As expected, Apple launched new MacBook Pro models this morning – but also threw in a nice little bump in the MacBook specs as well. All units now come with “Penryn” Intel chips which are based on the 45nm architecture rather than the previous 65nm – which will probably mean nothing to you other than they should lead to better battery performance and possibly run cooler.

The MacBook Pros also received the same Multi-Touch trackpads the MacBook Airs were introduced with last month. Using the MacBook Air in the store, I love the ability to rotate and zoom in on a picture and all that, but the real killer feature is the 3-finger swipe which moves you back and forth between web pages – I seriously think a good percentage of my time on a laptop is spent going up to the ‘back’ button – no more!

I’ve been waiting for this update for a long time, and can finally kiss my old iBook G4 goodbye. Hopefully next week I’ll be welcoming my new 2.6 GHz MacBook Pro with 4 gigs of RAM into my life. As Dr. Hammond says in Jurrasic Park: “Spared no expense.”