> The problem is that Apple has done nothing > revolutionary... again.
You really don't think it's cool that they just stopped offering ball-mice altogether? You don't think it's at all cool that a person can go buy a $799 iMac and get a beautiful optical mouse included for free? You don't think it's cool that a new computer user can get that iMac and not need a mouse pad, or ever have to clean a mouse ball? It's pretty rare to get something better included in a computer for newbies. They don't know better, so they usually get last years middle-of-the-road components. Making it standard is a pretty bold move for a computer company.
Apple's not pretending to have invented this. All the optical mouse vendors licensed their tech from someone else.
> Congratulations, you are the proud new owner > of a $1500 computer, something with which you > will spend many hours, but we had the foresight > to build the interface such that for the entire time > you own it, you will be treated like you just pulled > it out of the box
No... you have missed the point. It's NOT for your first day or two with the OS. The fact that the one-button mouse is STANDARD means that you can use the one-button mouse FOREVER if you want to, and a huge number of Mac users do (especially when most people basically do Web and email only). If a two-button mouse was REQUIRED (like in Windows) you couldn't choose to use a one-button mouse.
The Mac is not a two-button mouse computer with one mouse button missing; it's a one-button mouse computer to which you can add as many buttons as you want. Context menus are there for habitual right-clickers if they want them.
I use a two-button scroller mouse on my workstation because Cubase VST will open its toolbox under the cursor with a right-click, but I don't end up using the right-click very much anywhere else. The pull-down menus are faster because they are always there, always in the same place, and can't be overshot. On the iBook I use for Web and email, I definitely don't miss the other button. Why do you need it for the Web? You don't even have a double-click on the Web. On the Mac, if you want to save a graphic off a Web page, you just drag it into a folder. Want to Save a page, go File > Save... it's in the same place on the display as File > Save in every single other app. No need for a context menu (although that's available with a Control+click or a click-and-hold).
> in grand Apple tradition, they screw the even > moderately-advanced user in favor of the newbie
No, you can buy a mouse with all the buttons you want for so cheap it's almost free, and hot-plug it into your keyboard. The advanced user loses a few bucks, but they get to choose from a huge range of mouses. Also, they get to keep the one button mouse that came with their system as a backup, and that's a pretty decent thing to have if you're doing serious work.
Even if Apple did screw the advanced user in favor of the newbie, I would say, "Well, somebody's go to". The vast, vast, vast majority of human beings have not used a computer. There are plenty more newbies than advanced users, and there will always be new newbies as long as we keep having kids.
The one mouse button goes with the one fixed menubar and works very, very well. So well that the Mac has been the acknowledged-by-everyone easiest to use computer for almost 20 full years. Try it and you will get the picture... in spite of all the things other UI's have incorporated from the Mac over the years, it remains unique. It is also flexible enough to scale up to advanced use, and you can choose to add as many buttons as you want if you are used to having more than one. What's the big deal?
> Double-clicking should be an extremely rare event, > in a well-designed UI.
That's what was just said earlier in this thread: you don't have to double-click at all in Mac OS. You can select an icon and go File > Open (or Command+O) to use it. The menubar is always there and always in the same place. Double-clicking is just a shortcut for advanced users, same as a second mouse button.
In IE5 for the Mac, you can Command+click to open a link in a new window, and Option+clicking downloads the target of the link to your desktop. Those are great key shortcuts, especially if you're the type who likes to open a lot of windows.
Write your browser vendor and ask for shortcuts like those.
> That's like saying cars shouldn't have a gas > pedal AND a brakes pedal
No, it's not. It's like saying a car can have a steering wheel and a motorcycle can have handle bars, even though both devices are used to steer the vehicle. Different interface is all.
In Mac OS, it's often faster to use the pull-down menus than the context menus, even if you have a two-button mouse, because the pull-down menus are always visible, and always located in the same place at the top of the screen. The arm action to go File > New or Edit > Paste is always, always the same, no matter what app you're in. You can't overshoot the File menu, so Mac users just flick the cursor up at the menus very quickly... you don't have to aim as precisely because the target area for "File" is what's called "infinitely deep"... you can aim two feet higher than it is and still hit it. This is DIFFERENT than in Windows and Linux, and it's by design, not by accident (I mean, Apple invented the pull-down menu, y'know?) and it works great with only one mouse button. If you have multiple menubars floating around the display, then skipping the aiming movement in favor of a menu that appears under your cursor is a great shortcut. Different is all.
