The $1000 MacBook is now in short supply and one would not have expected any different, as the hardware used is not what you would call up-to-date. The likes of Amazon and other resellers are now totally out of stock, and have no clue as to when more will be coming in. There are no ETAs on deliveries, so now it seems that we will just have to wait and see what Apple’s next move it.

There have not been any rumors of a refresh, but just maybe Apple will announce something along with a new MacBook Air as well? Speaking of the Air, I now have a dilemma of my own, as I was going to get the new model if and when it comes out. However, I now find myself edging towards an iMac instead.

Having worked full-time on a MBA for almost two years, it has taken me this long to realize that it is just not practical. Anyway, back to the matter in hand. The current white MacBook only comes with an Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and a low-end GeForce 320M GPU. Now we cannot say for certain what spec bump the refresh would get if not discontinued, but we would expect Intel’s Sandy Bridge for a start.

Another must would be Mac OS X Lion and also Thunderbolt, but we cannot be certain about the latter. Apple Insider does make a good point though, when they say that we should not expect any new Mac devices until Lion is released – it is for that reason why I am holding off on my iMac purchase.

Apple still might call it a day on the white MacBook, as it was meant to be the most well liked of all the MacBooks. However, the MacBook Pro and the Air has certainly put a stop to that idea though. It is now make or break time, so will the laptop be able to survive the Apple executioner? If it does, then we should expect to see a new model in either July or August.

While this may be completely surprising to some of you, it’s not the first time that we have heard of a black Macbook Air model. In fact, we last told you about one back in February of this year, as a black model was apparently leaked in an Intel advertisement – you can check that out again here if you missed that.

As for the fresh details, information surfaced from MacRumors reveals that their multiple sources have all informed them that a black model will join the standard Macbook Air color in a next generation refresh, bringing Sandy Bridge processors and a Thunderbolt port amongst other hardware delights.

The disappointing thing though, is that we’re still unclear whether Apple will actually refresh the Macbook Air or not, but usually when it has been speculated to the degree that we’ve seen – it’s usually a clear sign that a refresh is coming. Will it happen during the Summer, or will Apple keep us waiting until their Fall event in September, in which we may also see a new iPhone 5, new iPods and perhaps even a third generation iPad device.

We’ve included a picture below courtesy of custom paint specialists Colorware, which gives you an example of how a black Macbook Air may look like, it certainly looks interesting doesn’t it?

The news about an upcoming black Macbook Air may be met with certain groans for non-Apple fans, as it could be the start of a barrage of ‘black Macbook Air’ stories, much like the way the release of the White iPhone 4 was well documented in the media. Considering the Macbook Air remains a premium product for the average consumer, we doubt we’ll be seeing levels of excitement on par with the White iPhone 4 release though.

What are your thoughts on a possible black Macbook Air? Would you look to sell your current model and get one as soon as they come out, or do you prefer the traditional finish that Apple’s Mac family are usually associated with. It’s always nice to choose between various colors though, so we definitely welcome the idea of a new color for the Macbook Air.

Just two of these updates will include new Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt. With just these two and that new Lion OS we can expect performance enhancements. CNet’s Brian Tong is unable to offer any other details on specs or a precise release date, but one would expect increased graphics and hopefully more RAM as standard. However, the biggest wish is for Apple to stick with their aggressive pricing.

On Tong’s Twitter page there seems to be some confusion with this, as some are saying that there will not be a new Mac Pro update, as there was one in February. Well they need to do their homework a little, as this is not true. Now the last Mac Pro refresh was back in July 2010, that update in February was actually for the MacBook Pro – two very different machines.

Just to clarify something for you, Mac Pro is a desktop and MacBook Pro is a laptop. So now that we have cleared that up let us get back to the matter in hand. We would expect that these two products would be launched just after the new 2011 MacBook Air, as we believe that this will be by the end of this month or in July.

Apple would be a fool to launch all three models at once, they need to have the MBA out first so that users can get on with a device with Mac OS X Lion straight out of the box first. Having said that, Mac owners would have already taken advantage of this new operating system after they had downloaded it from the Mac App Store and then installed it.

Apple has already upgraded the MacBook Pro and the iMac this year, so does look as though they are going through their range slowly to update the aging Intel processers. However, it is the MacBook Air that is in need of this upgrade the most. Yes Apple already gave it a refresh towards the end of 2010, but there was not much improvement made in the performance area.

Having said all that, the one update that Apple users want the most is the new iPhone 5, which as we know has been delayed until September – well going by what we have learned.

It wall started in late March when Kaufman’s MacBook was stolen from his apartment, luckily he had installed an app called Hidden, this starts at just $15 per year and locates the device and collects photos and screenshots which led to the thief getting caught.

Kaufman took his evidence to his local police department and then set up a tumblog which featured images of the suspected thief and the activities (see here), he tweeted to his thousands of followers on Twitter and soon his tumblog had received thousands of tweets and likes, this played a major part in Muthanna Aldebashi getting caught.

Without Hidden and Twitter it is fair to say that Aldebashi would never have been caught, if you are worried about your iMac or MacBook being stolen you should check out Hidden via this link, it is great for home and business users and we think that pricing is pretty fair. For one computer you pay $15 a year, for up to 5 computers in one home you pay $45 a year, for up to 20 business computers you pay $125 a year and for up to 100 business computers you pay $395 a year.

Has this story resulted in you using Hidden?

As a result the Apple official support forum seems to be bombarded with the same comments from users of the 17” and 15” MacBooks finding that their laptop is freezing from what seems overloading. By this I mean encoding a large video for example.

