a cube and a 17 or 20 inch monitor is exactly what i want and would buy the day it is released....
and i don't even need an other desktop
g
exactly! I mean If Apple indroduced a Cube that could take a full size AGP card and a range of CPUs (G4s for now, G4 AND G5s when 970 comes out), i think it could become the most successful computer from Apple. I mean I dont need a PCI slot. At all! Sure it might be hard for Wintel users to cope with that fact, but a cube with an upgradable GPU has everything users need. FireWire, USB, Modem, Ethernet, SVideo Out, Airport and Bluetooth. What more do you need ?
A well prized Cube might eat into other sales, but a sale is a sale. Give special deals, cube+monitor rebate i.e.
This would be my perfect computer. I used to own a PowerMac before I went with the PowerBook Ti, and I never even used any of the expansion. 3 empty PCI slots and 1 empty RAM slot, and it gave me all I needed. Pack that in a smaller cube, and whoops there it is, the perfect computer!
Just my thoughts! I truly believe the Cube should be re-introduced!
So let's recap what we've discovered so far this week:
Apple needs to release a 14" widescreen iBook AND revive the Cube. Anyone in Cupertino listening and taking notes? Anyone? Hello?
The popular opinion seems to be that they'd have a HUGE hit with both, huh?
Which, of course, means that neither would ever happen.
A shame, really...
If I ran the show:
1. Add 14" widescreen iBook to the mix.. Ahem...
Whether or not I'd kill the existing 12" and 14" models is still up in the air, but the "keep it simple, stupid" part of me is leaning towards "yes, kill 'em both!". One model. Fast. The usual ports/connections, including Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme. FireWire 800 and all that stays on the pro gear for now. Differentiate the line with optical drive choice (like the first line of dual-USB white iBooks): CD-ROM, Combo Drive and - because it's a G4 - a SuperDrive: $899, $1199 and $1499. Within each "tier", also allow for more extensive hard drive and RAM customization. Want 100GB in your iBook? Fine. Place your order.
2. Kill the LCD iMac [excuse me while I duck and run...]
As cool as these things are, they don't seem to have anywhere NEAR the impact or appeal as the original jellybean iMacs, particularly the fruit flavors of 1999-2000. I think they kinda shot their wad, so to speak, a good 10 months ago. I don't think anyone really cares anymore. I honestly don't think they're bringing anyone into the fold. Not like the jellybean models and the iBooks have. I think, for a "consumer" level machine, they're a bit pricey, all said. Instead, sell this Cube thing we're talking about above. Call IT the iMac. Get it as cheap as possible, and with specs like those found in the current 1GHz flat panel iMac...a TOTALLY great machine for 86% of the computer-using population! Sell a matching 17" widescreen display (1440x900). Since you're already using that size/resolution in two other models (17" PowerBook and 17" iMac), just make more. Actually, the 17" LCD iMac ceases to exist and you just adapt the displays (yeah, some tweaking or whatever might be in order, but essentially the same display, same size, same specs, etc.) for the new standalone 17" iDisplay, designed to work with this new "iCube" thing: ADC makes it easy for even the most bubbleheaded newbie or switcher to hook up. I mean, honestly: if they can't connect ONE #$!%# cable, then they really shouldn't be buying a computer in the first place, okay? Let's just call a spade a spade, folks. If you're smart enough to figure out how to forward a "10 reasons farts are funny" Flash animation e-mail to everyone you've ever met, then you're qualified to learn how to connect one ADC cable.
For those people who already have a monitor they love, they just have to buy a smokin' little cube/box thing and they're up and running. Others, buying for the first time, switching or upgrading their current set-up, can buy the cube and the 17" display. Work out some cool bundle price when you buy the two together. Hell, maybe even revive the 15" Studio Display (in a matching white enclosure) and sell it for something really cheap like $299 or something, if possible. People get two choices in displays from Apple (if they're concerned about looks and all). Those who aren't get major choice in the form of hundreds of other monitors on the market. OR, keep their beloved existing one.
All three scenarios are winners. Customer gets choice, Apple sells great standalone system and people get a cool mix of consumer ease/affordability and pro power/features.
For those wondering about the "sub-$1000" area, that's what the eMacs are for. They'll only continue to get cheaper, right? Possibly breaking the $700 barrier in the near future. Let the eMac cover the education, budget-buyers, etc.
Let the new iMac cover the $999-$1499 range. And from there, you get to the pro gear.
The pro users will have their 970 towers and PowerBooks to keep them happy, so hopefully we won't hear too much from them because they'll be busy comparing benchmarks and grinning themselves into oblivion at their new Power Macs.
My parents own one Cube with Apple 17" LCD. PowerMac Cube was best computer what Apple has ever produced. Silent and it looks very cool. Everybody has asked what this? It's computer made by Apple!
Apple should definitely re-release new Cube with cheaper price.
There is now missing one product from Apple product line:
minor changes: no top loading slot-in; connectors at the rear; bluetooth, airport, wireless keyborad, jabajabajaba......
connected to external monitor+tv+stereo via "remote boxes"
don't sell this machine as a "game cube" (only the young and furios do need these grafic monsters), but as the ultimate digital hub.
people will get use to it, that you have computer for work (big power), one for game (big grafix), one for entertainment (easy to use, e.g. instant on).
