Power Mac G4 Cube: A Spectacular Failure - Krazy Ken’s Tech Talk

[@ComputerClan]

Enjoy the new episode! I'll see y'all on Sep 10-11 for a live and in-person event / meet & greet at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest! Then I'm hosting a LIVE stream on Sep 12! 🔔 And subscribe and stay tuned for my next episode in late September (date TBD)-all about the Fly Pen! The 2005 LeapFrog pen with a computer in it! 🐸

[@malindabrami3565]

14 mins ago vid was posted HOW IS THIS COMMENT FROM 9 HOURS AGO

[@SavvySage]

@@malindabrami3565 It was an unlisted video probably

[@andresbravo2003]

Leapfrog Huh?

[@UmarBlox5124]

ok

[@nexus3756]

I really love your content. just wanted to say that. thank you for doing what you do.

[@ltpinecone]

"Couldn't get the price low enough" is something I could never imagine Apple having a problem with lol

[@MMackey27]

In reality, it's IMHO less about Apple not getting the price low enough it's more that they already had a product shipping that the price was lower on that they didn't opt to sell at a higher pricepoint. Had the Cube came out before the Mac Pro or had Apple seen how much the Cube's costs to manufacture and complexities and how those affected pricing with regards to the miniaturization and fanless nature of the Cube, they might've arbitrarily just opted to sell the G4 Mac Pro at a higher price out of the box. Over time as the G4 Pro Tower went up in price through various iterations and into the G5 Pro tower era as well, a Cube could've been implanted back into the lineup way back when and likely have been successful. The problem is that because of the Cube's failing on the first go, it made it harder to sell a new product under that name for a second time because the product was what it was at that point. The market had seen it before, knew what it was prior and would likely forever associate it with THAT iteration of the product even if it's core value or core feature set in variation to other products might've changed. It had a stigma for better or worse. I don't know that the Cube name was tarnished necessarily (the cracks not withstanding it was a capable machine and many loved it and still do), in as much as it just was seen as sort of a Bang and Oluffsen level fetish product than a real absolute workhorse of a computer. To me it was the next step in the 25th Anniversary Macintosh concept of function following form, even though the product was still functional (moreso than the 25th Anniversary Mac was as a desktop). You were paying more ultimately for less value and more for a bold statement. In the computing world though... unlike when you buy a fancy Rolex watch or an elegant Bang and Oluffsen stereo that have a sort of timeless value to them that transcends generations (it's sort of like the modern kick into retro stereo components; the products are still HIGHLY performant decades later)... computers are designed for a period of time, they have a shelf life (other than retro enthusiasts) unless you're incredibly resourceful (i.e. see Amiga enthusiasts; as a Mac fan I'm also a former Amigan and I do admire the pluckiness of my former platform mates in their love affair with the machine and their extents to upgrade the performance of the machine to improve functionality for the needs). Even there, most aren't daily driving an Amiga on the web (though there's been numerous efforts to get them on the web as sort of proof of concepts of what that could've looked like had Commodore kept going; sort of like how people port Doom to anything and everything just to say they can). I think that's ultimately why things like the Mac mini and the Mac Studio are sort of a comparable concept product-wise while using different concepts of value to help sell them (especially vs. the current insane pricing of a Mac Pro). I mean the fact a Studio can have similar performance to a Mac Pro for significantly less money and only lose some relatively minor expansion capabilities (not that the # of PCI-E slots is insignificant, it's more the practical use cases for many is verrrry small)... it sort of renders the Mac Pro as an incredibly niche product that I don't anticipate Apple cares if it sells in massive volume. The less it sells, the more Apple will likely continue to sell it at an ever-increasing price point until the market basically tells Apple it no longer wants or needs a Mac Pro anymore. At which point it'll be end of life'd and we'll all have become normalized to the Mac Studio as the answer in that segment. An answer that in the end forces us to accept paying Apple for memory choices (not upgrades as you can't upgrade after purchase) or flash storage choices (not upgrades, again -- unless Apple creates a service for this with the Studio; my wager is they'd rather you just buy a newer Studio and return your current machine to be refurbed or recycled or sold through the reseller market) out of the gate. That forces us, as needs change, to pay for upgrades more frequently perhaps while pushing more secondhand Macs into the wild to help drive used prices down and potentially help Apple to increase marketshare. With the desirability of the iPhone seeming to grow marketshare in some markets (U.S. especially) amongst youths, having a secondhand Mac market that isn't as high in resale can help more buy-in to get that end to end Apple experience and yet... Apple can keep their profit margin strategy and exorbitant upgrade costs strategy on BTO high or even higher than before since you can no longer buy a Mac and go to a 3rd party vendor for storage and or memory upgrades. The ace in the hole is keeping the performance gains on Apple silicon up. The more percent uplift generationally from the current M# to the next M#+1, M#+2, etc. models over time... the more Apple makes a snowball rolling down the hill that becomes the new norm for Mac buyers. It sucks for us... it's hugely beneficial for them. They can try to spin the performance gains or security gains however they wish (even if there's a legitimate showcase that it's true; regardless of how much gain vs. the massive anti-consumer tradeoffs both create)... but it's more just an argument against Right to Repair in favor of the Apple-way. If they can get around having you inside the hardware, they will do it. If they can limit the outlets for user-level repairs by touting something as a feature (i.e. less latency as the memory is on-die, greater security as the memory is non-standard and you can't just swap modules i.e. like the LTT videos on the Mac Studio) they can pass something off that's ultimately not consumer-friendly as something that has merits and value even if it's really negligible if not defeatist in true value. I say the above as a Mac fan that will remain a Mac fan (I hate Windows regardless how far it's come; I think the polish in Windows 11 is impressive even if their constant need to change the UX for the sake of change hasn't truly improved it as an experience) even if I don't entirely love where Apple is at today, even if the A# and M# chips are incredible in performance. I don't see the integrated memory over highly performant DDR5 memory like you'll find on most PC's as that significant of an improvement to limit my ability to do memory upgrades. I'm not that worried about security to the point that I'd choose a proprietary Flash-based storage standard over the ease of upgrades via highly performant and securable M.2 NVME solutions that are industry standard. But it is what it is and Apple's going to do what Apple does. Unless enough Mac users that need new Macs opt to daily drive something other than a Mac pushing Apple into a necessity for change, it is what it is.

