Yesterday, we heard an analyst report suggesting that Apple would effectively kill off the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines and merge then into a single, streamlined device known only as the MacBook.

It was an interesting report, but analysts say a lot of things, including sometimes when they are at the bottom of a barrel of bourbon. But now Mactrast is saying that their own unproven source is echoing reports of a MacBook Pro/MacBook Air hybrid… boasting USB 3.0 support and a sexy, lightweight Liquidmetal chassis.

Just as expected, Intel launched its first crop of quad-core Ivy Bridge processors today. This is the chip that will replace the company’s Sandy Bridge CPUs in Apple’s next-generation of Macs. They’re the world’s first processors to use a 22-nanometer manufacturing process and feature Intel’s “Tri-Gate” 3D transistor technology.

The iPhone 4S is hardly a fatty, but it is thicker than many of its Android-powered rivals. However, thanks to in-cell touch technology and other improvements Apple is expected to make to the sixth-generation iPhone, the handset could measure in at just 7.9mm thick — 1.4mm thinner than the iPhone 4S.

The Retrospective 7 is another one in Think Tank’s great lineup of stealthy-ish camera bags. This one distinguishes itself by slapping a pocket on the side which is designed to hold an iPad or an 11-inch MacBook Air.

Apple has released its third OS X Mountain Lion developer preview in the Dev Center. Build 12A178q of Mountain Lion is available for free to registered Mac developers, and it comes with a number of tweaks and changes. This release follows the second developer preview of Mountain Lion that was issued on March 16th.

The other day, I was setting up an iPad for a client of mine when I noticed that there was 5 Gb of space being used on the device. When I plugged the iPad into my Macbook Air and opened iTunes, it said that the iPad had 3.9 Gb of space in the “Other” category, but none of the files in the file sharing section of iTunes were that big. This conundrum led me to today’s tip.

Intel has reportedly shifted the announcement of its next-generation Ivy Bridge processor from April 29 to April 23 as PC makers gear up to release their second-generation of ultrabooks in May. But you could see it powering Mac OS X before then, with the new chip expected to replace its predecessor, the Sandy Bridge processor, in Apple’s next MacBook Pro and iMac.

Apple retail stores in London have begun stocking international parts ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games as the company prepares for an “onslaught” of international journalists seeking repairs. Many of the journalists covering the event, which kicks off on July 27, are expected to be carrying Apple notebooks, so international keyboards are expected to be high in demand.

Want to put in perspective just how pixel dense the new iPad’s display is? On the left, an 11-inch MacBook Air, running Safari under OS X Lion. On the right, the new iPad, showing that same Safari window under OS X Lion using Air Display. It’s like a tiny 27-inch iMac!

Check out Matt Gemmell’s Flickr for a full-res version. Beautiful.

Want a thinner, lighter and more Air-like MacBook Pro? You’ve only got a couple months or so to wait… provided you want a 15-inch. The 13-inch might take a little longer.