10/25/2000

More hard drive problems reported.

We have received more feedback on Cube hard drive problems (We also have some posts about those hard drive problems on our new forums). Here is what Michael, one of our reader says:

"The bad news is my cube is on it's way back to Apple to get (we think it is the problem) a new hard drive. The noise I started to encounter was a random screech which sounded like a record player when the needle scratches over the length of the record. After this sound the Cube would freeze up (classic and OS X environments) and I would have to use the startup manager to get it to come back to life.

Apple support and I knew we were in trouble when we could not reload the operating system from the enclosed discs and the startup manager could not even find a hard drive. Whoops that's bad. I will fill you in on the level of customer service (so far it has been extraordinary) and how silent my new drive is when the Cube returns to my humble abode.Unhappy but still loves his Cube,

Michael"

Another reader had the same problems, but with his iBook:

"I have a rev B iBook with the same story; I had Apple replace the drive once already, now I am just suffering with the metallic whine because I am too lazy to return it (and I don't want to drive my stock price down further).

Jeffrey "

However, everybody is not complaining:

"I've had my Cube (with Maxtor hard drive) for about a month and a half and have only heard the hard drive when I had to use virtual memory (was waiting for RAM replacement). Other than that, it is blissfully quiet. And this "spider cracks" thing... give it up already. I help out at a local CompUSA with Mac support and have had my fill with people thinking they've receive a defective product. Out of fourteen boxes I've personally seen brought in with supposed defects, EXACTLY 0 have had cracks. NONE! Now, I don't claim to know about every Cube Apple ever built, but I've yet to see a defective case. --

Lynch A."

Have something to say about that topic? Say it here!

Polls

There is a new poll about the next generation of Cube. Take a look at it on our polls page

Here are the results of our last poll "When will you install Mac OS X on your Cube? ".

TILs

Links

Today on the Forums

10/24/2000

Report: loud hard drives problems on the Cube.

As we already reported nearly a month ago, some Cubes seem to suffer from hard drive problems. Those drives make loud noises. The IBM drives don't seem to make a lot of noise. However Maxtor drive do... One of our readers is encountering such problems with his Cube.. Here is what he says:

"You ask on your Web site for people to contact you if their Cube hard drive is loud. Let me tell you about mine.

The hard drive on my Cube was nearly silent for the first few weeks. I would think that it was off when I walked into the room where I kept it, even when the hard drive was spinning. But now the hard drive makes the same piercing noise as the 5-year old SCSI disks in the PC the Cube was supposed to replace. It irritates me to sit in the same room with the thing. Sometimes I can hear it softly from the other rooms of my 2-bedroom apartment.

I have the 450MHz Cube. The 20GB hard drive inside identifies itself as a 'Maxtor 92049U3' to Linux (I have set up the Cube to dual-boot Linux and MacOS). When I search for that model with google.com, I find the 'DiamondMax 60 20.4GB internal ATA/66 3.5" 5400RPM 9-ms seek time' hard drive. The 'idle mode' sound level is '3.1 bel', according to Maxtor's spec. sheet. Other drives on the Maxtor Web page are 3.3 bel or 35-36dBA. I don't know how these numbers compare with what I'm hearing. =)

Now, I have heard that there are Cubes that ship with an IBM disk, but I do not know if those are 450Mhz/20GB Cubes, also, or 500Mhz/40GB Cubes. I have not decided yet what to do about the noise. If I cannot quickly and inexpensively silence the Cube again, I will probably return it for a refund and buy a cheap PC clone with noise-reducing features.

I am curious what your other readers have had to say about hard drive noise. Feel free to share my e-mail with other readers if you think it will help them.

I am also curious if there is an emerging consensus on what these "mold lines" are. It looks to me like they're hair-line cracks that go all the way through the acrylic outer case, because I see lines on both sides of the case when I shine a flashlight on it. There is a shadow cast, too, by the "mold line," but that is a different line than the two I think I'm seeing on both sides of the acrylic. I think I will remove the case and see what it looks like on the inside. My only worry is that the cracks will lengthen and the case will fall to pieces.

