Apple does not sell any upgrade
(can we really say upgrade?) for the rev A Cube. However, some
retailers may have an internal slot-in CDRW drive in the near
future. Some already sell DVD slot-in replacement drives for iMacs.
We believe that you should not try to upgrade your Cube even the
drives became available. It is cheaper to buy an external Firewire
CDRW. You can buy a faster drive (16x) for a small price.
Today on the forums
- Classifieds : looking for Cube speakers
- Classifieds : 64 MB for $18 + shipping
Great deals
You can now buy a refurbished
Cube for $1099. The Apple Store offers the refurbished PowerMac
Cube G4/450 64/20.0/DVD/56k/100BT. It is not mentionned if the
Cube has a keyboard or not.
If you want to buy a new
Cube with a CDRW, check MacReviewZone.
This site tries to find the best deals for several computers,
including the Cube.
02/26/01
Apple works bundled
with the Cube
Apple now bundles AppleWorks
with the G4 Cube. Apple also sells the new Cubes with the following
software:
- iMovie 2;
- iTunes;
- Palm Desktop;
- FAXstf;
- Bugdom;
- Nanosaur;
- CroMag Rally;
- Netscape Communicator;
- Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook
Express.
This software bundle may
mean that Apple targets the consumers who buy iMacs and not only
prosumers. If you wan to read more about the new software bundle
of the Cube, check MacCentral.
Today on the Forums
We have created a new forums
: "Classifieds". You can post your mac related classifieds
there. If you sell something you are responsible for what you
post and sell.
The other topics are the
following :
- Two questions for cube owners : lenght
of cables, and custom decorated Cubes
- When will there be a Nvidia card
in the Cube? (GeForce2 and GeForce3)
02/22/01
Mac World Tokyo
There were some great news
for Cube users at the Expo!
Here are the specs of the
new Cubes :
| Processor |
450-MHz G4 |
450-MHz G4 |
500-MHz G4 |
| Backside level 2 cache |
1MB backside level 2 cache |
1MB backside level 2 cache |
1MB backside level 2 cache |
| Memory (PC100 SDRAM) |
64MB |
128MB |
256MB |
| Video controller |
ATI RAGE 128 Pro graphics card with 16MB of
SDRAM |
ATI Radeon Card with 32MB of DDR-RAM |
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB |
| Hard disk drive |
20GB Ultra ATA |
40GB Ultra ATA |
60GB Ultra ATA |
| Optical drive |
DVD-ROM drive |
CD-RW drive |
CD-RW drive |
| Ethernet |
Built-in 10/100BASE-T |
Built-in 10/100BASE-T |
Built-in 10/100BASE-T |
| Modem |
56K V.90 |
56K V.90 |
56K V.90 |
| Wireless networking |
AirPort ready |
AirPort ready |
AirPort ready |
The great news are that the
Cube now has a Nvidia card on some configs and that you can choose
between the DVD-ROM and the CD-RW. Apparently, the CDRW/DVD combo
was not ready yet. There are some other good news : the low-end
Cube is now $1299, and the Cinema display 22" is only $2999
(it was $3999 before)! However, there is no Geforce3 (which was
announced as a BTO option for the PowerMac G4 tower) option for
the Cube.
We are still waiting for
a major redesign of the Cube, with a new motherboard, faster processors
and a smaller power-supply. This should not happen before Mac
OS X ships....
For other announcements (including
the new CDRW iMacs) made at MWT, check the following links :
- "Macworld Expo Tokyo keynote"
MacWeek
- "NVIDIA, Apple Announce GeForce
3 Ultra For PowerMac G4"
The MacJunkie
- "Apple Introduces New Power
Mac G4 Cube With CD-RW & iTunes" PRNewswire
02/19/01
Going Digital in Professional
Photography
Apple organizes a conference
which deal with digital photography. This conference will take
place in Paris, during the "Comdex/SETI, Semaine Européenne
des Technologies de l'Information", on the 8th of march,
at Paris Expo (Porte de Versailles). It is where the Apple Expo
takes place every year in Paris. If you want to go there, you
have to check this link.
The conference is free.
Smartdisk slashes the
price of VST disks
SmartDisk has lowered suggested
retail prices $40 to $100 on VST FireWire HDs. For instance, the
30GB is now $799.95, down from $899.95. You can check the VST
web site if you are looking for a price list.
Links
Today on the Forums
02/08/01
Readers comments on
our SoundSticks review
- David has several questions about
USB audio
"I have seen (what
i thought was) the jelly fish and the isticks both plugged in
to and working w/ the cube? They cant?!
