One of our readers has alerted us to the possibility that the new 17″ MacBook Pro, announced earlier this month at Macworld Expo 2009, now has a shipping date of February 11, 2009. Previously, his order status had stated it would ship in “two to three weeks.” At the Apple Store, the pre-order claims it will ship in 7 to 10 days.

Shortly after the update of the 17″ MacBook Pro at this year’s Macworld and news that it will contain a longer life, non user replaceable battery, Apple has published a support article that can help users when the time to replace their battery comes. According to details from this article, the replacement price will be $179 if the battery is out of its one year warranty period. When it comes time to actually replace the battery, it can surprisingly be done in one day at an Apple store if you schedule an appointment. If you choose to send it in, it will take 3-4 business days after your shipment.

Asian sources for the 9to5Mac site have informed the company that Apple may announce a 17 inch screen Macbook Pro this year at Macworld that would be manufactured using the new unibody design. Although this in and of itself isn’t all that interesting, the sources are also stating that the battery in these devices may not be removable. It’s almost as if Apple hasn’t learned anything from the iPhone battery outcries. Although 9to5Mac states Apple may be using some new silver zinc battery technology to make up for this, I still think people will be mad unless these batteries are extremely powerful and long lasting.

Yesterday, Nvidia paid Gizmodo a visit to spill some more details about the recently released GeForce GPUs that are inside of Apple’s newest MacBooks. They specifically cleared up some of the information floating around about hardware limitations. It seems Apple is being a little conservative about what and how much the new MacBooks can actually handle.

When you first read of the MacBook Pro’s dual GPUs, you likely assumed they could be used simultaneously. This, currently, is not the case. You have to choose between the 9400M and the 9600M GT, which are separated by a user log out. According to Nvidia, this is not a limitation of their chips. The hardware is fully capable of running both GPUs at the same time and spitting out graphics like water from a fire hydrant.

And that’s not all…

Want more than 4GB or RAM in your new Apple notebook? There might be hope for you after all. 9to5Mac seems to think that Apple is lying to you when they say the machines top out at 4GB. The article cites that Mac Mini owners are able to use 4GB or RAM when the stated more »

Apple has announced the refreshed MacBook Pro, and almost all of the rumors were spot on.

Here’s a breakdown of the features on the new MacBook Pro.

• Precision aluminum unibody enclosure
• Glass covered, LED backlit screen.
• Dual GPUs. Both new NVIDIAs, one 9400M, and a 9600M GT.
• Glass multitouch trackpad
• Black keyboard
• Mini Display Port connector capable of driving a 30 inch display
• Firewire 800 port
• .95 inches thin
• 37% smaller packaging

Details and images after the break.

DaringFireball has yet more last minute details about the forthcoming MacBook Pros. According to them, it seems many of the details we’ve been hearing about are the real deal.

Check their list and talk of the “buttonless” track pad after the break.

Engadget has posted some last minute leaked MacBook Pro pics, along with some additional insight as to just what Steve will bring us today. The pics follow the cardinal rule of leaked images, they are blurry, and likely from a phone.

Engadget’s sources claim the new MacBook Pro has not one, but two NVIDIA GPUs inside of it. Now that’s some graphics processing power. To detract from the credibility of this statement even further, the sources claim the MacBook and 17 inch MacBook Pro will not be refreshed today.

Further details and images after the break.

Gizmodo is reporting on a tip they got today on a possible price list to go along with the leaked MacBook photos and MacBook case images we’ve been seeing lately. Other than having color coded names for identification, the prices are the same as the current MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

Prices and photos after the break.

Today on the MacRumors forums, a user posted this image that could be the case for the new MacBook Pro. As you can see, this goes along with the current aluminum brick manufacturing rumor since it looks to be a solid piece of aluminum. The holes for the speakers seem to be very small, and more »