Marble is the code-name of the new iBook being announced on 1 May 2001 at the Apple press event that I reported on Friday. In contrast to the iBook details that I reported here last week, the new iBook will be a wholesale departure from previous iBook designs and should set the notebook world ablaze – especially in Japan.
New information acquired by Go2Mac describes the new iBook as more similar to the PowerBook G4 Titanium than to the original iBook. The new iBook will ship with the same 12.1-inch screen but the bezel around it will be a scant quarter to half-inch larger than the screen itself, like its older cousin Ti. The enclosure is expected to be thin and light and almost nothing like the bulbous rounded enclosure of the original iBook.
Gone are the days of the bulky, heavy enclosure of previous iBook, Marble will look more like a smaller, funkier version of the Titanium. According to my sources there will be two models and both will ship with the same 12.1-inch screen:
| iBook 2.0 “Lean” | iBook 2.0 “Mean” |
|---|---|
| 466 MHz PowerPC 750CXe (G3) | 533 MHz PowerPC 750CXe (G3) |
| 256 KB Level 2 Cache | |
| 128 MB RAM | 128 MB RAM |
| 10 GB HDD | 20 GB HDD |
| 12.1-inch TFT SVGA display | |
| ATI RAGE Mobility 128 | |
| 8 MB VRAM | |
