While UBS told us in a research note that the plant closing could affect supplies of MacBook Air and other notebook computers, DigiTimes is confident that the temporary suspension of operations won’t cause Apple or others to switch to other suppliers, since Catcher has such strong production capacity and the best manufacturing technology. Apple uses Catcher for up to 60 percent of its unibody enclosures for its MacBook and iMac computers.

Catcher, for its part, is considering investing more money in additional production facilities to ensure any similar problems in the future won’t completely shut them down. Another plant located in Tainan, Taiwan recently ramped up production, and Catcher has another massive lot located there for planned future expansion.

The planned re-opening is promising news for the possibility of an imminent MacBook Pro refresh, so hopefully Catcher’s investment is enough to satisfy local Chinese authorities.

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But what can we expect from those new computers? Let’s take a look at what updates we’re most likely to see at the “Back to the Mac” event.

MacBook Air

Ah, the MacBook Air. Does anyone remember how amazing it was when Steve Jobs first took this thing out of one of those yellow envelopes with the string fastener? I wanted one very badly. Luckily, reason won out and I didn’t get one, opting instead for a MacBook Pro later. I say luckily, because the Air is very expensive for what it offers, and because it seems to have been plagued by problems.

A new Air should, at the very minimum, get updated to current components, including an Intel i-series chip, like an i3 or i5. It’ll probably get a case redesign, too, if for no other reason than to make room for a bigger battery and the new-style push-button glass trackpads that are found in all other models of MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Rumors suggest there’ll also be a brand new 11.6-inch display to go along with beefier internals and other cosmetic changes. Since the MacBook Air, in a lot of ways, is as much of a hobby for Apple as the Apple TV, I do foresee them playing around with the form factor. It’s a risk they can afford to take, since it can’t really hurt sales of the ultra-portable. Even if they’re concerned about that, they could keep both a 13-inch and 11.6-inch model on offer.

MacBook

This time last year, the entry-level MacBook got a unibody design. But it wasn’t an aluminum one, like its Pro cousins. Instead it got a polycarbonate unibody shell, in classic Mac white. In May of 2010, it got a spec bump that included Mini DisplayPort A/V output.

My money’s on a new look for the MacBook. This is the last machine among all of Apple’s offerings that still boasts the white plastic look (Apple TV recently did get a black plastic makeover, though). I think by now, Apple’s process has been around long enough and it’s done enough volume with suppliers that we’ll see it finally get an aluminum shell. Don’t expect the same lines as the Pro, though. There still has to be some way for consumers to tell the machines apart at a glance.

We’ll also see internals get a boost, with maybe a chip upgrade to the Core i3 from Intel. An SD card reader slot is also a good bet for Apple’s standby notebook.

MacBook Pro

A cosmetic update every two years is apparently just about the norm for the MacBook Pro. The unibody aluminum and glass look borrowed at least in part from its iMac predecessor has been around for just about that long now. Case updates aren’t that far-fetched an expectation, and a new look across the line would definitely go a long way toward saying “We haven’t forgotten about Mac.”

We’ll probably also see the i3 make its way into the 13-inch MacBook Pro. That’ll help capitalize on the integrated batteries, boosting life further still. We could see the introduction of HDMI, since Apple’s finally relented and put that into its Mac mini desktop, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that one. Better graphics are probable, too.

In short, Apple wants this event to remind people that despite the success of iOS, it hasn’t forgotten about the other side of its business. I’m willing to bet that Jobs is going to go out of his way to make a splash with new hardware next week, and show us a difference we can see. That, combined with a new version of OS X, is bound to convince the doubters.

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Apple spends a lot of time on industrial design and usability, so it amazes me that the process to hook up a Mac to an external keyboard, monitor, and mouse consists of five to seven steps, depending on if you’re using a Bluetooth keyboard or not. As I look at the mess of wires coming out of the side of my MacBook, I’ve got to wonder why there isn’t an official Apple-branded docking station.

Docking stations seem like an idea that should have come out of Cupertino, because they reduce clutter and encourage simplicity. All the cables that would normally plug into the side or back of the computer go into the docking station instead, and there’s a single slot that the computer plugs into. Plug it in, and the notebook is now a desktop.

Apple has a patent for an interesting iMac-like dock for a MacBook, which would be amazing if the price was right. However, actually producing docks has been left to third-party manufacturers. Some have avoided the docking station idea by designing holders for the MacBook, and some have designed docking stations that look absolutely ridiculous.

