An Apple MacBook Pro with 3G connectivity prototype has gone up for sale on the auction website eBay. As reported by MacRumors, an eBay seller named abhw752579 posted a 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2007 that features a built-in antenna on its lid. It is the same spot where Apple displayed a broadband antenna on a number of its patents in 2008.
The poster said that the 3G hardware is picked up by the operating system, however, inserting a SIM card into the slot produces no results. “It is entirely possible it can be made to work by someone with more software and driver experience than myself but I can make no guarantees,” said the seller.
The device, known as a 2007 Santa Rosa MacBook Pro, has a number of unique features that indicates that the device is indeed a prototype. It has a red circuit board, rather than the blue ones that Apple devices have, and the EMC number is listed as “XXXX.”
The seller said he obtained the device from a former Apple employee via Craigslist. The said employee used the machine for “software development work,” and was allowed by the company to keep it when he left.
The 3G MacBook Pro is powered by a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz processor, it has 2 GB of RAM and has an Nvidia GeForce 8600m GPU. The notebook was not working when the seller obtained it, but after replacing the battery, hard drive, MagSafe adapter and RAM, it worked an is in “surprisingly good condition.”
Does the discovery of this prototype mean that Apple is working on a new MacBook that has 3G connectivity?
via: Wired