Also, the "better for newbies" excuse for the one-button mouse is not about giving people an easier first day with Mac OS before they're advanced enough for more buttons, it's about allowing people to stick with one button forever if that suits them. This is true of many people who only do Web and email. As long as Apple ships systems with one button, programmers can't require you to have two. Same reason why the terminal probably won't ship as a default install on Mac OS X. If programmers can't assume you have it, they won't make you use it to use their program. If you want to use it though, go right ahead. People who want a CLI in Mac OS X will have no problem installing it, and people who want multiple mouse buttons know how to choose and buy one.
Keeping the UI simple enough to use with one button is a GOOD thing right now, with set-top boxes, Webpads, PDA's and who knows what else coming. Try using the "second button" on a pen interface or a touch-screen. Flexibility is better.
> You just need a distribution of linux with > the appropriate level of support, and you most > certainly will need support from apple to get the > required information. I don't really see either > happening.
Doesn't the open source Darwin code help in this? It seems like the fact that Apple has an open source Unix that the hardware is built from the ground up to run would be pretty advantageous to people who are building an open source Unix for that hardware.
Actually, Virtual PC is amazingly fast, but whether to run Linux in there or natively on the PPC is a pretty obvious choice depending on your needs. It's really great for software or Web development testing, because each new hard drive file that you make is a whole new user setup that you can test (Win98/IE4, Win95/Netscape, etc). It's also great for running one app under another OS, if that's all you want that OS for.
Hell of a lot of fun to play with, though. You can run OS/2 and DOS and Windows 3.1/95/98/2000 as well as Linux. Maybe OpenStep as well.
Gigabit Ethernet is an option on the Cubes. If you buy a Cube direct from Apple, you can have Gigabit Ethernet for $200 more. Makes it a great client for one of the tower machines with Gigabit Ethernet.
The graphics, networking, and CPU are on cards in the Cube, so they can all be upgraded. Of course, you can upgrade the RAM and hard drive, too, so it's pretty expandable.
> Eventually, there won't be an OS X Server. > There'll just be an OS X with extra server apps > (Netboot server and File server, most importantly).
Apple stopped selling Mac OS X Server a week or so ago. It's officially end-of-lifed. The current crop of new Macs all run Mac OS X, but none of them will run Mac OS X Server.
ATI announced Apple's new products before Apple did. In retaliation, Steve Jobs didn't plug the Radeon card during his keynote. End of story.
I doubt Apple pulled Radeon cards out of Cubes at midnight on Tuesday and created all new QuickTime VR's of open Cubes with Rage 128 PRO's in them. The Radeon was only going to be offered as a build-to-order option, anyway. The Rage 128 PRO satisfies most Mac users because it balances quality and speed, and has excellent color. It's a good card for getting work done that also plays Quake really well.
This whole article/thread is all about Apple-bashing. Get a clue people... this is the TECH INDUSTRY, where product cycles last three months and profit margins are miniscule. Where everybody you do business with is also doing business with your major competitors.
Apple spent a year or more of R&D on the Cube, lots of people worked late and missed their families to get it ready to launch at one of the twice-yearly Macworlds, and ATI leaked details about it in a press release the day before in an effort to get some big press. Well, they traded that for the bigger press they would have received if Steve Jobs had said the word "Radeon" in his keynote. Too bad for them. They gambled and lost.
ATI fucked Apple on this, but Apple didn't fuck them back, they just avoided kissing ATI in public. Apple had plenty of other things to talk about.
> Ok, this might be true enough, iMAC did appeal to > a market that hadn't been taped before; Thats no > reason for it to not be up-gradable
It's upgradeable. You can replace the CPU, add more RAM, or replace the hard drive. This is similar to most budget PC's, where the video and sound are on the motherboard. In addition, you can add external hard drives through FireWire on most models (there are eight or nine companies making FireWire hard drives), or add a USB hard drive. Of course, you can add other USB and FireWire peripherals as well.
> it's just an excuse to not put any good componets > into the systems
I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Apple using components that are similar or even exactly the same as Compaq, Dell, IBM, and other top-tier PC manufacturers.
> not upgrade to operating system to work on > x86 machines
Darwin already runs on Intel. It's the open source guts of Mac OS X. They have a complete, open source, BSD-based OS for Intel. As far as using x86 chips in their own products: understand that they have one (1) computer that has a fan of any kind in it, and that's the big PowerMacs. You can't put an x86 chip into an iMac without having to add a fan.
> and not make it flexable enough for both a novice > and a real power user who needs all the things > that Mirco-sloth and *nix have machines give us.