Dave "

Forums

We are currently looking for people wanting to become moderators in our new forums. If you're interested, feel free to send us a mail.

Hardware: Griffin announces the release of the iMic.

Griffin Technology has announced the release of the iMic. It will ship during the third quarter of 2000. The iMic is a USB universal audio adapter that allows the connection of any microphone or sound input device to a USB enabled Mac.

According to Griffin, the iMac has the following features:

Questions and Answers

Question: Is it possible to connect the Cube speakers to another USB Mac?

Answer: No it's not possible. The USB ports of other Macs don't have enough power....

Links

10/22/2000

One or two ideas for the next generation of Cubes.

Steve Jobs announced this week that Apple will be selling a new generation of Cube next year. What can we expect?

As Steve Jobs said we'll see Macs with higher speed processor, and also a low-end Cube. The Cubes may also have new features, in order to be more expandable. PCI slots won't be included: the Cube is too small. However, we could see one or two PC-card slots. With that slots the Cube could be easily expanded with a chassis with PCI slots and would be more flexible than now.

Minor changes could also be expected:

The Cube first came with two processor speeds. But those two Cubes were quite the same. Next year, the product line may swell to three configurations (the rumored 18" TFT Cinema Display may also be introduced)

•  

• New Design (high-end): $1999

  • 700 or 800 Mhz G4
  • UMA-2 motherboard
  • 256 MB SD-RAM
  • Radeon
  • 60 GB hard drive
  • PC-card slot(s) for more expansion
  • Airport slot

   

This is only speculation, but those configurations may be the answer to people criticizing the Cube and also to the poor sales.

Tell us what you think, go to our forums

Links

10/20/2000

Apple acknowledges Cube problems.

When Apple announced its financial result, they also acknowledged Cube problems (ie: cracks/molds and power-button defects). Apparently the problems related with the power button have been solved in the recent Cubes. If you have a problem with this button, contact your Apple dealer in order to have your Cube repaired.

Cracks are not cracks but mold lines did they also say. That's not really new..... However, they said that they changed the way they produce the Cube case in order to make those mold lines less apparent. If your Cube is severely affected by those cracks, contact Apple. They may replace its case....

Great deals

If you want to buy a cheap Cube, PowerMax is selling a refurbished one ( G4/450 64/20.0/DVD/56k/100BT) for $1,388. This deal was seen on dealmac.

Today on the Forums

Links

10/19/2000

New Forums

We have created new forums that are more user-friendly. The old forum is still available in the archives pages. In addition to the new interface, the forums now offer you chat rooms.

Apple announced its financial results yesterday: good news for Cube potential buyers.

Apple announced its financial results for its fiscal 2000 fourth quarter ending September 30. Apple posted a profit of $170 million (to be compared with the $111 million of last year). Revenues for the quarter were $1.87 billion. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenues. Apple shipped 1,122,000 units including 570,000 iMacs.

One interesting things is that Steve Jobs said that one important complaint about the Cube is its cost and that we'll be able to buy lower-cost Cubes in the near future. Stay tuned!

Links

10/18/2000

Hardware

TILs

Links

Today on the Forum

10/16/2000

Software

Griffin Technology, Inc.has released Super Res, a free universal video resolution enabler for the Mac. Super Res has both a Control Panel and a Control Strip component that allows one to choose from nearly 50 different video resolutions on current Macs. Super Res enables a much larger range of video resolutions than are normally available. It works with all Macs since the PowerMac 7200 including G3s, G4s, PowerBooks, iMacs, and G4 Cubes. It allows one to select resolutions of up to 1920x1440. Super Res can be downloaded free from Griffin.

Links

10/14/2000

Two new features on The Cube-Zone!!!

The Cube-Zone now offers you two new great features.