--------
at the moment, i do use a "naked" Cube (without plexi), cause i installed a superdrive on the internal IDE bus - looking at the organs of this machine, it could be much smaller!
------
did i mention?
4x4x4=64
the 64bit processor will be a Cube - just kiddin' ;-)
now that i think about it further the cube would be ideal for switch users.
after all, i think the only thing stoping me going to mac completely is that i have so many pc games, which i still want to be able to use.
and if you have a decent mac cube, you can do everything but play pc games. and it being monitorless would allow for people having a cube pc as a pc games console, only using it for that.
i mean you can built a pc cube decent for most games for about £500, right now. price is bound to fall.
and if you have 2 cubes, one pc and one mac, use the mac for nearly everything and then if you want to use the pc cube, you only have to swop the monitor to it. would be fantastic! especially if the mac cubes started at £800-£1000 ($1200-$1500) or so. add a monitor and maybe a pc cube.
if you could attach a crt or tft up to either then cost goes down for consumer as they probably have one hanging around or can get cheaply.
then pc cubes will be going down in price gradually.
if apple made a cube and got it out by xmas or next year, i'd bet you'd be looking at not too much over £1400 to have pc and mac cubes and shared monitor.
not too bad, because most of the money would be spent on the mac and then pc's would just be game domain. perhaps even just for existing games, maybe people would prefer mac and then only buy mac games...
seems a good solution.
now if only we could point this out to some real apple executives or designers.
would be funny if they browsed this forum for ideas.
and i know i'd really like to have the above setup, would be perfect if i had peripherals that worked with both. though i'd use the mac more...its just better.
I think whatever case design replaces El Capitan will indicate whether or not Apple plans to re-introduce a Cube. If the next case is considerably smaller than the current Mirrored Door design then I don't see them re-releasing a Cube.
Knowing that horizontally-mounted drives work better, is everyone willing to accept a standard front-loading optical drive on this new Cube? I am.
Two solutions would both be fine with me:
1. A nice little door like the current LCD iMac and the Quicksilver G4: a slim, rounded-end door that pops down and lets the tray slide out. It could be in white and with a real slick, unobtrusive appearance. You barely notice the drive door on the front of the flat panel iMacs, so this could work here too and not really mess up the ?look?.
2. This is the one I prefer: a nice slot-loading drive, like the iMac DV and current PowerBooks have. I know many don?t like them, but I?m not sure why. How many odd-sized CDs do people honestly use?
Now we?re gettin? somewhere: we take the basic Cube idea, correct its shortcomings, do things a bit smarter, pack it with the guts and I/O of the high-end LCD iMac, give it a cool iBook white gloss/shine (with acrylic and chrome accents), put the optical drive in front, put the ports around back and vents/circulation ports where needed (but cool looking!)
If anyone wants to supply me with some realistic dimension (to allow for standard components and all), I?d love to create a photorealistic mockup in Illustrator of this thing (same kinda look and detail as the 14? iBook) at a front, back and 3/4 angle over the next several days. It?s practice for me and I dig doing it.
I'd much rather have a front loading TRAY. I don't particluarly like slots. It's very slick on the PB, and mebbe makes a bit of sense for a mobile product, in that it doesn't protrude and makes for a more enclosed shell. But, in terms of a desktop, regardless of media used, slots are a hinderance to timely updates, and replacement options.
DVD's are still at the beginning of their life cycle (as far as burning goes) 1-4X, there'll probably be 8-12X units appearing in 18 months or so. It's just easier to get a replacement and deal with 8cm discs. I'd rather have that and slick way to hide ports. Dropping out of the bottom was a cool idea, but not exactly practical for plugging and unplugging.
Either move a firewire connector onto the ADC (which is how the parent standard of both ADC and DVI was originally proposed.) However, the best I/O solution seems to be to have a nice unobtrusive row along the side (al la e/iMac) 2 FW800 and 2 USB 2.0 (independent buses!). The video, given the use of an internal card, would exit form the back of the machine.
It needs at least TWO independent FW800 buses. This would let pros hook up fast HDD arrays (using both links) or let consumers have a couple of devices plugged straight in without daisy chaining and/or plugging unplugging.
I thought the cube was a great idea and was surprised by its early demise. Where I work at a University we have very little space and few people actually open their towers to add parts and cards, so the cube made sense for our environment.
However, I think the current iMac is the Cube done better. Its small and stylish with the same trade-offs of limited expansion potential. The simplicity of the cube was always ruined by all the cables. Bluetooth could remove a few, but you still have to attach the monitor. An upgrade to the iMac could add this feature just as well. So what does a cube offer that the iMac doesn't that gets people so excited? Is it the flexability of which monitor you can use? I guess for the education market a real cheap cube (iCheap) that they can use with old monitors may be welcome, but thats probably not the high end Cube most want to see. So what is it that the Cube has that the iMac doesn't?