Mac OS X will be out in public beta in September and ship in early 2001. I already have the Developer Preview 4, and it's a stable, mature product that they've been working on for a long time. It will be the first Unix that a novice can use. They have publicly states that if a novice knows they're running Unix, then they haven't done there job, and if an experienced user can't find Unix, they also haven't done their job. It comes with Samba and Apache built-in, as well.
It's a standard AGP card. You can see the Rage 128 PRO in the QuickTime VR of the Cube coming out of its shell. It looks like Apple was set to announce that the Rage 128 PRO would be standard, but that you could have a build-to-order option of a RADEON. This is also what they're supposed to be doing with nVidia... offering their cards as options.
When they launch the Cube next month, they'll probably hype up the nVidea card only.
Ha, ha... yeah, all they did was "commercialize the GUI and the mouse". Small achievement.
Inventing pull-down menus and windows that overlap is pretty decent tech. They didn't get that stuff from Xerox.
I don't know how old you are, but if you don't remember the state of computing in 1984, it's very hard to understand why John Dvorak said then that the mouse was a foolish invention that noone wants and noone will use. That GUI/mouse stuff was far, far out in those days.
Air comes in the bottom and goes out the top, driven by convection. There aren't any CPU fans in Macs or anything. A G4/500 only needs 11 watts... it doesn't run that hot. Also, Mac OS 9 slows down the CPU when it's not needed, which cuts down on power use and thus heat. I guess that's how they get away with such a small enclosure.
The Cube Home Page at Apple.com has a link called "Tech Specs", with complete tech specs (you may have to scroll down).
The main Apple site is written for accessibility for a wide audience. If that isn't enough technical information for you, join Apple's Developer Connection. It's free.
The iBook is the same, with no analog audio in. They both have headphone jacks, though. The Cube's USB speakers have a headphone jack on them.
This is the way to go for the future, and Apple's making sure we get there by dropping the old port, same as when they dropped serial ports and ADB. Everything travels in and out of this box digitally, which allows you to do a lot of new things like have the speakers stop playing lower frequencies when a subwoofer is plugged in, or have two FireWire devices share audio data.
Harmon/Kardon made the speakers for the Cube, and they also make the iSub, which is a $99 subwoofer that matches the Cube and can also be used on the iMac, so this system is already pretty well-supplied for USB audio.
The Cube and the original Macintosh are basically the same size, which I thought was interesting. Smart move on the cuteness factor.
It's standard practice across the whole industry to ship computers with less RAM than they really need, so that the dealer can have something of their own to suggestion sell. When you show up to buy the computer, CompUSA gets to sell you another 64MB or 128MB of RAM or whatever, as well as the computer. They're throwing dealers a bone.
Also, RAM prices fluctuate, so having a smaller standard RAM lets you keep your machine at $1799 or whatever, and the price of the add-on RAM changes independently.
Yes, it has a VGA connector, but you're not supposed to use it, it's just for backwards compatibility. It also has a DVI connector in the new 3-in-1 plug, and all of the displays they sell have that digital plug.
If you buy a Cube and a display, you can hook up the whole system and the only analog connection you'll have is the headphone output that's on the speakers, not on the cube. (Obviously, there are millions of sets of analog headphones around, so the speakers provide that, and mute themselves when you plug in headphones.) The point is that all of the audio and video going in or out of this machine moves digitally. There is no analog audio in, there is no analog video in. There is no analog audio circuitry on the motherboard... no SoundBlaster, if you know what I mean.
Pro audio studios are moving in this direction, too. Roland has near-field monitor speakers that just accept a 24-bit digital audio stream, and they make an audio/MIDI interface for the Mac that's either FireWire or USB. Lots of synths and effects boxes have digital outs on them now. The idea behind FireWire in the first place was that you would hook up your home stereo just by plugging one into the next, and they would all send information to each other digitally.
> 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.
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.
The video card is in a 2X AGP slot, but because of the size, I don't know if that's a regular AGP slot, or if the card is a custom size. The Rage 128 with 16MB RAM is a pretty good card, though. A good balance of fast and good quality.
They say 40GB drive maximum, probably because the 60's and bigger generate more heat. A year from now, you might have 80's that generate less heat than 40's do now, though...
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.
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... especially when it's running Mac OS X.
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.
Slashdot Mirror
> The problem is that Apple has done nothing
> revolutionary... again.