As explained in the article by Donald Melanson at Engadget this problem seems to be graphics related, specifically the AMD graphics that the laptops have. When the graphics are switched to integrated only the problem seems to cease for most users, but this however leads to a considerable drop in graphics performance.

Though Apple hasn’t released anything to fix the problem as of yet, a number of solutions are being suggested on the forum. Customer service is also claiming that the issue is firmware related and not a hardware problem.

Check out the article by clicking the link above, where you will find a link to the forum. Are you having issues with your MacBook Pro? Let us know in the comments below.

New buyers may be happy with the Battery life for the MacBook Pro, 2011 edition. This is not the case for some upgraders who wanted to see at least 10-hours of battery on this MacBook Pro refresh but what we actually got was 7, how can that be evolution? It seems as though Apple might have picked up some bad habits from the battery technology employed by the team behind the iPhone.

Apple is facing a bit of a dilemma on this one, as there are a number of other notebooks coming to market that will put the Pro to shame when it comes to battery life. Two that come to mind are the new Sony VAIO S Series Slim and the Lenovo ThinkPad T420, which both offer over 30 hours of battery life, although you do have to add another slim battery. Having said that, you still have that option, and they will give you much more than 7 or even 10 hours of battery life in the standard configuration.

There are many reasons why the battery is not as long lasting in the MacBook Pro refresh, some are because the processors used are said to be twice as fast as its predecessors, and the graphics three times faster. However, Apple say that the biggest change comes in how they measure the life of the battery, as it is now much more accurate.

For those of you who are not fazed about this issue, then upgrading will be an easy decision. With specs ranging from 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 to a 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, and up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, it’s not hard to see why you would not want to do so.

Taking all the above in mind, we wanted to see what our readers expectations were for the 2011 MacBook Pro, and you can share your view either in the comments below, or by voting in the poll that can also be found below this article.

[poll id="309"]

The team behind the teardown seemed to struggle with saying Thunderbolt, as they kept saying Thunderport to each other – maybe they might have to if HTC decide to defend the name of their upcoming phone in court? The 2011 MacBook Pro earned itself a repairability score of 7 out of 10.

What has helped this version over others is how you do not have to remove the battery from the notebook in order to disconnect it. The unibody has always been a nice design when taking the Pro apart, and it is just the same for the new model. Reparing and replacing parts on Apple devices is now getting much easier, although it is still an expensive hobby.

There were a few worrying things in this teardown, as iFixit found that the LCD replacement could be a tough task, and the fact that there was a stripped screw that was meant to be holding the subwoofer enclosure. They said that this is not a huge issue, but we should expect more for something so expensive.

For more details and a number of teardown photos visit iFixit.

For those of you who have yet to see the new MacBook Pro for 2011 Engadget has done a hands-on unboxing of the notebook, which we have added for your viewing enjoyment below.

Looking over all the details on Apple’s Press page we can see that the new 2011 MacBook Pro is said to be twice as fast as the 2010 model. FaceTime HD is also another feature that will help the new version stand out against not only older MacBook Pros, but also other laptops already on the market.

There are now three new models available, the 13-inch, 15-inch and the powerful 17-inch, all with their own purpose. Prices start at $1,199, but still offer amazing value and performance. The 13-inch model comes with a choice of Core i5 and Core i7 Intel processors up to 2.7GHz, which will come at a premium.

The new Thunderbolt technology, which we discussed yesterday, is a breakthrough for a notebook computer like the MacBook Pro, as you now have the chance to expand it in a way that was never possible before. We will talk more about this technology in a later post.

For those who do not have to worry about the price, then you can upgrade your MacBook Pro with up to 512GB SSD, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and so much more.

Do you think these updates make it worth buying the new 2011 MacBook Pro?

It’s not certain how long the website has been down for, but our guess is about half an hour. How long it will be down for is anyone’s guess, but once back up we will have to look out for new next to the MacBook Pro. So what can we expect from the refresh?

You have to remember that this is all guess work, but an improved processor and the all new Thunderbolt/Light Peak port is just two updates. We had hoped to see a thinner design, but this might not happen until a major update in 2012, which we recently discussed.

There was hope that the new MacBook Air would be launched around the same time as the MacBook Pro, but the slimmer model only had an update towards the end of 2010, so we might have to wait a few months yet. The next time the Apple Store will go down will be the release of the iPad 2 in April, although this is expected to just be a 1.5 version. The iPad could be released later this year and is rumored to be the true 2nd-generation iPad.

Is the App Store down for the 2011 MacBook pro refresh?

We cannot say for certain how much truth there was to this rumor, as it was from an Intel promo? It did not take long for speculation to begin that we could be looking at the new Pro. Personally I would not like this color model, as it looks like a black gloss finish and will show too many finger marks.

Next up was our article that looked at how the MacBook Pro might take a few design features from the Air. Again, these were just rumors, but it does make sense to try and slim the Pro down a little to shed some weight. However, Apple cannot afford to make too many drastic changes, as they still need to pack in all that hardware – especially the Superdrive.

One of the most talked about subjects has to be the new MacBook Pro 2011 refresh release date. There are a number of rumors going around about this very subject; but the best guess is that it will be in March. There has been some controversy over this, as the refresh cycle has been anywhere from 8 to 10 months – the last four updates being every eight months.

This is as much as we know at this time, but we will keep you fully informed of any news once we get it. Once the new MacBook Pro gets released we can then start talking about the MacBook Air refresh, which is just crying out for a processor upgrade.

When do you think Apple will release the new MacBook Pro, and what new features do you think it will have