New Mac Pros and MacBooks About to be Unveiled

New reports suggest that Apple AAPL is going to buck the trend of low-key announcements at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference and announce a new slate of Macs this morning. According to 9to5Mac, the new Macs include (per the publication's "reliable sources") a Mac Pro with a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon 5770 graphics chip. Another configuration will reportedly offer a 2.4GHz 12-core processor, 12GB of RAM, and the same hard drive and graphics chip as the other model. But if neither model is right for you, the anticipated server configuration -- which includes a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and two 1TB hard drives -- might get the job done. And that's not all. Regular Mac users can look forward to a new collection of MacBook Pros. From standard upgrades (two 13.3-inch models; one with a 2.5GHz dual-core processor and 4GB of RAM, another with a 2.9GHz dual-core processor and 8GB of RAM) and upper-tier upgrades (two 15.4-inch models; one with a 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM, another with a 2.6GHz quad-core processor and 8GB of RAM) to the still-far-fetched MacBook Pro/Air hybrid, Apple apparently has a lot to announce this morning. Despite the near-confirmation of these new Macs, many bloggers still have doubts about what Apple will and won't unveil this morning during its keynote. By introducing new or revised hardware, Joe Cieplinski thinks that the Mac maker would create a distraction that could veer attention away from the much-hyped iOS 6. MacRumors questions the validity of the Mac Pro details, writing, "Not only is the inclusion of an old graphics card on the Mac Pro a strange detail, but the listed processors do not even exist at the appropriate price and performance points in the Sandy Bridge E Xeon E5 line of Intel INTC processors Apple is expected to use." Meanwhile, AppleInsider has reported on a set of photos that indicate that NVIDIA NVDA graphics will appear in the company's next MacBook, which could be a sign of things to come for future Mac Pros. Over the past 18 months, Apple has been very quiet about its minor MacBook Pro and MacBook Air upgrades, choosing to issue press releases (and build hype by temporarily closing its online store) instead of hyping the enhanced products at a press conference. Whether or not Apple will do the same this year, no one knows for certain. But we do know that iOS 6 will be the focus of today's keynote, which is specifically aimed at the development community -- not at consumers looking to buy a new laptop. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