Comments on: Comments on 8776

Post number 8776

fpatrick — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 12:51:04 -0800

I guess this cube wasn't sufficiently assimilated. . . . and I was just about to break down and buy one to replace my old 300/G3.

By: tweebiscuit

tweebiscuit — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:04:37 -0800

All I have to say is goddammit! I wanted a Cube so badly, but didn't have enough money for a Mac of any kind the last time I went computer shopping... and now my dream will never be realized... oh, fickle and uncertain life!

By: jragon

jragon — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:07:31 -0800

Hey, no problem -- go out and buy one now. The cubes will be around in reseller stores for a while. I know because I'm going to nab one.

By: almostcool

almostcool — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:08:53 -0800

I think that the Cube was yet another example of form over function. Sure, it looked really cool and was pretty damn fast at the time that it came out (and still chugs along pretty well), but it doesn't allow for much expansion for the future. At least you can make an aquarium out of an Imac...

By: hijinx

hijinx — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:11:34 -0800

I just bought mine, and couldn't be happier. Function? I don't need PCI slots. I need to upgrade my hard drive (did it), memory (did and can do), and add wireless networking internally. Externally, FireWire and USB shake it up just right for me. It's a fantastic deal. Plus, it makes a great Kleenex holder.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:14:59 -0800

Don't worry; if you wanted a Cube, you'll want what it's going to be replaced with even more. Not that I know what that is or anything, but it only stands to reason.

By: jragon

jragon — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:15:09 -0800

I'm so tired of hearing that it's not expandable. Anything I'd want to add can be added through firewire, and not everyone cares about tricking out the machine with 17 different cards.

By: aaron

aaron — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:16:09 -0800

Just once I'd like to see a press release where the quote that's falsely planted in an executive's mouth at least sounds like something a normal human being would actually say. "Most customers decided to buy our powerful Power Mac G4 minitowers instead." Really. I agree; I've been wanting to go out a powerful Power Mac G4 myself. If I had the money, I might even buy two powerful Power Mac G4s.

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:22:32 -0800

wow. apple has never dropped hardware ideas before leaving a confused and irate customer base, wonder if they will phase out tech support for them as well?

By: moz

moz — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:27:22 -0800

i was going to buy one of the towers, myself. and also a laptop. but now it seems more like i'm planning on buying a car, which i actually have to do (my old one's well... pretty old).

By: machaus

machaus — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:38:03 -0800

A G4 with no fan would have been the selling point for me if the price point wasn't so lousy.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:42:44 -0800

I find it peculiar that they're singing the machine's praises in the press release announcing its demise. Ordinarily, such adspeak serves to promote the product and thus encourage sales, but what the point of encouraging sales of a product which no longer exists might be, I cannot understand. Or is it just the case that the marketroids have been writing this way for so long that they've forgotten how to stop? -Mars

By: chrisege

chrisege — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:47:38 -0800

the main thing the cube lacked that I want in a mac is dual monitor support - something you can't add via firewire, as far as I know. if it had even one pci slot, it would've ruled.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 13:53:45 -0800

You just get a dual-head AGP video card for it...

By: webmutant

webmutant — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:06:03 -0800

what the point of encouraging sales of a product which no longer exists might be, I cannot understand [... ] Simple. Just read that as, "We did not make a mistake in making the damn thing in the first place. It was perfect. We've only stopped making it because our customers preferred our other product which was even more perfect. Goddammit." Anyway, I'm pretty sad to hear it. I knew, the first time I saw this thing, that it was just too pretty to last ....

By: silusGROK

silusGROK — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:06:41 -0800

The point of encouraging sales of a discontinued product is to eliminate current supplies. Or, if your more cynical, to see if discontinuing the product is what you want to do... "Reaction was so swift and so strong against our discontinuing the Cube that we've decided to relaunch it with these new features early next year..." [Yippee! The horrid pop-back ads are gone from the spell checker!]

By: darukaru

darukaru — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:21:20 -0800

Looks like Small Dog Electronics (my favorite online Macstuff store) still has a bunch of refurbished Cubes either in stock or on the way, for cheap. No, I was not paid to post this.

By: andrewraff

andrewraff — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:22:39 -0800

the cube is very cool. If I was going to get a non-laptop computer, I'd get a cube, but since the mobility is important, I won't.. The cube was as much art as computer... oh well.

By: Twang

Twang — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:32:50 -0800

what the point of encouraging sales of a product which no longer exists might be, I cannot understand I think they hope to encourage so many people to buy that they can unload all the little buggers still crack, crack, cracking away in that warehouse.... driving the night watchman crazy.... Now, if they'd only made the case out of crystal glass it might have deserved its price tag.... and been useful for something when it's obsolete in two more years.... like, errrrm, upscale kleenex box.

By: jragon

jragon — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:41:26 -0800

The price tag was 1300 for a G4. It was also tiny (which costs more) It wasn't that overpriced.

By: spilon

spilon — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 15:05:01 -0800

I wanted a Cube really badly when it came out, but eventually went for the G4 tower instead, just like the press release said. Gee, I feel so predictable...

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 15:35:00 -0800

I never dound the cube that compelling, but it would have saved a good deal of space--important in a small apartment. Perhaps if flat screen monitors had taken off a bit faster people's sensitivity to bulky computer boxes might have been greater and the Cube would have been more popular. Or, perhaps it was just released at the wrong time in buying/replacement cycle? The cube will probably become a collector's item PDQ.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 15:35:47 -0800

(dound=found)

By: justgary

justgary — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 15:40:53 -0800

The cube was as much art as computer... oh well. It was sweet to look at, although for that kind of money it would be nice to buy one without cracks, errrrr, mold lines.

By: lileks

lileks — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 17:15:46 -0800

I loved it at first, but the more I looked at it the more it started to resemble a prop from Logan's Run - or any other 70s sci-fi show in which the concept of "the future" is expressed mainly by inch-thick Lucite slabs.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 18:49:09 -0800

MacWorld just posted a good article about the demise of the Cube. "The G4 Cube was the perfect product for the style-over-substance dot-com boom of the mid-to-late nineties. Unfortunately it didn't hit the market until mid-2000. "

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 19:58:42 -0800

or any other 70s sci-fi show in which the concept of "the future" is expressed mainly by inch-thick Lucite slabs

By: sarajflemming

sarajflemming — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 20:48:12 -0800

i was wondering the same thing as thephil about tech support. and other support in general. e.g. the DVD drive firmware updates and blah blah. that'd suck if they dropped the cube out of consideration for those updates. it's a great machine, though. i love it. (:

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 03 Jul 2001 21:14:31 -0800

that'd suck if they dropped the cube out of consideration for ... updates. Apple unified the innards of their machines a while back, so an update that applies to (say) the PowerBook G4 will likely also apply to the Cube if the feature being updated exists in both machines. They've always been pretty good with updates for their discontinued equipment anyway. For example, they have drivers that'll run a USB PCI card in older machines.

By: ericdano

ericdano — Wed, 04 Jul 2001 00:30:59 -0800

I bought a cube to use in my music studio. I bought it because, 1. it was small, 2. silent, and 3. fast. It has performed excellent in the studio. It runs Digital Performer and ProTools. I'm going to add some firewire recording hardware in the next 2 months to do some more digital recording.... It's a great computer........hopefully Apple will reconsider and release another version in the future.

By: Succa

Succa — Wed, 04 Jul 2001 07:21:52 -0800

Anyone got a cheap Cube for sale?