You really don't think it's cool that they just stopped offering ball-mice altogether? You don't think it's at all cool that a person can go buy a $799 iMac and get a beautiful optical mouse included for free? You don't think it's cool that a new computer user can get that iMac and not need a mouse pad, or ever have to clean a mouse ball? It's pretty rare to get something better included in a computer for newbies. They don't know better, so they usually get last years middle-of-the-road components. Making it standard is a pretty bold move for a computer company.
Apple's not pretending to have invented this. All the optical mouse vendors licensed their tech from someone else.
Get a graphics tablet for drawing and graphics and use your mouse for pointing to menu items.
> Congratulations, you are the proud new owner
... you have missed the point. It's NOT for your first day or two with the OS. The fact that the one-button mouse is STANDARD means that you can use the one-button mouse FOREVER if you want to, and a huge number of Mac users do (especially when most people basically do Web and email only). If a two-button mouse was REQUIRED (like in Windows) you couldn't choose to use a one-button mouse.
... it's in the same place on the display as File > Save in every single other app. No need for a context menu (although that's available with a Control+click or a click-and-hold).
> of a $1500 computer, something with which you
> will spend many hours, but we had the foresight
> to build the interface such that for the entire time
> you own it, you will be treated like you just pulled
> it out of the box
No
The Mac is not a two-button mouse computer with one mouse button missing; it's a one-button mouse computer to which you can add as many buttons as you want. Context menus are there for habitual right-clickers if they want them.
I use a two-button scroller mouse on my workstation because Cubase VST will open its toolbox under the cursor with a right-click, but I don't end up using the right-click very much anywhere else. The pull-down menus are faster because they are always there, always in the same place, and can't be overshot. On the iBook I use for Web and email, I definitely don't miss the other button. Why do you need it for the Web? You don't even have a double-click on the Web. On the Mac, if you want to save a graphic off a Web page, you just drag it into a folder. Want to Save a page, go File > Save
> in grand Apple tradition, they screw the even
... in spite of all the things other UI's have incorporated from the Mac over the years, it remains unique. It is also flexible enough to scale up to advanced use, and you can choose to add as many buttons as you want if you are used to having more than one. What's the big deal?
> moderately-advanced user in favor of the newbie
No, you can buy a mouse with all the buttons you want for so cheap it's almost free, and hot-plug it into your keyboard. The advanced user loses a few bucks, but they get to choose from a huge range of mouses. Also, they get to keep the one button mouse that came with their system as a backup, and that's a pretty decent thing to have if you're doing serious work.
Even if Apple did screw the advanced user in favor of the newbie, I would say, "Well, somebody's go to". The vast, vast, vast majority of human beings have not used a computer. There are plenty more newbies than advanced users, and there will always be new newbies as long as we keep having kids.
The one mouse button goes with the one fixed menubar and works very, very well. So well that the Mac has been the acknowledged-by-everyone easiest to use computer for almost 20 full years. Try it and you will get the picture
> Double-clicking should be an extremely rare event,
> in a well-designed UI.
That's what was just said earlier in this thread: you don't have to double-click at all in Mac OS. You can select an icon and go File > Open (or Command+O) to use it. The menubar is always there and always in the same place. Double-clicking is just a shortcut for advanced users, same as a second mouse button.
In IE5 for the Mac, you can Command+click to open a link in a new window, and Option+clicking downloads the target of the link to your desktop. Those are great key shortcuts, especially if you're the type who likes to open a lot of windows.
Write your browser vendor and ask for shortcuts like those.
> That's like saying cars shouldn't have a gas
... you don't have to aim as precisely because the target area for "File" is what's called "infinitely deep" ... you can aim two feet higher than it is and still hit it. This is DIFFERENT than in Windows and Linux, and it's by design, not by accident (I mean, Apple invented the pull-down menu, y'know?) and it works great with only one mouse button. If you have multiple menubars floating around the display, then skipping the aiming movement in favor of a menu that appears under your cursor is a great shortcut. Different is all.
> pedal AND a brakes pedal
No, it's not. It's like saying a car can have a steering wheel and a motorcycle can have handle bars, even though both devices are used to steer the vehicle. Different interface is all.