[@SirenaWF1]

Back then Apple wasn't as known for their higher prices as they are now.

[@stephanemignot100]

@@SirenaWF1 Macs were more expensive in the 90s, no Air or Mini M2 type of machines, the LCIII was priced 1350$ for exemple, 599$ for a Mini M2 is not that expensive

[@gentuxable]

If I remember correctly even the first Mac they couldn't get the price low enough that's why they went for 128k RAM and it still was 3 times more expensive than they hoped. But I think it is really a gamble.

[@AelleIti]

@@SirenaWF1 Really? Ken has a valid point about Apple. It's just as expensive today as it was when it first came into being. Only the rich could afford to have a computer a long time ago. Then Apple's competitors came into being Microsoft, Linux and all the other companies that produce the computer parts found in computers today. If Apple was cheap then why was there a push to make owning a computer more affordable for the masses? Why do you think schools ditched Apple computers in the mid to late 90s? Cost. You couldn't maintain them either. So they weren't feasible for normal schools. They would get thrown away similar to how chrome books are today.

[@infinitytec]

I really feel the Mac Studio is a spiritual successor to this. Similar to the Mac Pro but with much more limited expandability.

[@ComputerClan]

Agreed

[@cjosephbornefilms]

It's not like the Mac Pro has great expandability

[@Techlevel1534.]

@@ComputerClanhello

[@urk5204]

I think I've seen a video floating around this site where someone put Apple Silicon in a cube body

[@dannydaw59]

Limited expandability... hmmm... where have I seen that?

[@ryanasazaki1291]

Despite prone to scratching and cracking, I just loved the creamy acrylic, semi-translucent design language that these earlier Apple machines have.

[@ComputerClan]

same ❤️

[@MaxOakland]

Yeah I don’t know if it would work now but I love this era of their design. The iMac G4, the iMac G3. Favorites!

[@anthrobug]

I worked at Apple at the time, and got assigned to the G4 Cube area at one of the display units. I'll never forget the opening morning when the gates were opened, and a stampede of people came running towards us, and it was just me and another employee I met for the first time that minute & now we were surrounded. We answered questions as fast as we could for hours, and they weren't easy ones - Especially since we only found out about the Cube that morning! That whole MacWorld really busy, and the number of people taking pictures ( with their digital and film cameras ;) was insane.

[@PosyMusic]

I remember seeing this cube in an electronics store when it was new, showing “the icon of death”, next to rows of working Windows PC’s. It wasn’t a good first impression… I really expected overheating to be the reason it failed 🙂

[@cat1554]

Which one? The blinking folder?

[@Foxhood]

@@cat1554 Im guessing the spinning beach ball of death.

[@scottjohnson358]

I worked with an attorney who had one. She was really upset when it would overheat and crash. She soon sold it and got a G4 tower.

[@adamlevine6700]

It did overheat, but mostly due to user error, caused by its design. With its cube shape, I remember a lot of people would put stuff on top of it, not realizing how crucial keeping the vent exposed was.

[@cebruthius]

​@@adamlevine6700Imagine what a bit of dust accumulation would do to the thermal design.

[@tankgrrl]

I pre-ordered one the day it went live with the 17-inch Studio Display. I loved that thing so much. It moved countries with me twice.

[@MetalJesusRocks]

YES! You made the video! Great job dude. Love your videos 🤘 And to your point at 17:35 I just upgraded to the new Mac Studio last month, so the Cube lives on!

