More evidence has emerged that Apple's about to refresh its laptop line-up: the company is claimed to have upped its circuit-board orders by 20 per cent.

So say sources cited by Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times. That increase is over and above the volume of PCBs Apple is said to have ordered for Q2.

Of course, with no historical data to hand - or provided by the moles - it's anyone's guess whether that 20 per cent increase is anything other than just what you'd expect for the back-to-school manufacturing quarter.

Still, recent pics that popped up on the web allegedly showed a new-look MacBook Pro casing that applies some of the more curvaceous qualities of the MacBook Air to the 15in and 17in notebooks.

That, plus the fact that Apple last revamped the MacBook Pro in June 2007, suggests it's high time for a relaunch. This week's delayed launch of Intel's Centrino 2 platform has certainly given Apple a reason to wait a while. It probably wanted to get the iPhone 3G launch out of the way too.