The best bet for a real docking station so far seems to be Henge Docks, which mount the MacBook vertically.  They look gorgeous, but are only available in a 13-inch size as of this writing, with 15- and 17-inch versions in the pipeline. I’ve signed up to pre-order the 15-inch.

I’ve tried just about every combination of desk layout I can think of. I’ve tried MacBook in front, monitor on the side, no keyboard; MacBook on the left, monitor on the right, keyboard and mouse in front (and vice-versa); MacBook in clamshell mode on the side of my desk where the Dell’s docking station used to be, monitor, keyboard, and mouse in front (what I presently use), and a few other setups that just didn’t seem right.

From Apple’s point of view, the solution is to drop a grand on one of their gorgeous LED Cinema Displays. The display doubles as a docking station, providing power, monitor, and USB ports for the MacBook. It’s beautiful, and certainly reduces the cable clutter, but at a cost that’s hard to justify for consumer-grade use.

Browsing through Shawn Blanc’s “Sweet Mac Setups” I find that most of the setups featured go for the “MacBook on one side, monitor on the other, keyboard and mouse in front” rig. For some, this seems to work, for many others the cabling and accessories start to clutter the desktop. This is the point where I become distracted and want to start moving things around.

One of my favorite “setups” remains none at all. I simply open my MacBook wherever I want to work and start doing what needs to be done. But I’m still left wanting a more complete solution. How do you use your MacBook? If you’ve got a setup that works for you, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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If the reports are reliable, then it would mean that the MacBook lineup will be using Intel’s line of i3, i5 and i7 chips, as some earlier rumors speculated. The reason we haven’t seen them yet, according to the Taiwanese publication Apple Daily, is that supply has been short thanks to a large order including all three of the models from computer maker Acer.

The report claims that all of Apple’s MacBook computers, from the MacBook itself through the Pro line and to the Air, could see updates in April, with the Intel processor change the most significant alteration. That’s not all, though. New MacBook Pro systems will reportedly have 640GB drives installed by default, with the option to upgrade to a 248GB solid-state drive. If pricing remains reasonable, it could mark the first time SSDs represent a viable alternative to standard HDDs for the average consumer.

All-day computing is another detail the report claims for the upcoming computers, with a reported eight hours of battery life. Better power management might be due only to the increased energy efficiency offered by the i3, i5 and i7 chips, rather than through any major advancements in battery technology by Apple.

Apple’s MacBook line is definitely in need of an update. The last time any of the computers was updated was in October 2009, and that was a fairly minor update to the base model MacBook. MacBook Pros haven’t seen any changes since June of last year, when I purchased mine. The MacBook Air was updated at the same time.

Since then, the iPad has essentially hogged the entire Apple product spotlight. Rumors of its impending arrival fomented for months and months, and its official announcement and release schedule has all but occluded Apple’s other offerings. I’m glad Apple’s doing well in the mobile market, since it means my iPhone’s software will not fall into neglect anytime soon, but I fear there’s too much at risk if Cupertino continues to stake its future on mobile tunnel vision.

Some of us were Mac users before the iPod, and will continue to be even if Google wins the battle for mobile market supremacy. Let’s hope Apple remembers that and rewards us with its next salvo of MacBook updates.

Apple has released what it calls “Performance Update 1.0,” an update to its Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard) operating systems for selected iMacs and MacBooks.

As Apple describes it — in typically brief fashion — in its Support pages, ”This update addresses intermittent hard drive related pauses reported by a small number of customers.”

Gotta love those detailed descriptions!

The update may be related to an EFI Firmware Update in June that some MacBook owners suspect was the cause of intermittent crashes and system freezes. This latest update may well put these problems to rest once and for all, except there’s something interesting about the name…that 1.0 suffix hints at the possibility of further revisions to come. A “Performance Update, Update” perhaps?

The update isn’t for everyone, however. It applies only to the following Mac models.

MacBook
MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009)

MacBook Air
MacBook Air (Late 2008)
MacBook Air (Mid 2009)

Mac Mini
Mac Mini (Early 2009)

iMac
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009)

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Don’t get me wrong, I love my new 13-inch MacBook Pro. In many, many ways, it is far superior to any older computer I have lying around. I can’t get over how far Apple design and function has come. But I do have to admit to shifting and tilting the device around when I’m sitting on the couch with my window in the background. I suppose I could close the window, or rearrange my living room furniture, but I’d have much preferred just clicking a matte display option when buying my notebook. That option may reappear soon.