[@ComputerClan]

Hey man! Thanks for watching! Enjoy your Mac Studio, too! 😎

[@CarrotFarmer]

hi metal jesus rocks

[@hawkmanhawk]

Fun fact, Star Trek: Enterprise used 16 G4 Cubes to drive the computer displays for the NX-01. I'm sure it's silent operation and small size was part of the decision to use them.

[@3rdalbum]

Interesting. Mini-ITX form factor came out the same year as Enterprise, in case anyone was wondering why they would use Cubes instead of fanless Mini ITX machines.

[@alanfike]

I'm sure it's the reason most people buy Macs: hype, fear of computers and excessive expendable income.

[@derp195]

​@@alanfikeI just got a macbook because I was tired of awful hardware. No hype, I'm not an apple fan. No fear, I'm a big fan of Linux. Their hardware is just really good and worth the price for me. Especially when you consider I spent less on a laptop than a flagship phone costs.

[@Dwarg91]

Saw that you have the same issue of lifting out the cubes internals. When I had that issue I checked and found that the shield that goes “above” the disk drive was a bit askew and was catching the edge of the outer shell. What caused my shield to go wonky is that it wasn’t properly seated on one side which caused the little tine by the io side to lift the cover up to then catch the internal lip.

[@Nanomaroni]

I love the G4 Cube, it was so beautiful and ahead of it's time! Thanks for shedding some light on such an underrated product!

[@ComputerClan]

My pleasure. It was fun!

[@ronkemperful]

I remember the Cube. Nice concept: quiet-no fans, minimalist design. Overheated like crazy, I recall too. With the Apple Silica M-chips, Apple could do this again with a better heat sink.

[@GuyGamer1]

They already are. Mac studio.

[@ronkemperful]

@@GuyGamer1 Agreed. But it would be not fan-less or upgradable - a fan is something that could fail or clog with pet hair.

[@ErazerPT]

It was not all their fault. It's just something that is nasty to get right if you're walking too close to the edge. You have to factor in the amount of power to dissipate, the "radiator" you need for that and an appropriate Transfer Interface Material (TIM). Had they gone with an extra 1-2 inches, a proper "thin finned" radiator and a good TIM, the cube quite likely would have had zero overheating issues. Fast forward and you have the same issue with mobile phones (and some laptops). Trying to pack too much into too little.

[@MCAlexisYT]

*Apple WHAT???* r/BoneAppleTea

[@MaxOakland]

They did! The Mac Studio is this with a modern design language. Apple wouldn’t use plastic in their computers today because it tends to look cheap compared to metal

[@MrDDawson]

The Cube was meant for rich folk/CEO types who wanted a fancy box on the desk but not enough of them bought it. IMO. I loved it and had one as well. People were always amazed by it.

[@gmcnewlook]

Yeah it seams like this thing was made for “look at this cool thing I have” people with more money than common sense…

[@dxtremecaliber]

@@gmcnewlook ye idc abt your reply what matters is the G4 Cube is decently powerful plus it still looks cool af you will never see that shit on the current Apple products and its upgradable too

[@MichaelMarquez-m3b]

I knew a guy at work who had one of these partly because it was the only computer his wife thought was attractive enough to be allowed in the living room.

[@AmazedStoner]

I remember when I first learned the g4 cube costs more than the g4 tower I said to myself “nobody is going to pay more for a smaller computer” I also felt like if the cube included a display at that price point it would have done better than it did.

[@cosmokramer4585]

I modded my cube with a new higher wattage AC power board board an upgraded video card. Also, utilized the fan bracket and plug that Apple built in, but never ended up using. I installed a nice quiet Noctua fan and also the dual 500mhz processor. Thing screams for a cube.

[@MaxOakland]

That’s awesome. What system does it run?

[@olepigeon]

I've found that the G4 Cube makes for a perfect classic Mac server. If you install an SSD, it makes absolutely zero noise. If you're renting and sharing a place, it makes it the perfect server to have run in your bedroom 24/7.

[@bigtitmaster]

I’m sure you have a small, affordable powerbill

[@TorazChryx]

Did you know that (with a little bit of soldering work to reposition a choke) the dual G4 cards out of PowerMac G4 "Mystics" work in the Cube? There's even a space in the chassis beneath the heatsink for a slimline 80mm fan. How do I know this? I had one! (didn't buy the G4 new), it wasn't very fast by 2006 but it sure was cool! :D

[@Danny-wv8ec]

I used to work part time a computer shop/net cafe here in Beirut back in 2003 while studying and the cafe had like 20 eMachines and one G4 Cube for mac users, no one used it and it collected dust but it was so cool and that LCD screen was great to look at, the keyboard and the the speakers and the mouse were perfect too, a work of art really.

