What to expect from today's Apple MacBook event: the rumour round-up

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Tue 14 Oct 2008

Whatever is announced, we do know one thing: that Steve Jobs will wear a black turtleneck.

Apple's holding an event in the US in just a few hours, where they're expected to unveil brand new MacBooks or MacBook Pros. Whatever they announce, we're not looking forward to getting home and being mocked by our now-old MacBooks. Here's what's rumoured to launch tonight:

-MacBooks with glass trackpads

This rumour is an oldie but a goodie - who doesn't want glass trackpads to smear fingerprints upon? And when the weather is hot, you can press your face up to the trackpad, as the glass might be quite cool. If the MacBook hasn't overheated by then.

- Aluminium casing for MacBooks

Currently it's just the MacBook Pros and Airs which are encased in aluminium, but Apple could try and dazzle us with their more 'premium' MacBooks coated in lovely silver finishes.

-Two NVIDIA GPU chips

Spies have said the new models will contain two graphics cards, making the pictures look more beautiful than ever before. They'll keep Intel CPUs but replace the Intel graphics card with NVIDIA ones, reportedly.

- New MacBooks to have black keyboards in aluminium frame

According to the 'leaked' photos, the new MacBook Pro model will have a black keyboard with a frame made from just a single sheet of aluminium.

- LED screens for MacBooks

Since Greenpeace got on Apple's back about their environmental record, Apple's been trying to lift their game - case in point being the new iPod Nanos, which "is the greenest iPod ever". LED screens have been put in MacBook Pros and adopted by Dell, as they're more eco-friendly and kinder on your battery life - but what about the MacBooks, with their TFT screens?

- A low-cost netbook will be announced

Apple's definitely going to jump on the netbook bandwagon at some point, but whether it's announced tonight is anyone's guess. Will it be a tablet? Will it be an oversized iPhone? A mini iBook? Either way, it'll be the most pricey netbook by far.

- The MacBook Air will have greater storage

There'll be two models with larger hard drives - a 120GB disk and a 128GB SSD in the more expensive model.

- Blu-ray drive added to MacBook Pros

Another old rumour being rehashed for today's event, and it's certainly possible - they're not going to pop an HD DVD drive in there, are they? Blu-ray will definitely be included in the Pros, but when is a very good question indeed.

- iLife and iWork 09 shown off

A new suite of software is needed by Apple, with the last releases launching over a year now. And if Apple's announcing new MacBooks, it makes sense to show off some brand new software in the demo.