MacBook Pro Ships at Higher Speeds -- The MacBook Pro starts shipping last week with faster processors than promised. Apple said pre-orders started moving out 14-Feb-06 and will be available in retail Apple Stores and resellers. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that Apple's idea of "shipping" referred to the laptops leaving the factories in Asia, since as of press time it appears the first orders are due to arrive in customers' hands early this week.

<http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/>

The 15-inch laptop was originally announced to include a 1.67 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, but Apple said that the lowest speed to ship is now 1.83 GHz (the former top speed for this model; see "Intel-Based iMac and MacBook Pro Ship Earlier than Expected" in TidBITS-812 for the machine's full specifications). The higher-speed standard model now features a 2.0 GHz processor, which can be reconfigured to have a 2.16 GHz processor for an extra $300 - that's $300 for a one-twelfth faster processor. The 1.83 GHz model does not offer the processor speed bump as a build-to-order option. Apple said that outstanding pre-orders can be tweaked for faster speeds. (However, if your machine has already shipped that might be problematic!) [GF]

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/08392>