Carson, go take your malignancy somewhere else. A 98% of all desktops have that extra wire. It doesn't bother anyone. If you can't find it and plug it in, you can go back to your pen and paper, if you've even learned to spell your name yet. Sorry, but that argument doesn't wash. With ADC we're talking exactly one wire. PS: People like having the monitor and computer SEPERATE!!!
Take a cube, put the power supply inside it. The ONLY extra wire is that to the display, NOT a problem. The iMac is extremly limited in terms of expansion. EXTREMELY limited. No GPU or CPU changes possible, AND, absolutely no display changes possible. If the display dies, you need a repair, or you can plug in an external one and use the flat panel to hold drinks I guess.
Uh un, no way. The cube is a far far far more desirable and logical option than any iMac, including the current one.
If the price had been sane, sales would have been spectacular.
Carson, go take your malignancy somewhere else. A 98% of all desktops have that extra wire. It doesn't bother anyone. If you can't find it and plug it in, you can go back to your pen and paper, if you've even learned to spell your name yet. Sorry, but that argument doesn't wash. With ADC we're talking exactly one wire. PS: People like having the monitor and computer SEPERATE!!!
Take a cube, put the power supply inside it. The ONLY extra wire is that to the display, NOT a problem. The iMac is extremly limited in terms of expansion. EXTREMELY limited. No GPU or CPU changes possible, AND, absolutely no display changes possible. If the display dies, you need a repair, or you can plug in an external one and use the flat panel to hold drinks I guess.
Uh un, no way. The cube is a far far far more desirable and logical option than any iMac, including the current one.
If the price had been sane, sales would have been spectacular.
Jeez, take a chill pill. I was just asking a question you don't have to send me out of the forum for it.
I realize that 98% of computers have a cable to the monitor. Its just I'm looking to Apple for elegant solutions. The ad pictures of the Cube and iMac look great when they don't show all the cables, but lets face it they exist. I think the iMac looks better with the built in display and will look even better when it gets a bluetooth keyboard. So it comes down to display choice and maintenance on the one hand.
I don't think the CPU and GPU flexability will make the Cube a better choice over the iMac for MOST people. You may think so and I'm sure others around here think so, but most people buy a computer and add RAM at the most. If you want to exchange the guts of the computer then you get a PowerMac. I don't think the market you describe is that big, even at a sane price. The market is most likely just a small subset of the iMac and PowerMac crowd.
Now we?re gettin? somewhere: we take the basic Cube idea, correct its shortcomings, do things a bit smarter, pack it with the guts and I/O of the high-end LCD iMac, give it a cool iBook white gloss/shine (with acrylic and chrome accents), put the optical drive in front, put the ports around back and vents/circulation ports where needed (but cool looking!)
Dude, a whole host of us has been promoting this very thing for a very very very very long time!
My personal wish list:
1. A 9" wide x 9" deep x 12" height form factor. The 12" height includes ~2" of clear plastic suspension.
2. A centrally located, horizontally mounted optical drive.
3. 1 CPU and heatsink located above optical drive.
4. 1 power supply located above optical drive.
5. 1 7" AGP slot located below the optical drive.
6. 1 7" PCI slot located below optical drive.
7. 1 1.5" high hard disk bay below the optical drive.
8. 2 full length 1.5" height RAM slots located below the optical drive.
9. 2 independent USB busses with ports in the rear, maybe in the front.
10. 1 Firewire bus with ports in the rear, maybe in the front.
11. Audio out/in/mic ports in the rear.
12. 1 10/100/1000 Ethernet port in the rear.
13. 1 56k modem port in the rear.
14. The guts of the machine are completed pulled out of the rear, similar to the way the Cube guts are pulled out of the bottom.
15. Silent running with passive cooling or silent active cooling.
Y'all want Apple to take their Flat Panel iMac, cut the monitor off, stand it next to the dome, shape the dome like a cube, and make it so you can pull the graphics card out? And somehow that's going to be a killer product?
The Cube is the only Steve Job's created Apple product to be discontinued since his return in 1997. Replacing a successful product with a once-failed product doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to make money. And you'd have to discontinue the iMac to sell the Cube again, because there just isn't room for two products in that category. Right now if you want a Desktop system from Apple, you've got the cheap eMac, you can move up to the more elegant iMac if you want a flat panel instead of a CRT, and if you need power and expansion (and few people need just one of the two) you get a Powermac. A monitorless system with the power of a Powermac and the size and silence of an iMac has no home in this product grid.
Allowing you to replace the graphics card with some not-yet announced card 2 years from now in a small, silent system is a big issue. Aboviously when Apple builds their small and silent systems, they know what will be in there and can ensure they will function properly with those components. If you could drop a GeForce 6 with 256MB of VRAM in there, chances are it's going to be too hot and your computer will turn off. So you'd have to buy a PowerMac anyway in order to put the next monster graphics card in without lighting your computer on fire. Making a compact computer like the Cube and allowing the graphics card to be upgraded is like building Volkswagon Beetles with empty space ship engine bays. Even if you buy and install the space ship engine, you'll die while leaving the atmosphere. But hey, what a way to go, right?
