Apple Announces Oct. 14 Event; No One Surprised, Everyone Excited

<Apple has announced what the world and it’s mother already knew — The company will be holding an exclusive, invitation only event in Cupertino next Tuesday.

While the event was pretty much a sure thing, the title on the invitations, “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks” puts rumors about the possibility of MacBook updates to rest. They’re coming, so what can we expect?

Well, the rumors have been doing the rounds for the last couple of weeks and things really began to hot up this week. Between some questionable pictures of a new MacBook Pro and all this talk of bricks, Apple fans have really been going nuts this time.

According to 9to5Mac, the MacBook “Brick” is special new manufacturing process by Apple intended for a new chassis for upcoming products. Apple’s new technique involves the use of 3D laser technology and water jets to carve out precise structures from a brick of aluminum.

While creating a chassis in such a manner yields one that is custom crafted, seamless and requires fewer screws and fasten points (as well as also being stronger, more rigid and considerably lighter), it also has the added advantage of making things even more Apple specific than they already are. You likely know someone who has upgraded the RAM in a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Would these DIY upgrades still be easily possible with the new chassis? We’ll soon find out.

During the week, different pictures surfaced on various different websites. Some spy-shots showed up, displaying the ports on the left side of what’s apparently the new MacBook Pro. Photos from what looked like a similar model surfaced a couple of days later.

Pricing for the new MacBooks is the latest topic up for debate. The new aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros are rumored to range from $800 to $3,100 and pundits reckon they’ll also have more configurable options than current generation models.

Stay tuned for more information. The rumor mill is going to be working overtime between now and Tuesday, but we’ll try and stick to the more believable ideas.