Mario GuzmánMar 23
Power Mac G4 Cube
The design was peak Jony Ive. The power button was a touch-sensitive, self-illuminating spot, activated by skin. To indicate when the machine was asleep, a tiny LED light pulsated 12 times a minute, mimicking human breathing. Creating the effect was, Ive says, "so ridiculously hard." The design studio had no darkened room, so designer spent hours "with a black sheet over my head, tuning the algorithm just to try to get the slope of the curve up and the slope of the curve down."
Show threadDave KleinMar 23
@marioguzman I worked at a third party retail store (pre-Apple Stores) when these were available and I'm pretty sure I sold 0. Just like the Dalmatian and Flower Power iMacs. Although perhaps that's a reflection on my ability to sell.
Show threadJohn EllenichMar 23

@dk @marioguzman so weird how the Mac Studio was able to find success which is basically the modern equivalent (though it’s far less upgradable than the Cube was).

Guess maybe because there’s no PowerMac equivalent that’s worth buying anymore?

Show threadMario GuzmánMar 23
@ellenich @dk they’re really only “equivalent” by name. But on paper, the G4 Mac mini was more like the Cube. In fact, the knowledge they gained in miniturizing the Power Mac into the Cube is what helped them make the Mac mini.
Show threadJohn EllenichMar 24

@marioguzman but wasn’t the “PowerMac G4 Cube” meant to be a small, no-compromise, “pro”, desktop Mac? Like the Studio is?

Mac Mini is still the Mac Mini. Small, affordable, desktop Mac.

Show threadMario GuzmánMar 24
@ellenich it was more of a flex in their design and engineering. It had no slots, was slower, and no fan. The only thing that made it Pro-ish was its G4 chip at the time. Since only the Powet Mac G4 tower had it.
Show threadJohn Ellenich
@marioguzman replaceable GPU, RAM, hard drive are pretty “pro” things I think in the world of Apple.
Mar 24 at 1:41amWeb
Show threadMario GuzmánMar 24
@ellenich aside from the GPU, all pretty common things with all Apple computers back then though.