Besides, most of the computer gamers I know get the best graphics card available when they order their computer, and by the time that thing is outdated, so is the rest of the system, so they never replace or upgrade any components. They just get a new $3,500 Dell every 2-3 years.
Some of you are even describing a product that sounds like a little Baby Tower, sans most PCI and Drive slots, very similar to the cheap PC towers you can get from Dell, Compaq, and so on. These sell well because those companies don't offer products similar to the iMac and the eMac, and some of them tried and failed because they continued to offer their basic towers at the same time. Not to mention that when a school or office needs new computers, they order 30 or more of Dell's baby towers for $599 a piece. Apple's non-upgradable eMacs and iMacs sell well where past PC rip-off alternatives failed because Apple doesn't offer anything else in that product category for your desktop. What this is all boiling down to is people suggesting Apple abandon their consumer products and move to a desktop lineup just like Dells, with baby towers on the cheap end and Pro towers on the high end. Well if they did that, Apple's consumer hardware products really wouldn't stand out much, would they?
Believe me, people love the all-in-one computer design. They love to find out that this one piece is the whole computer. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Cube (regardless of price), but in Apple's hardware product lineup, they just don't fit, which is why they failed the first time, even after Apple was selling them for $1,099 a piece.
Apple has bigger markets to worry about than the 12,000 people in the world who want a little quiet mac with an upgradable graphics card and choice of monitor. Buy yourselves a Gamecube and a flatscreen TV and call it close enough
Y'all want Apple to take their Flat Panel iMac, cut the monitor off, stand it next to the dome, shape the dome like a cube, and make it so you can pull the graphics card out? And somehow that's going to be a killer product?
The Cube is the only Steve Job's created Apple product to be discontinued since his return in 1997. Replacing a successful product with a once-failed product doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to make money. And you'd have to discontinue the iMac to sell the Cube again, because there just isn't room for two products in that category. Right now if you want a Desktop system from Apple, you've got the cheap eMac, you can move up to the more elegant iMac if you want a flat panel instead of a CRT, and if you need power and expansion (and few people need just one of the two) you get a Powermac. A monitorless system with the power of a Powermac and the size and silence of an iMac has no home in this product grid.
Allowing you to replace the graphics card with some not-yet announced card 2 years from now in a small, silent system is a big issue. Aboviously when Apple builds their small and silent systems, they know what will be in there and can ensure they will function properly with those components. If you could drop a GeForce 6 with 256MB of VRAM in there, chances are it's going to be too hot and your computer will turn off. So you'd have to buy a PowerMac anyway in order to put the next monster graphics card in without lighting your computer on fire. Making a compact computer like the Cube and allowing the graphics card to be upgraded is like building Volkswagon Beetles with empty space ship engine bays. Even if you buy and install the space ship engine, you'll die while leaving the atmosphere. But hey, what a way to go, right?
Besides, most of the computer gamers I know get the best graphics card available when they order their computer, and by the time that thing is outdated, so is the rest of the system, so they never replace or upgrade any components. They just get a new $3,500 Dell every 2-3 years.
Some of you are even describing a product that sounds like a little Baby Tower, sans most PCI and Drive slots, very similar to the cheap PC towers you can get from Dell, Compaq, and so on. These sell well because those companies don't offer products similar to the iMac and the eMac, and some of them tried and failed because they continued to offer their basic towers at the same time. Not to mention that when a school or office needs new computers, they order 30 or more of Dell's baby towers for $599 a piece. Apple's non-upgradable eMacs and iMacs sell well where past PC rip-off alternatives failed because Apple doesn't offer anything else in that product category for your desktop. What this is all boiling down to is people suggesting Apple abandon their consumer products and move to a desktop lineup just like Dells, with baby towers on the cheap end and Pro towers on the high end. Well if they did that, Apple's consumer hardware products really wouldn't stand out much, would they?
Believe me, people love the all-in-one computer design. They love to find out that this one piece is the whole computer. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Cube (regardless of price), but in Apple's hardware product lineup, they just don't fit, which is why they failed the first time, even after Apple was selling them for $1,099 a piece.
Apple has bigger markets to worry about than the 12,000 people in the world who want a little quiet mac with an upgradable graphics card and choice of monitor. Buy yourselves a Gamecube and a flatscreen TV and call it close enough
All in good fun, folks. All in good fun.
This is one of the best posts I've ever read at AI. The concept of a new, improved Cube is seductive, but Mr. Bauer has artfully exposed the many flaws in the concept.
Ok, we all want the Cube done right, but I must have missed something in the details here.
The central idea of the Cube was that was quiet. It was quiet solely because it used convection cooling like the imacs before it. For those who aren't aware, convection cooling means the machine takes advantage of the fact that hot air rises, so it provided a grill on top for the air to escape and cool air rushes in from the bottom to fill the void and cool the machine.
Can anyone explain how that would be accomplished if the cd drive was not mounted vertically? Mounting the drive horizontally means that either it blocks the air from escaping at the top, or blocks it from entering from the bottom.
The Cube is great. But a Cube with a fan is just a squished El Capitan. Apple can try to move the ports to the back (where they should have been), make it white and fiddle with the price.