[@winlover37]

I was always excited to go visit my grandmother as a kid, she had a pristine G4 Cube in a private computer room. Spent many hours browsing the mid 2000s web on it, it was a wonderful machine.

[@MaxOakland]

Wow that’s cool. Cool grandma

[@BrettOPediaTV]

I had this computer! I loved it. I had it for about 8 years until it totally died. I’d love to see them bring something like this back!

[@l21n18]

Pretty one of the most beautiful designs

[@ArtamStudio]

I had one too and loved it so much I had it upgraded bigtime at least once. It never cracked and still worked fine when I retired it for a beefy iMac, it was MacOS and other software obsolescence that forced the switch.

[@hillstones]

They already did...the Mac mini and Mac Studio.

[@bluelblock]

This was great! I got to spend a day at my dad's work playing with one of their powermac towers and a 22" Cinema Display back in the early 2000s. I actually ended up getting that beautiful transparent plastic Cinema Display when it was decomissioned and carried it off to college, back home, and it got me through my first nine years as a professional designer. I think the picture finally gave out but the power indicator is still on. I'm forever going to miss that era of design. Clearly too pure and optimistic for this world.

[@cypherian2]

I remember reading somewhere that, behind the scenes, all the computer consoles and displays on the TV show STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE were powered G4 Cubes.

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

That prototype shell looks like an oversized Kleenex dispenser.

[@superpacman256]

Apparently the g4 cube lasted longer on the market than the iPad 3

[@adamlevine6700]

One flaw you didn't mention was how it's design led to overheating thanks to user error. With its big flat top, the Cube screamed "stack stuff on top of me" which blocked the vent and caused overheating. This was a common problem, I recall, but because it's user error, a lot of people brushed it aside. But man, that big cube just begged you to put you books on it...

[@greggv8]

Apple did prototype a "Super Cube". Shortly before Apple "suspended" the Cube I was in an IRC chat room for the "User Friendly" webcomic. One of the regular participants worked in the Micron memory testing lab and he mentioned he was working on testing their RAM compatibility with the upcoming new version of the Cube, but the prototypes had a problem. One of the RAM slots didn't work. As part of their testing they'd take computers apart and mount the circuit boards to a custom built fixture to make swapping RAM easy. A few days later he was in the chat again and commented about Micron stopping testing on the Super Cube because Apple had killed it. People asked what would happen to the prototypes Micron had. They'd dump the parts in boxes and put them in Micron's warehouse, wouldn't bother to take the time to reassemble them. Apple didn't want them back, as long as Micron agreed to not allow them to leave their facility. So possibly, somewhere south of Boise, Idaho, in a dusty warehouse, is a box with one or more dismantled prototype Macintosh "super" Cubes. There could be examples in warehouses of other memory manufacturers other places on Earth - if Micron and the others haven't long ago cleaned house and sent such items to be recycled.

[@combusean]

I always felt the Cube was targeted at a luxury segment--people who weren't particularly technical so they wouldn't have needed the expandability of the Power Mac but the manager/executive type that still wanted performance and weren't afraid of shelling out the money, especially for high-end design. My boss had one on his desk, for example.

[@Teluric2]

Never was a luxury it what all fanboys want to think about apple.

[@RolandHutchinson]

The only Cube I ever encountered in the wild was on the home office desk of an art museum curator. Definitely the high-end design played a role in his choice of that computer, and there was no need for expansion on a machine that was mostly used for word processing and email. It was truly a piece of art in its own right.

[@combusean]

@@RolandHutchinson I had a picture of it on my wall around the time it was released and I couldn't stand macintoshes in the 1990s. The visual impact it had was unmatched. Go figure that I ended up refurbishing dozens of beige boxes as part of that job...

[@RolandHutchinson]

@@combusean And further, the cube was, just like many works of art in museums, a bit of a conservator's nightmare.

[@garyhorsman]

I worked on a G4 Cube at the office when it was new. I never experienced any of the issues shown in this vlog, so I’ve always been surprised by the near-universal derision of this model. Guess I was one of the very few lucky ones. By the way, I still have the original Harmon Kardon orb speakers that came with my G4 iMac and are now hooked up to my MacBook Air M2 on which I watched this video. Still in great shape and sound great.😁

[@Teluric2]

Never ? I doubt. All people that love apple always deny having issues.

[@LNSLateNightSaturday]

May I just say, Ken, that your sense of comedic timing just keeps getting better? I genuinely laughed several times during this video. Well done.

[@FurriousFox]

I especially found 7:57 funny

[@MaxOakland]

He’s very funny

[@digitalizeddeath]

i use a G4 cube daily bro. Awesome little machine. I have it tethered to a network of headless machines using screen sharing. The network has a Mac Mini G4, intel 2014 i3, and an M1 with a Power Mac G3 as my file server with a Sonnett Sata Card 1 ghz G3 1 GB Ram, USB 2 / Firewire 400, Radeon 9200, and Gigabit Ethernet with Tiger Server. it all works and the M1 is my main gateway to the web. I use all the machines to maintain software compatability.