What exactly is the limitation
that prevents more than one audio device to be active on (the
same?) USB?! As i recall, in sys 9.1 the audio architecture has
been refined somewhat (to accomodate off-loading audio processing
from the cpu to a dedicated audio/dsp controller ie soundblaster).
Moreover osx, the there is an entirely new audio architecture
that supports multiple channels (processed on host cpu, at least
- dont know about dedicated controller/dsp off-loading, whether
low-end like soundblaster or high like turtle etc). Surely either
one of these new audio architectures can support more than one
device simultaneously? Please explain! "
First of all, the SoundSticks
audio system consists of three pieces of hardware: the two Sticks
and a subwoofer. The subwoofer, even if it has the same design
as the iSub, which is an iMac peripheral, is a little different.
Those three elements are considered as one USB device.
But if you want to use the round speakers of the Cube too, you
cannot. It seems to be a hardware issue. However, you can still
use other USB peripherals when you use the SoundSticks. We don't
know for sure if OS X will handle this problem. If somebody knows
the answer to this question, please send us a mail, or post your
answer in the forums.
- Peter complains about our review:
"With those three
elements, you really enjoy surround sound." Really? I don't
think so. You need rear speakers as well.... you know "surround".
Sorry for being sarcastic, but you are infering something in your
review that is not true.
Technically speaking, you
are right, Peter, it is not true surround sound. You need 4 channels
(Left, Center, Right, and Rear) to obtain a surround sound. However,
with two speakers (I won't say 8 speakers, even if each Stick
has 4 speakers....) and a subwoofer, you can still experience
surround sound.
Check this page
to know why. Here is a quotation from this page :
"Dolby Pro Logic surround
can be easily implemented in a home environment with anywhere
from 2 to 5 speakers. Because the surround signal is literally
mixed in with the normal audio, a home listener with just 2 speakers
will still experience a psychoacoustical sense of spaciousness
associated with sound coming from behind you. In a full-blown
5 speaker system, listeners at any position in the room will hear
dialogue focused directly on the center of the screen, with effects
at the left, right, or rear. The most common use for rear channels
are for ambiance. For instance, in a restaurant scene, the rear
channels may put out a low mumble of background conversations,
while the center channel would produce main dialogue. "
Links
- "TiBook vs. Cube As Portable
Desktop Replacement" MacOPINION
Today on the Forums
- More about Firewire drives and CDRW
02/07/01
Review: Harman Kardon
Soundsticks
Check our review
pages. We have tested the Harman Kardon SoundSticks. Those
speakers work great with a Cube. If you like style and design,
but also big sound, and if you can afford them, they are worth
buying.
Today on the forums
- Firewire CD-RW drives
- Replacement Cube shell?
Links
02/06/01
Rumor
With Mac World Tokyo approaching,
some rumors are beginning to spread over the net.
The more reasonnable ones
are about Cubes with CDRW instead of DVD and maybe CDRW/DVD combos.
The Cube would also be upgraded, possibly with a 533 Mhz G4 and
667 for the high-end. 733 mhz is quite unlikely for the time being.
The new G4 processors may be too hot for a Cube, even if it is
design to cool the processor. So we may be stuck at 533 Mhz for
the next couple of months.... However the 133 Mhz bus, the Nvidia
card and the 4x AGP slot will definitively make it in the next
rev of the Cube.
Some people are also spreading
some rumors about colored Cubes. This seems highly unlikely...but
we may have an indigo Cube in the future... Who knows?
Today on the forums
Links
02/04/01
Cube price goes down!
Mac World Tokyo is coming....
and Apple is lowering the Cube price. The price of the 500 Mhz
Cube is now $300 lower. This may mean that a new model will arrive
at MWT. The 500-MHz G4 Cube now costs $1999 (formerly $2299).
It ships with128MB RAM and a 30GB hard drive. You can buy this
Cube directly from the Apple Store.
Cube in a Color classic
The guys at mac512.com have
managed to build an accelerated Color Claasic with the components
of the Cube. You can take a look at that crazy projet by clicking
here. Please, don't
harm your Cube and don't try this at home!
Financial meeting and
the Cube
A financial meeting took
place on Wednesday. Apple expects to show a profit for its current
quarter. The margins are supposed to go up again. the new products
(ie powerBook G4 and G4 towers) should help to boost profits for
this quarter. The company is looking to push profit margins back
up, indicating it would like to see the return of 25% margins.
Steve Jobs said that even
if its sales have been disappointing, the Cube has found its market.
Jobs also indicated that the "SuperDrive" DVD-RW drive
may appear in other Macs in 2002 (Cube or iMacs). This could mean
good news in the near future....
