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Apple Cube Confirmed
Ok, we mentioned this in the story below but apparently thats not loud enough considering this is being submitted about every 30 seconds *grin*. yes, the Apple Cube is real. There
is more information about it on every mac site on the planet, including Apple's site. It looks nifty.
First, s/it's/its. I was going to vow never to ridicule Rob's spelling again, but after seeing he got three separate typos into this one posting, let's just call us even on the day.
More importantly, looking at the Macquarium specs, the tank is 7 7/8" x 9 1/2" x 8 1/2. Do people think this could actually work? You'd probably need to install a fan.
Mac Pluses make perfect OpenBSD routers.
Do they? I can't get NetBSD or Linux to boot at all.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
He said the first company to put out their entire personal computer line with Optical Mice standard.
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
Actually, i'm a huge Apple fan (as if that isn't apparent from my other posts) so you're preaching to the choir.
However, the G4 is a lot more power hungry than the G3: it uses almost as much power as a PIII and the die size is quite large. I don't know how they managed to cool it w/o fans, but i'm glad they did. Go cube!
just my blog and pix
Would this keyboard work with a Wintel box? That would be sweet! I'd buy one. I know I'd need a driver for the special buttons, but would all the standard ones work?
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Yup. Too many assholes like me buying computers that are too easy to use and too easy to look at.
Exactly. Things would be OK if people like you just bought them and looked at them though...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Yup. Too many assholes like me buying computers that are too easy to use and too easy to look at. Computers are just too damn popular now days. Next thing you know, somebody's mom will want one.
Oh, for the good ol' days when them fancy high-powered calculators were the domain of 'leet users like Rombuu.
Wouldn't you love to buy this steaming pile of dog shit I've got here? I'll put it in a real nice bag for you...
You'd part with some of your precious stash for me?!? I'm touched...
--
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
This article says: The Power Mac G4 Cube doesn't have a single analog circuit in it, except for the power supply. Instead, it relies on USB, FireWire and the breakthough Apple Display Connector to connect with a host of peripherals
Ah, another new display connector from Apple! I remember the ill-fated VideoVision connector from the PowerMac 61xx series and I'm sure people who are buying used Macs at swap meets love it when they find out they can't hook it up to any monitor known to man except the VideoVision monitor, unless they either have the special nuclear-powered cable, or add a video board (either the HPV or AV board).
I do have one concern about this new video connector. Knowing how touchy the MPAA etc. are about digital outputs from DVD, what kind of "copy protection" provisions are built into this new connector?
I'm not sure how they can say it contains "no analog circuitry", because the article mentions it has a VGA port on back, and the new video connector also contains analog signals. VGA is definitely analog. I guess they mean "no analog circuitry except VGA."
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
As I replied to an earlier post - Jobs said the first company to make optical mice standard across the entire product line.
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
i disagree. the Cube can't be the new desktop. My main reason for saying this is that power aside, expandability is a must in a pro system. Apple consistantly makes systems with what Graphic Designers consider to be too few PCI slots. Average pro-user may not need that many, but Apple hasn't catered to the >3 PCI slot crowd since the 9600 (?). And completely eliminating PCI slots in its power desktops would be a huge mistake on Apple's part. Some people found this to be a problem with the iMac. Firewire and usb just doesnt cut it.
Lycestra
You forgot the monitors -- from $499 on up, if you want the all-in-one cable connection.
For more information, click here.
Yeah, except that they're both derivative of the NeXT cube. And since Apple owns NeXT, you do the math of what will happen in a potential lawsuit.
>Of course, there is one, but I'd rather not have to carry this computer around in the rain while it's naked. A normal carrying handle would be a good thing.
:) (except maybe a GPS)
I think you could just leave the outside cover on and use the handle on the bottom to carry it around upside-down.
I don't think carrying *any* computer around in the rain is a good idea
just my blog and pix
He's not gonna need the hockey puck now that the new apple mice have been released.
First, the iMac was a whole new paradigm for computers. No more beige box and separate monitor. I think it's pretty clear that a few manufacturers stole more than just a few pages from the iMac styling book. Case closed.
But with the G4 Cube, how can anyone say that they were the first to package a computer in a cube? Unless the design is largely the same (which it isn't) you can't really lay claim (in my books) to an orthagonally packaged computer enclosure.
Differences, Qube vs G4 Cube:
cobalt blue vs clear/graphite
entirely cubic vs cubic enclosure with more rectangular clear cover
looks like a rectilinear Octane vs looks more like something you'd find in a hair salon
different vs Different
Mr. Ska
If you check out the expansion options on the Apple marketing page, you'll notice that you are correct. But who cares? These computers are not intended to meet the needs of every user. If you really must have the PCI slots, buy a traditional G4 machine. If, on the other hand, you match the tradional profile of a mac user who can get by with 2 USB ports, 2 400 Mbps Firewire ports, up to 1.5 GB DRAM, and an AirPort card, then this machine will work fine.
BTW: the picture of the disassembly is really cool.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
Doesn't anyone remember the old 660AV models that included the "integrated Multimedia Connector," which carried power, sound, and ADB from the CPU to the monitor/base?
If they're holding to the same pattern, you should be able to find a dongle that'll break out the individual cables, allowing you to use a "regular" monitor with such a device, or using a display with the connector on a "regular" machine.
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
My take on what seem like the most interesting things...
The Cube
It kicks ass in a Matrix-style way. It's just gorgeous, and is an engineering marvel as well. In case anyone missed it, the thing has no fan. As a result, it's incredibly quiet -- just ask anybody with a previous generation iMac (which was the first to go fanless). This is possible because of the low power consumption/heat output of the PPC. And while this thing won't fit in a rack, it does allow one to create a space-efficient (and sightly) server farm.
MP G4s
Apple is today selling dual G4s for the same price it sold single processor machines for yesterday. This is impressive. Certain applications will take more advantage of the second processor than others -- Photoshop and Final Cut Pro should fly -- but this is a good move regardless. I would like to hear what Carmack has to say about this. In addition, the motherboards now have gigabit ethernet standard. And thanks to Darwin's SMP, Mac OS X should fly on this thing.
Mouse/keyboard
It took them a while, but Apple appears to have fixed the problems with both its mouse and keyboard. I'll have to reserve final judgement until I hold the thing, but the mouse seems good. What not everyone realizes is that the idea behind the hockey puck mouse was that it could easily fit in a child's hand. The idea with this new mouse is that smaller hands can rest their palm on the back, but not have trouble reach the mouse button in the front (since the whole thing is a button). We're back to a full-size keyboard too.
BTW: From what I understand, ALL new Apple desktop models come with the new mouse and keyboard. This includes the $799 iMac...
$799 iMac
Apple will start selling a $799 iMac in the new Indigo color in September. This machine does not have DVD or FireWire, but it's technologically superior to the $999 machine that Apple sells today. And even if you don't like Mac OS, this thing could make one bad-ass xterm machine. Not only is it cheap and has ethernet and a great sound system (how many $799 machines can claim that?), but it looks cool too. There are a bunch of other revisions to the iMac product line, including several new colors, but none significant as this.
iMovie 2
While this may not affect many slashdotters, it's worth noting that Apple has done an amazing job with iMovie. It's essentially at the forefront and defining this new desktop DV editing industry as it goes. Sony seems to be struggling to keep up. iMovie is the first piece of software to make DV editing so accesible. This is a brilliant move on Apple's part, because users will eventually graduate to Final Cut and a G4. I feel this is a strategy similar to how Microsoft leveraged FrontPage to breed ASP developers.
Apple is continually eliminating obstacles that stand between it and its critics. And while some poeple still feel that one company making both the OS and the hardware is bad, Apple has proved that it understands it customers and its market. It is also one of the only major computing companies companies to take previous proprietary software (Darwin, QuickTime Streaing, OpenPlay, NetSprocket) and move it to an open source license that is approved of by the OSI. And note that it can afford to do this because it derives most of its revenue from hardware.
The company is far from perfect, but substainial progress has been made in the last three years, and Apple deserves credit for that today. The industry would be much duller and stagnant without them.
- Scott
------
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
Looks like TheMacJunkie.com has been taken offline from it's ISP. Probably on demmand from Apple layers, similarely to what they tried with Macintouch.com recently.
Did anyone notice that the Mac Junkie article does not exist anymore? He took it down sometime in the last few hours. What's even funnier is that the whole Mac Junkie site doesn't exist anymore. There is a default web hosting page up now and none of the previous pages exist!
I guess that's one way to avoid public humiliation... :)
Well at least no one looked like an idiot for believing the rumor before! That could have been tragic. :P~
The special displays:
- 17/16" CRT - $499
- 15" LCD - $999
- 22" LCD - $3,999
Must.. resist.. temptation.. Need to.. pay.. for food..I wouldn't recommend carrying the machine by it since it's meant to be used to lift the internals out of the case.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
-- DuckWing
Why did this post get a zero score?
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
From the site "the Power Mac G4 Cube holds up to a staggering 1.5 gigabytes of PC100 SDRAM".
Meaning it probably has 3 slots, which you could fill with staggeringly expensive 512MB dimms to get 1.5G RAM.
At least they didn't cripple it in that area.
just my blog and pix
I've seen a lot of complaints about broken links and Forbidden errors when attempting to access Apple's site. You've got to keep in mind, they just made a big change in their product line, and unlike most PC manufacturers, Apple has quite a fan following, so immediately after the keynote you're going to have thousands of Apple users hitting the sites and taking down a lot of the available bandwidth. Now, with SlashDot in the mix, the site gets /.'ed in addition to the already overstressed network. Calm down and just wait a few hours, or even until tomorrow, and you can see all the pretty pictures without having to refresh the page 10 times, or have half a dozen different posts on here reading "WTF is wrong with the site?" getting moderated up.
______________________
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it!"
I was referring to the Disney slogan, d*ss, not the cube!
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Nice and compact...kinda reminds me of teh cobalts....
Umm--Does TRS-80 ring a bell?
-- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
Yah I know, god knows linux won't run on apple hardware so you stuck running that dog MacOS. And its only gonna get worse, OS X is a total piece of shit.
The rumor sites are still batting way under .300, though, so I still feel my skepticism was warrented. :)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
But I'm wondering, the press release mentions that it's got a new display cable/connector. Does this mean it won't work with my nice 19-inch Trinitron? Do I have to buy one from Apple? This could be another pr disaster for them.
--- Submission is feudal.
So lay it on its side -- see, no more "things dropping into it" problems. Perhaps this is the answer for those wanting to stack the cubes.
just my blog and pix
Looks like their hosting provider yanked the site. Bastards!
Meh. When they did testing in the early 80's, it was found that people got confused, the more mouse buttons there were. Thus, the one button mouse.
If you _want_ more buttons, there are a million third-party ADB and USB mice out there. Go get one of those and a driver to program the extra buttons with. No one's stopping you.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Yes and now I _really_ feel the need to go out, buy three new iMacs and name them after the Powerpuff Girls ;)
(waiting for the glow-in-the-dark iMac...)
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Your comment reminds me of a line in one of the Red Dwarf books (which I can't quote right now, since the book is about 20 miles away from me). After the engines on Red Dwarf are stopped, Rimmer is going on and on about why there couldn't be a "restart engine" button. He doesn't even consider the cost of the infrastructure to support a restart engine button on a ship that was never meant to stop.
If Apple left out the analog circuitry, just adding a 5 cent part isn't going to give you audio in. There's other stuff in that magic box, you know.