[@jerimiahjohnson4645]

The " wash our balls alot " was priceless. Absolutely Hilarious Ken.

[@gregwessels7205]

And he hasn't washed since.🤣🤣

[@Vista0279]

Seriously 😂

[@lordlundar]

An old webcomic (Angst Technology from Inktank) dealt with the G4 Cube a couple of times. The first it was mistaken for a pop tart toaster and the second was when it cam back "repaired". As a tissue paper dispenser.

[@RothAnim]

This was my second personal computer. I bought in in 2001 after the price drop put it in line between the G4 Tower and the iMac, which is where the product specs made mores sense: not as upgradable as the tower, but far more so than the iMac. Over time, I upgraded the RAM, the hard drive... hell, even the GPU (replaced the Radeon with a BIOS-flashed GeForce 2 MX.) That lasted me another 5 years, when I moved to the 1st gen Intel Core Duo iMac. I still have it, and it still works. It even pulled server duty for games and Ventrilo for a little while. Hard to believe that era was a golden age for user-friendly upgrades and repairs.

[@towjam2359]

Great video and story telling! To this day, I think the Cube is the sexiest looking Mac desktop ever made but I had no idea until now all the design compromises that were made under the hood.

[@joetuktyyuktuk8635]

I would guess the "suspended indefinately" had more to do with the spectacular losses, that likely went along with the spectacular failure. "Suspending" the project, rather than outright canceling it, likely meant they could spread those losses out over several years on their balance sheets and soften the blow for their shareholders.

[@lastofadyingbreed4850]

Me: I don't see the power supply Ken: If you look really closely, you will see the power supply is a giant 240w external brick... Me: I'm dead 💀💀💀

[@ComputerClan]

😁

[@funded.]

ha@@ComputerClan

[@funded.]

*nerd voice* excuse me, but its actually 205w *pushes glasses*

[@mankind8088]

🤣🤣😭🤣😭😂😭🤣😭

[@Techlevel1534.]

@@ComputerClanhello

[@morsing]

I remember the design just wowed me and friends. Just too expensive so not an option for consumers really. And in the graphics industry expansion cards was still important around 2000. Great video as usual. Btw I did lots of work in photography, graphic design, websites on a MacMini. It did just great for me. So the concept was good, just too expensive. And why Apple didn’t anticipated this? My guess is they underestimated the cost from the beginning and couldn’t kill it because it was so beautiful ❤

[@einsteinwasright1044]

Regarding the disintegrated surround foam on the Harmon-Kardon USB speakers: There are KZbin videos that explain how to replace the surround foam, or it can be done professionally by a local speaker shop. I recently had the surrounds replaced on two "Infinity Reference" 10" woofers, which cost $80 CAD each. I imagine that repair of these smaller speakers would cost less than half of that amount each. Without repair, the speakers are useless.

[@999benhonda]

We had one in my digital graphics arts class, 2001. Just one mind you. Even when new, the lack of a fan was a novelty. And we definitely "accidentally" turned it off while others were using it by waving our hand over it. That on/off sensor was too sensitive.

[@wjadams2]

My first Mac was the G4 Cube. I had bought one in 2006 because everything else was way more expensive. It was a great system. I upgraded the CPU, RAM, and hard drive.

[@MaxOakland]

How much did it cost?

[@wjadams2]

@@MaxOakland I paid $345 including shipping back then. The CPU upgrade I bought was the PowerLogix PowerForce 7447 G4 1.5GHz. It ran great.

[@jasonk9779]

I loved the cube, thought it would be a great video editing machine. But it was just way, way too expensive. I worked for a store that sold Apple products at the time and I don't think we sold more than a handful. But I proudly have one now in my collection :)

[@phillips2683]

Used an old "Apple" in a old 'Record Pool' in the Eighties. I always thought the G4 was a lot smaller. I never saw one in person. After watching your video and others on the web I'm glad I never bought one.

[@medes5597]

It may have been a failure but the G4 cube is *still* being used for restaurant music systems to this day. Several companies existed in both the US and Europe installing G4 cube based music systems for restaurants. Even after it had been discontinued. When I worked in kitchens a decade ago, they weren't that uncommon. Less so now (most have been upgraded to minis) but occasionally you'll still see a cube behind a plant pot or high on a shelf in the corner, driving the background music for the restaurant.

[@angusmclaren6257]

Ha yes! These things were a nightmare because they'd show up under warranty at my work, who had the repair contract for Australia, and the whole case was cracked because it couldn't support the weight of the internals.