But I think the Cubers among us will have to live with the fact that the CD drive must be mounted vertically if the machine is to be brought back.
Comments
and i don't even need an other desktop
g
Originally posted by thegelding
a cube and a 17 or 20 inch monitor is exactly what i want and would buy the day it is released....
and i don't even need an other desktop
g
exactly! I mean If Apple indroduced a Cube that could take a full size AGP card and a range of CPUs (G4s for now, G4 AND G5s when 970 comes out), i think it could become the most successful computer from Apple. I mean I dont need a PCI slot. At all! Sure it might be hard for Wintel users to cope with that fact, but a cube with an upgradable GPU has everything users need. FireWire, USB, Modem, Ethernet, SVideo Out, Airport and Bluetooth. What more do you need ?
A well prized Cube might eat into other sales, but a sale is a sale. Give special deals, cube+monitor rebate i.e.
This would be my perfect computer. I used to own a PowerMac before I went with the PowerBook Ti, and I never even used any of the expansion. 3 empty PCI slots and 1 empty RAM slot, and it gave me all I needed. Pack that in a smaller cube, and whoops there it is, the perfect computer!
Just my thoughts! I truly believe the Cube should be re-introduced!
Originally posted by pscates
A $1099 or so Cube, aimed at the consumer/iApp/switcher/soccer-mom-with-a-new-digital-camera-and-camcorder crowd might've set the world on fire.
Well, my .edu sold the last cubes at $1499, including a 15" studio flat-screen. That was the right price point. I bought 5. :-)
Apple needs to release a 14" widescreen iBook AND revive the Cube. Anyone in Cupertino listening and taking notes? Anyone? Hello?
The popular opinion seems to be that they'd have a HUGE hit with both, huh?
Which, of course, means that neither would ever happen.
A shame, really...
If I ran the show:
1. Add 14" widescreen iBook to the mix.. Ahem...
Whether or not I'd kill the existing 12" and 14" models is still up in the air, but the "keep it simple, stupid" part of me is leaning towards "yes, kill 'em both!". One model. Fast. The usual ports/connections, including Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme. FireWire 800 and all that stays on the pro gear for now. Differentiate the line with optical drive choice (like the first line of dual-USB white iBooks): CD-ROM, Combo Drive and - because it's a G4 - a SuperDrive: $899, $1199 and $1499. Within each "tier", also allow for more extensive hard drive and RAM customization. Want 100GB in your iBook? Fine. Place your order.
2. Kill the LCD iMac [excuse me while I duck and run...]
As cool as these things are, they don't seem to have anywhere NEAR the impact or appeal as the original jellybean iMacs, particularly the fruit flavors of 1999-2000. I think they kinda shot their wad, so to speak, a good 10 months ago. I don't think anyone really cares anymore. I honestly don't think they're bringing anyone into the fold. Not like the jellybean models and the iBooks have. I think, for a "consumer" level machine, they're a bit pricey, all said. Instead, sell this Cube thing we're talking about above. Call IT the iMac. Get it as cheap as possible, and with specs like those found in the current 1GHz flat panel iMac...a TOTALLY great machine for 86% of the computer-using population! Sell a matching 17" widescreen display (1440x900). Since you're already using that size/resolution in two other models (17" PowerBook and 17" iMac), just make more. Actually, the 17" LCD iMac ceases to exist and you just adapt the displays (yeah, some tweaking or whatever might be in order, but essentially the same display, same size, same specs, etc.) for the new standalone 17" iDisplay, designed to work with this new "iCube" thing: ADC makes it easy for even the most bubbleheaded newbie or switcher to hook up. I mean, honestly: if they can't connect ONE #$!%# cable, then they really shouldn't be buying a computer in the first place, okay? Let's just call a spade a spade, folks. If you're smart enough to figure out how to forward a "10 reasons farts are funny" Flash animation e-mail to everyone you've ever met, then you're qualified to learn how to connect one ADC cable.
For those people who already have a monitor they love, they just have to buy a smokin' little cube/box thing and they're up and running. Others, buying for the first time, switching or upgrading their current set-up, can buy the cube and the 17" display. Work out some cool bundle price when you buy the two together. Hell, maybe even revive the 15" Studio Display (in a matching white enclosure) and sell it for something really cheap like $299 or something, if possible. People get two choices in displays from Apple (if they're concerned about looks and all). Those who aren't get major choice in the form of hundreds of other monitors on the market. OR, keep their beloved existing one.
All three scenarios are winners. Customer gets choice, Apple sells great standalone system and people get a cool mix of consumer ease/affordability and pro power/features.
For those wondering about the "sub-$1000" area, that's what the eMacs are for. They'll only continue to get cheaper, right? Possibly breaking the $700 barrier in the near future. Let the eMac cover the education, budget-buyers, etc.
Let the new iMac cover the $999-$1499 range. And from there, you get to the pro gear.
The pro users will have their 970 towers and PowerBooks to keep them happy, so hopefully we won't hear too much from them because they'll be busy comparing benchmarks and grinning themselves into oblivion at their new Power Macs.
