Two and a half years ago when Apple was readying its revolutionary iMac personal computer, the majority of the computer industry was convinced that the company was developing a television set-top box. The truth is, aside from a handful of key employees at Apple and those sworn to secrecy at the company's advertising agency, no one saw a complete iMac model until the day Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally unveiled it to the world.
The case was similar to Mr. Jobs' second pet project, the iBook, but Apple had tipped off consumers to its development over a year in advance. The latest stream of rumors to come rushing through the communication pipelines like heroin through a addict's veins bears many similarities to the original iMac rumors. Like the iMac, almost no one has actually seen a finished product or even the CPU's casing design, making the rumor that much harder to confirm, and hence to believe and report on.
Nevertheless, from an extremely small number of sources, AppleInsider has been presented with information that confirms Apple's development of a new cube-shaped desktop unit, one that is rumored to have passed all of its production and quality assurance tests throughout the company.
The unit, which is said to sport a logic-board containing a single 4X AGP graphics expansion slot and a processor slot capable of accepting an Apple G3 or G4 CPU card, is housed inside a cube-like Apple enclosure that measures a little over a foot in length on each side. According to sources who've seen prototypes, the unit features 4 large handles. Two handles run horizontally along the base of the unit from front to rear, acting as legs. The other two run horizontally along to top of the unit from side to side.
Sources, who will for obvious reasons remain anonymous, were kind enough to throw together a couple of two-dimensional sketches portraying the cube's current casing design. The front of the unit sports a slot-loading CD/DVD-ROM media drive, a power button and a reset button. The rear features FireWire and USB ports, plus a large port door that is expected to house a display port, among other things. An internal FireWire port is also rumored to be standard.
According to one source who has played with a G4-equipped Apple cube, the unit appears to lack standard sound jacks. Meanwhile, other sources have spread rumors that Apple may be working with Harman/Kardon on a set of Apple USB-driven speakers that will accompany the unit. As discussed in a previous article, the computer company is also rumored to be refreshing its display offerings, which should appear before or alongside the cube.
Though it is unclear which core market Apple will be targeting with these new machines — and hence which generation of PowerPC processors the unit will ship with — respected analyst sources expect the unit to fill a semitransparent gap in Apple's product line. It's rumored that the line will cater to consumers who aren't bullish over the iMac's all-in-one enclosure with limited 15" display, and do not need the expandability and power of a high-end PowerMac G4 system.
"Assuming the cube becomes a shipping product, there will be little to no downside to consumers choosing the cube over an iMac. Apple most likely will price the new desktop at a point where the gross margin on the new units will equal or surpass that which the company takes in from iMac sales," one analyst source told AppleInsider. "In addition, it will attract new Apple customers who were previously weary of the iMac's softer image."
Speaking of image, these newly designed Apple Cubes are apparently stackable, as portrayed in the artist's sketch above. This feature will apparently save additional desktop space at large university clusters, allowing adjacent terminals to have their machines stacked vertically instead of individually next to each other.
On a side note, this rumored Apple cube is not expected to be the new enclosure for Apple's multiprocessor machines. Apple Computer's Legal Department recently served AppleInsider.com with cease and desist orders demanding the site remove its sketches and information detailing Apple's forthcoming multiprocessor PowerMac G4s, code-named Mystic, prior to word of the new cube-based machine.
As expected, there are a number of questions regarding Apple's cubed Macintosh that remain unanswered, including its point of introduction. AppleInsider will be working through the weekend before heading south to the big city for next week's Macworld Conference. Readers should expect possible (though random) weekend and or nightly updates revealing additional info on all of Apple's rumored announcements, including the cube.