[@slob5041]

I like how they just did it again with the mac studio, finally making the next cube a reality

[@jmkhenka]

the thing with the button, it probly got triggered by static electricity. Its not uncommon. I had a small toy once, that played a tune when you put a coin in it. Inside there was 2 metal bars that made contact. This could be triggered by simply getting up from a chair (made out of synthetics), from half a meter away. Static electricy closed the gap enough for the music to start playing. Same goes for stuff that has a touch sensitive function - its based on induction afterall and induction can be problematic if earthed like a computer is when connected to the grid. A phone has the same issue but as its isolated, it wont make ghost input - also modern devices are way more sophisticated then a 2001 power button.

[@ExtraSauceOnTheSide]

More modern devices ran into the same issue. See: original PS4 release, XBox 360 S, and then the original XBox One.

[@ASDASDDSASASDA]

The 2000 G4 had Gigabit Ethernet. My PC didn't get such a fast network card until 2018.

[@HandFromCoffin]

I got a used cube from work. I put in a duel 500mhz G4 Sonnet upgrade and GeForce 2MX. Why does no one mention this but there is a bracket for a 80mm fan at the bottom of the cube. I put in a low rpm fan and it ran great.

[@DannySchultz1]

Thanks for making this. I was a manager in the pc repair department when these were released. The "cracks" were a big problem. People did not like spending a lot of money and a "desktop appliance" that had visible flaws. The cracks were most likely caused during the manufacturing process as they were always in the same spot and the same size. This would not be the case if it were a structural defect. You other point that it was positioned in between lower and upper end units is also correct. There was not market space. The unit itself was, IMO, a work of art. I still use this time period as an example of how a product can sell just by how it "feels". Apple knock it out of the park with the "feel" of this line of products.

[@hillstones]

Those studio displays with the easel stands were notorious for suddenly breaking and the display would fall back on the desk. That is what happened to my 20" Cinema Display.

[@pokepress]

I used one of these in a digital art class I took in college. By then it had already been discontinued for a few years. I do wonder how the fan-less design would have worked if they had continued on and made a G5 model.

[@MaxOakland]

It would’ve been far worse. The G5 was extremely hot. That’s the reason they weren’t able to make a G5 PowerBook and had to switch to Intel

[@hwertz10]

I worked at a university department that bought several of these. I had no idea they were on the market for so short a time! This department was pretty well funded and had several people who wanted the latest and greatest (they indulged them, since everyone else didn't care if they got a brand new computer or one that had been broken in for like 6 months or a year first). I don't recall if they ended up with 2 cubes or 3? I do think you understate the problem with cracks. I mean, I didn't think it was a big deal, and at least one of the people there who got a cube didn't care at all, the other really worried about it and I think even got Apple to send them a replacement case (which also had cracks.) It must have been difficult to drill out those screw holes without cracking the material. I don't know if these cracks got worse over time, but at least some of them had cracks brand new straight from the factory. This was practically a scandal at the time as I recall. Heat. They ran hot, you did have to be careful to keep the area around the base clear, it behaved like a chimney so if you had anything even too near the base it'd disrupt that small amount of airflow enough to have it overheat and shut down. It REALLY should have had a small, quiet fan in it; but Jobs was obsessed with fanless if at all possible. Ironically they switched to Intel CPUs after the G5 due partially to heat. (Ironic for two reasons, how hot Intel CPUs became over the years, and also ironic since in years after the G5, IBM POWER CPUs really focused on performance per watt.) One person who got one was used to setting papers wherever, it took them a while to quit setting papers on top of the cube (which both had it shut down due to overheating; and would sometimes shut it down if a paper shifted and the power button picked it up.)

[@tobormax]

I remember seeing a demo of this thing being run at a Circuit City. Yes, a Circuit City. I don't know if he was an "official" spokesperson like he claimed, but I watched a guy in a polo shirt playing what I'm pretty sure was Quake III Arena on this little plastic cube. I was impressed and as I approached I was breathlessly proselytized to by this mysterious Apple fanatic. The Cube was really cool looking, and I was impressed that it had no fan, but the whole thing felt gimmicky to me. Like, we're going to do a thing because we can do a thing. I am glad you brought up the trashcan macs because this had the same feel to it. Like, "wow this looks cool, but I really just needed a big metal box to put all my computer parts in thanks."

[@vinapocalypse]

I had one and used it for years. It was a nice little machine. My major gripe though was the connectors all being at the bottom. I actually cracked one of the USB connectors in the back because of the horizontal stress from a USB cable. It ended up ruining that port, but I just used a USB hub with the remaining port which worked fine

[@JaceTan-90]

Love the simplicity. Just that it might come out a little too early. If it was reintroduced now, it would look so futuristic given space limitations with most millennials and Gen Z, plus most hardware like SSDs and processors, and with wifi would allow the spacious G4 Cube chassis to work well.

[@BollingHolt]

I've had one of these since 2019, and I still haven't even powered it on yet to see if it works! I finally acquired a power supply for it a few months ago, but life has been happening... Maybe the time is nigh to fire it up.