You may now return to making up reasons to piss on Apple.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
What were they thinking when they priced this thing?
"Hey, I've got a great idea. Not everyone needs expansion bays and pci slots, so let's take them out. While we're at it, let's charge $200 more!"
Personally, I think the cube + matching speakers and monitor is an incredibly bad assed looking set up. But who's going to buy this thing? Schools won't pay more for less, and neither will businesses. I think it looks cool, and even if I didn't need the expansion capabilities, I would never buy a G4 Cube out of principal.
I guess it will end up being the new executive fashion accesory, kind of like the 20th anniversary Mac. Otherwise, I don't see it being a runaway success.
Now, if they would priced it at $200-$300 LESS than the entry level G4 and positioned it as a G4 headless iMac, then I bet they would have a hit. Right now, I really don't see the point.
But I guess with Motorola lagging so far behind on chip development (the G4 has been at the same speed, more or less, for almost a year), Apple had to do something. The dual processor machines are a step in the right direction, but the entry level G4 should have started at 450 mhz and the G4 cube should have been priced cheaper.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I think I just read a new low. From CNN'sarticleA on the new Apple offerings:
"In addition, the G4s will feature an added gigabyte ethernet on the motherboard to speed applications and provide more bandwidth storage."
"The G4s feature dual 500 MHz processors in a "velocity engine."
"There is no mouse button and the entire surface of the top of the mouse responds to finger pressure, so no mouse pad is needed."
I'm sure there are other gems in there if you're really interested. Obviously Michele Masterson doesn't write tech stories very often.
just my blog and pix
From looking at the apple photos and the website: two observations.
1) The agp card is a normal graphics card, that sits in a 2x agp slot on the motherboard.
2) Apple is offering gigabit ethernet as a 200 dollar upgrade, which means, there may be either: a pci slot, or some propritary slot on the machine, which can be used for future upgrades.
I am more interested in an upgraded video card on one, even thou it is 2x only.
-Pfhor
You must've missed his sarcasm.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
I stand corrected.
--
Mac Pluses make perfect OpenBSD routers.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
*snort*
Newton failed because it sucked batteries dry and the handwriting recognition was lousy. 3M took the idea, out-innovated Apple, and created the Palm. Apple took defeat smartly and stuck to desktops.
And like the whole stylish computer direction or not, the reality is, apple's computers are selling well at least partially because they look damn nice, and we've already seen other companies make their own imac-esque computers, so I think Apple has every right to keep their new designs secret. Apple works very hard and I'm sure they spend significant amounts of money coming up with efficient and good looking designs. It's interesting to see that most of the other computer companies imac type computers have sold so poorly (dell's web pc, gateways ugly ass astro pc).
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I'm going to build myself a computer, and it'll be 1.5-2x more powerful, for 1.5-2x less money than this monstrosity.
Twice the RAM, twice the HD space, a better video card, a processor that's roughly 1.5x faster, no MacOS, and--oh no!--it might not fit into an 8"x8" cube.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Steve Jobs, NeXT/Open Step -> MacOS X
Where did you think it all came from?
*sigh* All these kids think they're so sharp. That Apple bought NeXT from Jobs, who started Apple and is now iCEO of Apple was assumed in this post. Duh.
The point is: this new Mac cube is just a rehash of the NeXT, from the inside out!
Take the chip off your shoulder, read carefully, think through and get a clue.
BTW, all the references at the bottom of my post (Perot, Businessland, the King of Spain are related to the original hype around the NeXT in the summer of 1989. How do I know? I had my hands on the $9999 cube back then.)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Cubical computers? what will apple think up NeXT?
Why on earth would you try to balance paper on top of an 8" square surface 12 (or so) inches off your desk? Crikey, get a paper sorter!
Scroll wheel would be nice. As soon as there's one as well-designed (aesthetically) as the Apple mouse, I bet it's going to sell like hotcakes. I don't begrudge Apple wanting to bank on their simple user interface conventions. They've served well in the past. And nobody says you can't attach your Mickeysoft scrolly optical mouse to the USB system.
I dunno, if you're on a budget the cube plus a cheap 17" monitor isn't THAT much more expensive than an iMac. You have to pay for style, but frankly the price isn't that high.
Another poster mentioned that the graphics card is in an AGP slot, so I wonder if upgrades are feasible. Me, I'm a lot more excited about NVidia's partnership with Apple than whatever ATI's shilling these days...
I would be VERY happy if Apple released a subnotebook with a firewire connector and a sleek little lightweight, portable docking station with a DVD drive. Put it all in that snazzy clear plastic Apple seems to be enjoying, and it'd sell like hotcakes.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Well, maybe I was too :)
A sig?!? I don't think so.....
Thought.
- Mac OS Rumours is commonly abbreviated MOSR.
- There is a (relatively) famous, umm, 'porn' (I guess) actress named Veronica Moser, whose specialty appears to be oral consumption of fecal matter.
Could the name of the site be a subtle dig at the ones reading it...? =)
Lay it on its side, and screw up the convection cooling. That will help keep it safe.
--
Naw - there is no new column. We're just in a period of transition.
The Cube IS the professional desktop. Look at what's happening to the older G4 minitowers in the Yosemite cases; they're getting additional processors. They're getting gigabit ethernet. And a BSD-based SMP-capable OS is right around the corner. The older style of G4 is going to become a line of servers, mark my words.
With much stuff capable of being offloaded onto the servers, or accessable externally via firewire (heh. many small peripherals working together) the computer doesn't have to be a giant monster anymore.
However, the Cube seems to me (first impression) to be somewhat overpriced. We'll see, though. I don't want to make firm decisions until I can mess around with one in the flesh. Maybe some of the stores around here will have some soon...
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
As a post above mentioned, I think that Apple is moving away from teh 'standards' of the VGA cable HOWEVER, hopefully Apple will make sure that everyone can use this cable connector because, let's face it, the old connector sucks. The new cable type allows for 1) video 2) USB connections and 3) POWER!!!! All in one cable! Dammit, EVERY device should have their power go through the cord that connects them to the computer: firewire is just one example of this, and I think the idea should be extended. (note that USB is good for input devices, but it sucks that you still have to have power on many USB preipherals.... gimme one cord!) Yeah, Apple is good and bad in many ways, but they ROCK when it comes to REAL usability: the less cords and fans we can have mucking up our workspace and creating background noise, the better. Now if they would ever get MacOSX ready, and maybe drop their hardware prices, they would be serious contenders against MS....
Aye, but what are the timings? With the current units & the latest clients, my 300MHz G3 (192MB RAM) has gone from ~9hrs to ~14hrs per unit. If it does its thang under 5 hrs then it's reason to move to cable modems and connect automatically (****ing metered calls - http://www.unmetered.org.uk/)
The only thing you can accurately describe as "Scotch" is a sticky tape made by 3M. And it's
The LC series were the first Pizza boxes. Way before the Centris/Quadras were out.
I might be mistaken here, but Vivek Mehra, Cobalt's CTO, was the lead engineer on Pippin, Apple's attempt at the set-top box market which failed so disastrously back before anyone had heard of the set top box concept....
Golf; a good walk spoiled. -Mark Twain
Actually, the first being the original Apple PC where they were the first to use that nifty molded plastic case.
Now, granted the dual processor G4 looks great, and so does the cube, but Apple cheaps out on some important parts. The cube comes with only 64 megs of ram? Come on, I realize that it's a machine meant for the average (below average) home user who probably doesn't need much power, but 64 is barely enough to run some software programs. Now, the dual G4 has no excuse for the lack of ram. Also, an ATI video card with only 16 megs of ram?! A much better system (expensive too) would include at least 128 megs of ram and possibly a Voodoo 4 or 5.
- *Normality Is The Root of All Evil*
Here's something interesting: The rumored name of Nintendo's next gaming console is "Star Cube", which uses a PowerPC-based architecture, a GPU from ArtX (which is now owned by ATI), and allegedly has MacOS-based development kits. Wonder how far this little relationship will go? Apple Cube's "fun" little sibling?
Say Hello to Mario.
1996 -- Apple buys NeXT
True. I thought that was understood implicitly. But I should have included that fact (as it would have cut down on the angry kiddie responses).
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Just refresh a couple of times.
Anyway, Apple's entire product line is five computers. (Cube, Tower, iMac, iBook, Powerbook) Not much to brag about.
From the site "the Power Mac G4 Cube holds up to a staggering 1.5 gigabytes of PC100 SDRAM".
Meaning it probably has 3 slots, which you could fill with staggeringly expensive 512MB dimms to get 1.5G RAM.
At least they didn't cripple it in that area.
just my blog and pix
You can stack them. The clear plastic cover has a hole in the back to let the exhaust from the lower lower box escape.
Oops, that's not covered in the warranty.
Oops.
What a dumb place for a vent.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Actually no, I don't remember that. Sounds pretty stupid though.
For reliable reports, I'll take AppleInsider (formerly Reality) any day. They don't go to print regularly, but when they do, their accuracy rate is pretty dang good.
That is true. I read both, and when the same thing comes up on both sites, the details they share are almost always dead on.
Anyway, the Cube is probably an all time low for Mac Rumor sites. They had the news for only about a week before the announcement, and real (fake) pictures didn't surface until the day before. Even the super top-secret iMac was known to them months before the official announcement.
I think of it more as an all-time high in Apple's security, actually. Information just isn't leaking like it used to.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
A "supercomputer" with only 64MBytes of RAM! Wow, I wonder what other nifty words the PR department will try to use to describe the cube,
:)
Actually, that's not a PR department invention. Remember the tank ads on the G4 introduction? The G4 chip was, honest to God, classified as a "supercomputer" for export purposes.
Not that Apple PR isn't loosely connected to reality often, but in this case, no, it wasn't Apple that made up "supercomputer"
I dunno, why do they all have to make expensive good looking computers - or ugly cheap looking PC boxes ? why can't some make a PC case as good looking as an Apple G4 or Cube ?
While there were the Mac pizza boxes, he was referring to the NeXT slabs, which were small little pizza box workstations :>
-tsunake
My other thought:
1989 -- NeXT cube
2000 -- Mac cube
You missed a spot:
1996 -- Apple buys NeXT
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Hey, don't be to hard on the guy. The images on Apple's site were probably made with photoshop. They look to good to be snapshots.
How many times do people have to explain that it's being updated? Right after the keynote ended, the whole hardware and store section of the site disappeared, and is gradually reappearing now with all new content.
Apple is a huge investor in Akamai, and all the media on apple.com comes through their network, but it has to get out to the network before those caches do anything for you.
Also, it's common practice to put old expire dates in certain pages so that they're never cached. That way, the user always gets the newest version of the pages.
Actually, the Centris 610 was released in 1993. The original NeXTStation (which was known as the 'pizza box') was released in 1990, three years before Apple's slab.
:)
Another example of industrial theft? You be the judge.
... They so *EASILY* forget where the so-called "victims" of Apple's "theft" stole those very ideas in the first place!!!
Hint:
It's a little company started by Steve Jobs after he was forced out of Apple by john sculley in 1985.
Hint#2:
Apple BOUGHT that very company a few short years ago.
Hint#3:
Most of the people in important positions at Apple NOW (Steve Jobs and Avie Tevenian especially) came to Apple FROM that other company.
In short, the company Apple is so commonly "stealing" from recently is.... ITSELF!!!
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
$2300 bucks for a 500 MHz machine is sooooo much money! No wonder most Mac users are starving artists.
