If Three Guys and a Podcast‘s report holds true, the next iteration of the MacBook Pro will release in April 2011, featuring solid-state drives, and will dispense with optical drives, like the recent version of the MacBook Air. It is also speculated that the new MacBooks may feature Intel’s Light Peak optical cabling, which is supposed to be a universal bus to replace various buses, such as SATA, USB, HDMI, PCI Express and FireWire.

Yesterday, Apple rolled out the previously iPhone- and iPod Touch-only FaceTime videochat software to Mac computer users; however, as the German blog MacNotes has discovered, the current beta version of FaceTime for Mac has a security hole that could leave some users’ Apple ID accounts compromised. Given that this could be used by an interloper to change the FaceTime user’s password, locking them out of their own Apple account, as well as make purchases from the iTunes store, this is cause for concern.

Apple‘s Back to the Mac announcement is scheduled to begin at 1pm EDT: While some details of the announcement appear to have leaked via Apple’s forums, including a new MacBook Air, iLife ’11, and a possible mystery product, no one yet knows for certain what’s in store.

It seems pretty likely that the announcement will tease a new version of Mac OS X, tentatively known as “Lion” to the blogosphere thanks to the promotional picture Apple sent out last week (left); however, it’s unclear whether that’d be ready to go on people’s computers anytime soon or would merely be a sneak peek, consistent with Apple’s schedule of releasing the past three updates two years apart each; then again, the rules may be different now.

Update: We’ve written a comprehensive roundup of all the big announcements this afternoon.

Apple has just sent out the above picture to journalists along with an invite to a Mac-centric event, to be held on October 20th. Lest you think that all they focus on nowadays is iPads, iPhones, iPods, and what have you, the event, titled “Back to the Mac,” seems to tease a new version of Apple’s OS X operating system. (Lion?) Tech reporter Omar Gallaga tweets that the invitation mentions “a sneak peek of the next major version of Mac OS X.”

The last update, Snow Leopard (OS X version 10.6) was released on August 28th, 2009; the previous version, Leopard (OS X version 10.5) was released on October 26, 2007. The first four versions of OS X (including the clunky, incomplete 10.0, Cheetah) were released a year or less than a year apart, but the past three have been released two years apart each, so we aren’t exactly ‘due’ for a new OS X. That “sneak peek” could just be that; then again, more could be in store. We’ll find out soon enough.

(h/t Techland)

According to Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn, Apple’s iPad is eating up to 50% of PC laptop sales.

Consumers aren’t just buying up iPads left and right as an alternative to Mac laptops, as the iPads are equally cutting into Windows laptop sales as well. Due to this, Best Buy plans to expand its iPad distribution to every one of its stores that does not yet carry the Apple tablet, clearly displaying the sales prominence of the gadget. Chief electronics analyst for NPD Group Inc., Stephen Baker, says the market is trending differently now with mobile devices on the rise.

On most models of modern Apple laptops, the little light that indicates when the computer is in sleep mode is actually tuned to the rate at which the average adult breathes.

Imagine an alternate reality wherein Oprah, like in our world, told her entire studio audience that they were each getting a car. Now imagine that in the other world, she added a little footnote at the end: “But you have to pay for it yourselves.”

A Massachusetts school, Beverly High, is committed to modernizing its education system. This apparently means students having laptops for use in class every day and for homework at night. But the school certainly isn’t going to provide them itself, you need to buy them, unsuspecting students and your families.

All morning, we’ve been watching The Twitter, desperately waiting for any sign that Steam for Mac was finally live. A lot of Mac-owning folks in Europe were understandably miffed that despite that announced release date of May 12th, Steam hadn’t yet landed by their afternoons. Even in the U.S., people have been getting mighty impatient.

Rejoice: As of 12:45 EST, Steam for Mac is officially available for download. It isn’t yet live, though.

The analysts at Experian Simmons have turned their attentions to everyone’s favorite group of inscrutable consumers: MacHeads. In a sweeping analysis of 206 designated market areas across the U.S., they’ve found and ranked the urban areas in which people are most likely to own Apple products like iPods, iPads, or Mac laptops or desktop computers.

Not surprisingly, the Bay Area comes in at #1 — but New York City is #4. The top five, after the jump:

In a move that has alarmed app makers, Twitter has acquired Atebits, the makers of Tweetie, the critically acclaimed Twitter app for iPhone and Mac. The $2.99 app has been reviewed in TIME and Wired, and won a 2009 Apple Design award.

Loren Brichter, Atebits founder, weighed in on the Tweetie blog:

It’s been a wild ride since 1.0, and over the last year and a half Tweetie has gone from a no-name app from a little known software company to an app hailed as one of the best mobile experiences around… and I’ve had the privilege of working with the folks at Twitter from the outside as their service evolved.

Now I’ll be working with them on the inside. I’m happy to say that as of today Twitter is the proud owner of Tweetie – and I’m joining their mobile team and starting work on turning Tweetie.app into Twitter.app, for iPhone and iPad.

This marks Twitter’s first foray into providing an official client for its microblogging service.