In Mac OS, it's often faster to use the pull-down menus than the context menus, even if you have a two-button mouse, because the pull-down menus are always visible, and always located in the same place at the top of the screen. The arm action to go File > New or Edit > Paste is always, always the same, no matter what app you're in. You can't overshoot the File menu, so Mac users just flick the cursor up at the menus very quickly
Also, the "better for newbies" excuse for the one-button mouse is not about giving people an easier first day with Mac OS before they're advanced enough for more buttons, it's about allowing people to stick with one button forever if that suits them. This is true of many people who only do Web and email. As long as Apple ships systems with one button, programmers can't require you to have two. Same reason why the terminal probably won't ship as a default install on Mac OS X. If programmers can't assume you have it, they won't make you use it to use their program. If you want to use it though, go right ahead. People who want a CLI in Mac OS X will have no problem installing it, and people who want multiple mouse buttons know how to choose and buy one.
Keeping the UI simple enough to use with one button is a GOOD thing right now, with set-top boxes, Webpads, PDA's and who knows what else coming. Try using the "second button" on a pen interface or a touch-screen. Flexibility is better.
> You just need a distribution of linux with
...
> the appropriate level of support, and you most
> certainly will need support from apple to get the
> required information. I don't really see either
> happening.
Doesn't the open source Darwin code help in this? It seems like the fact that Apple has an open source Unix that the hardware is built from the ground up to run would be pretty advantageous to people who are building an open source Unix for that hardware.
Maybe I'm wrong
Actually, Virtual PC is amazingly fast, but whether to run Linux in there or natively on the PPC is a pretty obvious choice depending on your needs. It's really great for software or Web development testing, because each new hard drive file that you make is a whole new user setup that you can test (Win98/IE4, Win95/Netscape, etc). It's also great for running one app under another OS, if that's all you want that OS for.
Hell of a lot of fun to play with, though. You can run OS/2 and DOS and Windows 3.1/95/98/2000 as well as Linux. Maybe OpenStep as well.
Gigabit Ethernet is an option on the Cubes. If you buy a Cube direct from Apple, you can have Gigabit Ethernet for $200 more. Makes it a great client for one of the tower machines with Gigabit Ethernet.
The graphics, networking, and CPU are on cards in the Cube, so they can all be upgraded. Of course, you can upgrade the RAM and hard drive, too, so it's pretty expandable.
> Eventually, there won't be an OS X Server.
> There'll just be an OS X with extra server apps
> (Netboot server and File server, most importantly).
Apple stopped selling Mac OS X Server a week or so ago. It's officially end-of-lifed. The current crop of new Macs all run Mac OS X, but none of them will run Mac OS X Server.
ATI announced Apple's new products before Apple did. In retaliation, Steve Jobs didn't plug the Radeon card during his keynote. End of story.
... this is the TECH INDUSTRY, where product cycles last three months and profit margins are miniscule. Where everybody you do business with is also doing business with your major competitors.
I doubt Apple pulled Radeon cards out of Cubes at midnight on Tuesday and created all new QuickTime VR's of open Cubes with Rage 128 PRO's in them. The Radeon was only going to be offered as a build-to-order option, anyway. The Rage 128 PRO satisfies most Mac users because it balances quality and speed, and has excellent color. It's a good card for getting work done that also plays Quake really well.
This whole article/thread is all about Apple-bashing. Get a clue people
Apple spent a year or more of R&D on the Cube, lots of people worked late and missed their families to get it ready to launch at one of the twice-yearly Macworlds, and ATI leaked details about it in a press release the day before in an effort to get some big press. Well, they traded that for the bigger press they would have received if Steve Jobs had said the word "Radeon" in his keynote. Too bad for them. They gambled and lost.
ATI fucked Apple on this, but Apple didn't fuck them back, they just avoided kissing ATI in public. Apple had plenty of other things to talk about.
> Ok, this might be true enough, iMAC did appeal to
> a market that hadn't been taped before; Thats no
> reason for it to not be up-gradable
It's upgradeable. You can replace the CPU, add more RAM, or replace the hard drive. This is similar to most budget PC's, where the video and sound are on the motherboard. In addition, you can add external hard drives through FireWire on most models (there are eight or nine companies making FireWire hard drives), or add a USB hard drive. Of course, you can add other USB and FireWire peripherals as well.
> it's just an excuse to not put any good componets
> into the systems
I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Apple using components that are similar or even exactly the same as Compaq, Dell, IBM, and other top-tier PC manufacturers.
> not upgrade to operating system to work on
> x86 machines
Darwin already runs on Intel. It's the open source guts of Mac OS X. They have a complete, open source, BSD-based OS for Intel. As far as using x86 chips in their own products: understand that they have one (1) computer that has a fan of any kind in it, and that's the big PowerMacs. You can't put an x86 chip into an iMac without having to add a fan.
