Apple Design Award Cube Spills Its Guts

GlenLow writes "It's amazing what some Apple Design Award winners do in the name of science. This one subjected his to a cone beam CT scan and revealed Apple's design sense extends even to a competition trophy. What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes, cubes, cubes anyway?"

One word...

[Marx_Mrvelous]

Borg!

Re:Offtopic?

[Marx_Mrvelous]

Actually that's not me :) I don't care about karma, obviously, but you certainly seem to. Also I never post anonymous... too cowardly.

Yeah but the most interesting part

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of the hardware used to do this was a... hang on... Pentium 4 2.4Ghz PC Workstation. Lol

Re:CT Scanning is science, not diddling images..

[JVert]

morons, any ATHF refference diffuses any tension. Just so you know, if you dont get modded back up its because they are afraid of the meta moderators who can't see the sig.

Re:CT Scanning is science, not diddling images..

[Karma Farmer]

If you want to make a horrible movie of your shitty band and send a DVD to grandma, you know which platform to use. Obviously if you need to do REAL work, you pick up the other one.

Hey! Some of us poor saps are forced to use a PC for "real work" too, as much as we wish our jobs let us use a Mac.

Not all PCs are owned by mindless Kazaa who click on every attachment they recieve, fill the drives with spyware, share fake naked photos of britney spears, and spam our grandmothers with trojan infested email.

Clarity

[EchoMirage]

Great story write-up. Just superlative. Let's re-write and make it clear:

"A group of students won the Apple [Computer] Design Award in June for a program called 4Peaks. For winning the award, they received a 'trophy,' which is a metal cube with an Apple logo on top. When you touch the cube, it glows. Curious as to how this works, the students decided to take their 'trophy' cube into a CT scanner and have it scanned to see what was inside. The linked pictures (in the Slashdot writeup) are what the inside of the cube looks like. Neat looking."

Whew...that wasn't so hard, was it?

Re:Clarity

[CrackedButter]

I had trouble really knowing what it was about, then i went to the site and it further put me off, just glancing at it I thought it was talking about the G4 Cube. Your re-write helped and the whole thing is still uninteresting anyway... only because I don't have the aforementioned trophy cube in my possesion anyway!

Re:Clarity

[imsabbel]

I too dont understant whats so great about the design of the trophy.
Its a metal cube with a glowing apple logo.
And the "cool design" is that they use aa batteries, a circuit board, 2 LEDs and some light-guide. WOW.

I guess this guys could witness even greater design greatness if they would put a toaster or a discman in a ct-scanner...

Re:Clarity

[CrackedButter]

If that is the criteria for something that is cool and speaking from a design standpoint, aesthetically pleasing. Then my Lacie external firewire drive is a virtue of design paradigms as well. It also has 6 sides, grey and a blue light that lights up when in contact with the human finger and it also whispers at me as well.

Re:Clarity

[imsabbel]

Yes, but whats so pleasing about the interior?
I agree that the cube looks cool (i like shiny heavy things), but i cant really agree to the enthusiasm about the interior design. Its just normal tec. nothing noteworthy. And especially not ct-scan worthy...

Re:Clarity

[igrp]

If I were a HR manager at Apple, I seriously would consider offering these guys a job. They obviously know what they're doing... their 'CT scanning' approach just might turn out to be the most creative job application ever.

Re:Clarity

[sakusha]

If I were an HR manager at Apple, I would never EVER consider offering these guys a job. I'd want them exactly where they are, trying to figure out the secret of life, and working with people who are trying to cure cancer.

Re:Clarity

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? These guys were relived that the CT scan revealed that the cube was powered by AA batteries, and that should the betteries run out, all they needed to do was unscrew the bottom and replace them.

Why didn't they unscrew the bottom in the first place? The CT scan business seems like a big waste of time and resources.

Re:Clarity

[KevinKnSC]

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Re:Clarity

[Rosonowski]

They were afraid of breaking it. This is, after all, a "one of a kind" item, so more gentle methods make sense in this case.

Re:Clarity

[TAGmclaren]

Whew...that wasn't so hard, was it?

maybe not, but what will be is the DMCA lawsuit coming your way for reverse engineering the story write up

Re:Clarity

[jacksonj04]

So hang on... it's powered bu over-the-counter AA batteries as opposed to some proprietary (although very well designed) Apple battery? I don't believe it!

Ask an EE...

[Gordonjcp]

... for a simple answer: Some sort of touch switch [google.co.uk], maybe?

Re:Ask an EE...

[ryanmfw]

The funny thing is that the touch switches in the first link in your google search aren't at all similar to the way the Apple Cube switch works.

Which one?

[Gordonjcp]

There are a couple of different techniques there.

Re:Which one?

