Pre-WWDC flurry: updates expected for most Macs, but whither Mac Pro?

The grapevine is also buzzing over what’s expected to be announced in iOS 6.

Jacqui Cheng – Jun 4, 2012 8:15 pm | 55

Will the Mac Pro see an update like its more nimble brothers and sisters?

Nearly every single Mac that Apple currently offers is expected to see an update next Monday when WWDC kicks off—at least according to sources speaking to 9to5Mac. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac are supposedly slated for an update in less than a week, along with either the Mac mini or the beleaguered Mac Pro. This is in addition to the expected demos of OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6, though as usual, Apple has not confirmed any of the current rumors.

There is little information available for what might be involved in these hardware updates, but it would make more than enough sense for Apple to update the machines to Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors. We have long argued that Apple would most likely wait until June to add Ivy Bridge to its Macs due to the Ivy Bridge shipping schedule, even though some configurations could have been updated as early as April.

That didn’t happen—surprise!—but now the time is ripe for such an update. And, as many have already observed, if Apple indeed updates most of its Mac line at WWDC next week, it might be one of the largest simultaneous Mac launches the company has ever tried to pull off.

We wrote in April that the MacBook Pro line might go quad-core with the first wave of Ivy Bridge processors, and it’s widely believed that both the MacBook Air line and the MacBook Pro line could see display updates to bring their pixels-per-inch up to ” retina” level. That belief does not necessarily extend to the iMac, however, and 9to5Mac’s sources apparently didn’t give them any hints on that either. The site has virtually no info on what might be involved in an iMac update, and can’t say whether the Mac mini or the Mac Pro will be the fourth piece of hardware to get an update next week. As many professional users know, the Mac Pro hasn’t been updated in almost two years at this point, and some are beginning to worry that Apple could be preparing to kill off the high-end machine.

It’s also possible that Apple will launch the updated Macs alongside a surprise “early” launch of Mountain Lion. It wouldn’t be the first time Apple has done this—in fact, Apple rolled out a new MacBook Air, Mac mini, and Cinema Display last July when it launched OS X Lion.

This rumor follows others that have popped up in recent days involving what parts of iOS 6 will be demoed at WWDC. A “do not disturb” feature is expected to come to iOS 6’s (as well as Mountain Lion’s) Notification Center, as well as a new feature called “iCloud Tabs” that will show a list of Safari tabs opened across multiple devices and “Mail VIPs”—an apparent nod to Gmail’s “Priority Inbox”—that will star e-mails from specific people. All are expected to be part of the OS update. And, 9to5Mac also believes Apple plans to bring Siri to the third-generation iPad as part of iOS 6. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reported last week that Facebook would soon get the Twitter treatment when Apple rolls out iOS 6, in that sharing to the social network will be integrated into many parts of the OS. That’s hardly surprising on our end, as is the assertion that it’s unlikely we’ll ever see any kind of Google+ integration.

It’s less than a week from WWDC, which means we’re definitely within the “rumors going wild” window that opens before every Apple keynote. Since today’s only Monday, we’re sure to hear plenty more over the next seven days—some of which will be too crazy to believe. These rumors, however, are actually somewhat on the safe side. We think there’s (at least) a thread of truth running through many of them. What we can say for sure is that Ars will be covering the keynote live when it happens at 10am Pacific Time on June 11, so you’ll be able to follow the announcements as they happen next Monday.