Originally posted by johnsonwax
Well, my .edu sold the last cubes at $1499, including a 15" studio flat-screen. That was the right price point. I bought 5. :-)
See?!?
Apple should definitely re-release new Cube with cheaper price.
There is now missing one product from Apple product line:
- Slient
- Looks cool
- Compact
- Needs extral monitor like Apple 20" LCD display
- Enough powerful G4/970
small, quiet (ever "heard" of Papst?), reliable.
minor changes: no top loading slot-in; connectors at the rear; bluetooth, airport, wireless keyborad, jabajabajaba......
connected to external monitor+tv+stereo via "remote boxes"
don't sell this machine as a "game cube" (only the young and furios do need these grafic monsters), but as the ultimate digital hub.
people will get use to it, that you have computer for work (big power), one for game (big grafix), one for entertainment (easy to use, e.g. instant on).
--------
at the moment, i do use a "naked" Cube (without plexi), cause i installed a superdrive on the internal IDE bus - looking at the organs of this machine, it could be much smaller!
------
did i mention?
4x4x4=64
the 64bit processor will be a Cube - just kiddin' ;-)
after all, i think the only thing stoping me going to mac completely is that i have so many pc games, which i still want to be able to use.
and if you have a decent mac cube, you can do everything but play pc games. and it being monitorless would allow for people having a cube pc as a pc games console, only using it for that.
i mean you can built a pc cube decent for most games for about £500, right now. price is bound to fall.
and if you have 2 cubes, one pc and one mac, use the mac for nearly everything and then if you want to use the pc cube, you only have to swop the monitor to it. would be fantastic! especially if the mac cubes started at £800-£1000 ($1200-$1500) or so. add a monitor and maybe a pc cube.
if you could attach a crt or tft up to either then cost goes down for consumer as they probably have one hanging around or can get cheaply.
then pc cubes will be going down in price gradually.
if apple made a cube and got it out by xmas or next year, i'd bet you'd be looking at not too much over £1400 to have pc and mac cubes and shared monitor.
not too bad, because most of the money would be spent on the mac and then pc's would just be game domain. perhaps even just for existing games, maybe people would prefer mac and then only buy mac games...
seems a good solution.
now if only we could point this out to some real apple executives or designers.
would be funny if they browsed this forum for ideas.
and i know i'd really like to have the above setup, would be perfect if i had peripherals that worked with both. though i'd use the mac more...its just better.
Two solutions would both be fine with me:
1. A nice little door like the current LCD iMac and the Quicksilver G4: a slim, rounded-end door that pops down and lets the tray slide out. It could be in white and with a real slick, unobtrusive appearance. You barely notice the drive door on the front of the flat panel iMacs, so this could work here too and not really mess up the ?look?.
2. This is the one I prefer: a nice slot-loading drive, like the iMac DV and current PowerBooks have. I know many don?t like them, but I?m not sure why. How many odd-sized CDs do people honestly use?
Now we?re gettin? somewhere: we take the basic Cube idea, correct its shortcomings, do things a bit smarter, pack it with the guts and I/O of the high-end LCD iMac, give it a cool iBook white gloss/shine (with acrylic and chrome accents), put the optical drive in front, put the ports around back and vents/circulation ports where needed (but cool looking!)
If anyone wants to supply me with some realistic dimension (to allow for standard components and all), I?d love to create a photorealistic mockup in Illustrator of this thing (same kinda look and detail as the 14? iBook) at a front, back and 3/4 angle over the next several days. It?s practice for me and I dig doing it.
DVD's are still at the beginning of their life cycle (as far as burning goes) 1-4X, there'll probably be 8-12X units appearing in 18 months or so. It's just easier to get a replacement and deal with 8cm discs. I'd rather have that and slick way to hide ports. Dropping out of the bottom was a cool idea, but not exactly practical for plugging and unplugging.
Either move a firewire connector onto the ADC (which is how the parent standard of both ADC and DVI was originally proposed.) However, the best I/O solution seems to be to have a nice unobtrusive row along the side (al la e/iMac) 2 FW800 and 2 USB 2.0 (independent buses!). The video, given the use of an internal card, would exit form the back of the machine.
It needs at least TWO independent FW800 buses. This would let pros hook up fast HDD arrays (using both links) or let consumers have a couple of devices plugged straight in without daisy chaining and/or plugging unplugging.
However, I think the current iMac is the Cube done better. Its small and stylish with the same trade-offs of limited expansion potential. The simplicity of the cube was always ruined by all the cables. Bluetooth could remove a few, but you still have to attach the monitor. An upgrade to the iMac could add this feature just as well. So what does a cube offer that the iMac doesn't that gets people so excited? Is it the flexability of which monitor you can use? I guess for the education market a real cheap cube (iCheap) that they can use with old monitors may be welcome, but thats probably not the high end Cube most want to see. So what is it that the Cube has that the iMac doesn't?
Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
So what is it that the Cube has that the iMac doesn't?
