New MacBook Pro: Hi res screen, USB 3.0, ultra thin design, no optical drive

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New MacBook Pro: Hi res screen, USB 3.0, ultra thin design, no optical drive

It looks like Apple’s reading a brand new 15” MacBook Pro for later this year, and according to the Apple rumor mill, the new MBP will have a high res Retina Display screen, USB 3.0 ports an an ultra thin design, minus an optical port. I know I gave shit to Windows 8 for not initially supporting CD or DVD playback out of the box, and it just looks like this is the future. Anything that’s not downloaded will probably come on a USB stick, like recent releases of Mac OS X.

While many have speculated that the new 15-inch MacBook Pro will pickup the design from the late-2010/mid-2011 MacBook Air, sources familiar with the prototype units say that this is untrue. Instead, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro is described as being an ultra-thin version of the current MacBook Pro. Basically, the prototype design is a thinner, yet more robust, version of the late-2008 design. It has no tapering like the MacBook Airs. This new design serves as an apparent solution to Apple’s hinge troubles with the cancelled ultra-thin 15-inch notebook for late 2010.

As the MacBook Air pioneered, and the latest Mac mini models have followed, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro loses the optical drive in order to reach Apple’s new standard for notebook thinness. Apple has made it clear that professionals could lose the optical drive in favor of the wildly popular Mac App Store for software installations. Take Final Cut Pro X or Aperture for example. For those few who still need an optical drive, Apple has been selling a USB Superdrive since the first-generation MacBook Air launched.

Apple will also introduce the Mac Retina Display in this new MacBook Pro, according to these sources in the far-east. The display is quoted as “jaw-dropping” and “definitely the most important Mac innovation in years,” by sources familiar with the quality of the screens in test-production.

Via