---
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Would would be cool is to have monitors with built in graphics accelerators and have the whole lot connect to the computer via firewire. That way it wouldn't matter that there isn't enough space in there.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Apple wasn't happy with having just the "gumdrop" and "hockey puck" jokes, so they moved on to making "toasters."
:I . going multi-processor (in the tower models) was a great move in the meantime, however.
hah. i can't believe the DVD loads from the top. they looks like nice computers though. there's a fair amount loaded in there with a VERY small footprint and no fan! a touch on the pricey side, but definitely a good offering.
i only wish Motorolla would start churning out G4s faster than 500Mhz. Apple is kinda stuck right now -- they can't exactly offer faster computers if the chips aren't available
- j
- Pretty beige box on the Apple II which Jobs felt would sell more machines, in light of design concerns proposed by Wozniak (too much internal heat, wasted internal space, etc.)
- The flat, pizza-box shaped LCIII, which seemed like a great idea until heavier monitors came around and started crushing internal components
- More recently, on the iMac, the use of Powerbook CD-ROM components in the original design. Seemed like a great idea, until people realized how breakable they were when pushed down, especially by children.
- Handles on all iMacs. Great idea, until you realize due to all the CRT components the weight of the machines is 45+ lbs. Gives new meaning to the term "luggable".
- And don't even get me started on the single-button mouse. My mother uses a 2-button mouse just fine (with wheel) in Windows, and understands the right-button is for context-sensitive menus. I sometimes see her scratching for the right-mouse button when she uses the family iMac.
Food for thought.
Note to moderators: just because the guy has a few negative things to say about Apple, his username is "Fervent", and his mommy uses a Windows machine does not make him a Troll or Flamebait. People outside Slashdot don't all use Linux, FreeBSD or MacOS. Get over it.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
This press release was written in a hurry. Read this part:
It's also the first computer to come standard with an optical mouse, for perfect precision on almost any surface. And it connects to your choice of Apple's flat-screen or CRT displays in equally stunning designs.
The G4 Cube is also the first computer to come standard with the Apple Pro Mouse, for perfect precision on almost any surface
This is completely undedited by me, as posted on their page. They repeat themselves. I hereby moderate this press release to (-1 Redundant).
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Unfortunately, it resides in the bedroom so the noise from the computer and CRT drives me crazy.
I have the same problem wrt the fan on my beige box, but the CRT?
You must have better ears than me. Too much
walkman, perhaps.
"Never bullshit a bullshitter" All That Jazz
Are you an idiot or a troll?
POWER and PowerPC are most definitely NOT the same architecture. Yes, they are made by the same company, but VAX and Alpha also are. Do you think those are the same architecture? Please get a clue before you start posting to websites.
I beg to differ. More speed does equal more heat. Look at the Alpha. Designed for speed and can be used to heat your apartment in the winter!!
The powerPC was designed to use little power. Sure it's fast but it would be even faster if they didn't compromise on the design and let it use more power. Just look at IBM's POWER series of chips. They draw lots of power and are much more powerful.
can you picture a cluster of these? shiny little boxes, and no fans... geez.
Damn, 3M invented Post-It Notes *and* the Palm? They are some smart muthas! I think you mean 3Com. In actuality, at first it was just the Palm Corporation, who were then bought out by USRobotics, who then merged into 3Com, who then spun Palm back into an independant company. Go figure.
Anyway, I had a Newton 100 and it did indeed suck down batteries (though some CE devices are about as bad). As for the handwriting recognition, there was a great third-party recognition app that worked much better, except you had to learn some special character strokes. It was called Graffitti and it was made by -- oh yeah, Palm. When I first saw that Palm had made their own PDA (the Pilot 1000 and 5000) I knew I had to get one. I kept that Pilot 5000 until I bought a Palm V. The smaller size was always the attraction for me, though the Newton MessagePad 2000 was a pretty impressive machine.
It can't be a snapshot. Apple must have photoshopped it just like everyone else did. It's a fake I tell you!
icqqm [ICQ:11952102]
Turn it over and pop out the handle - voila!
Hmm.. just wondering how long it will be before someome "converts" one of the G4-Cubes to a Borg-esqe design... Hell... I'd buy one right out if Apple offered it... maybe they can change the start-up sound to "Resitance is futile, you will be assimilated"... oh wait, or is MS is going to use it for the next version of windows....
I like a good keyboard. I liked the feel of the G4's USB keyboard a lot, and even though it looked smaller the keys were actually the same size as the Keytronic I use now. I stopped using it because not having home/end and a couple of other keys interrupted the way I work. So when I saw the new keyboard with all the keys I want, I called the Apple store right away.
"Are you aware there will be a 45 day wait before that ships?"
And when the Apple Store says that up front... don't expect it to ship this year.
I strongly doubt that any sort of peltier cooler is involved, as they tend to raise ambient temperatures in the rest of the machine extremely high. With a peltier cooler, you'd almost have to have a fan to pump out the air, or the rest of the system would get too hot to be workable. And this isnt even including the larger power supply a peltier requires and the heat it would generate. I do wish that more of the PC world would go in the direction of fanless cooling, I have a heatsink the size of a small country on my celery and with some intelligent design, it should be able to go fanless.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
"Yup. Too many assholes like me buying computers that are too easy to use and too easy to look at. Computers are just too damn popular now days. Next thing you know, somebody's mom will want one."
Design is very important to people. That's also one of Sony's fortes. They make great products that also look and feel cool and are easy to use. If design weren't important, Martha Stewart wouldn't be a billionaire.
joel
Such is the infinite Grace of Popeye.
(I have the MS version of this mouse and it works great as advertised.)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Hrmm.. Apple Cube, Borg Cube... Coincidence?? I think not. Then throw in the fact that M$ was on scene......
Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile...
-Plague
Go to spec. Search for "powerpc" and "power3" for processor. Note how some RS/6000's come with PowerPC, and some come with POWER3. Different processors, with different performance. QED.
That's it!! Would you rather have Rosie O'Donnell or Ashley Judd sitting in front of you.
I rejected Windows because the GUI was so ugly, angluar and artless. Design is important. It is like the difference between a good restuarant and a great one, presentation.
Windows doesn't seem to care about the user experience. Linux and Apple does. In my opinion, they are better because they seem to be designed for people.
photosMy Photostream
We sell our stuff on unparalleled performance _and_ cosmetics! =)
Mike
Intel transfer the difficult from Hadware to software, for get more power, programmer need more technology. -- chinaitn
screw the cube!! dual processor g4's are out!!
How sad is it that I'm on a G3 powerbook with all the normal quicktime it comes with and I can't see apple's main page because of a broken-quicktime-plug-in icon?
sig:
See the "..for smart people" banners Wired runs here? Look elsewhere guys.
Not originally. The NeXT Slabs came out well before the cubes.
Yes, I commented on that in the rumor article. Kinda makes you go "hmmm." ;-)
-- DuckWing
The G3 & G4 are part of the PowerPC line of chips that were mutually designed by IBM, Motorolla and Apple. IBM uses them for servers and embedded systems, while Apple uses them for the Mac.
They require far, far less voltage than the Pentium and other popular x86 chips, which means they can run cooler at high speeds.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Leave it to Apple to dream up Yet Another Proprietary Non-Standard Cable. ADB, RS422 (cuz 232 was only good enough for 99.99% of the world!), their own serial connectors, localtalk, Apple AUI (because MII-standard or AUI connectors would be too easy). Good lord.
:-)
I'm almost surprised they give you VGA out the back. Otherwise they could have a nice revenue stream from ADCVGA convertor dongles for everyone but Apple's monitors.
On the overall, it looks perty, seems like decent performance/upgradability specs, and probably would make a nice Linux box.
I had two browser windows open (both maximixed), one reading through slashdot posts, the other waiting for Apple's page to load (viva the Slashdot Effect-- even if it wasn't the S.E. this time). I'm in the middle of reading someone's post, and boom. Apple's site has wrested the focus away from my other window, and instead of Slashdot goodness, I'm faced with Apple ad-copy (jeezus, their "sage" iMac is fugly).
Granted, I was meaning to glance over Apple's page (I was curious about their final design decisions for the buttonless mouse), but only when I was good and ready to. I hope that this sort of thing doesn't spread.
Five tons of flax.
Not bad, but it's interesting to note that this is the first Mac Apple has ever made with essentially no integrated audio hardware. It seems like the inclusion of a subwoofer in the cube case should have been a natural; it's obviously designed to sit on the floor under a desk (the web pages describing it make this point several times), and no matter how good those funky little USB satellite speakers (which ought to be included) are, they're also small, and a simple subwoofer designed into the case would have made a big difference to them. It could even be an off-the-sheld USB subwoofer with its own DAC; the main thing is including it in the case design. It isn't apparent that anyone even had the idea here, which is a real shame.
Given that this thing is basically the new 20th Anniversary Mac (it's just too expensive to be considered a modular iMac, though it's really not clear why that is), the lack of included high-quality audio seems a real omission. Yes, you can add a third-party multispeaker USB sound system, but for this price you shouldn't have to, and adding an external subwoofer negates the compact design and the single cable to the desktop. Other things like the video card will be quietly upgraded in a couple of months (the same way the beige G3s and original iMacs went from Rage II to Rage Pro), but this needed to be thought of from the beginning. Too bad it wasn't.
-- Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. ~ Robert Doisneau
First, the iMac was a whole new paradigm for computers
Not really - Apple had sold all-in-one units for years (ignoring the Mac toasters, going back to the 030-based performas). They only thing they did is with the iMac is add some colored plastic and drop the low-end units that required a seperate monitor.
When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
1rst I was at Mac world today and let me just say that the Cube is the most sexy, insane computer I've ever seen, and is neither over priced nor competing with G4's. Most people don't need the Extra PCI slots, and this thing can have, 1.5gigs of Ram. It's totally silent and drives a 22inch studio display playing whatever 3d game you want at 1600X1200 like there is no tomorow. It is simply beautiful.
The Mouse is actually amazing, it feels really good and is easier to use than the old mice.
but enough of this. The Coolest thing I saw at the show was a cluster of 8 or 10 G4's running yellow dog linux the whole thing rack mounted with a studio display showing all the processes, and to crown it of managed from an iBook trough AIRPORT. They have made a PPC Linux Airport driver, and it works. OK I was lusting so hard I had to be shoved to move away from this set up. It was just AMAZING. I walked a little further away and the Rack MAking company was selling these insane cases that could repackage an iMac into a 1U enclosure, so that you could fill a whole rackload of these guys in one humoungoulitounos cluster. My hardware hormones where so titalated I almost passed out at thata moment, and all I could do is leave so that I would not go crazy. I mean imagine combining the power of Linux, with the 1gig a flop velocity engine having G4, and that further making a 50 machine Beowulf cluster. Whasssssssssssssssssssuuuuuppppppp. I think I'm seeing thinkerbell flying all over my face yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the VGA is there, too. The Apple Desktop Connector is a combination of DVI, USB, and power for the monitor, all in a pretty small looking plug. There isn't really a standard digital connector, yet ... there are two others that are pretty common. It would be nice if this connector could go standard, and make every digital computer display so easy to hook up.
On the Cube, you plug the mouse into the keyboard, the keyboard into the display, the display into the Cube, and the Cube into the wall power. Plug the speakers into the display also. Networking comes in via AirPort, or hook up an Ethernet cable or phone line into the modem in the Cube. Pretty nice arrangement.
