And the rumor mill keeps spinning

Oct 9, 2008 12:52 GMT  ·  By

It's times like these that you could drop a needle and the whole Mac-focused blogosphere would put an ear to the ground. Not surprisingly, more alleged pictures of what looks like the shell of a Mac laptop have emerged. Although this shell resembles the case revealed earlier today, it has been confirmed as different.

Apple.pro has posted three rather small images of what appears to be the case of a new MacBook, reports MacRumors. According to the site, despite the strong similarities with today's previous “leak,” this one is “clearly” intended to house a “smaller screened laptop.” Noticeable was also the absence of speaker grills on the shell. The image that surfaced earlier today not only pretty much confirmed the latest “Brick” rumors, but was also consistent with Apple's current designs.

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Next-Gen MacBook spy shot picked up by engadget, then claimed by MacRumors to have stemmed from a Japanese website. Credits: MacRumors

The above-pictured laptop case has been carved out of a single piece of metal (except for the sides, engadget says). A mini-DVI port appears to replace the standard DVI port found on Apple's currently-available MacBook Pros. Akin to the current MacBook Air's design, the shell is about 2/3rds as thick as the current MacBook Pros, while the bottom is thinner than the length of a regular USB port. A MacRumors poster made some measurements and found that a 16:9 16-inch screen would make sense for this model.

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Latest MacBook shell pictures - clearly not the same thing, but very similar to the above case

Credits: Apple.pro, via MacRumors

This case sports an observably larger trackpad, similar ports and a seam for where the optical drive should be. Engadget also points out to the striking similarities between the pictures, in both design and materials. The folks at Apple.pro have been responsible for a couple of other case photos before, the same sources note, and these latest pictures are believed to be real.