Purple Haze....playing in the background
Take a cube, put the power supply inside it. The ONLY extra wire is that to the display, NOT a problem. The iMac is extremly limited in terms of expansion. EXTREMELY limited. No GPU or CPU changes possible, AND, absolutely no display changes possible. If the display dies, you need a repair, or you can plug in an external one and use the flat panel to hold drinks I guess.
Uh un, no way. The cube is a far far far more desirable and logical option than any iMac, including the current one.
If the price had been sane, sales would have been spectacular.
Originally posted by Matsu
Carson, go take your malignancy somewhere else. A 98% of all desktops have that extra wire. It doesn't bother anyone. If you can't find it and plug it in, you can go back to your pen and paper, if you've even learned to spell your name yet. Sorry, but that argument doesn't wash. With ADC we're talking exactly one wire. PS: People like having the monitor and computer SEPERATE!!!
Take a cube, put the power supply inside it. The ONLY extra wire is that to the display, NOT a problem. The iMac is extremly limited in terms of expansion. EXTREMELY limited. No GPU or CPU changes possible, AND, absolutely no display changes possible. If the display dies, you need a repair, or you can plug in an external one and use the flat panel to hold drinks I guess.
Uh un, no way. The cube is a far far far more desirable and logical option than any iMac, including the current one.
If the price had been sane, sales would have been spectacular.
Jeez, take a chill pill. I was just asking a question you don't have to send me out of the forum for it.
I realize that 98% of computers have a cable to the monitor. Its just I'm looking to Apple for elegant solutions. The ad pictures of the Cube and iMac look great when they don't show all the cables, but lets face it they exist. I think the iMac looks better with the built in display and will look even better when it gets a bluetooth keyboard. So it comes down to display choice and maintenance on the one hand.
I don't think the CPU and GPU flexability will make the Cube a better choice over the iMac for MOST people. You may think so and I'm sure others around here think so, but most people buy a computer and add RAM at the most. If you want to exchange the guts of the computer then you get a PowerMac. I don't think the market you describe is that big, even at a sane price. The market is most likely just a small subset of the iMac and PowerMac crowd.
Taking my malignancy elsewhere...
Originally posted by pscates
Now we?re gettin? somewhere: we take the basic Cube idea, correct its shortcomings, do things a bit smarter, pack it with the guts and I/O of the high-end LCD iMac, give it a cool iBook white gloss/shine (with acrylic and chrome accents), put the optical drive in front, put the ports around back and vents/circulation ports where needed (but cool looking!)
Dude, a whole host of us has been promoting this very thing for a very very very very long time!
My personal wish list:
1. A 9" wide x 9" deep x 12" height form factor. The 12" height includes ~2" of clear plastic suspension.
2. A centrally located, horizontally mounted optical drive.
3. 1 CPU and heatsink located above optical drive.
4. 1 power supply located above optical drive.
5. 1 7" AGP slot located below the optical drive.
6. 1 7" PCI slot located below optical drive.
7. 1 1.5" high hard disk bay below the optical drive.
8. 2 full length 1.5" height RAM slots located below the optical drive.
9. 2 independent USB busses with ports in the rear, maybe in the front.
10. 1 Firewire bus with ports in the rear, maybe in the front.
11. Audio out/in/mic ports in the rear.
12. 1 10/100/1000 Ethernet port in the rear.
13. 1 56k modem port in the rear.
14. The guts of the machine are completed pulled out of the rear, similar to the way the Cube guts are pulled out of the bottom.
15. Silent running with passive cooling or silent active cooling.
16. Excellent build quality.
17. $800 to $1300 price range.
Y'all want Apple to take their Flat Panel iMac, cut the monitor off, stand it next to the dome, shape the dome like a cube, and make it so you can pull the graphics card out? And somehow that's going to be a killer product?
The Cube is the only Steve Job's created Apple product to be discontinued since his return in 1997. Replacing a successful product with a once-failed product doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to make money. And you'd have to discontinue the iMac to sell the Cube again, because there just isn't room for two products in that category. Right now if you want a Desktop system from Apple, you've got the cheap eMac, you can move up to the more elegant iMac if you want a flat panel instead of a CRT, and if you need power and expansion (and few people need just one of the two) you get a Powermac. A monitorless system with the power of a Powermac and the size and silence of an iMac has no home in this product grid.
Allowing you to replace the graphics card with some not-yet announced card 2 years from now in a small, silent system is a big issue. Aboviously when Apple builds their small and silent systems, they know what will be in there and can ensure they will function properly with those components. If you could drop a GeForce 6 with 256MB of VRAM in there, chances are it's going to be too hot and your computer will turn off. So you'd have to buy a PowerMac anyway in order to put the next monster graphics card in without lighting your computer on fire. Making a compact computer like the Cube and allowing the graphics card to be upgraded is like building Volkswagon Beetles with empty space ship engine bays. Even if you buy and install the space ship engine, you'll die while leaving the atmosphere. But hey, what a way to go, right?
Besides, most of the computer gamers I know get the best graphics card available when they order their computer, and by the time that thing is outdated, so is the rest of the system, so they never replace or upgrade any components. They just get a new $3,500 Dell every 2-3 years.
