Apple’s current chipset bedfellow, NVIDIA, has just announced that the first iteration of its upcoming Ion platform will come in desktop form, and should be expected this upcoming Spring.

The new architecture integrates Intel Atom processors with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card, making it a good candidate for netbooks, as many suspected the chipset’s inaugural device would likely be. Instead, the graphics card maker says the new desktop will be a “very small and affordable,” low-power consumption model…

The current Mac Pro desktops are getting a little long in the tooth. Also, any power hungry geeks already have had March ‘09 circled on their calendars, as Q1-9 has long been expected release for the Nehalem Core i7 Xeon release. Based on what’s available, that’s the brains most likely to go into the next revision of Mac Pro. MacRumors notes now a specific date has been given, March 29th, in typical PR fashion of waiting to the last days of the given window.

When these processors will be made available in volume is yet to be seen. Apple has previously been among first dibs on Intel gear, such as the dual 4-core Octo powerhouse a couple years ago. The safe money I’d think would bee to say anytime between March and the Snow Leopard release…

South Korea’s LG Display on Monday said it has signed a five-year deal to supply LCD panels to Apple.

The deal is important for LG Display, one of the largest makers of LCD panels in the world. It gives the company a high profile customer in Apple and offers a financial boost at a time the global economy appears to be worsening.

The company will receive an initial payment of $500 million from Apple, LG Display said in a statement to the Korea Exchange (KRX).

LG Display offered few other details of the agreement.

We’ve already seen the iSight indicator light “disappear”
behind the bezel of Apple’s MacBook and iMac computers. A recently
published patent application could make the iSight itself not only
disappear, but move to the middle of the screen. MacBooks, iMacs, and
even iPhones and iPod touches could take advantage of the new
technology.

Submitted in July 2007, the filing details plans for a camera mounted
behind a display that could capture an image “while the display
elements are in an inactive state (in which the display elements are
darkened and at least partially transparent).”…

Apple’s only hardware announcement yesterday was the 17″ MacBook Pro revision which brings the laptop in-line with the rest of the unibody laptops introduced in November. The new notebook brings a few welcome changes to the high-end Apple notebook, including a maximum of 8GB of RAM…

Apple at Macworld introduced a new version of the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The new model uses the same unibody aluminum construction of the 15-inch version and is just 0.98 inches thick — enough to make it the thinnest 17-inch notebook ever, the company boasts. It now revolves around a 17-inch, LED-backlit 1920×1200 standard display that is much more accurate than in the previous generation: it claims a 60 percent larger color gamut, a clearer 700:1 contrast ratio and wider 140-degree horizontal and 120-degree vertical viewing angles…