Apple Power Macintosh G4 Cube 15 in. (B5073LL/A) Mac Desktop

If there was any doubt before that Apple was thinking different, the Cube silences them all. When I describe the Cube to people, I start out by telling them to imagine the top of the line Power Mac G4 tower, with the supercomputer on a chip and everything. I tell them to remove the fan in their mind? Add a slot load DVD Drive? and crush the whole thing into an 8 by 8 by 8 space. That's what the Cube is. Apple has taken the powerful PowerPC G4 processor running at 450 Mhz, just a few months ago the exact chip inside the top of the line G4 tower, the guts of the G4, and engineered it into a space a quarter of the size of most PCs. This one product is perhaps the most amazing work of engineering that Apple has produced in 16 years, rivaling the iMac, the original 128K Mac, and the Powerbook as engineering feats. Like Steve says, no other computer maker could have possibly engineered this product because no one has the talent, the work ethic, or the dedication to pull it off. This machine proves that the industry's best work at Apple.

When I tell people that the dimensions of the Cube and the fact that it doesn't have a fan, the first thought is that it is not a difficult task because laptop parts were created very small, very energy efficient, and very cool. However, the G4 Cube has NO parts in common with the Powerbook or the iBooks. The guts of this machine were taken from the desktop supercomputer, the Power Mac G4, and the Apple engineers managed to cool the thing without a fan. Hot air rises through a center channel of the Cube by convection. Because it's cooled without a fan, the G4 Cube rivals the iMac as the quietest computer around.

The hardware of the Cube is very reminiscent of last year's top of the line Power Mac:

A 450 Mhz G4 processor with the famed Velocity Engine (the supercomputer on a chip) is at the heart of the system, delivering the same power for which many professionals paid $3499 last year.

The computer comes with a comfortable 20 GB hard drive running at 5400 RPM (probably for heat concerns) that can be changed to 40 GB at 7200 RPM on the Apple Store.

The computer comes with 64 MB of RAM standard. The amount of RAM is very skimpy considering the computer's potential and the tasks the computer might be expected to handle. The RAM can be expanded up to a whopping 1.5 GB of memory by ways of 3 PC100 slots.

It comes equipped with an ATI Rage 128 Pro video card with 16 MB of VRAM. This card is sufficient for most Mac gaming, and absolutely rules in Quake III Arena. Keep an eye out for this option though. Apple and ATI may be at a crossroads in their relationship with each other, and you might either see an option for a completely different video card (maybe from nVidia) or the next generation ATI Radeon 256 equipped on a future Cube.

Airport wireless networking has been engineered into this machine. Small circles on the sides of the cube's body act as antennas.

Standard fare of ports : 56K, USB, Firewire, 10/100 Base T Ethernet (Note: Apple is going to give the option for extremely fast Gigabit Ethernet on the cube in September)

Apple decided on a strange sound system for the Cube. The standard headphone and microphone jacks are notably missing on the Cube itself. Instead, the speakers that are included with the Cube are USB speakers designed jointly by Apple and Harman/Kardon. On the small black digital amp that comes with the speakers, there is a standard headphone jack, so you need not worry about that much. The speakers look excellent and Apple touts that they have an impressive range between 80Hz and 20KHz. Audiophiles, however, may gawk at the limitations of the USB port for audio purposes, and the rest of us will have the problem if we ever need to use a microphone on the Cube. There are third party solutions for USB based microphones, thankfully, and IBM's Viavoice Enhanced Edition for Mac even includes a USB headset and microphone for macs lacking such equipment like the Cube and the iBook.

Expandability is limited, of course, on the spatially deficient (that's one way of putting it) cube. There are no PCI slots and no place to put third party internal expansion, just like the iMac. However, Apple still decided to make the Cube easy to get into if you ever decide to upgrade the RAM (which you should) or install the optional Airport wireless card. To get to the insides of the cube, you simply flip the cube over, press down on a recessed handle to pop it up, and lift the entire structure of the cube out of the case. Right at your fingertips is the RAM slots and the Airport card slot.

The main problem with the Cube, for most people, is that it is extremely expensive, even for a Mac. The Cube is obviously a mid-range solution for companies and small home offices, but it is actually priced more than the low end $1599 Power Mac G4. To really target the right market, the cube needs to be priced at least $200 less. My suggestion is to phase out the low end G4 in place of this machine at a lower price. They need to be able to have a configuration of this system with 128 MB of RAM and a 30 GB hard disk under $1800 to be competitive.

Altogether, the Cube is an excellent machine that shows Apple's design capability. Its G4 processor makes it good for applications like Photoshop and a hit for graphics designers who must have this because it looks so cool. The Cube will also be a big hit in the office environment, where desk space is very scarce. The Cube, having half the footprint and half the height of a regular PC, combined with one of Apple's beautiful flat panel displays, will save an enormous amount of space in the office. The new Cube also includes iMovie2, making it a good video editor, as well. However, I'd wait until the prices drop a little before jumping on it; the prices are inflated, even in Mac terms.