Electronico Museum
PowerMac G4 Cube
The PowerMac G4 Cube was a tower desktop computer and is probably one of the least known apple computers, but most beautiful desktops ever, even compared to the Mac Pro today. It was marketed and sold by Apple from 2000-2001, a very short time, and was the Mac Pro of the time. It is so noted for its very clean and modern design, that it has been featured in several museums in the U.S. The PowerMac G4 Cube was only marketed for a year because it did not do well at all when marketed only selling under 50,000 in over half a year it was logically taken off the market. This was mostly due to the price of the item, and people thinking it had too small of specs to be a good deal unless you bought the highest priced, maxed out model. It also looked nothing like the very ugly desktop towers of the day, and Apple already sold the iMac G3 which was a much better deal and slightly less powerful. It still is a very nice computer and is a marvel of engineering even for today.
The PowerMac G4 Cube only came in one color but had a very professional design being one of the first apple computers to use aluminum as part of the body. It consisted of a thick glass shell, and then a aluminum cover over the actual computer. As you can see, it was very easy to upgrade, and had a handle to carry it with. It was also very compact even for today, only being 8.9in. tall and 7.7in. wide. It also fit a very powerful computer into a even smaller compartment, able to hold up to 1.5GB ram, and a 32MB graphics card. It was certainly a very nice computer, and a extremely powerful consumer computer for the time. It was designed by Jony Ive in California.
Design
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Specs, Specifications
Popularity
The computer lived on after it was discontinued by apple. Being very popular in Tv shows, Movies, and being featured in museums. It also could be easily upgraded to third-party processors, graphics cards, with memory and hard drives due to apple using common connectors, instead of their own. People have been able to install dual processors with up to 1.8 GHz, and high-performance video cards, while retaining the same operating system. People have also added LED apple logos, and special cooling systems to retain the fanlessness. But it was discredited and unpopular because it did not come up to the standards that people expected from a prosumer desktop.
Apple's Own Information
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Movies and Videos
Product Video Apple Event
In Popular Culture
The PowerMac G4 Cube can be found as a prop on like as Absolutely Fabulous, The Drew Carey Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dark Angel, The Gilmore Girls and 24. The computer can also be found in The Simpsons episode "Mypods and Boomsticks." Also seen in movies like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 40 Days and 40 Nights, About a Boy, August and The Royal Tenenbaums. In books, William Gibson's 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, Cayce uses her producer friend's Cube while staying in London with him. In "Big Fat Liar," a G4 Cube and a Studio Display are in Wolf's kitchen.
Sixteen PowerMac G4 Cubes were used for the displays of the computers in Star Trek: Enterprise.
The PowerMac G4 Cube and its peripherals were showcased at The Museum of Modern Art, and at the Digital Design Museum (a division of Design Museum).
G4 Cubes are also popular for "Macquariums" tanks made from the shells of Apple computers for fish.
What's In The Box
PowerMac G4 Cube - Keyboard - Mouse - Apple Pro Speakers - Manuals - Start-up Discs
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