We reported earlier that it looks like the new MacBook Pros have had their hard drive controllers downgraded. Now, Apple has released a new firmware update to jack those speeds back up.

It's called the MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7. Check it:

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro. While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbps, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported.

You'll still need an SSD to take advantage of these speeds, but if you really want to do that, now it looks like you've got the option. If you're not planning on swapping in an SSD, you don't need to worry about this firmware update. [Applw via MacRumors]

Send an email to Adam Frucci, the author of this post, at adam@gizmodo.com.