Speed != more heat
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Wow, who would have thought they would have taken all those anti-Mac remarks I've made over the years personally and block their home page from me. Can't you guys take a joke?
Jobs already made the mistake of releasing a cube-shaped computer once in his career. The original NeXT computer was a black cube, 12 inches on a side. You don't see too many of them around any more. Of course part of the reason could be that the only removable storage they had was a 256MB optical disk, which were really expensive.
And I'd be willing to bet that the Cobalt Raq systems sell better than the Cobalt Qubes.
Here are the specs of the NeXT cube, according to "The NeXT Book", by Bruce Webster, first edition, 1989. 68030 CPU at 25MHz, 68882 FPU, 56001 DSP, 8MB RAM, expandable to 64MB (16 SIMM slots!), 330MB or 660MB 5.25" hard drive, 256MB optical drive (the only removable storage!), built-in SCSI, built-in Ethernet, 1120x832 gray-scale (2 bit-plane) 17" display, 256K video buffer, passive backplane with 4 slots (similar to NuBus, but the cards are about 11"x11"; the main board takes up one of the slots), nice keyboard (includes power, volume, and brightness control), decent mouse, black cast magnesium case.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
And of course, the show the SMP mac doing the ultamate benchmark... Seti@HOME!!! Pic here off the apple site, reload a couple times if you geta 403 forbidden.
Hey, I know. How about a separate button for each letter of the alphabet, along with buttons for numbers, functions, and meta keys.
Make it stationary on the desk with a standard QWERTY typewriter layout, and have a separate pointing device (which would only need one button, if the OS is designed right).
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Either I'm missing some plugins (although I didn't get any popups...) or the Apple site just experienced the Slashdot Effect...Half the pictures didn't load, the rest loaded slowly, and some links were broken. OK, so maybe there were a few Mac users helping out Slashdot, but still!
Did anyone read the article at Mac Junkie? The author said he would eat his hockey puck mouse if the cube was real... Let's hold him to it....
The "Honey, I shrunk the supercomputer" slogan -- could this be a tacit admission that Disney and Apple are becoming one?
If there is a deal in the works (which seems quite unlikely), this doesn't really prove anything. Steve Jobs works very closely with Disney in a variety of ways -- most notably through Pixar. Revenues from movies such as Toy Story and Bug's Life are split 50/50 between Disney and Pixar. Jobs also frequently uses Disney imagery during Photoshop benchmarking tests at keynotes.
- Scott
------
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
I think this is already true with the iMacs. Apple gets to save on 5 cents in parts, and you get to buy a $25 analog minijack-to-USB converter. Wonderful.
When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
So much for him being the photoshop guru, eh?
lf.o
This is from MOSR:
:).
/. /.ed?
"Several new monitors were introduced. All are powered by the computer, and sport a single connection that carries power, DVI, and USB to reduce cable count."
If the DVI connector is kept sufficiently seperate from Apple's connector (ADC), then you have essentially three monitor connectors: 1) standard old VGA (for your old CRT) 2)DVI (for your SGI flat panel) 3)ADC (for that 22-inch Apple flat panel you just had to have)
My question is, does the redesigned 17in CRT use the new Apple connector? THen it would be the first CRT I know of to use a digital signal from the video card. Also, why didn't they also release a 19" CRT model? I mean, Mitsu makes the tubes for the 17", so the 19" should be a shoo-in. But they killed the 20" CRT studio display, so I guess they're trying to send a message (but they needed at least *one* inexpensive display
ps. is it me or is
just my blog and pix
It's not JUST the box, though. This thing is really small (8 inches square) and it doesn't have a fan, so it's really quiet. All the components are top quality, it has a fast, low power G4 processor, 1 meg L2 cache, takes 1.5 gig of RAM, has a 30 gig hard drive, AirPort, built-in modem and Ethernet, FireWire, and USB. It hooks up to its display with one cable, and you can get an astounding-looking flat CRT, or a choice of astounding-looking flat panels. Cool USB speakers, keyboard, and mouse. Comes with iMovie, IE and Outlook Express 5 (the Mac versions are way better than the PC ones) and probably AppleWorks, too. Most people won't need any more software to do most of the things they want to do.
... especially when it's running Mac OS X.
It's a cool system, all around. I don't see how you could put a PIII into that case, even with a fan added. A G4 takes a quarter of the power or so, and gives off a quarter of the heat.
Just looks and acts like a computer is supposed to look in the 21st century
The poster to whom you replied made *no mention* of open-sourcing the Sorenson codec. Want the quote? Here:
Keyword: license. Why the holy hell are you dragging open source into this?
Look at the photos on the displays page. Towards the bottom there are some smallish setup photos of the 15" LCD. Looks as though it comes with a small USB hub, likely meaning you run a USB cable to the monitor and then break out from there. Nice.
;-)
As for ethernet---hah! Troglodyte---don'cha know you're supposed to buy an AirPort base station and just connect wirelessly?
(And sweet--the cube is only 14 pounds? Nice. With a 15" LCD and a nice secure carrying case, one would have a very chic luggable.)
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
That's my point. Why don't they make something original! Do they have so little talent/balls that they either have to copy or rehash? I find that hard to believe.
just my blog and pix
You really want [this] link. Be prepared to wait - it is not only slashdotted, but I think all the people who heard the rumors are over there now too.
AC's start at zero.
Browser? I barely know her!
It's not Apple's call, Were Apple to open source Quicktime ...
... Go talk to Sorenson ...
... open their code?
As a matter of fact, QuickTime is a reasonably open format. The xanim player for Unix, for example, does a good job with QuickTime movies for which it has codecs, and it is Open Source.
So, you're starting off with incorrect assumptions. But moving along...
It's not Apple's call
Then you said:
So you think that if Sorenson didn't have an exclusive agreement with Apple, they would just
Okay, so people point out you are dead wrong, and suddenly your old argument disappears! It sure looks like you're just looking to cause trouble to me. Trolling for flames, are we? But, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
The author of xanim has contacted Sorensen about licensing the codec for implementation as a closed-source, loadable module. No source code give away, so your anti-Open Source rant is completely bull. They wouldn't even need to do the work, all they need to do is let him use the codec.
Sorensen has said they would be interested, but Apple will not let them.
So, YES, it IS Apple's restrictions that are preventing us from viewing QuickTime movies on our non-Mac, non-Windows machines. Pure and simple.
Get a clue.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Will I be able to add the following to the cube in the future: Larger hard drive (internal as a replacement), Better video card (as a replacement), or a Faster prcessor? The Cube sounds really neat. I'm getting to old to keep monkeying with my PC. I just want something that works....
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
Old expiry/modify dates are often used to combat external caching. It's also a hack to make search engines trawl your site more often.
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
>It is amazing how Jobs couldn't get NeXT to beat Apple.
Huh? NeXT never even competed with Apple in the same market. Apple had their SOHO, DTP, K12, and Graphics markets. NeXT aimed their products primarily at the buisness world -- financial institutions, buisness workstations, etc...
>so finally got Apple to buy NeXT
No, it was completely Apples doing. NeXT was dead, not out of buisness, but almost. Apple could have gone with Be Inc., but they decided on NeXT because they wanted Jobs back.
>then spent years re-making Apple into NeXT...
I don't think so... Apple still positions its products primarily at the home, K12, and DTP/Graphics houses/artists. They haven't even touched the buisness world (which was NeXT's primary market), and aren't ever going to unless Jobs is completely insane. You could say OSX server is going to have a go at the buisness market, but it appears that they're not really serious about OSX server.
This must be a Troll. Only a troll would purport such obvious fallacies as truth. Well, it worked. I bit. I replied to the Troll. Shame on me.
In case you're just historically-challenged, the original NeXT computer was in three pieces: gray-scale postscript display monitor, cube (magnesium alloy, matte black) and postscript laser printer. Oh yeah, keyboard and mouse. All black. Only color was on rotated logo. Came with complete works of Shakespeare. Used Magneto-Optical disk for storage. No floppy. Based on Mach kernel. Oh, had one cable from cube to monitor, one cable from monitor to wall (keyboard/mouse plugged into monitor), and one cable from cube to printer. Cost? $9999 at Businessland. $4999 educational price. Time? 1989.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Can't you lay it on its side?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
gee, lets see, given the fact that this is a fewking g4, fast graphics card, 1.5gig ram capacity, 10/100 ethernet standard, lucent/airport wireless networking ...hmm... what was it you were saying about not being able to compete technically?
Probably just a heatsink. Peltier coolers are too expensive and would draw a pile of power from the already small power supply.
Whay would be cool is to use a peltier on the new G4e when they come out this winter. With an on-board cache it should overclock much like the Celeron. Apple will probably ship these with only a heatsink so if a peltier were added they should overclock quite well.
Current G4s don't overclock that well due to the external cache. Oh well, I don't have one.
Who need's trees, grass, sunshine... Give me my 2 tone grey cubicle and a flurescent(sp?) light!!
Happiness is like peeing yourself, only you can feel the warmth.
What the heck?! Can't get through to apple.com. Gee, must me the
Oh wait, all the Mac weenies in the world are hitting the site, too.
-- I lived through the IPO Rush of '99
is that they have now ditched the hockey puck mouse and crappy little keyboard.
The cubes look like really cool ultra-modern toasters, but I think they're a bit pricey for what they are, but hey, we're talking about Apple, so that comes as no surprise.
Anyone get to see the cool QT movie of the logic board of the cube lifting out from the bottom? Very cool. Pity they don't offer a DiamondTron 19" monitor to go with the cube. Oh well, one step forward for cosmetics, one step backwards for value.
just my blog and pix
Let's start off by saying I like Apple. I like Macs. They are great machines for the needs of 90% of computer users in the world. I prefer a box that let's me play with the insides more, but I still like and respect Apple and the Mac.
I agree with most of what you said. But the Cube is not even remotely close to gorgeous.
I'm sick and tired of people telling me that the new iMac inspired translucent computers and assorted paraphenelia is cool-looking. I think the Cube looks like an oversized art-deco ashtray. The iMac looks idiotic and the G4s are no different looking from any other computer on earth.
Apple keeps telling us how they want to make the computer an attractive home appliance, but the best they can do is use colored plastic and make them a little rounder? That doesn't cut it in my book. As far as I'm concerned all these computers have the same "Toaster and TV set combo" look as any other computer that's out there.
I want a computer that really stretches the boundaries of industrial design. These clear plastic shells don't impress me one bit (having grown up in a machine shop full of plastic does that to you). There's nothing pretty or good looking about any of the new Macs. I want something really different. Not just the same old thing in a clear plastic box. That's just lazy design if you ask me.
How exactly DO you pick the cube up? Are there handles? I can just imagine IT workers the world over picking them up out of cars and saying "Whoops, shit, slipped through my hands again. There goes another one of the Macs." :)
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
I think you're rather jumping the gun...
Dylan first. Dylan was a pretty nice language, sure, but it's very much in the long tradition of companies trying to get people to use their languages instead of commodity products (witness C# from Microsoft... hell, even Java...). The fact is that Dylan was never necessary and was just too different from what most people used.
The Newton. Well, I have a Newton MP120 (v1.2 OS), and I think I can tell you pretty much everything that went wrong with it. Newton broke too far out of the computer paradigm -- it tried to be an electronic notebook and wound up creating an interface that was at best confusing. The trusted-compiler model that NewtonScript used was no help; until very late in the Newton's life cycle it was more or less impossible to do a direct port. Newton as an architecture was locked up tight, just like WinCE is now.
