How small can a computer get? Does it possess traffic stopping looks? Has enough attention been paid to incorporate the latest technology? If you thought your G4 was the best Apple had ever manufactured, think again!

It has come down to a cube of 8 square inches. It holds groundbreaking technology in a clear crystal cabinet. It is the Power Mac G4 cube from Apple introduced in the MacWorld Expo in New York. It is capable of delivering more computing power than PCs four times its size.

It delivers far greater performance with its built-in velocity engine and reaches speeds of over one billion calculations per second leaving the fastest Pentium III processors far behind. It gives you more power for demanding uses like desktop publishing, 3D games and the ultra-modern DVD movies.

The 450 MHz Cube comes loaded for action with Mac OS 9, 64MB of high-performance RAM upgradeable to 1.2GB, a capacious 20GB Ultra hard disk, DVD-ROM drive, graphics card and 16MB of graphics memory. Amazingly, this enormous G4 processor does not require a fan to cool itself, making it one of the quietest computers. The only sound one would hear is from the pair of special Harman Kardon stereo speakers shaped like an ashtray.

It sports the new Apple mouse using optical technology that has no moving parts. It doesn't even require a mouse pad, as devices guided by laser do the job of tracking. Even better, it does not feature a single button. Watch for finger! Simply rock or tilt the mouse to activate the button feature. It includes a built in 56K modem, as well as a Fast Ethernet. It is fully compatible with Apple's wireless Airport technology with the additional requirement of a card and hub. A new Apple 15" flat-panel LCD display was also introduced at the expo. It has only a single cable coming out of the monitor. Also featuring touch controls and an elegant design, the G4 Cube is a sight to behold.



The pricing of the Cube is around USD 2,000 for the standard model. Scheduled to be shipped all over the world in late August, including India, the new G4 Cube mean serious competition to other PC manufacturers.

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