Some of you are even describing a product that sounds like a little Baby Tower, sans most PCI and Drive slots, very similar to the cheap PC towers you can get from Dell, Compaq, and so on. These sell well because those companies don't offer products similar to the iMac and the eMac, and some of them tried and failed because they continued to offer their basic towers at the same time. Not to mention that when a school or office needs new computers, they order 30 or more of Dell's baby towers for $599 a piece. Apple's non-upgradable eMacs and iMacs sell well where past PC rip-off alternatives failed because Apple doesn't offer anything else in that product category for your desktop. What this is all boiling down to is people suggesting Apple abandon their consumer products and move to a desktop lineup just like Dells, with baby towers on the cheap end and Pro towers on the high end. Well if they did that, Apple's consumer hardware products really wouldn't stand out much, would they?
Believe me, people love the all-in-one computer design. They love to find out that this one piece is the whole computer. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Cube (regardless of price), but in Apple's hardware product lineup, they just don't fit, which is why they failed the first time, even after Apple was selling them for $1,099 a piece.
Apple has bigger markets to worry about than the 12,000 people in the world who want a little quiet mac with an upgradable graphics card and choice of monitor. Buy yourselves a Gamecube and a flatscreen TV and call it close enough
All in good fun, folks. All in good fun.
Originally posted by Cory Bauer
Hmm...let me try and get all of this straight.
Y'all want Apple to take their Flat Panel iMac, cut the monitor off, stand it next to the dome, shape the dome like a cube, and make it so you can pull the graphics card out? And somehow that's going to be a killer product?
The Cube is the only Steve Job's created Apple product to be discontinued since his return in 1997. Replacing a successful product with a once-failed product doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to make money. And you'd have to discontinue the iMac to sell the Cube again, because there just isn't room for two products in that category. Right now if you want a Desktop system from Apple, you've got the cheap eMac, you can move up to the more elegant iMac if you want a flat panel instead of a CRT, and if you need power and expansion (and few people need just one of the two) you get a Powermac. A monitorless system with the power of a Powermac and the size and silence of an iMac has no home in this product grid.
Allowing you to replace the graphics card with some not-yet announced card 2 years from now in a small, silent system is a big issue. Aboviously when Apple builds their small and silent systems, they know what will be in there and can ensure they will function properly with those components. If you could drop a GeForce 6 with 256MB of VRAM in there, chances are it's going to be too hot and your computer will turn off. So you'd have to buy a PowerMac anyway in order to put the next monster graphics card in without lighting your computer on fire. Making a compact computer like the Cube and allowing the graphics card to be upgraded is like building Volkswagon Beetles with empty space ship engine bays. Even if you buy and install the space ship engine, you'll die while leaving the atmosphere. But hey, what a way to go, right?
Besides, most of the computer gamers I know get the best graphics card available when they order their computer, and by the time that thing is outdated, so is the rest of the system, so they never replace or upgrade any components. They just get a new $3,500 Dell every 2-3 years.
Some of you are even describing a product that sounds like a little Baby Tower, sans most PCI and Drive slots, very similar to the cheap PC towers you can get from Dell, Compaq, and so on. These sell well because those companies don't offer products similar to the iMac and the eMac, and some of them tried and failed because they continued to offer their basic towers at the same time. Not to mention that when a school or office needs new computers, they order 30 or more of Dell's baby towers for $599 a piece. Apple's non-upgradable eMacs and iMacs sell well where past PC rip-off alternatives failed because Apple doesn't offer anything else in that product category for your desktop. What this is all boiling down to is people suggesting Apple abandon their consumer products and move to a desktop lineup just like Dells, with baby towers on the cheap end and Pro towers on the high end. Well if they did that, Apple's consumer hardware products really wouldn't stand out much, would they?
Believe me, people love the all-in-one computer design. They love to find out that this one piece is the whole computer. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Cube (regardless of price), but in Apple's hardware product lineup, they just don't fit, which is why they failed the first time, even after Apple was selling them for $1,099 a piece.
Apple has bigger markets to worry about than the 12,000 people in the world who want a little quiet mac with an upgradable graphics card and choice of monitor. Buy yourselves a Gamecube and a flatscreen TV and call it close enough
All in good fun, folks. All in good fun.
This is one of the best posts I've ever read at AI. The concept of a new, improved Cube is seductive, but Mr. Bauer has artfully exposed the many flaws in the concept.
The central idea of the Cube was that was quiet. It was quiet solely because it used convection cooling like the imacs before it. For those who aren't aware, convection cooling means the machine takes advantage of the fact that hot air rises, so it provided a grill on top for the air to escape and cool air rushes in from the bottom to fill the void and cool the machine.
Can anyone explain how that would be accomplished if the cd drive was not mounted vertically? Mounting the drive horizontally means that either it blocks the air from escaping at the top, or blocks it from entering from the bottom.
The Cube is great. But a Cube with a fan is just a squished El Capitan. Apple can try to move the ports to the back (where they should have been), make it white and fiddle with the price.
But I think the Cubers among us will have to live with the fact that the CD drive must be mounted vertically if the machine is to be brought back.