News: new MacBook Pro, MacBook Ivy Bridge predictions, Apple television in 2013, and more!

MacRumors says Apple are rumoured to start production of new model 15" MacBook Pros sometime in April, with the 13" variant being produced later, in June. They cite DigiTimes, who have upstream sources saying that Apple are anticipating demand for the 13" MacBook Pro refresh to be greater than the demand for the 15" refresh. It's not currently known what the refresh will entail, that is, we don't know if we'll see a MacBook Pro/Air hybrid any time soon. Marco Arment, however, has a few predictions of his own where he talks about new MacBooks with Ivy Bridge. Using Intel's own Ivy Bridge release schedule, he says late April is when we'll see an iMac speed bump, followed by a standard MacBook Air bump in June. The outlier is the 15", which could go either way: with a 45W part, keeping the current TDP of the 15" MacBook Pro, or with a lower-heat model if we're going to see a 15" MacBook Air.

Analyst speculation leads to their prediction of an Apple TV set sometime in 2013, and their basis is an Foxconn investment in Sharp displays. Late 2012 was the previously rumoured launch window for the Apple TV, but now a Hong Kong based firm says 2013 is more likely.

Apple has seeded a new release of 10.7.4 to developers, and build 11E35 brings no known issues. Apple has also released iTunes 10.6.1, which features a few miscellaneous fixes.