Or, I could’ve opted for the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which I’m sure is what Apple was hoping for, considering the $2,500 price tag. Sadly, I am not independently wealthy, nor do I have a job that justifies that kind of computer muscle. I just don’t like glare with my computing. Unlike some, I don’t find the MBP’s screen intolerable, just mildly annoying in certain lighting situations, but choice is still nice.

According to reports by AppleInsider, Apple is considering a reintroduction of matte screen options on machines other than the 17-inch MacBook Pro. This is according to “people who have proven familiar with the company’s plans.” Perhaps not the most reassuring of sources, but there is a lot of vocal support of such a move, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple was at least entertaining the thought. The company did, after all, reintroduce Firewire on the 13-inch MacBook (Pro) after much protest about its demise.

Professional users have even more reason to complain than I do, since the glossy screens and glare pose a serious problem when color and image accuracy are of paramount importance. I expect that any screen options Apple does introduce will also carry the $50 charge that currently attaches to the upgrade on the 17-inch model, but that’s nothing compared to the price of upgrading to the pricier model and still paying an extra $50.

I’m not saying the current screen is that big of a problem, but I can’t help but notice the difference between it and the screen on the 12-inch PowerBook I recently picked up as a hobby machine. Yes, everything appears more vivid, more rich, and just generally more impressive, but only in low-light situations. My home workstation is right next to a window, which is necessary to prevent me going completely stir-crazy, and the PowerBook looks a lot more at home there than the MBP does. Would I swap the screens if I could? I’d be mighty tempted, that’s for sure.

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If you bought a MacBook Pro between May 2007 and September 2008, you might be painfully aware of NVIDIA’s major screw-up in providing fundamentally faulty 8600M GT graphics processors for Apple computers, as well as others. Apple no doubt still remembers that, too, since the warranty extension and repair refund policy is undoubtedly costing it large sums of money. That unpleasant memory may have partially led to a falling out between the two, according to recent reports.

SemiAccurate is reporting that, according to multiple sources, at recent negotiations between the two companies, discussions became rather heated, in part due to NVIDIA’s apparently arrogant stance concerning its supplier relationship with Apple. Evidently, Apple was expecting more modesty from a company that has cost it so much cash, thanks to a problem it didn’t even acknowledge existed.

The end result of the rift will basically see NVIDIA locked out of Apple for at least three to four years, according to SemiAccurate’s sources. Which means the sweetheart deal that saw the advent of the now ubiquitous 9400M graphics processor and NVIDIA chipset may be at an end. According to the same report that announced the split, Apple will be going back to Intel for its chipset needs in the immediate future.

But why now? Apple has known about NVIDIA’s somewhat questionable dealings with it for a while now, and hasn’t yet stopped rolling out computers boasting graphics processors from the chipmaker. Part of the reason might be that NVIDIA has only now started to become unbearably arrogant in its dealings with Apple, following the success of the 9400M.

A more likely reason we’ve yet to see the effect of the fallout on actual Apple products is that the company’s design cycle is so long that the current models were already irrevocably in the queue when news of the faulty 8600M GT processors broke. Apple’s own investigation only wrapped up in mid-2008, at which point its product plans for at least the next year are no doubt pretty much set in stone, especially regarding major internal components. Other companies affected by the NVIDIA screw-up are likewise only just beginning to show signs of the fallout, lending credence to this idea.

While NVIDIA screwed up huge when it supplied Apple with a large number of faulty graphics cards and then refused to own up and take responsibility, does a lock-out really benefit current Apple customers? I spent most of last weekend playing Spore on my brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro, something which I never would’ve been able to do enjoyably (or at all) using a model sporting an integrated Intel chipset. To me, going back that way would feel like backsliding.

Maybe Apple’s own chip design machinations will pan out when it comes time to show NVIDIA the door, in which case it could shock us all with a completely revamped platform. Let’s hope so, because I’m not so sure I want my next computer to bring back the Intel GMA headache I only just managed to get rid of.

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One of the best reasons to get a new MacBook Pro, aside from the dazzling new screen on the 13-inch, and in spite of the SATA capping that’s apparently in place, is the extended battery life courtesy of the new built-in lithium polymer batteries. And by all accounts, even if you won’t necessarily reach Apple’s estimates, you will get more usage out of your notebook without having to connect to a power source. Or you’ll get more usage as long as you’re not running in Windows under Boot Camp, that is.