[@OldFordTaurus]

It would take no time

[@steamfire]

I had the pleasure of setting 16 of these up in school music department lab back in 2000. They were so satisfying

[@carlosr1176]

They got greedy. They should have put a PowerBook motherboard in it and used the same iMac plastic with a frost coating to cover flaws and called it a day. It could have sold for about $999 and been a prosumer hit. They weren’t thinking about who in the real world actually needed it. Which was really no one.

[@Technology-Repair-Proto]

The speakers deteriorating like that is an annoyingly common issue, as both my eMac and iMac G3 have this problem. And the eMac has white centre cones which go yellow. I will say though that the eMac especially is 'built like a brick lavatory' as it's blown a cap before, and it kept on trucking. It's all fixed now but damn these things are hard as nails!

[@OldFordTaurus]

Which emac do you have. The 700 and 800mhz models have different speakers than the 1ghz and up models

[@Technology-Repair-Proto]

@@OldFordTaurus It's the 1.25Ghz model. I never knew they had different speakers, though I must admit. Thanks for the info. :D

[@ryanfraley7113]

A guy by the name of Nic Ansuini and some other KZbinrs put a M1 out of the Mac mini into the G4 Cube and it is a beast of a machine. I'd love to see what a Cube would run like with a M2 Pro inside.

[@97nelsn]

That thumbnail is incredible. It’s the best I’ve see since Dave2D put his entire face on an 2021 iMac.

[@ComputerClan]

Thanks : D

[@nicwelch]

Speakers with a foam surround sound great, however they will all eventually suffer from time and moisture.

[@xXYannuschXx]

As someone who loves CRTs and electronic devices with transparent shells: that Apple CRT was mesmerizing.

[@joshwa1234]

Many years ago, when the G4 Cube was still relatively current, there was a department in the building I worked in, that used a G4 Cube as a server, for a department of maybe 8 people.

[@simonp37]

My brother bought one and it was awesome! It was powerful and it was really nice at the time to have a silent desktop computer. Even laptops at the time could be noisy.

[@mashakos1]

If you weren't around back then you wouldn't realise this but the G4 Cube was incredibly underpowered - even by Apple standards. If you grew up around flat screen iMacs you might think the G4 cube was more powerful than an iMac, but in practical terms it was barely an upgrade. The G4 Cube was like paying $4000 today for a Macbook Air

[@angryshoebox]

I had a G4 Cube, I bought mine when Apple was blowing them out on clearance. I liked the looks and the good performance. I did NOT like 1) the ports all being underneath, 2) the lack of sound I/O ports, and 3) the bulky, humongous external power brick.

[@Teluric2]

Good performance? Are you sober?

[@sash4all]

My Boss had one around 2000 and it's still my favorite Apple product of all time. It is such a beautiful computer I still love its design.

[@cardinalRG]

High styling in computers has never had any value for me, and I don’t really care what they look like. But as an Apple stockholder, I’ve always been thankful that many consumers do care, and back up that sentiment with their dollars.

[@phantomsmithy]

God that 17" Studio Display CRT was sooooo sexy back in the day. My boss' FAVORITE thing to do was slap file folders on top of my G4 Cube to put it to sleep while I was currently working.

[@rhkips]

It's worth noting, the Apple DVI to ADC converter was not compatible with the 17" CRT Studio Display, only the 15" and 22" LCD displays; a lesson I learned the hard way as you had to actually purchase the product and read the manual to discover the adapter lacked the necessary power capacity to run the CRT.

[@DanaDoesStuff]

Excellent video as always, Ken! I have a stock 450mhz Cube and a 500mhz Cube which I modded with a new GPU. LOVE those little machines. See you next weekend at VCF!

[@TheBcoolGuy]

11:05 Prime YTP material

[@atm94404]

The cracking was pretty infamous and was the start of Apple gaslighting its customers (and was the last straw for many Apple converts to go back to PCs). This was the original "you're holding it wrong". The "mould lines" excuse was quickly debunked when people posted timelapse gifs of the "mould lines" growing and spreading over time. Then they tried the "it's just cosmetic, it doesn't affect the performance" which is silly thing to say about a computer that's sold entirely on its looks. If you cared about performance, you wouldn't have bought the massively under-clocked Cube. There were other things like that power brick having a very short cord, so if your desk was slighting taller than Steve Jobs' (rumor was that the cord was the exact length so there would be no slack on Steve's desk) you would have to put a box or something on the ground for the brick to sit on- further destroying the minimalist, tidy aesthetic it was supposed to have.

[@ComputerClan]

Thanks for writing. Yeah, it seemed like a bad excuse. As for the under clocking, I don't know if that's fair to say (at least in the literal sense of CPU clock) because the G4 Cube offered 450 and 500, same as the minitower.

