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Latest MacBook rumors don't seem to add up

I respect the fact that it's a favorite pastime among many of my fellow Mac heads, but I've never been much of a rumors guy. Seems like every time I read a Mac rumor, I end up figuring that if it's true then it's hurting Apple's ability to stay ahead of the competition, that if it's fabricated then I've wasted my time reading it, and that either way nothing good has come from my reading it.

But because I have great personal interest in the future of the iBook and I'm a massive hypocrite, my ears invariably perk up when I hear rumors of what might be next for my beloved iBook line. I honestly don't care if the next release is called iBook or MacBook. They can call it "PhoneBook" for all I care, so long as it's A) Intel-based, and B) the screen resolution I want. The former is obviously going to happen, and the latter is my way of ribbing Apple one more time over the fact that the current 14 inch iBook has the exact same 1024x768 screen resolution as the 12 inch iBook, and therefore (unless your vision is failing) has no reason to exist.

The latest iBook/MacBook rumor to accidentally land in my lap says that we might actually see the new Intel-based MacBook by the end of this month. The specs of the week are stated as the popularly rumored 13 inch (or 13.3 inch, depending on who you want to believe) screen, a 1.67 Core Duo processor, and a 1280x720 screen resolution. And at least two out of those three sound off-kilter to me.

I'd love to see the MacBook sport a Core Duo processor so that I won't have to take speed into consideration when deciding whether my next laptop will be a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, but I can't imagine it would be a good move for Apple. For too long we've had a PowerBook line whose most distinguishable quality when compared to the iBook was its pretty silver paint job. I'm not denigrating the PowerBook, I'm just pointing out that it can't have been easy for Apple to try to promote the G4 PowerBook all this time when the iBook has been sporting the same processor at almost the same speeds (which is why I'm currently the owner of a G4 iBook and not a PowerBook).

Now that its processors are no longer at a dead end, I would think that Apple would want to use the dual core processor as an easily explainable reason why customers should consider dishing out the extra dough for the Pro laptop. And it'll be difficult to make that case if the MacBook is sporting the same dual core processor. I suppose it can be argued both ways. But I know that features such as monitor spanning and a card slot, while dealbreakers for a certain segment of users, aren't seen as advantages at all by everyone else. Making the MacBook a Core Solo machine would certainly provide mainstream motivation for upselling to the MacBook Pro.

But perhaps more unlikely than the Core Duo rumor is the supposed specs for the screen. I can buy the MacBook going from twelve to thirteen inches, but the move only makes sense if the resolution of the screen goes up. If I knew I was going to have to carry around an extra inch of screen just to have the same 1024x768 resolution I have now, that would actually be a significant disincentive for me to take the plunge. If you're going to make my laptop larger and heavier, be a pal and give me more pixels. So in that vein, I was pleased to see that the latest rumored resolution of the MacBook started with 1280...but dumbstruck to it followed by 720. They want to make my screen even shorter? I sure hope not. Here in 1024x768 land, rarely do I find myself running out of room left to right, but it sure would be nice if I had more pixels to work with top to bottom. Less scrolling, and well, less scrolling. After all, what is the internet these days if not one big scroll fest? Don't make my screen even shorter, unless you're looking to motivate me to stick with my existing iBook longer than I was planning to.

Come to think of it, this is precisely why I don't dig the rumor scene. Here I am on the verge of getting worked up over 720 pixels, when it could be a typo, or it could be something that someone just plain made up. Same thing goes for the dual core processor. I mean, a Moron in a Hurry figures out that it's going to be an Intel chip, and from there Duo vs. Solo is just a flip of the coin. Any one of you reading this could just make up your own rumors from thin air, and you'd probably have about the same success rate as the "official" rumors. Keep that in mind the next time you see a Mac rumor that just doesn't make sense to you.

On the other hand, I sure do like the idea that the MacBook could hit the market as soon as this month. Hopefully there's some truth in this particular rumor after all.