ZDNet is receiving tips claiming Apple will upgrade its Mac Pro line with an Intel Core i7 -980x chipset, which certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard Core i7-shaped gossip . Supposedly it’ll all be unraveled next Tuesday, the 16th of March. [ ZDNet via BGR ] More

The US Patent & Trademark Office just published Apple’s latest trademark application for ” Magic Trackpad “—and, looking at a bit of history, we think it could be one of two new products. Possibility #1 Back in July 2009, Apple was granted a patent on their multi-touch Trackpad. However, many elements of the patent were left out, including advanced infrared imaging and optical emitters which could, in essence, make your Trackpad know when you were trying to type or trying to gesture (while opening the door for all sorts of other gesture tracking possibilities across much of your laptop’s work surface). So the Magic Trackpad could be the next Trackpad for MacBooks. Possibility #2 But the other, more enticing rumor, was one sourced from John Gruber back in October —that Apple could be introducing a “Wildcard I’m-Not-Sure-I-Really-Believe-It-Myself Out-There Rumor…Some Sort of Mentioned-Nowhere-Else-But-in-This-Very-Headline Multi-Touch Trackpad Gadget for Desktop Macs.” Not so long ago, another Apple trademark was uncovered called the “Magic Slate” —many believe it to be the Gruber-described device. After HP and Dell both started coining the term “slate” around CES, I wonder if “slate” fell out of vogue, meaning the “Magic Slate” became the “Magic Trackpad.” Taking a look at the actual Trackpad trademark filing, we must admit, the longshot standalone desktop trackpad feels like a decent fit: International Class 009: Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

How to get people using Office for Mac , after admitting only four people “love it” ? I know! Paint a MacBook with Office for Mac colors, load it with a copy of Office 2008, and give it away on Twitter! You have to either be following @officeformac on Twitter, or retweet @officeformac, including the hashtag #officeformac . Only two MacBook Pros (2.53Ghz 15″ models) will be given away, which considering it’s Microsoft, isn’t nearly as generous as some absurdly-named website no-one had ever heard of , giving away 10 of the laptops last year. It’s only open to the US and Canada, and ends in two days time, at 11:59pm PST.

Looks like our hunches about what’s inside the next MacBook Pros are panning out: AppleInsider hears that Apple’s got new MacBook Pros running that can switch between integrated and discrete graphics automagically, which exactly describes Nvidia’s Optimus dual graphics tech . If you remember, the unibody MacBooks from Oct. 2008 were the first to use Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M , a combination chipset/integrated GPU that ridiculously outperformed Intel’s own integrated graphics, and the Pro models at the time could switch between power-saving integrated and beefier discrete graphics, though it requires a logout. Nvidia got cockblocked from making chipsets for Intel’s latest-gen chips (read: Core i3, Core i5, Core i7), ruling out using Nvidia’s better integrated graphics; Nvidia canned their chipset business entirely. So! Nvidia’s Optimus tech works with Intel’s crappier integrated graphics that are built onto the same die as the newer Core processors, but even more seamlessly than before—the computer automatically switches between Intel’s power-sipping integrated and Nvidia’s monster discrete graphics, depending on what you’re doing

A while back, MacBook Pro SKUs mysteriously disappeared from Best Buy ’s inventory system. We thought that this could be signaling that the long-awaited MacBook Pro refresh is finally near. The three new SKUs appearing in the inventory database now could either be those new MacBook Pros or they could be the Wi-Fi only iPads. Either way, there seems to be something new headed in our way. We just don’t have enough information to get excited over yet. [ MacRumors via Engadget ]

The upcoming i5 MacBook Pro refresh might be closer than we thought, with TUAW discovering that Best Buy emptied their systems of the current version. Since they’re not likely to go MacBook-less for long, that points to soon. [ TUAW ]

For your viewing pleasure, we present the latest Apple rumor doing the rounds this Saturday afternoon — namely, GeekBench results for a “new” Core i7 MacBook Pro. According to the results, what you’re looking at above are the numbers for the MacBook Pro 6,1, sporting a nastified Intel Core i7 (dual core, not quad) 620M ( Arrandale ) percolating along at 2.66GHz. Other curious points here are the 4.8GHz FSB, which sounds a little screwy to us, and a final GeekBench score of 5260, which makes current MBPs clocked at the same speed look like your grandfather with a walker (those ranges hover around 3700-4000 on average). The laptop in question is also allegedly running a fresh version of Snow Leopard (build 10C3067 of 10.6.2), which certainly makes sense if someone is out there benching a new Apple product, though it’s not a number we can verify. Still, if you were using a new Apple product, would you be dumb enough to publicly share this info? Probably not, which of course raises the question that this might just be a hackintosh or some other clever spoof (even if we did see a suggestion of new MBPs on the way recently).

There’s a pretty gnarly GeekBench result running around which appears to be for a new model MacBook Pro —6,1 to be exact—running a crazyfast 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 620M , one of the Arrandale chips Intel announced at CES . MacBook Pros are definitely in need of fresh guts, and the obvious choice for chips are from the fresh batch of Arrandale processors Intel announced last month. The Core i7 620M would definitely fit the bill—it’s a fast dual-core chip, and its TDP is in line with what’s in the currently shipping MBPs. The GeekBench score is 5260, which MacRumors notes handily bests the current-gen 2.6GHz MBPs, which typically hit around 3700-4000. Not answered by the Geekbench results is what’s up with the MacBook Pro’s graphics situation . In case you’re not familiar with the way model numbers work at Apple, like the MacBook Pro 6,1 here, the first number in the set designates a major revision, and the second number indicates a smaller subset—the first unibody MacBook Pros were 5,1 for instance

We’ve seen a black-and-white Iron Man MacBook decal before, but this full-color one is much more striking. Although you’ve gotta be OK with equating Apple’s logo with the powers of a superhero. Fanboys. [ Etsy via Geeky Gadgets ]

One of our favorite iPhone games is Touchgrind. Sure, we’re terrible at it, but at least we feel like we’re accomplishing something “totally street” and “badass” with the multitouch input that the iPhone allows. Well, Illusion Labs is looking at bringing some of that magic to the Mac. They’ve got a demo up of the game running in a jumbo manner on a multi-finger-friendly MacBook. It looks pretty much like a straight port at this point, but hopefully the added horsepower and screen size of the Mac can make this into something a bit more magical — and maybe even trick us into thinking we’re decent fingerboardists, if only for a moment. Right now this is just a tech demo, and there are no firm plans of a release.