[@alexis0a]

I really love the design, yes, it was a failure, but now it's a great piece of collection

[@Iowa599]

Speaker surrounds can be replaced. Glue on surrounds after carefully extracting them from new speakers. IDK what speakers, so get some measurements & start looking.

[@andresbravo2003]

Even the G4 Cube was short lived and even quite compact as the Actual Power Mac G4, it was quite a neat computer to be moddable even before Apple Announced the Mac Mini in 2005. (And there's also Mac Studio in 2022)

[@jamesedwards8175]

Man, brings back memories. My mother bought a G4 with the HK speakers and the clear keyboard/mouse as our home computer. Was really neat but boy, being a gamer, I hated it.

[@lokeung0807]

I hope they will use back this design and make sth like M3 cube

[@peterbustin2683]

I always feel happier when I watch a video on this channel. Better than Antidepressants !

[@cottonfoo]

I still have mine, it sits on a shelf. It suffered from the electrostatic switch issue so I had to disconnect it and use a mac keyboard with a power button. Still have the HK speakers too, they haven't disintegrated yet.

[@kimiOfDieLinke]

When the price was dropped, the system sold (out) in days. It was placed between Home and Pro but priced above Pro - it could not work at that price and that was obvious before release. I think it is still impressive that they got high-end hardware of that era into a fanless mini-computer. Probably the manufacturing and development costs were too high at that point so selling it for less wasn't possible.

[@rkmugen]

I can't remember where i read it, but a bunch of G4 cubes were used to drive many of the set displays on "Star Trek: Enterprise", including, but not limited to the ship's bridge.

[@rondobrondo]

It was just ahead of its time. We didn't have enough power/efficiency to make a small enclosed machine like that with acceptable performance for the price. But even now, people generally still prefer to have a screen with their device, and they like it EVEN MORE portable, I.e. laptops instead of carrying around Mac minis and hoping you have a display nearby if you need to use it.

[@fajarkurniawan9434]

From Mac Mini to Mac Studio, we see the increase in height. So maybe we will get another Cube computer with Mac Studio Pro Max

[@Applecompuser]

I am a mac user, but macs had thermal issues and they continued into the 2018 in their laptops. The Apple Silicon seems to have helped/solved this problem, but that is only based upon KZbinrs who seem to miss basic stuff and dwell upon the mundane such as too big of a chin on the 5K imac (not a problem at all.)

[@tal0ndarktalon637]

I wanted one of these so bad, but just couldn't justify the price.

[@jttech44]

It'd be cool to get one of these and gut it, then replace the guts with normal components while retaining the core mechanism.

[@Expressionistix]

Apple could introduce a clear acrylic stand for the Mac Studio and Mini as a nod to the Cube.

[@Saavik256]

From design standpoint, the G4 Cube was outstanding. But heat dissipation was always going to be a problem, especially back in 2000.

[@welding_guy7524]

I was an 80s kid that learned basic on a ti computer, but in jr high I got the honor of learning programming on an Apple 2 and then a Lisa.. I’ve always loved how Apple designed their products.. it wasn’t until a few years ago I bought my first Mac , a MacBook with the M1 ., now that I have the money to afford, I want to relive old Apple computers and this is on my list ..

[@thetravelingsasquatch1954]

This is what KZbin should be about. Fun facts and history.

[@TheDementation]

Now youre thinking with cubes. The reason this was so unimpressive is back in 1999 I had a 21inch IBM monitor and a computer with Voodoo3 and a Diamon Fire GL, yeah it was costly but not as much as the apple prices. And you couldnt upgrade the apples, not properly anyway.

[@egbront1506]

You can get replacement speaker rings quite cheaply to replace the crumbling foam ones. No need to leave those speakers in such a sorry state.

[@woreno]

The cube bottom handle releases itself vertically with a smooth motion, as coming from the future. I think this was one of thr most stylish elements that apple ever produced

[@Wadethewallaby2001]

6:33 when you pull it out, it looks like a cube sat

[@13StJimmy]

I can’t watch the full video right now, sure it’s great but I just came to say the thumbnail is a masterpiece

[@clrlmiller]

I remember deploying LOTS of G4 Cubes at NASA's-GSFC back in 2000/2001 and the biggest complaints were: 1. "I don't get a floppy?!?!" Ugh. Which we fixed with supplying a USB Hub and USB Floppy Drive. and 2. "This thing is turning off all by itself! WTH?!?!, which was a problem with the capacity power button on top and problems with some fluorescent lighting. We fixed that problem with installing a 1.5"x2" yellow sticky note between the internal button and the case. The paper added -just- enough light filtering and reduced sensitivity to ONLY work when you actually touched the damn button. Staff had one helluva laugh as we went from desk to desk, office to office to install the "fix" for the button. :\

[@kirishima638]

It’s funny how the curved grey design almost matches the studio 20 years later, but suspended ‘in glass’ which I like. I hope Apple revisits transparency