As December approaches and 2011 looms, Apple is juggling a lot of balls up in the air. Of course, everyone’s expecting the iPhone 4 to hit Verizon in early 2011, a move which should only serve to increase already booming iPhone sales. And now comes word via Three Guys and a Podcast that Apple has two special events planned for the first quarter of the new year.

First, and this should come as no surprise, Apple will reportedly hold a special even this coming January where the company will introduce the iPad 2. Apple, of course, first introduced the iPad last January and the scheduling is in line with Apple’s typical release/upgrade cycle. As for details regarding the new iPad, users can expect rear and front facing cameras and upgraded specs to boot.

Next up, Apple will reportedly hold a special even in April where it will introduce brand new MacBook Pros along with a significant Final Cut Pro update. But don’t start yawning, gentle reader. The planned MacBook Pro upgrade is poised to be a whole lot more than a simple bump up in specs. The new MacBook Pros will reportedly feature a complete redesign with features borrowed from the recently released MacBook Air.

But wait, there’s more!

The new MacBook Pros will move to solid state storage, up to 512GB, remove the optical drive, and we believe light-peak is being pushed to make it’s first-ever entrance into the market, another Apple exclusive.

Over the past few years, Apple has systematically upgraded the base level MacBook to a level where the difference between the Pro and consumer models were arguably becoming negligible. Toss in a SSD and light peak technology and the MacBook Pro is all of a sudden a Pro machine in every sense of the word again. We’re not sure how we feel about removing the optical drive from the Pro machine, but that’s a debate for another time.

Now as for light peak, here’s why you should get excited. Really excited. Light Peak is an emerging technology capable of transferring huge chunks of data with blazing speed. We’re talking about 10 Gbps both up and down. So yeah, we’re talking about a huge technological leap here.

Apple and Intel have reportedly been working together to develop Light Peak, and the transfer technology will be an Apple exclusive when it first hits the market. And as impressive as Light Peak sounds today, the upside is even more mouth watering. Intel has boasted hat Light Peak will be able to scale to 100GB/s within the next 10 years. Back in May, Intel officials said that manufacturers will begin deploying the technology by the end of 2010/early 2011. Fancy that.

Below is a demo of Light Peak from the 2009 Intel Developers Forum.

And oh yes, there is one more thing. Apple will reportedly introduce a long-awaited upgrade to it Final Cut Pro suite of software this coming April. Steve Jobs has previously stated that the next version of FCP “will be awesome.” Jus a few weeks ago, a user emailed Jobs inquiring about an impending Final Cut upgrade and whether or not the the software will be 64-bit. Jobs’ response? “Stay tuned and buckle up.”