New MacBook Pro, Air and Mac Pro pricing potentially leaked by Apple ads and online store (updated)

Could this be another example of online advertising presaging the onset of a hardware upgrade from Cupertino? Apple's ads on Australian tech pub PC Authority have been spotted displaying some rather peculiar price tags for its flagship mobile and desktop computers. Whereas Cupertino's Aussie online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1,599, A$1,999 and A$3,599, respectively, the above, official-looking ads would seem to disagree. Clicking on them still leads to the currently priced (and specced) machines, but looking at them suggests that -- in the absence of some major conspiracy or a splendidly random price hike -- we're getting an early peek at the pricing of the newly updated models of each of those series. The MacBook Air has jumped by A$400 so that what used to be its costliest base price is now its lowest, while the MBP has suffered a A$300 bump in cost of entry. Then again, considering the expectation that the mobile computers will get Core i7 CPUs while the Mac Pro will get all dressed up withCore i7-980X regalia, this development is perhaps not all that surprising. The major thing to take away here is that the long-awaited upgrades might finally be arriving. We're putting our piggy banks on alert, just in case.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Update: We've come across some other pricing inconsistencies contained within Apple's own New Zealand site. Find out what's happening after the break [Thanks, ScottNYC].

Update 2: The prices above have been corroborated by Apple's Australia site, which now suffers from the same schizophrenic pricing as its New Zealand compatriot. You'll find screenshot evidence after the break.

Looking at the Mac Pro page on the Apple New Zealand site, we get a small blurb indicating prices of $5599 and $7299 in NZ currency for the quad- and eight-core options, respectively. But then sliding along to the purchase page we see significantly lower prices prominently displayed. You can see in the image below that the same situation is apparent on the Australian version of the Mac Pro site as well. We're not too fresh on Apple's pricing policy in Oceania, but clearly something is afoot, as a similar inconsistency can be found with the MacBook Air prices. Starting prices of both NZ$2,499 and NZ$2,999 are being paraded in the second of our images. We could, quite easily, be looking at a good old fashioned snafu here, making an anthill out of a mountain or whatever, but we thought you'd care to know.

Is Canada's iPod tax back? And if so, will BJ Snowden get her cut?

We know, BJ Snowden is an American artist -- but since her song "In Canada" is probably on every iPod and computer up north, we have to wonder whether a proposed amendment to the Canadian Copyright act will help her finally get what's coming to her. The brainchild of the New Democratic Party's Charlie Angus, the bill would extend 1997's Private Copying Levy "to the next generation of devices that consumers are using for copying sound recordings for personal use." Proponents of the plan says that it ensures that artists get paid for their work -- essentially, the government wants you to pay upfront for the music you're likely to steal anyways by taxing your next digital audio player purchase. Of course, much about the plan doesn't make sense (it doesn't address digital video, for instance, or the computers that people use to download and store their music in the first place) but we guess we'll let the Canadian government hash that one out. This is obviously not a new idea, and it is one the courts have rejectedalready, but who knows? Maybe this time it will "take." Lets hope not, eh?

Make it four: Google's Nexus One coming to Sprint

Making the rounds, are we Google? Just over 24 hours after we saw an AT&T-friendly Nexus One go on sale, along come Sprint yelling "me too!" at the top of its lungs. Today marks the day that Google's first-ever smartphone now has at least a holding place on all four of the major US carriers, with T-Mobilenabbing it first and Verizon users still waiting for that vague "spring release." Unfortunately, Sprint's making us wait when it comes to finding out an exact price and release date, but at least we're assured that both are coming "soon."

Apple said to be pulling all protective screen film products from its stores

You may now be able to choose from a wide assortment of protective screen films at Apple's online or retail stores, but it looks like that won't be the case for much longer. As iLounge is reporting from multiple sources (and we have also heard), Apple will apparently stop selling all protective screen film products starting in May. That includes both film-only products (whether they are used for protective or anti-glare purposes), as well as cases that have a protective film built into them. For its part, Apple isn't giving any reason for the move, or confirming it itself just yet, but it seems like it might not be the most popular decision if it is the case. As iLounge points out, the single most popular iPod "case" in the Apple Store right now is, in fact, a protective film for the iPod touch.

Panasonic Touch the Future Tour lets production Full HD 3DTVs hit the public stage

Panasonic has never needed to wait for a new studio album before putting together another major tour, the latest of which it's dubbed Touch the Future. Trading in the traveling truck exhibition for a more intimate indoor setting, the real production Full HD 3D televisions are available and on display, along with glasses, Blu-ray players plus a few other products for good measure. We took a look as soon as the doors opened in NYC (the display runs through today at the Penn Plaza Pavilion and other locations in Chicago and Los Angeles, check the schedule for 12 more cities on deck) and got an eye full of the same 50-inch plasma 3DTVs on sale at Best Buy stores around the country. One major new look for this demo was an NVIDIA PC running the 3DTV Play solution, as you can see from the pics even New York's finest enjoyed turning a lap or two of Need for Speed: Shift in 3D. The action was smooth and easy compatibility with 3D gaming on the PC should provide plenty of content while we wait for more true 3D games to hit consoles (which should ramp up after the PS3 update this summer) while checking out Blu-ray demos on a 50-inch television proved every bit as engaging this time as it did on the 152-inch CES display.

Without the crowds of CES or CEDIA we got a longer look at the new displays than before and could appreciate the clarity and sharp picture produced by the improved refresh rate, although the bright lights of the demo room didn't make for the best environment to evaluate image quality. The glasses and everything else were the same as we'd seen before, but we could move around at wider viewing angles and get a clear picture from any reasonable seating position, with one caveat. As the IR sync is integrated in the frame, if someone else sits (and stays, simply walking by didn't cause any problems) between the viewer and the specific segment blasting its signal, the glasses can lose their wireless connection. Unless your living room has an obstructed viewing section it shouldn't be a problem but it's something to think about before moving the furniture around.

Speaking to several of the executives on hand little information was available on what's next, other than to expect larger sizes like the 54-inch version within the month, followed by 58- and 65-inch plasmas throughout the spring and into the summer. Those active shutter glasses should squeeze about 250 hours out of the included watch battery, but we couldn't get an answer to whether they would work on competitors hardware, leaving that as one thing we're still waiting to try out for ourselves. 3D is still waiting for its first killer live event to move buying interest among anyone other than the earliest of adopters, but this exhibit lives up to its name, with DirecTV 3D broadcasts, games and movies just bleeding into the "available" category it's about time you went from reading about 3D at home to experiencing it firsthand.