#mac minis

The white MacBook, which sports a unibody polycarbonate (in other words, plastic) frame, was last updated in mid-2010. It currently sports a 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy screen (1280 by 800 pixel resolution, just like the 13-inch MacBook Pro), 2GB of system memory (expandable to 8GB), a 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo and Nvidia's GeForce 320M graphics card with 256MB video memory.

What's likely in the new white MacBook? Thunderbolt, of course. Probably a Sandy Bridge processor of some sort. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro sports a 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, so it's reasonable to suspect a dual-core equivalent, maybe clocked at 2.0 or 2.2 GHz. We'll probably also see a shift to the slower Intel HD Graphics 3000 or AMD Radeon 6000M series video card—a real bummer for older Nvidia GeForce 320M MacBook owners (the latter's the reason I skipped Apple's last MacBook Pro refresh in February 2011).

And who knows, perhaps Apple will finally drop the price on this thing. $999 still seems like $100-$200 too much for what's essentially a cheapo plastic version of the in-every-way-superior only $200 pricier 13-inch MacBook Pro.

If you're instead looking for something like a Mac Mini, it looks like that's happening, too, with three new models appearing "soon" and classified "best," "better," and "ultimate." No word on what they'll include, though faster latest-family processors are a given.