Newton descended into self-parody towards the end anyway -- as Palm was showing the world that PDAs didn't need to be able to do everything to do their job and reducing hardware size and cost accordingly, Newtons were getting more expensive and remaining clumsy. The eMate was workable, even innovative. The $1000 MessagePad 2100, still the size of a large paperback and now packaged with a keyboard the same size, was not.
The Newton was innovative, and despite the crap it's gotten had the best handwriting recognition in the business. But it simply wasn't the tool it could have been. I don't blame Apple for that; they had to write the rules as they went along when they invented the PDA. But I do blame them for not keeping pace.
Quickdraw GX... well, that IMHO was just poorly organized. It wasn't cross-platform, and it was really a Copland feature that was brought out far too early. I rather miss it myself, but Apple simply didn't push hard enough.
The real tragedies in Apple's story are OpenDoc (why can't they opensource the wreckage and let the market decide whether it can use it?) and Copland (same deal). To those who don't remember, Apple was creating great hardware in those days (even in these days where G4s are going dual-processor standard I'd still love to have a 6500 in the house), but their software was lagging badly. It nearly killed them.
The simple fact is that all the projects above were draining Apple where it counted. Killing Newton was probably a bad idea, but Newton had failed to evolve. OpenDoc was simply getting buried because developers weren't quite committing to it. QDGX was too narrow. Dylan was cool, but new languages are a toy -- I'm creating a programming language right now and I can honestly say I don't expect it to be all that serious...
/Brian
Apple's pretty much the only consumer PC manufacturer with cool skins, but there are quite a few past and present workstation manufacturers with cool cases. For example, there's SGI's colorful boxes, Sun's conservatively good-looking machines, and of course, the classic NeXT boxes which included Jobs' first cube computer. These are all on my list of old computers to buy for my future collection. :-) And I think Apple's new Cube is their best work of art yet.
Mickey was the internal Apple code name for the mouse during development.
I went to apple's site and was intrigued by the fan-less cooling system; I expected some elaboration in the "tech specs" area. None was forthcoming. Do they run water over the processor? a coolant? Are there massive heat sinks in the 8^3 cube?
When I first heard about the Crusoe I went to their site and read interesting pdfs full of details, nothing detailed enough to give away the companies secrets, but it went right down to the basics so I could see what they are really doing. Transmeta is a cool company. Apple thinks that people don't want to know how stuff actually works. Apple isn't quite as cool anymore.
Traser - my isp shutdown my deCSS mirror
Insanity is contagious. - Yossarian
I really like the looks of this cube and also it's small size, since I need a physically small server for my college dorm room (currently I've got a lunchbox Sparc LX). The LX is getting a bit old, and Apple's Cube would be a perfect upgrade, except that it's a bit pricey. Would anyone else be in the market for a stripped-down cube -- no graphics, keyboard, mouse, modem, etc. -- that would be relatively cheap and perfect as a server-under-the-bed box? It seems like it wouldn't be that hard for Apple to offer such a model.
Need an example. Ok, check out Transmeta. The seemed to find a way to use a fraction of the power of an X86 chip, run the same apps, and perform better with a lower clock speed. PowerPC (used by IBM and Apple, duh!) chips do the same thing, only without the X86 compatibility.
Everyone, repeat after me: CISC is DEAD!
This sig for rent.
why don't other computer makers even try?
Heck, other fields are like this too. I'll mention Buildings, as an example.
There was an architect called Charles Jenks, who wrote books about a new philosophy for design, which became known as Postmodernism. The theory was quite involved and sophisticated. This was in the 70's.
But the thory did not get copied. The complexity of his aesthetics did not get copied. Only certain elements got copied. The average skilled architect copied the use of brick and bright colors. These were easy and cheap to design into a building.
Here in the UK we got lots of brick buildings with square windows and brightly painted steelwork. This is the accepted look, and it's what the average architect does to satisfy the client.
It's a cheap ripoff of a shallow interpretation of a fifteen year old philosophy! Just like with computers, beige boxes are the accepted look. Is it beige? Is it a box? Yes? Yes? Great, start production.
Almost nobody breaks the mold. Today it happens to be some designers at Apple. But I have an old PowerMac 8500, and is it beige? Is it a box? Yep!
Today there's the architect Frank Ghery. His buildings are huge sculptures that seem to fly apart, every surface a complex curve, clad in shimmering steel or polished stone. Glass walls that bend and defy gravity. Nobody else builds the way he does. The whole form is a crazy bewilderingly complex composition. He is also famous, so he will have influence.
I can predict that in ten years all buildings will be brick, with some bright colored steel, and have one curve in them.
It's really sad, but for all our individualism, we're a conservative bunch. Afraid to break the mold. Afraid to look out of place. Manufacturers stick to the mold because they fear it'll flop. And they'd be right! Most consumers won't touch something 'odd' looking. A little different, maybe yes. But do something ever so slightly out of the norm and your neighbours will laugh at you, or worse, think you're a retard.
It's not surprising that people stick to the mold. WHat is surprising is that occasionally something new is accepted. Maybe people just get bored. Like one day a designer makes a hi-fi component that's all black. Maybe he was off his head, or maybe he was inspired. Anyhow, it survives. Then everyone follows. Then people get bored, and the market it ready for a breath of air again.
>>How many people are realizing that OS X is, >>essentially, a remake of NeXTStep?
/. who has read an Apple-related story in the past year.
:)
> 1. Absolutely every last person who has seen any NeXT product ever.
All twelve of them?
> 2. Absolutely everybody who has >read even one column describing MacOS X and the >history of its development.
That'd bring us to a hundred, not counting my Uncle Joe, who can't speak anytime he gets near a computer.
> 3. Pretty much everybody on
Adding another 40, evidently.
> Other than that, you are the only one to make the connection. Nice work.
Seriously, while you are very funny, _I_'ve only seen (many) isolated mentions of the rather obvious connections, but no one going very far into them. And it would be nice to see some discussion of the interfacing choices and goals, etc... which, again, I haven't seen.
OR, if you have seen it, please be a kind karma whore and provide references...
My question is simple: why does anyone get this worked up about it. MOSR has been wrong. Ever notice that most of what's posted is "(unreliable|unconfirmed|past|usually reliable) sources claimed"? Even the weenie who posted the little "How MOSR gets news" story managed nothing better than being listed as an "unconfirmed email".
Are people somehow unclear on the meanings of words like "rumor" or "unconfirmed"? It's somewhat obvious that the literacy level on slashdot has been dropping but I still find it amazing that anyone considers it an act of fraud when an "Unconfirmed Rumor" at MOSR turns out to be wrong.
Even things like the infamous 17" iMac stories - I'd be amazed if Apple hadn't started work on such a beast and called off the project later. That sort of thing happens in this industry, where projects are created, cancelled, revived, drastically changed and recancelled in a matter of weeks; you can usually ask 5 people on the same project about it and get at least 5 separate answers. Couple that with using highly unofficial sources at a secretive company who don't want to be identified as the source of a leak and it's no surprise that most stories end up being wrong in at least a few details. Maybe that's why they call them rumors?
__
A mirror of the Apple G4 cube's QTVR movies can be found here. You can rotate and poke around the cube and the pro mouse. Darn server being hammered to heck...
-- BlueCalx | http://nickd.org/
>company's intellectual property (well...besides Xerox's)?
OK Damnitt! Apple *DID NOT* steal from Xerox!
Apple paid them $10K to view what they were doing in a *reasearch lab*. And at the time that Steve went to Xerox, much of the Mac had already been solidified by the Mac guys (he hijacked the Mac from Raskin - it was already well under development)
Let's cut this "Apple stole from Xerox" urban legand once and for all please!
My G4 definitely lost some of its elegance when I hooked up the monitor, keyboard, power, ethernet, and [replacement] mouse.
Imagine the Cube with about eight cables trailing out from under its minimalist shell.
Browser? I barely know her!
It took them a while, but Apple appears to have fixed the problems with both its mouse and keyboard.
It's about time. Mac people have been complaining vociferously about the teensy little keyboards and mice since the iMac first came out. It's worth noting that these are available separately, so owners of older Macs can finally get normal-sized Apple keyboards and mice.
I just got a G4/450 last month, and I definitely found the keyboard and mouse to be a disappointment. Until now I've held off getting replacements because I've yet to find a USB keyboard as good as my old Apple Extended Keyboard II or a good USB mouse. Also, Macintouch has been reporting problems caused by using third-party USB keyboards with recent Macs, which this will avoid.
As soon as the new keyboard shows up on the Canadian Apple Store, I'll be ordering one. I'm not so sure about the new mouse, which if nothing else, looks unbelievably cool, since I'd really prefer a 2 button mouse for LinuxPPC. I imagine there will be a bunch of other G3 and G4 owners also throwing out their old keyboards and/or mice with cries of joy.
Since this is a very small computer, and it's designed to go on top of your desk in a small environment, this greatly reduces the numbers of cables sneaking around, which actually makes it a good idea.
Since this is just throwing a bunch of industry standard (is DVI a standard?)pins into a single connecter, you can probablly make an adaptor with a soldering gun if you were desperate enough, and I can almost guarentee that dirt cheap adaptors will be available within weeks.
Finally, to top it off, you probablly wont need that adaptor. The Cube still has a seperate VGA port built-in, so you can plug any normal moniter into it. All in all, this setup is an interesting and possibily advantagous feature, considering it's targeted at the business world, and those who are really short on space. (Put this in your cubicle, get real computing power, no noise!)
And just to get off topic for a moment, some people here asked about rack mounting these things. Let me refer you to a pic: http://www.apple.com/powermaccube/images/expansion photo107052000.jpg
The entire guts of the machine slides easily out of the bottom of the case with a single press of a button. Doesn't that package look beautiful, even to those who arn't trying to rack mount. I wonder how long before someone comes up with a rack design to hold those. I personally wouldn't mind having a room full of these running OS X and WebObjects, serving up something. =)
So what, its a cube, anyone can build a cube, hell ive got a rubix cube...
why not try for something challenging and make one in a circle? or hell, better yet, the shape of an apple! thats gotta be great for marketing... right?
Tigris
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. -- Homer J. Simpson
There's a lot more to the cube than just a cool-looking box:
None of these are directly related to what's "inside" the box (since by inside you're probably referring to speed and capacity of various components), but all have a significant impact on user experience.
and it doesn't look like a bread machine from Sharper Image.
Apple just sucks. Since Windows 95, they've swapped places and started copying Microsoft's ideas... (like two years ago, when they were hawking "new" Apple OS concepts like http shortcuts and variable-size thumb scroll bars) Now they have the nerve to call a 450mhz 64MB G4 box a "supercomputer??" WTF? Sounds like there's a little too much of that medicinal "smoke" going around the offices.
Apple hasn't innovated since 1983... and even that was just to rip off Xerox PARC by commercializing the GUI and mouse.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
How does a troll foot taste, anyhow? :-)
This sig for rent.
Why can't you hook the audio card up to a generic system and have it do its job unobtrusively, while you put the cube on your desk and use it to manipulate the resultant data? I mean, what you're doing is basically sucking data to disk right? This ought to be more or less the same as FTP'ing a huge file to a remote file server somewhere --- you don't need to be sitting in front of the file server when this is taking place. Why can't you do the same with this Layla card? Don't they have a software that'll control the card in client-server fashion? Do they need to have one written?
