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The Return of an Apple Cube... as an iMac? [Updated]

Wednesday November 12, 2003 12:23 am PST by Arnold Kim
On November 7th, Kodawarisan posted a curious rumor about a redesigned iMac case... in the form of a Cube. Translation by yamabushi:



    A completely new case for the iMac is said to be due to be announced at Macworld SF 2004. According to information from a resin mold manufacturer in Taiwan the completely new case is curiously different and a cube shaped iMac case is currently in production.



By itself, Kodawarisan has had a variable accuracy rate, but combined with some other recent rumors, this new rumor raises an interesting possibility.



Last month, AppleInsider independently claimed that Apple was working on an "entirely new form-factor" for the iMac due in early spring of 2004. No actual details of the case redesign were offered at that time.



Meanwhile, a recent Page 2 rumor predicted the return of the Cube form-factor, with similar claims made earlier this year..



The Apple PowerMac Cube was first introduced in July 2000 and discontinued only one year later. While the likelihood of a iMac Cube remains uncertain, more details may arise as MacWorld approaches.



Update: Appleinsider is now reporting that the upcoming iMac will sport a G5.

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arn
108 months ago
Before people start asking. Page 1 for interest and due to the intersection of a number of rumors.

arn
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Billy_ca
108 months ago
I love the existing iMac. They just need to throw a 1.6 GHz G5 in there and up the RAM and I will buy one.
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MacsRgr8
108 months ago
Hmmm... sounds sweet.

Would this be the "new" iMac, or a new anniversary Mac (thus limited quantity)?
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yamabushi
108 months ago

Originally posted by MacsRgr8

Would this be the "new" iMac, or a new anniversary Mac (thus limited quantity)?


I would say that the tone of the note at Kodawarisan implied the former. However it may be marketed as a special edition.
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Phil Of Mac
108 months ago
What is it with Steve and his cube obsession? Perhaps his heavy LSD use during his youth? (Sugar cubes were a common means of ingesting LSD in the early days.)
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punter
108 months ago
yeah i think the current 17" imac is almost perfect. Maybe the ports (fw, usb) could be at the front? But the swivelling display is just BRILLIANT. I want a display I can move like that to plug into my laptop.

But a cube would be nice as well, one with no fan. I'm sure whatever they're coming up with is goign to be good! They seem to be on a bit of a roll.
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yamabushi
108 months ago
If the new iMac has ATI 9600 graphics or better I will be very tempted to buy one. A cube shape would be fine by me.
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ColoJohnBoy
108 months ago
Cube? Somehow that doesn't seem nearly a graceful as the hemisphere design used now. Yeah, it'd fit into the whole industrial design scheme of the PowerMac, but put it next to the current iMac and I'd probably take the latter. Oh well, we'll see soon enough.
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Makosuke
108 months ago
This actually more or less makes sense; people have been clamoring for a headless iMac or less expensive desktop w/o monitor for a while. Some people, now that they're dead, love the Cubes, both for that reason and the style. And we all know that Apple (or at least Steve) liked the cubes, even though the original price was too high for them to succeed.

Put these things together, and there's a real chance of a cube-shaped headless iMac, special edition Mac, or both. Heck, if they didn't reintroduce some cube as a special 20th Anniversary Mac I'd be surprised, so why not just combine that with a headless iMac form to kill two birds with one stone.

I really, really hope that the current form factor iMac persists in some very similar form, though--it's an awesome design, and hasn't been around nearly as long as the original shape, so I'd say it has lots of life left in it.
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arn
108 months ago
Some conflicting but interesting intersection of rumors...

New iMac? If so, will it have a built in screen? Or not? Maybe the iMac will remain in it's current form and this will be a headless version?

Maybe not iMac at all.... perhaps it will be a 20th anniv Mac special-edition sort of deal.

(Note: 20th anniv of the Macintosh. The previous 20th Anniv Mac celebrated the 20th anniv of Apple itself. The 20th Anniv of the Mac is Jan 2004)

arn
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