The first one is a free e-mail. You just have to sign up (click on the link "Signup URL" on the left of this page) and you'll have a free yourname@cube-zone.com e-mail address.

The second great new feature is The Cube-Zone Shop. You can now shop from the Cube-Zone. We'll try to find some great deals for cube-related goods and you'll be able to buy them from our partners. Go and take a look at the Cube-Zone Shop!

Rebates on the Cube!

You can now get $300 back via a mail-in rebate when you purchase a PowerMac G4 Cube and Apple monitor. This deal is also available if you purchase a PowerBook (the rebate is then $200). Offer runs from October 13 to December 31. This rebate is available on the Cube-Zone shop.

ATI will not produce the Rage 128 Pro anymore

ATI has decided to stop the production of the Rage 128 Pro. ATI will only produce Radeon cards in the near future. Cube owners may not have to wait a long time before the Radeon becomes standard on every Cube config.

At the beginning of November, ATI will produce a low-end Radeon, called the RV100, which will replace the Rage 128 Pro. ATI will also sell the Radeon Maxx which is a dual-processor card. In december, the Radeon 2, which is said to be twice as fast as the Radeon, will arrive on the market.Then, next summer, the Radeon Pro (twice as fast as the Radeon 2) will appear.

Read more about new ATI products on The Register.

10/11/2000

The Cube-Zone is back!

The Cube-Zone is back. I know some of you were wondering what happened to the Cube-Zone. I had to move from Europe to North America. Due to ISP problems (and not Internet related problems too), I could not update the site. I still have some problems with my ISP, but they should be solved in the next few days.

The CubePort is shipping.

Griffin Technology, Inc. today annouced they are shipping the CubePort universal serial port adapter for G4 Cubes. The CubePort costs $49.00.

Best deals

PowerMax offers the refurbished Apple PowerMac Cube G4/450 64/20.0/DVD/56k/100BT for $1,594. This offer was seen on dealmac. If you want to pay $1,594 for a Cube, check the dealmac site.

9/15/2000

Hardware

Griffin Technology, Inc. today annouced the CubePort universal serial port adapter for G4 Cubes. The CubePort, like the iPorts and gPorts, also manufactured by Griffin, supports all serial device that are compatible with Mac OS systems. The CubePort also supports all Mac compatible Midi devices. Additionally it supports Localtalk file sharing and printing.

According to Griffin, the CubePort will cost $49.00 and will ship in the first week of October.

TILs

Apple recently released a new TIL concerning the Cube and Mac OS X Beta.

Other intersting TILs about the Cube can be found here:

9/13/2000

Apple Expo coverage

We now have comments ands pictures of the keynote, the new iBooks, the Expo and Mac OS X Beta (We'll post a full review of OS X Beta in the next few hours!). Go to our Apple Expo coverage pages!

9/12/2000

Apple Expo flooded!

A French speaking site called MacPlus said tonight that the Expo has been flooded. A big part of the Expo - even the Apple booth - has been flooded (because of some sprinklers)...However, only one iMacseems to have been lost. The reason why it happened is not known for the moment. Some booths may not be opened tomorrow morning.... MacPlus has some pictures of the disaster! (The site is in French, but it's easy to understand).

Apple Expo coverage: Everything is ready for the keynote!

Everything is ready for the keynote in Paris. The "Palais des Congrès de Paris" (the Convention Center of Paris) is now decorated with three huge "Think Different" pictures. If you want to see them, go to our Apple Expo Paris coverage pages.

Domain and server problems

We had several problems with our domain name (some of you could'nt access the site during the week-end) and our e-mail due to some changes we made in order to offer you something new in the near future (stay tuned!!!). If you sent us an e-mail, please send it again....

Polls

There is a new poll about Mac OS X Beta on the Cube. Take a look at it on our polls page

Here are the results of our last poll "what would you like to see on the Cube-Zone?".

25% of you will be satisfied: we are beginning our coverage of Apple Expo 2000 today!

Today on the Forum