The bus came by and I got on
That's when it all began
There was cowboy Neal
At the wheel
Of a bus to never-ever land
I'd rather be lucky than good.
At 8*8*10, you could carry it to a LAN party in a gym bag, and would even have room for mouse, keyboard, and cables. I used to do that with an old LCIII all the time back in "the day".
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I seem to recall him mentioning that he was going to eat a hockey puck if he was wrong.... I want to see this.
--- http://foo.ca
NeXT ended up being popular in business. But their initial target markets were higher education and IIRC graphics. I loved the idea of DPS, but I couldn't afford a NeXT machine.
The Mac just had more of the software though. Framemaker and Freehand wasn't enough for the NeXT to succeed.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Wow, this thing is beautiful. It's only 8x8x10 inches! This is a computer that you don't shove under your desk, but place it on top of your desk (next to one of Apple's LCD displays), so everybody can look at it.
Notice that there are no PCI slots in there. They'd have to have a fan and make it a bigger box. You're supposed to be able to add any peripheral you want through the USB and FireWire connections, anyway. What about a second display? If you can afford the Apple Cinema display, you don't need it.
Did they license the optical mouse technology from Microsoft? Or did Apple and Microsoft license it from someone else? This is the mouse that doesn't need a special pad. You can use it on your desk, on your knee, or on your forehead. Good bye puck!
This baby looks just like my breadmaker. I can visualize my wife dumping a bunch of flour and water into the thing...
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
That breadmaker looks more like an old laser printer than anything else.
load "linux",8,1
Duh? Apple hasn't graduated to the ZANY WORLD of 2 button mice. Scroll wheel is light years away. Although, we are seeing advances in technology everday... perhaps in our children's children's time they can enjoy a Mac with standard support for 2 mouse buttons and a wheel. ......Someday
"Linux" formal is a kernel. Linux as a concept is what people buy/download and install. Most Linux distros come with a NeXT-like window manager.
I'm not saying that Linux is defined by its UI, but I am saying that the major UIs in use are very indicitave of the users. Two of the "major" looks are Windows and NEXTSTEP. And Linux does get many ideas from Windows. Look at KDE and Gnome--both are trying as hard as hell to come up with a file viewer that looks like Win98. And look at the major projects: Evolution? I couldn't tell it apart from Outlook.
Linux is sufficiently flexible as to be defined by its users (as opposed to the other way around [i.e. Windows & MacOS]), and the users are defining it to look like Windows and NEXTSTEP. It isn't that silly.
--
Max V.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Are we Allowed to use the term "Slashdot Effect" to generically describe what happens to a website when it suddenly becomes too popular? And if not, why not?
-Dead Lesbian Witches! Think about it!
While it is nice that the machine has GigE, I can only assume that it is connected to their PCI bus in some manner. [...] Hope you weren't planning on doing anything else at the same time...
During the keynote, the machine seemed to have no problem pumping 16MB of video per second down the pipe to Final Cut Pro for live manipulation.
- Scott
------
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
If I had a rant AT ALL, It wasn't against open source, it was against the "everything MUST be open-source or it is completely evil and unworthy of any praise whatsoever" zealots like RMS and tofu the wonder furby, or whatever he calls himself.
There're plenty of good open source products. I use a number of them... when they are the best choice.
There're ALSO plenty of prefectly good closed source products. I also use a number of them... when they are the best choice.
I simply don't shun closed source products for that reason alone.
>>So you think that if Sorenson didn't have an
>>exclusive agreement with Apple, they would just
>>... open their code?
>Okay, so people point out you are dead wrong,
>and suddenly your old argument disappears!
Uh... no, that's the whole point. The codecs are NOT Apple's to give away... NOT without the permission of the owner.
So let's look at the options Apple has if they want to GPL (or BSD or Artistic or whatever) Quicktime:
1)
They open source ALL of Quicktime, WITHOUT the permission of the owners of the 3rd party codecs. Apple promptly gets sued into oblivion. Conclusion? Not gonna happen.
2)
They open source all of Quicktime, EXCEPT the parts they license from 3rd parties. This results in a stripped down player that A) will NOT play many of the more recent
Now... knowing Steve Jobs' characteristic attention to detail, obsession with quality products, and desire for a good appearance, at the very least, do you think he will allow this theoretical half-assed player to leave 1 Infinite Loop? I didn't think so. Conclusion? Not gonna happen.
3)
The 3rd party owners of the appropiate codecs (Sorenson, etc.) decide, out of the goodness of their hearts to open their own code. And they do so under such a license that allows Apple to release them in a commercial product. NOW Apple has the option of opening Quicktime. Conclusion? Convince Sorenson, et al... THEN talk to Apple about opening Quicktime.
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
Believe it or not, some people can hear a high-pitched whine from CRTs. I can hear it, but mostly from TVs. My PC monitor isn't near as bad.
I say let the Linux community write the X11 stuff. After all, they know it better then Apple.
This just isn't practical. Apple's brand name and product perception is incredibly important to the company, and rightfull so. In fact, nobody really realized this (or did anything about it) until Jobs returned. Their marketing campaign was a disaster prior to him bringing Chiat-Day back on. But I digress...
The point is that each product that Apple releases reflects them as a company, as a result, having a bunch of hackers slap together some X11 stuff just isn't an option. Things can be worked on and released in such a manner for GNOME, but it just doesn't make sense for QuickTime.
I think the main issue is that Apple doesn't believe there's a signficant market for QuickTime on Linux. Obviously, all of its hardware customers need it, and it has to support Windows, but I think it's hard to justify the Linux issue when so much of the installed based is servers.
- Scott
------
Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
When is the last time that litigious Apple borrowed another company's intellectual property (well...besides Xerox's)?
My other thought:
- 1989 -- NeXT cube
- 2000 -- Mac cube
More similarities than the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations... What's next, Businessland to re-ermge and have an exclusive contract? Ross Perot to invest heavily in Apple? The King of Spain to buy a room full of these puppies?-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Yes, they may both be called PowerPC processors, but that's like saying that a Celeron and a Xeon are the same processor.
It's not a box! It's the next major Apple System, hurry up and check it out before Apple Lawyers force this site to take down the pictures!
He said that it was the first time a personal computer company made optical mice the standard on their whole product line. This is the only mouse they sell, now. You can't buy a desktop Mac without an optical mouse. Even the $799 starter iMac comes with an optical mouse.
1. Absolutely every last person who has seen any NeXT product ever. /. who has read an Apple-related story in the past year.
2. Absolutely everybody who has read even one column describing MacOS X and the history of its development.
3. Pretty much everybody on
Other than that, you are the only one to make the connection. Nice work. :)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Anyway, all zealotry aside, it looks pretty sexy. And it's apparently *stackable* -- is this for the purposes of running them in beowolf clusters when MacOS X come out? That would be really cool. The optical mouse is nice, too, but did we really need another three colours of iMacs?
Check out this statement on theMacJunkies: http://www.themacjunkie.com/readme.html
"Our site has been deleted. No, seriously."
Is this the revenge of MacOsRumors?
Why couldn't Apple just stick with the old case designs and OS from 1990? With a computer like this and the simply brilliant MacOS X, I just have to get one of these. Damn you, Apple, for making such an attractive computer! You have just got yourself another customer!
War is one of the most horrible things a human can be exposed to. And one of the worlds largest industries.
Only now that part of HP is part of Agilent.
Yes, Agilent, with the only name and logo crappier than Lucent and the Coffee Mug Stain.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
You must be too young to remember that the NeXT was originally (and by that I mean, this is a new version of the NeXT) a cube.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
The convective cooling is very important to the design, and the vent has to be on the top of the machine to work. Putting the DVD slot up there is a really sneaky way of keeping morons from covering up the vent. "Duh... wull, I was gunna put muh 600 page hubcap catalog (its so long 'cause it don' got no words) on thut there purty little cube, but then I wouldn't be able to listen to muh tunes..." Besides, this sucker is so small, is the loss of that small piece of desk real-estate so important?
Clearly stated in the title line on the window is the string "Mickey 320 QTVR".
There you have it, unquestionable proof of the Apple-Disney-Pixar merger. They wouldn't dare put this up and to call their mouse a "Mickey" unless the merger deal was in its final stages, thus removing the lawsuit threat...
> However, the G4 is a lot more power hungry
> than the G3: it uses almost as much power
> as a PIII and the die size is quite large.
No, this isn't true. The G3 is about 5 or 6 watts, and the G4 is around 11. Pentium III's are in the 40's or 50's, and Athlons in the high 50's or low 60's. The G4 is not that much bigger than a G3. The G4 is more like the size of the original Pentium chips than it is a PIII.
The mobile Pentiums run around 15 watts, although they have some new stuff that's supposed to slow the CPU down when you're not using it to conserve power (Apple's been doing that for a while, now).
When they had the guts of the Cube out during the keynote, there's a very obvious heat sink showing on one side, that was about the right size. Could be on the graphics chip, though.
I'm thinking its just about the right size to make a footrest under your desk if you were to actually buy it.
It does look a hellova lot like a breadmaker. Imean even the DVD Rom pops up like toast. I wonder if the bread comes out in 5 different flavors? Maybe now after thinking about it. Its an automated Fruit Cake maker. I mean with all the colors and all. All that bullet proof plastic has got to get heavy. That thing must weight a ton. At least its not actual glass. And whats with this "cube" thing, aren't cubes sides' usually geometrically square? I guess if you look just at the breadmaker part of it is square. Go figure. Hmm well. I guess its an improvement over the Fruit Loops model...uh I mean I'm on crack...or was it iMac.
Does anyone else think that the new Cube looks just like a breadmaker machine?
Or possibly a Brita water filter pitcher?
I'll bet this new Cube makes an even better fish tank than the old 128K's.
So Jobs finally gets to sue himself for design infringement. I'm sure he'll win.
just my blog and pix
Finally, a post where my sig is relevant!
Wah!
Uh, that's easy:
NeXT == Obscure little company in 1989. NeXT Cube == US$7,000
Apple == Everyone's darling "beleagered" company. G4 Cube == $1800
A rocket scientist it doesn't take.
pretty case designs
Choke! A rocket scientist you are not. You think the G4 cube is about "pretty case design"? Why don't YOU try cramming an ATX board with a PIII 800, AGP video, 100 Megabit ethernet, 3 SDRAM slots, a 56k Modem, USB, FireWire, a disk, and a DVD player into an 8 inch cube. Oh, you're not allowed to use a fan. The design of the machine must be such that airflow does the job. Don't bother with looks. Let me know when you are done. Moron.
The G4 Cube is about breathtaking industrial design, inside first, then out. What you see on the outside is a minisclue part of the machine's overall design. If you don't grok that, you deserve your poxy beige PeeCees.
Funny, but we still have a few of those NeXT cubes running without incident at our office. Additionally, none of the original parts have been replaced. Not too many other machines can claim that level of longevity.
I can hear CRT's quite well. There's nothing in the world that bothers me so much as an old Apple II monitor that's left on, with the computer turned off.
I can hear the TV in my living room from my bedroom, even if it's muted or receiving no signal, and the same goes for my computer monitor, you could blindfold me, march me into the same room, and I could tell you if it was on or off. My dad, and several of my instructors, on the other hand, always look at me strange when I say that I can hear the CRT's, but it's quite easy, just there on the bare edge of your perception....
---
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
Uhhh...no. Apple gets its ideas from NeXT. That's probably why they bought them.
