Apple Quietly Boosts the Entry-Level MacBook's Specs

In addition to its back-to-school promotion, Apple on Wednesday quietly tweaked the specs on its entry-level white $999 MacBook.

Same price, better specs. For the same $999, users now receive a 2.13GHz processor (up from 2.0GHz), a 160GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive, (up from 120GB), and 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (up from 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM).

This is the second update to the entry-level white MacBook since January; on Jan. 21st the model received NVIDIA's 9400M integrated GPU, an upgrade to 2GB of RAM, and the same 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1,066MHz front-side bus in the mid-range aluminum unibody MacBook.

As with most technology, keep waiting and specs will improve and prices will drop. Same old quandary: buy now or wait?

Speaking of the back-to-school promotion, the entry-level white MacBook is eligible for it, which can get buyers a rebate on any of several iPod models, including the 8GB iPod touch.