It wasn’t too long ago that Core i5 Macbook Pros were “accidentally” included in an Intel sponsored contest as one of the prizes. After the entire tech world jumped on it, Intel quickly removed the offending units and offered up the typical “Oops, our bad. Nothing to see here. Move along.” statement. Whether that incident included an actual real Macbook Pro (as we all know quad-core Macbook Pros are coming at some point) or a legitimate typo is beside the point because a new development today has something even better — Core i7 Macbook Pros getting run through their paces on GeekBench.

What could be better than catching Macbook Pro’s huffin’ and puffin’ on GeekBench and then splayed on the interwebs for all of us to see? Not much actually. A MacRumors forum member caught the goods on GeekBench’s website:

• OS Build #: Mac OS 10.6.2 (Build 10C3067) — *unreleased

• BIOS Version: Bios MBP61.88Z.004C.B00.1001251657

• Processor: Core-i7 M620

The icing on the cake is of course the results the GeekBench team were able to achieve: 5260. That’s awesome! As 9to5 Mac notes, current Macbook Pros only achieve between 3700 and 4000. Obviously Core i7 Macbook Pros are beasts!

It could all be fake of course. If so, consider myself epicly saddened. Still, I’m holding out hope that an official announcement by Apple comes in the following weeks.

9to5Mac > MacRumors Forums

Still unclear is how many ways we geeks can snag one of the beauts as brick and mortar retail outlets aren’t yet confirmed. Though T-Mobile has been in the cards (and rumors) since the rumors began but a short week or so ago. Even with invite only sales, you can *probably* bet on a T-Mo store selling these at some point in the not too distant future. Stay tuned folks.

Specs below:

Android Central > Engadget

Anyone with any bit of gadget knowledge can take a look at the various tear downs of the iPhone 3GS and see that it is truly a modern marvel of engineering. The latest iPhone brings a much upgraded graphics chip that goes by the way of the “PowerVR SGX”. Now, we know that this chip is many times faster than the old chips found in the previous iPhones and iPod Touches. However, a bigger mystery pertained to what model the chip actually was as there are many different models of SGX.

SGX520 (7 MPolys/s, 250Mpx/s) for the handheld mobile market
SGX530/1 (14 MPolys/s) for the handheld mobile market
SGX535 and SGX540 (28 MPolys/s) for handheld high end mobile, portable, MID, UMPC, consumer, and automotive devices
SGX540 (1000M pix/s, 20-35M Polys/s), SGX545, SGX555

Now, for starters, the Pre uses the SGX 530 and so far hasn’t really displayed much in terms of eye candy, though that is more a limitation with current software and development methods as opposed to the actual hardware. iPhone developers meanwhile have found a file named “IMGSGX535GLDriver” which would naturally lead one to believe the iPhone is using the SGX 535 model. Of course, just because a particular file is there doesn’t confirm the rumor 100%. Still, it is a big clue as to what really makes the iPhone 3GS tick. Further backing up this claim is a report from an Anandtech commenter who claims to have heard the real deal on the iPhone 3GS’s hardware. Does the SGX 535 actually reside inside the newest iPhone? At this point I’d say it’s safe to say yes. Care to disagree?

Source: Mac Rumors, Image Source