Want to know where Linux gets its ideas? Look at Afterstep. Look at WindowMaker. Look at the NEXTSTEP themes for GTK. And the NeXT athena widget set.
How about a black Linux cube logo?
--
Max V.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
... Beowulf!!
Check out the Wall of G4's
aNG|LLe
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ah, yes... The Sun optical mouse that required the steel mousepad with the lines printed on it?
Is that the mouse to which you are referring?
I was under the impression that it was an option at the time, not standard.
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
First, the iMac was a whole new paradigm for computers. No more beige box and separate monitor.
;-)
Spoken like someone who never owned or used a TRS-80 Model II, III, 4, or 12
And this was back in, what, 1980??
- Spryguy
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
(Trying to remember those old lessons they gave me as an army medic.)
It is perfectly normal for young people to hear the high-pitched frequencies of a cathod ray tube, but as you grow older, your hearing inevitably will go worse on this noise. This is nothing to worry about.
As an army medic testing new army recruits every 3 months, I *did* see the results of club music however. The current generation's hearing abilities are indeed worse than the average results of previous young folks.
------------------
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
Me, I'd take a cue from the Beetle's little bud vase and design a little four-legged lucite flower pot or something. Or a coffee mug holder (warmer). The aftermarket will have this problem licked in under a month.
Though if I catch you stacking PAPERS on top of this piece of art, I'm going to take it away from you and give it a good home. : )
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
And that can depend on what it is itself trying to serve up: If a tiny slashdot piece (say, a "normal-length" intro plus less than ten comments) contains a link to some site's fancy-schmancy page with heaps o'graphics and stuff, then a bunch of
And Apple, with all those prominent QuickTime links on almost every page... well, in that respect it's being its own worst enemy.
Christian R. Conrad
My ISP is the Saunalahti company, of Finland.
Christian R. Conrad
mail me at iki.fi ; same user ID as here
In addition to his comments about it being the first computer to come standard with optical mice, Jobs also states, "first personal computers in history to come standard with dual processors," appearantly conviently forgetting about teh original BeBox. Looks like Apple still hates Be. :-/
phuzzie
I couldn't get through to the store. how much is the cube?
The best part of all is the lack of fan. I wonder if the G4 runs cool enough to be cooled by a large heat sink and natural convection or if they are using a peltier cooler.
This is on my wish list for my next box. silence.
hmmmmm maybe i could save some money by putting my cpu in the basement and just running cables up to the office. or i could wait for apple to start selling these with unix installed. *holding breath*
I think of it more as an all-time high in Apple's security
Actually, it's probably just a product of the common motherboard design. Now days, the only people that need to see the new case designs is the case design group. In the old days of custom chipsets for each new Mac, you had to have a bunch of hardware guys, a bunch of system guys, (and so on) in on the team.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Apple's site was swamped since before this story made it onto slashdot, so to call it an instance of the /. effect is a bit of a stretch. Every mac news site on the planet has been tracking the announcement live, so when the presentation was over everyone stormed on to the apple site from those. Slashdot is just one of the many.
informative?
I'll give the moderator here a score of 5:funny
--------
* Sigh *
I've been reading MOSR almost daily since before they had a domin name. Yes, take everything with a grain of salt - but then, they tell you that it's a rumor site and the stuff they cover isn't reliable. Sure, they've been wrong before. Everyone knows that. Even when they get the right idea, they're often wrong on some of the details. That doesn't mean they're never right about anything! Lighten up.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
...I wouldn't cover this at all. If Apple wants to play hard ball and bring court orders against its fans, then maybe they should return the favor and not give this product any hype.
Of course, maybe that sounds like a good idea to me because I'm not an Apple fan but I have a vindictive streak.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
I guess they found out that slashdot point their radar on their site so they now are blocking every one from it.
Daaaamn right (insert Isasc Hays wa-wa sounds here).
--
Max V.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
I believe quite a few Sun desktops came standard with optical mice.
And those nasty metal mouse-pads.
The new monitor cable is fine - but please note that it has standard vga too.
Imagine a world with no computer crashes! No I don't own a Mac, never have, never even used one before.
Your first sentence proves your second sentence.
- Spryguy
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Maybe my threshold is set to high, but I can't believe no one is making a bigger deal out of the fact that the court restraining order was a publicity stunt. Any time a large corporation issues an order like this (especially against one of it's supports *GASP*) it makes news.
Which do you think cost more, issueing a restraining order, or buying enough advertising to generate the same amount of attention that the court order controversy generated?
And the rumor site gets both publicity AND underdog respect. Both sides win big!
Ok, check out Transmeta. The seemed to find a way to use a fraction of the power of an X86 chip, run the same apps, and perform better with a lower clock speed.
If memory serves me, a 700MHz or so Crusoe was roughly equivalent to a 500MHz PII. Should be "performs equivalently with somewhat higher clock speed..."
Wherever there's a will, there's a motorway.
When I went to www.apple.com, I got
Forbidden
Your client is not allowed to access the requested object.
Sounds like Apple got a cease-and-desist from their own lawyers...
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
... that dual processor G4 is all the news, baby. For the first time EVER I find myself licking my chops looking at a Macintosh. It's the end of a bitter era, friends. I swore I would never again swoon over an Apple product when Steve "I-put-the-capital-E-in-Egomania" Jobs killed the Newton, leaving so many of us high and dry. Apparently I was wrong. I was impressed with the G4's but this SMP model is what might actually get me to cough up the dough and buy one. Ego or no, good show Jobs.
(Of course the first thing I'd do is put Linux on it... MacOS just isnt' my thang)
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
The NEXT cube was a lot cooler, and had balls. Milled aluminum, cooling fins, matte black. One look and you could tell that this was a machine that took no shit. And it really was stackable.
And where do they get off calling this thing a supercomputer? How many users can it handle at once? Oh, wait, that's right.. they're still running a worthless single-user OS..
Praise the Force Field! Praise the Laser Project! Slackware Loon #19830573
... you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
:-)
Oups! Wrong cube
Looking for a great online backup: Green Backup
If they did this, just HOW, prey tell, mister open source guru that you are, would Sorenson stay in business?
It's a video codec for crying out loud, NOT a big, complex operating system! Either it works, or it doesn't. It's not like they can build a business model on support contracts for the thing like Red Hat/VA/etc. have for Linux.
Now, mabye, someday, someone will build a completely new codec of the equivelent quality as Sorenson, and give it away under a license that would please people like you and RMS. And just MABYE this hypothetical new codec will be adopted to the extent that Quicktime is now.... but it hasn't happened yet.
Oh... and BTW, there are more codecs in Quicktime that Apple has licensed from others than just Sorenson.
You wanna be rude and condescending on
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
200 new iMacs sold per hour kinda proves it.
Guess you have to compete on looks and attitude when you can't compete technically.
And when you can't compete in looks OR technical prowess (Compaq, Dell) you put your tail between your legs and scurry home.
(Compaq and Dell both pulled their 'cute' computers off the market, due to low sales.)
--
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
This article at The Register argues that Apple's decision to go MP on the G4 series is because they simply can't get higher clock-rate chips from Motorola. Worse, they mention that even when the next G4 goes up to 700+ MHz, Motorola will only accomplish this "in exchange for architectural changes that will reduce the chip's inherent superiority..."
Now that's certainly not an unfounded argument - the G4 is still at 500MHz, which is after all the same speed at which the G4 mac was introduced, months ago.
None of the mac sites that I can see have talked about this in a while. What's up? It seems wrong, given that:
- The simpler RISC architecture of PPC should be easier to clock up...
- IBM was the first off the block with copper a while back, which should have put the whole AIM alliance a mile ahead...
So admittedly my understanding of CPU manufacturing is limited, but *why* is this issue going on so long?I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
Becuase if Dell or Compaq or Sony tried to make one that looked the same, Apple would sue for "look and feel". Duh!
Mark Duell
Personally, I like my hockey puck mouse.. I've been using mostly an iMac for the past year and a half and I actually have trouble using those funky long mice included with pc's and older macs. What I really don't understand, is why can't people figure out how to use the round mice? Just rest your hand around it comfortably, with your palm mostly on top of the mouse, and the cord between your index and middle finger (this keeps it from getting turned around). Presto! A nice, cool looking, useable mouse! Just what Apple engineers hoped for in the first place... too bad they didn't include an instruction manual for the mouse. The new one is optical, which is nice, but I'd still keep my puck if I bought a new mac today.
A keyboard is mostly a keyboard, and as long as the new one doesn't have a terribly different feel to it it's no problem, but what's wrong with the old one? It has all the keys you'll need (including inverted-t arrows) unless you want to run windows (virtual pc), and in that case buy a new kb :P. The old kb saves valuable desktop space, and I like the idea of a really small keyboard. In fact, the only way Apple could make the old keyboard cooler/more utilitarian is by taking the inch or so of extra plastic off the top, compacting the sides, and making it a little thinner.. now that would be a keyboard worth buying for my current comp.
"The similarities to the Borg Cube are not just superficial", Apple President Steve Jobs was quoted as saying. "The technology we used was very highly influenced by the popular Star Trek TV series."
According to the agreement, Paramount Studios will be providing QuickTime clips of special shows featuring the Borg fighting the evil 8472 with the help of the PowerMac G4 Cube. Executives declined to comment on whether or not the 8472 would be featuring Microsoft, Inc.'s rival Windows operating systems.
Apple product designers could not be reached for comment on the rumours of a G3 Sphere.
Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to leave my computer on 24x7. Unfortunately, it resides in the bedroom so the noise from the computer and CRT drives me crazy.
The Powermac Cube has a G4 and no fan. Apple has done this with G3's previously (iMac) but never a G4. So between this and the LCD, I'll finally have the silent system I've always wanted. Now if they can only squeeze a second processor into the case...
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
why does Apple's webserver give me "forbidden" errors on aobut half the urls on their site. /. in effect y0
Nah.. that would require a monolithic kernel, we all know that OS X uses Mach 3.0 with some 4.0 xtensions for kernel modules and such.
I must point out that before, the iBook was introduced by showing the square of i(consumer)/power columns and Mac(desktop)/book rows. continuing with that arrangement, our new column is miniaturized power systems. the Cube fits the mini desktop. i expect that within a year, Apple will introduce a mini portable that might be as desktop-replacement class as the powerbook. Given the engineering it took to make the Cube, it is possible. And this is one area that Apple has been greatly lacking in.
The only problem is.. what to call it. if the mini looks like a cube, and is called "G4 Cube"... could they realize the "G4 Little Black Book"?
Lycestra
He probably meant to say Mac SE/30's since the thin, fat, plus, and original SE will not run Linux, NetBSD, or OpenBSD because of the lack of an MMU.
Hi. Read this: http://www.kuro5h in.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2000/7/18/122257/231. Please don't b-slap me; this is important!
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He lives in a world where those who do not run the client software of the omnipresent meme are unacceptable.
The Apple Coprpration has announced today a new line of personal computers, in cases shaped as apples (why haven't we though of that before?). In this product line are:
.
.
. Golden Delicious . Red Delicious . Granny Smith
More varieties are planned. A line of accessories will include:
. Apple Pie . Apple Sauce
Several OEM Vendors are working on projects such as:
. Custard . Lamb Chops .
You know a lot of people went around religiously chanting that this was not a real product, and the pictures had been faked. You were all idiots. Next time why don't you sit back and look at the facts before you join the ranks of zealots.