AnandTech’s Anand Shimpi has been running a MacBook Pro 15-inch through its paces over at his site, and while he was very impressed with the machine’s new battery overall, he noticed a considerable disparity between apparent power consumption under OS X, and under Vista. Nor was the difference marginal. Running OS X while only web browsing, Shimpi was able to coax a little over eight hours out of the notebook under OS X, and only six using Vista. That’s a two hour, or 25 percent difference.

Windows 7, which is supposed to make up for a lot of the mistakes Microsoft made with Vista, fared no better. The RC 1 version of the upcoming OS lasted only 5.48 hours using the same test conditions. Some of that can be ascribed to there not being final, optimized drivers for Windows 7 yet, but I doubt that accounts for the more than two-hour deficit it has compared with OS X running on the same hardware.

Windows supporters will no doubt chime in with claims that the Apple hardware is to blame, but Shimpi found some reason to believe that may not be the case. He spoke to a number of PC OEM manufacturers to see if they’d found a difference in battery life between OS X and Vista, and though none would officially go on record, some at least admitted to seeing a similar difference to the one Shimpi had found.

Since Apple doesn’t officially support any third-party hardware, it’ll be hard or even impossible to prove that OS X is, in fact, a more battery-efficient operating system, completely independent of any hardware considerations. Still, that’s one less reason to ever commit sacrilege by dual-booting your Apple notebook, which is bad news for Windows sales, no matter what the cause.

All you hackintosh experts out there, feel free to chime in with your own battery life tales, since your experience running OS X on non-standard hardware might be the closest thing we can get to a fair standard for comparison.

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Apple announced a slew of hardware updates today, including a number of upgrades to its notebook lineup.

For me, the most notable among these was the upwards shift of the 13-inch aluminum MacBook into the MacBook Pro category, alongside the 15- and 17-inch models, both of which also got their own feature and hardware improvements. The white, plastic polycarbonate MacBook is looking mighty lonely down at the low end of the scale.

Alongside the name change, the 13-inch MacBook Pro (I’m glad I no longer have to specify “unibody” or anything else to distinguish it from the regular white MacBook anymore) gets an SD card slot, up to 8GB (if you’re partial to a $1,000 upgrade) of memory, a max hard drive size of 500GB (or 256GB SSD), and a backlit keyboard, standard.

Also, making a triumphant return, is FireWire thanks to an FW800 port, as is standard for the Pro line of computers. All this at a new entry-level price point of $1,199, which comes standard with a 2.26GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB HDD. Another higher-priced option with a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD goes for $1,499.

The price drop, combined with the spec upgrade, makes this one of Apple’s most appealing machines to those of us who are cost-conscious Mac addicts. Add in the inclusion of the same battery tech that was first introduced in the 17-inch MacBook Pro, with a reported battery life of seven hours (likely exaggerated), and I’m sold. If you’re an education customer, you get another $100 off, bringing the total price of the laptop to $1,099 before taxes. Someone’s going shopping later today, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: It’s me.

I’d wait for Snow Leopard to come out in September, but with $29 upgrade pricing, and a $49 family pack (I have three Macs), there’s not really any cause to wait. One might argue that not enough has changed with this upgrade to justify slapping the “Pro” moniker onto the end of the name, but honestly, the company cut the price along with the title rather than raising it, so I’m not complaining. I seriously believe that this is the best value proposition in Apple’s lineup as it stands, especially given that it’s still relatively easy to upgrade RAM and hard disk (compared with the Mac mini) on your own — much cheaper than it would cost to do so with Apple-installed components.

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In the 13-inch category, Apple took all of the top three spots, with the Unibody aluminum model in first, the MacBook Air in second, and the white plastic MacBook capping the trifecta in third. The 15-inch MacBook Pro won the top spot in the 14- to 16-inch notebook class, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro beat out all comers in the 17- to 18-inch category. As mentioned, they had no competition on the podium in the 13-inch category, while Toshiba, Asus, Dell and Lenovo all offered second- and third-place machines for the other two categories.

Apple wasn’t quite so lucky in desktop categories. The Mac mini and the iMac both took second place in their respective categories, which still isn’t bad. Apple Support won out in all categories, notebook and desktop alike, and I think most who’ve dealt with their customer service department will agree that they generally don’t disappoint.

As to Consumer Reports’ scoring criteria, they rank the machines based on performance, ergonomics, features, display quality and other factors related to computing ability. Personally, I think it’s odd that given their criteria, the desktops didn’t perform as well as their notebook counterparts, but maybe they just felt bad about giving all the awards to one company and wanted to spread the love around a little.

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