three to four week window for manufacturing and shipping.

The final date would coincide with Jobs' keynote address on June 11 in San Francisco. Says Think Secret, that's where Apple is likely to announce a new MacBook Pro using a LED backlight display. Think Secret also says that according to the same sources, Apple will be targetting a Q3 rollout of their low-end 13.3-inch laptops.

Intel's Centrino Pro (codename Santa Rosa) has just been released yesterday and already, companies Lenovo and LG, as well as other lesser known PC vendors, have laptop offerings carrying the fourth-generation Centrino platform.

Apple consumers are now wondering when they will see this technology in their MacBooks. Gadget site Gizmodo reports that one of its chain partner revealed that a new model of MacBook is coming out next week.

It is believed that Apple will eventually shift to Centrino Pro as well but we wonder if that they will be able to do so in seven days. It should be remembered that it took them three months after Core 2 Duo was released to shift platforms.

As you know, Apple will be holding its annual conference - WWDC - this June and if they are indeed making the shift, it is highly possible that they will announce it during the said event. After all, the initial shift to Intel was announced in WWDC 2006. Apple will change platforms, there's no question about that. The only vague thing here is when.

Just so you know, Santa Rosa Centrino Pro features an updated mobile Core 2 Duo microprocessor. The Front Side Bus speed of the chipset has been increased to 800 MHz but it can also be altered to save power.

In accordance with Apple's "cleaner and greener" drive, reports have surfaced that the Cupertino-based company might be including its consumer line of 13-inch MacBooks as one of the products that will be receiving the LED-backlit display treatment this year.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro was the first notebook slated to undergo the LED-backlit display treatment. The 17-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models are also being considered for the same upgrade.

According to AppleInsider, DigiTimes reports that Apple is currently studying samples of 13.3-and 15.4-inch panels from AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics. Backlight unit makers Coretronic and Kenmos are also sending samples to be incorporated in the panels. Shipments for these components are expected to officially commence in Q2 or Q3 of this year.

Last month's Puff the Flammable MacBook might have been an extreme case, maybe not even related. Still, Reuters reports that Apple recently acknowledged that some of the notebook PC batteries in their MacBook/Pros "may have performance problems," but "the issues are not a safety risk," they insist.

Said issues include not charging when the computer's plugged into an outlet. Strangely enough, that had been a common complaint about laptop batteries - Apple mobile PCs and otherwise - over the past year.

So enough with the bellyaching, solutions, solutions. Apple has released Battery Update 1.2, specified for Intel laptops. It should hopefully improve battery life and "reduce swelling." Swelling batteries: that's always a bad sign. In addition, Reuters notes that the battery replacement program continues and also applies to out-of-warranty MacBook/Pros as well, if and only if:

• Battery is not recognized causing an Â?XÂ? to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

For those with Intel Core Duo MacBook/Pros, the repair/replace program "extends repair coverage on the battery for up to two years from the date of purchase of the computer." Presuming your hapless battery qualifies, hit the Read link for details.

Of course, if your MacBook/Pro has suffered the fate of Puff, then it's definitely too late for an Update or Replacement. Just hope the house didn't go up with the battery.

While Mac owners can expect to enjoy enhanced computer security by way of a recently released security update for 25 OS X flaws, another new Mac owner is about to enjoy a new MacBook Pro laptop by hacking into it.

This is the case of software engineer Shane Macaulay, who has reportedly broken into one of two MacBook Pro computers set up at the CanSecWest conference's Hack a Mac contest. This successful hack attempt comes after a revamp of the contest rules last Friday, and after previous hack attempts had failed.

Macaulay has reportedly teamed up with security researcher Dino Davi Zovi for the attempt. "The vulnerability and the exploit are mine," said Zovi, regarding how the pair worked. "Shane is my man on the ground."

As for how they plan to split their bounty, Macaulay is expected top keep the MacBook Pro laptop, while Zovi is planning to submit the detected exploit to security company TippingPoint Technologies to apply for their Zero Day Initiative bug bounty program. "Shane can have the laptop, I want the money," Zovi said. That's the rough of what's happened at the event - the full technical details are available at the source link.

Back in 1994, Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, and chairman and co-founder of Opsware, was a Mac user. And although it was quite a surprise that he jumped fence towards Microsoft, he's setting things right once again by going back to Mac.

It's a phenomenon observed many times before, but this time, it's all about the head of a company that was once against the Redmond giant.

Andreessen is best known for being part of the Internet revolution back in the early 90s, pushing out his masterpiece: the Mosaic browser. Netscape Communications soon became his greatest achievement when he co-founded it and lead it up the industry ladder. When AOL got their hands on Netscape, he remained as Chief Technical Officer.