> and not make it flexable enough for both a novice
> and a real power user who needs all the things
> that Mirco-sloth and *nix have machines give us.
Mac OS X will be out in public beta in September and ship in early 2001. I already have the Developer Preview 4, and it's a stable, mature product that they've been working on for a long time. It will be the first Unix that a novice can use. They have publicly states that if a novice knows they're running Unix, then they haven't done there job, and if an experienced user can't find Unix, they also haven't done their job. It comes with Samba and Apache built-in, as well.
It's a standard AGP card. You can see the Rage 128 PRO in the QuickTime VR of the Cube coming out of its shell. It looks like Apple was set to announce that the Rage 128 PRO would be standard, but that you could have a build-to-order option of a RADEON. This is also what they're supposed to be doing with nVidia ... offering their cards as options.
When they launch the Cube next month, they'll probably hype up the nVidea card only.
Ha, ha ... yeah, all they did was "commercialize the GUI and the mouse". Small achievement.
Inventing pull-down menus and windows that overlap is pretty decent tech. They didn't get that stuff from Xerox.
I don't know how old you are, but if you don't remember the state of computing in 1984, it's very hard to understand why John Dvorak said then that the mouse was a foolish invention that noone wants and noone will use. That GUI/mouse stuff was far, far out in those days.
Air comes in the bottom and goes out the top, driven by convection. There aren't any CPU fans in Macs or anything. A G4/500 only needs 11 watts ... it doesn't run that hot. Also, Mac OS 9 slows down the CPU when it's not needed, which cuts down on power use and thus heat. I guess that's how they get away with such a small enclosure.
The Cube Home Page at Apple.com has a link called "Tech Specs", with complete tech specs (you may have to scroll down).
The main Apple site is written for accessibility for a wide audience. If that isn't enough technical information for you, join Apple's Developer Connection. It's free.
Apple Developer ConnectionThe iBook is the same, with no analog audio in. They both have headphone jacks, though. The Cube's USB speakers have a headphone jack on them.
This is the way to go for the future, and Apple's making sure we get there by dropping the old port, same as when they dropped serial ports and ADB. Everything travels in and out of this box digitally, which allows you to do a lot of new things like have the speakers stop playing lower frequencies when a subwoofer is plugged in, or have two FireWire devices share audio data.
Harmon/Kardon made the speakers for the Cube, and they also make the iSub, which is a $99 subwoofer that matches the Cube and can also be used on the iMac, so this system is already pretty well-supplied for USB audio.
The Cube and the original Macintosh are basically the same size, which I thought was interesting. Smart move on the cuteness factor.
It's standard practice across the whole industry to ship computers with less RAM than they really need, so that the dealer can have something of their own to suggestion sell. When you show up to buy the computer, CompUSA gets to sell you another 64MB or 128MB of RAM or whatever, as well as the computer. They're throwing dealers a bone.
Also, RAM prices fluctuate, so having a smaller standard RAM lets you keep your machine at $1799 or whatever, and the price of the add-on RAM changes independently.
Yes, it has a VGA connector, but you're not supposed to use it, it's just for backwards compatibility. It also has a DVI connector in the new 3-in-1 plug, and all of the displays they sell have that digital plug.
... no SoundBlaster, if you know what I mean.
If you buy a Cube and a display, you can hook up the whole system and the only analog connection you'll have is the headphone output that's on the speakers, not on the cube. (Obviously, there are millions of sets of analog headphones around, so the speakers provide that, and mute themselves when you plug in headphones.) The point is that all of the audio and video going in or out of this machine moves digitally. There is no analog audio in, there is no analog video in. There is no analog audio circuitry on the motherboard
Pro audio studios are moving in this direction, too. Roland has near-field monitor speakers that just accept a 24-bit digital audio stream, and they make an audio/MIDI interface for the Mac that's either FireWire or USB. Lots of synths and effects boxes have digital outs on them now. The idea behind FireWire in the first place was that you would hook up your home stereo just by plugging one into the next, and they would all send information to each other digitally.
> 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.
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.
The video card is in a 2X AGP slot, but because of the size, I don't know if that's a regular AGP slot, or if the card is a custom size. The Rage 128 with 16MB RAM is a pretty good card, though. A good balance of fast and good quality.
...
They say 40GB drive maximum, probably because the 60's and bigger generate more heat. A year from now, you might have 80's that generate less heat than 40's do now, though
That is why YOUR computer company is so much more successful than Apple, right?
I'm sure you build your own PDA's, too.
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
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.