If I recall correctly, the G4 Cube was the first product that was outside the well-known four-box strategy: Consumer vs Professional and desktop vs portable. It stood alongside the Power Macintosh G4, which was the pro desktop, but was not as-pro, but definitely also not a regular consumer product. I think the Cube’s market failure is more proof that in that time the four-quadrant grid strategy was just the very right thing to do.
You missed one of the major issues with the G4 Cube and that was it’s price. The G4 cube sold for more then the PowerMac G4 of the time but with less features and expandability. This the extra cost was all about the design and that alone turned out not to be something enough Mac fans were willing to pay extra for while getting less spec-wise (vs the PM G4). Another issue with the machine you missed was that it would develop crazing in the case (I believe related to the heat issue). So I think that even if the computer didn’t get hot (say because Jobs relented on having a fan) or develop crazing or any other of it’s issues (outside of its price), it would have still cost to much to make to sell well. Apparently though, some retro Mac hobbyists have shown that you can upgrade one of these with an SSD which removes the heat associated with spinning hard drives and shows that the CPU or other motherboard chips/components by themselves were not the sole source of the excess heat. One of the things the G4 Cube proves, like the Apple III before it, is that while a fan-less quiet computer as option to be able to have isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, its not such an important feature that you rush to release one before fan-less heat disipation tech is fully ready. The new fan-less M1 MacBook Air proves how it can be done successfully when you wait for the technology to catch up (in terms of lower power components/CPU’s/SOC’s and heat sink technology so heat dissipation isn’t really an issue.
Oh, man! I just realized by your joke that Apple hasn't used "G" in any of their chip designations. You have the main iPhone/iPad "A" chips. You have the Apple Watch "S" chips, the Mac-security-coprocessor "T" chips, the "motion coprocessor" M" chips, the Bluetooth "W" chips, the Ultra Wideband "U" chip, and the whatever-the-heck-it-is "H" chip. But no "G" since abandoning PowerPC.
Love my Cube.. I have it on display in my living room (with led backlighting) ... Waited years for a reasonable priced one.. Buy wow it has some issues I still need to fix... Especially the slot-loading drive and the capacative power button drives me mad...
I had the same problems with the capacitive power button and I solved it by putting a piece of sticky paper between the button and the casing. It makes it a lot less sensitive and it still reacts well on my finger to switch the Cube on. I replaced the DVD drive with a laptop slimdrive. Just took the guts out of the old drive and fixed the slimdrive inside the old drive case with double sided tape. For the connection you find adapters on Aliexpress or Amazon. Works great!
@@allan.n.7227 I used an IDE slimline drive you can find on ebay: www.ebay.nl/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Drive%20Panasonic%20UJ%20875%20DVD%20Burner%20Ide%20Slot%20In%20Internal%2012%207mm%20Slimline&_itemId=324060671200
@@allan.n.7227 The original Apple Cube adapter works, but is not aligned with the location of the slim IDE connector in the slimline DVD drives, so get an adapter from Amazon that should work
@@allan.n.7227 The powerplug on this adapter does not fit the Molex 5 Volt power plug, so you need to solder a cable from the Molex cable to a “floppy drive” plug that fits the adapter. Make sure you take the two 5V cables from the Molex.
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The G3 and G4 Macs where the most interesting Macs ever. This one tops them all
I always saw the Mac mini as the G4 Cube making its comeback in a way.
If I recall correctly, the G4 Cube was the first product that was outside the well-known four-box strategy: Consumer vs Professional and desktop vs portable. It stood alongside the Power Macintosh G4, which was the pro desktop, but was not as-pro, but definitely also not a regular consumer product. I think the Cube’s market failure is more proof that in that time the four-quadrant grid strategy was just the very right thing to do.
Nothing beats the G5 Dodecahedron.
With Apple Silicon, there could be “Son of the Cube.”
m* cube
My freshman dorm computer lab for some reason had a cube and it was glorious
You missed one of the major issues with the G4 Cube and that was it’s price. The G4 cube sold for more then the PowerMac G4 of the time but with less features and expandability. This the extra cost was all about the design and that alone turned out not to be something enough Mac fans were willing to pay extra for while getting less spec-wise (vs the PM G4). Another issue with the machine you missed was that it would develop crazing in the case (I believe related to the heat issue). So I think that even if the computer didn’t get hot (say because Jobs relented on having a fan) or develop crazing or any other of it’s issues (outside of its price), it would have still cost to much to make to sell well. Apparently though, some retro Mac hobbyists have shown that you can upgrade one of these with an SSD which removes the heat associated with spinning hard drives and shows that the CPU or other motherboard chips/components by themselves were not the sole source of the excess heat.
One of the things the G4 Cube proves, like the Apple III before it, is that while a fan-less quiet computer as option to be able to have isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, its not such an important feature that you rush to release one before fan-less heat disipation tech is fully ready. The new fan-less M1 MacBook Air proves how it can be done successfully when you wait for the technology to catch up (in terms of lower power components/CPU’s/SOC’s and heat sink technology so heat dissipation isn’t really an issue.
Very happy with mine! I haven't turned it on in years. I really should...
Fly like a G6 .... Cube
They put it on ice until 2013 when tried it again with the mac pro trash can, it did not end well.
Oh, man! I just realized by your joke that Apple hasn't used "G" in any of their chip designations.
You have the main iPhone/iPad "A" chips. You have the Apple Watch "S" chips, the Mac-security-coprocessor "T" chips, the "motion coprocessor" M" chips, the Bluetooth "W" chips, the Ultra Wideband "U" chip, and the whatever-the-heck-it-is "H" chip. But no "G" since abandoning PowerPC.
Love my Cube.. I have it on display in my living room (with led backlighting) ... Waited years for a reasonable priced one.. Buy wow it has some issues I still need to fix... Especially the slot-loading drive and the capacative power button drives me mad...
I had the same problems with the capacitive power button and I solved it by putting a piece of sticky paper between the button and the casing. It makes it a lot less sensitive and it still reacts well on my finger to switch the Cube on.
I replaced the DVD drive with a laptop slimdrive. Just took the guts out of the old drive and fixed the slimdrive inside the old drive case with double sided tape. For the connection you find adapters on Aliexpress or Amazon. Works great!
@@wk9205 Thanks a lot. I appriciate it. Did you scavenge the drive from G4 powerbook or a generic ide / sata ? Could you link to an adaptor? :)
@@allan.n.7227 I used an IDE slimline drive you can find on ebay: www.ebay.nl/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Drive%20Panasonic%20UJ%20875%20DVD%20Burner%20Ide%20Slot%20In%20Internal%2012%207mm%20Slimline&_itemId=324060671200
@@allan.n.7227 The original Apple Cube adapter works, but is not aligned with the location of the slim IDE connector in the slimline DVD drives, so get an adapter from Amazon that should work
@@allan.n.7227 The powerplug on this adapter does not fit the Molex 5 Volt power plug, so you need to solder a cable from the Molex cable to a “floppy drive” plug that fits the adapter. Make sure you take the two 5V cables from the Molex.
I’ve always wondered how many engineers bit their tongue about how this thing just wouldn’t really work