Today he stands at the top of data center automation provider, Opsware, and was pretty disappointed when his Lenovo ThinkPad T60 just couldn't keep up. He swapped the machine for an Intel 15-inch MacBook Pro and was pretty chirpy about it. As he said, "I used to be a Mac user till 1994 and now I am a Mac user again.Â?

Because his Mosaic browser was turned against Netscape's Navigator in the form of Internet Explorer, it's a surprise that he even considered grabbing a Windows laptop in the first place.

From the same guys who brought you Ubuntu right on your OS X desktop, a new guide tackles installing the PC newest flagship OS, Vista Ultimate, into your very own Mac box - more appropriately, your MacBook Pro.

Now the capability of Apple's newer systems to run Windows isn't new news: Apple's move to Intel has made that possibility a lot easier to imagine.

But installing Windows instead of OS X is a lot different from installing Windows on OS X. Simplehelp presents a step-by-step guide for installing an OS over another OS, using a nifty little Virtual Machine (VM) software, called Parallels Desktop for OS X.

It was done before, yes, but this time it's the monster pack Ultimate that gets touchy-feely with its Apple side. Of course, there are problems that will ensue from installing Vista Ultimate on Mac (including hardware requirements).

So run over to the "Read" link and see how to do it. Remember, you will need Parallels Desktop and any Mac similar to a MacBook Pro, so the procedures will pretty much stay the same.

   

So what would happen if you installed Vista on a Mac Pro and ran OS X alongside it? This is possible with the use of a hardware emulator, Parallels Desktop.

After discovering that Vista runs faster than OS X on an Intel Mac Pro, the guys at Gizmodo got curious about how the two operating systems would do when running side by side. They installed Vista on their MacBook Pro and waited to see what happens. It worked, but with assorted problems.

They encountered problems with Vista support in Parallels - describing it as "still quite developmental" - and Aero graphics which was explained by Parallels' inadequate graphics card support. Networking problems (the complete non existence of it) were also encountered. They tried getting a Windows Experience Index score but their plan to compare scores were botched by an error pop up window.

Parallels isn't perfect - atleast not yet. We'll see how it goes in the near future when Parallels updates their Beta. Stay tuned.

Oh, thank goodness. Read up on Marie's MacBook Pro update if you want to know what other new and upgunned goodies Apple packed into that gleaming notebook casing, but for now, let us focus on the one update that matters: why the MacBook won't burn your lap (for the most part).

Jason O'Grady reveals in The Apple Core blogs that he left his 2.33GHz MacBook Pro four hours straight, and its temp hasn't gone higher than 122º Fahrenheit (50 on the Celsius scale), according to the CoreDuoTemp monitoring homebrew. That's 40 degrees F (4.4º C) cooler than the hottest his old 2.0GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro got, about a scorching 162º F (72.2º C)! On average, the new MacBook Pro ran at about 115º F (46.1º C).

Jason noticed that the internal fans in his MacBook would run more often than he was used to hearing from his old one. He's betting that Apple made a major adjustment to the System Management Controller (SMC) firmware that controls the notebook's power and cooling functions.

There were a couple of skeptical comments to Jason's post. One, in particular, was betting that all this constant running on the fans would cause the fans to wear out faster (Hope that still falls under the warranty). Then again, heat was a major complaint among MacBook owners, and this could be Cupertino's way of saying "we're sorry?" If any of you guys have gotten your new MacBook Pros, tell us: are they no longer among the hottest items around?

We really won't want to bother you with a lot of technical stuff concerning the 2.33GHz MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo latest update, but we thought you might want to know some of the highlights of the update. Thanks to bcavanau, we learned that there have been lots of improvements that'll make a lot of MacBook Pro users happy.

Apple made sure that it was still consistent with the old  model though, with some features hardly changed such as the case (except that it comes with a new FW800 Port) and with far less noise. Here's a quick rundown of stuff you may find in the upgrade:

• Hard drive (120GB) is Fujitsu MHW2120BH
• DVD Drive (6X-DVD-DL) is Matshita UJ-857D
• Airport reception seems to be consistent with previous model
• ATI X1600 Core clock is 418.50 and Memory clock is 450.00
• Screenshots of the About Window and the Hardware Overview in Mac OS X

The Atheros AR5008 802.11n chipset runs up to 650% faster and five times farther than 802.11g. This is a draft 802.11n wireless card found in the MacBook Pro. Other users found a different draft in the iMacs, which means Apple may intend to use another faster wireless card for the upcoming iTV. If this is likely, then we're going to be hearing from Apple soon enough, so keep reading for more news.