Yes, it was hard to tell, but you saw tons of things like "I zoomed in real close on the picture, and I see that the font is not an Apple font, so the picture is a fake". Fools.
But it's such an obviously cute pedestal. Like a little ottoman, or vase stand, or temporary paper tray. It's going to happen. So I'm wondering what thermal protection Apple has prepared, if any.
I told a friend of mine that whenever Steve makes a speech, something major in the world is affected. I hate to say it, but I was right.
They released a cube! How cool is that!? Maybe that black cube under my desk might not be so lonely any more.
Does anyone have any mirrors? I can only get about half of Apple's front page. Of course, there are probably legal ramifications. =)
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Max V.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Let's see...$2299 for the 500Mhz iBorg...for $200 more, you can get a full blown DUAL 450 G4 that's actually *gasp* expandable! (and $75 of the extra $200 went into a Zip drive, and a Gbit ethernet is worth a whole lot more than $125 nowadays, not to mention another CPU, albeit at a lower clock speed.)
A "supercomputer" with only 64MBytes of RAM! Wow, I wonder what other nifty words the PR department will try to use to describe the cube, that have no significance...
People have theorized for years about how a cubic shape to a computer's exterior could drastically increase system performance, and now we finally have this amazing technology in hand - wow.
Kudos to Apple. My hat's off.
-josh
When will they learn? I have five fingers for full functionality!
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
(later) Try "view source" in Netscape in and you get "403 FORBIDDEN". Lynx returns a 403 error just trying to view the page. (still later) This seems to be a transient problem; sometimes I can view source. Sometimes I get a 403 error just trying to view the page. They must have some lame server that returns FORBIDDEN errors under overload.
Apple doesn't maintain their HTML very well: META tags include "Expires" CONTENT="Mon, 05 Apr 1999 23:59:59 GMT" and "Date.Modified" CONTENT="19992109"
(much later) Still can't get the pictures. Sigh. You'd think Apple would either get enough hardware to support their site or outsource to some hosting firm with major overload support.
Reading their web site makes me really suspicious of this machine.. it has no cooling or anything yet claims to be 2.2 times faster than a pIII 800mhz while it's processor only runs at 450mhz.. i don't see how this is possible. I read the snippet about 128 bit data chunks but how much increase could that possibly make?
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No. They still have the standard 15pin SVGA.
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You're either mistaken or a troll; if it's the former, then you're probably thinking of the SE/30, not the Plus.
I dunno who's lying. But it doesn't matter. It does NOT matter if the contract doesn't let Sorenson license the codec to whoever.
The issue here is NOT about licensing. It's about COPYRIGHT.
Simply put, the Sorenson code is *NOT* Apple's to open. Sorenson has *NOT* GPLed (or insert your favorite license, Im not gonna get in a GPL/BSD/whatever flamewar) their codec.
ergo... no Quicktime for Linux.
It's hard to beleive that people STILL can't tell licensing and copyright apart (to say nothing about the confusion that comes up when you throw in trademark and patents). But there's furbyboy up there chanting "la la la im right you're wrong apple sux if you disagree with me youre a troll".
Slashdot needs a better FAQ. As often as license / copyright / trademark / patent comes up... it'd be damn nice to just be able to say RTFFAQ.
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
I notice in the technical description there the CUB uses a custom monitor connection. Perhaps to support the digital monitor. Is this a worrying move away from the standards?
AfterStep is not Linux. AfterStep is an X11 window manager that happens to be compilable on GNU/Linux systems... as well as Solaris, Irix, UnixWare, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD... you get the picture.
Once again, none of these are "Linux". So don't say that Linux (which is a Unix-workalike kernel) gets its ideas from NeXTStep. Linux gets its ideas from UNIX.
While it is true that NeXTStep-like window managers have enjoyed a fair amount of success with GNU/Linux users, remember that they are all independant of the OS. This isn't MacOS we're talking about. Also, just as many (or more) X11 window managers are Windows copies as NeXTStep copies. If you're going to make the irrational argument that Linux is defined by its GUI, you'd be better off saying that Linux gets its ideas from Windows, seeing as how the two most successful WMs are both obvious Windows knock-offs. And see how silly that seems?
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I like to watch.
Mirror of the apple.com/powercube page here.
http://www.logicalec.com/~rayvd/powercube/
In case nobody noticed, a new Dual Processor PowerMac G4 is also available. I wonder how much it'll cost me.
Dave
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
But your sparc needs a shiny, happy metal mousepad. This is using microsoft's new optical tech, that scans the minute variations on whatever surface you are using it on.
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Is it just me, or do the insides of the G4 Cube look exactly like the "AE 35" from 2001: A Space Odyssey?
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Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
Wouldn't you love to buy this steaming pile of dog shit I've got here?
Idiot
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Interesting that Apple would use legal action threats to have the rumors removed a month before the product appears on the web site. It pretty much confirms the rumors. Of course, there was speculation that MOSR fabricated the Apple request to get more attention, and may still have, but things begin to look alot less dishonest when the cube is sitting on the website now.
It would look pretty cool sitting on my desk. ;>
wish
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It is so sad to see Apple pushing so much of its marketing energies into hawking, as "innovations," what amount to pretty case designs, when they have gone and eliminated truly innovative things like:
A "kinder, gentler" version of Lisp
A really powerful PDA
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Its people like you who are the problem with the computer industry.
Wouldn't you love to buy this steaming pile of dog shit I've got here? I'll put it in a real nice bag for you...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
My Sun SparcStation 1 came with a Sun optical mouse as standard around 8 years ago, how do they get away with telling such blatant untruths?
[http:/g-2.sourceforge.net]
2000 Apple announces Apple Cube
2001 Apple announces Apple Slab - fondly known as the 'G6 pizza box'
2003 Apple ceases hardware production - 'Hardware is a commodity' says Jobs.
'Software is the key differentiator'
2005 Apple acquired by HP - Jobs to become chair of 'new, revitalized' company.
And so on, and so on.....
Maybe for once their won't be a hundred people bitching about double posting a story :)
They say this is the first computer to come standard with an optical mouse. Hm... I guess my Sun SparcServer 20 at home with the optical mouse is a figment of my imagination.
-- Solaris Central - http://w
Their are violent, but in the Voyager episode where they go to the model Federation base setup by 8472 to train infiltrators (ala the Soviet's 'America Towns' used to train sleepers) Janeway came to an agreement with the 8472 leader that as long as the Federation made no attempt to enter 8472's realm, there would be a truce between the species. The fact that they were defending themselves against the Borg, hardly makes 8472 evil.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
"Cube Computer" and "PowerMac G4 Cube" are different things... They're not going to get any money just because someone else has the word "cube" in their system.
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
Why do sites like Slashdot still post rumors from Apple? They're usually wrong. I understand why Apple rumor sites do it, but Slashdot mostly posts confirmed news except when it comes to Apple. Then they'll happily post rumors.
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
Oh, great. Now, instead of having a standard VGA port with which to connect a monitor, you are now FORCED to shell out big $$$ for one of Apple's overpriced monitors. This is definitely NOT a good example of "thinking different".
Also, is this thing expandable, like the G4 towers, or is it a one-size-fits-all kind of concept, like the iMac, where not even the video card is upgradable?
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
Well then, be a good son and buy your mom a tw o button scroll mouse.
BTW, your mom is brighter than average. I do distance education, and the percentage of Windows-using parents who don't know how to right-click is staggering.What the heck?! Can't get through to apple.com. Gee, must me the /. effect.
Actually, ironically, it may be that slashdot itself is feeling the effects of the Jobs keynote. I can't remember the last time it took so long for slashdot to load.
And I know it was a joke, but for a site to really be slashdotted, by definition, the recipient site must have less hardware and bandwidth than slashdot itself. This certainly isn't the case with Apple.
- Scott
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Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
Last, some speculation: Steve's revised product matrix (including Cube) was drawn with 6 squares. Apple's design group could have drawn it as a pentagon or some other shape with exactly 5 parts, but they chose a 6 part rectangle, with a blank space in between iBook and PowerBook.
Apple designers may be evil sometimes (e.g. QT Player 4, hall of shame) but they don't do accidents. There's only one product that would make sense in that gap -- SUBNOTEBOOK! 4 pounds or less, a competitor for the Sony Vaio 505 SuperSlim. I'm gonna keep on wishing til it comes true...
See them at Chaosnetwork
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Humancasting
OliverWillis.Com
An Operative with an Agenda
There are plenty of good, solid reasons why the tops of most computers are very featureless.
First, because folks like to put stuff on top of them. the big vent in the middle of the top of this thing will probably prevent people from resting their coffee mug on it, but I'm sure they'll have overheating problems from folks putting papers on top of it.
Second, the Crud Factor. That big pretty vent probably makes nice pretty ringing noises when you push coins through it. Hopefully they've thought to put some mesh behind it. I grew up in a big family and have many nieces and nephews, don't think your kids won't try this, I've seen coins (and worse, like green jello) done to this sort of box in the past.
And that CD-ROM drive. Eesh. It even *LOOKS* like it's designed to store paperclips. I don't even want to think about that.
And, finally, is it just me or does the whole affair look like a 1950's impression of a futuristic deep fat fryer? All we need is a wire handle attached to those two bolts on the top so that we can pull the basket out to drain . . .
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
....normal computers were too big to carry in one hand while munching on pizza. Trust me, a handle on this little puppy would be a godsend while carrying and the flat screen to the LAN party (the Apple flat screen, IIRC, has a stand with a hole in it - I'm pretty sure it'll double as a handle). :)
Of course, there is one, but I'd rather not have to carry this computer around in the rain while it's naked. A normal carrying handle would be a good thing.
(And in case there are other replies like this before mine, my official excuse is "Can't read; working.")
Is this post not nifty? Sluggy Freelance. Worshi
> My other thought:
:) and the write-up made me realize that the resemblence wasn't just superficial... the GUI details and ideas (even ports) are very similar... UNIX is layered in very similar ways (if with a lot of new solutions!)...
>
> 1989 -- NeXT cube
> 2000 -- Mac cube
How many people are realizing that OS X is, essentially, a remake of NeXTStep? The first pictures I saw in MacWorld reminded me fondly of my NeXT cube (I called it fuzzy
It is amazing how Jobs couldn't get NeXT to beat Apple, so finally got Apple to buy NeXT, then spent years re-making Apple into NeXT... (go for HP next, as someone said...).
Unfortunately, as fond as I am of the Cube, it seems to me like an old fight, a 1989 solution... not an significantly new GUI, but an old PUI (PARC User Interface)...
So they got one right. Or at least they had the notion of a cube right.
BFD. How many have they gotten wrong?
Cliche time: Even a broken clock clock (analog) is right twice a day.
I used to read MOSR. I don't waste my time anymore. The signal to noise ratio is just too low. And any 'real' inside info is quickly available on other Mac sites.
The key to any rumors type site is credibility. For me, MOSR is just noise.
Steve M
Why is it that only Apple gets to put out cool stuff to the world? I always hear how Apple only focuses on the cosmetics, which is arguably true, but if it captivates people's attentions so much, why don't other computer makers even try?
I mean, everyone here is going goo goo ga ga over a fucking box! I am too - I admit. The cube is really cool looking. BUT IT'S A BOX! Why isn't Compaq or Dell or Sony (most of all Sony) putting out anything half as cool?
More power to Apple if they pull off yet another packaging revolution (the first being the iMac). Looks like everyone else lacks the balls to try something different.
just my blog and pix