Next MacBook will reportedly ship with hi-res 'retina display'

In October of this year, Apple released the latest version of its popular MacBook Pro laptop, which boasts a quad-core Core i7 processor, a huge chunk of memory, better battery life and the Lion OS X operating system. The machine was a hit.

In the second quarter of 2012, Apple will likely overhaul its MacBook Pro line all over again, this time with a high-res "retina display." 

So say the folks at DigiTimes, a quite well-informed, Taipei-based newspaper.

Today, DigiTimes reports – via "sources in the upstream supply chain" – that Apple will raise the resolution on its MacBook Pro line to 2880 pixels by 1800 pixels. "While the prevailing MacBook models have displays with resolutions ranging from 1680 pixels by 1050 pixels to 1280 pixels by 800 pixels, the ultra-high resolution for the new MacBook Pro will further differentiate Apple's products from other brands, commented the sources," DigiTimes writes. 

Apple's "retina display" first debuted on the iPhone 4, in 2010. The display, as PC World noted at the time, has "four times the number of pixels as previous iPhones." The name, meanwhile, refers to the assertion, first voiced by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, that the retina display hit the "magic number" – i.e. the point at which the human eye would cease to be able to differentiate any improvement in pixel count. 

In related news, rumors have continued to churn about the (probable) 2012 launch of the Apple iPad 3. According to Citi analyst Richard Gardner, the newest Apple tablet is likely to hit in February of 2012, complete with a much improved display. 

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