[ryanmfw]

Yeah, I know, I know. :-) It's just funny when the google link was supposed to tell them how it works without putting it through a CAT scan. :-)

Mirror

[billatq]

The site seems to be a bit under the weather, so I've mirrored the content and put it here:
http://mirror.reading.is-a-geek.com/www.mekentosj. com/goodies/cubism/ [is-a-geek.com]

Re:Mirror

[jshark]

Wow, slahsdotting two sites in one posting. Wonder what the record is?

MirrorDot

[paragon_au]

The above mirror is going slow as aswell.

So use mirrordot [mirrordot.org] or coral's [nyu.edu] mirror [nyud.net]

Re:Mirror

[billatq]

Hmm. Not sure why it'd be going slow, the load average isn't even 1 and I'm only pumping out about 3-400kb/s.

What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

the cube is a primitive 3D geometrical construct. in other other words: it's simple. and for what i know of steve, that's what he wants from his machines: to be as simple as possible for the end user, thus the cube shape.

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he's trying to be square?

pictures [g5support.com]

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[onion2k]

And an Apple G5 'Sphere' would roll off your desk..

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[mikael]

Not forgetting that an Apple G5 "Tetrahedron" wouldn't leave anywhere to put your Star Wars action figures.

And an Apple G5 "Great Dirhombicosidodecahedron" [mathconsult.ch] would just confuse the users.

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[Stinking Pig]

wake me up when there's a Klein bottle mac: http://www.kleinbottle.com/

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[BeerCat]

Now that would be a case mod worth having!

While many seem to be yet another variation on "neon lights in clear case", a klein bottle would solve all the problems - dust can't get "in" to something that has no "in" (or is it that the "in" is also on the outside?)

My brain is starting to hurt...

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[rxmd]

wake me up when there's a Klein bottle mac

Intel inside!?

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[Mad Leper]

or... Intel outside ??

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[drauh]

Intel inside!?

and outside

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[Aldurn]

So, does that mean that we can expect Teapot-Shaped [sjbaker.org] Macs in the future?

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[burns210]

Not with the anti-gravity hover plates that come stock with the quad-processor model!

Forgive me, I couldn't resist.

Re:What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes ?

[Walt Dismal]

The infamous Apple G4.5, in the shape of a football, was pulled off the market after numerous high school jocks mistook it for a sports object and put the hard drive through the goalpost. Sadly, the data did not survive.

DMCA!

[talieos]

It's been reverse engineered! Here come the lawsuit! :)

Why a Cube?

[CajunArson]

Obviously Eh Steve Jobs is jealous of the Slashdot Borg icon that Bill gets. He wants to be Eh Steve of Borg* too, and hence has a subconcious cube fetish.
* Note that all of his borg cubes would have incredibly slick industrial plastic colors instead of that ugly guts-showing Bill O-the-Borg look.

Re:Why a Cube?

[jb.hl.com]

He wants to be Eh Steve of Borg* too

Steve Jobs? Eh Steve [forestpirate.net]?

I hate you purely for the mental image that idea produces.

Re:Why a Cube?

[Spunk]

For those unfortunate souls who are unaware of "Eh Steve" - Sweet Cuppin' Cakes [homestarrunner.com] (link to Flash site)

Re:Why a Cube?

[It'sYerMam]

Notice that The Cheat uses a Mac to create is wondrous animations.
For those unfortunate souls who were unaware of "Eh Steve," you should spend the rest of this day watching every H*R cartoon on that site.

Re:Why a Cube?

[admanb]

Great, now when the Borg invade they'll know, from reading slashdot, that the first thing they need is an image redesign. And what'll they do? Assimilate Steve Jobs*!

You've doomed us all!

* "Steve Jobs" includes all of the unmentioned graphic designers at his beck and call**

** No cynicism intended***

*** Really

Site getting slashdotted

[balster neb]

Here's the mirrordot mirror:
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/1175a21b287ffa85a 90885a6bb255d38/index.html [mirrordot.org]

Reminds me a bit of the Shakers

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

He had a remark in the article about how the design beauty extends to even the inner parts of the cube which are not seen. That reminds me of the Shakers, who would labor to make even the unseen parts of their furniture or other crafts as well-constructed as the visible ones.

Another example it makes me think of is when I was watching the documentaries on the extended LOTR discs. The level of detail they would go to for things that were only on-screen for a moment, or in the background, was incredible. They could have skimped on any one thing and it would have not been noticeable. But taken together, they give the film a feel of authenticity.

I guess the thing that runs through all of these is that quality is about what's inside as well as what's outside. Too bad most software projects don't follow that rule.

Re:Reminds me a bit of the Shakers

[Shky]

Can you begin to imagine how terribly crappy a direct translation from book-to-screen would be? I've read the books a few times, and they're great. I've watched the movies more times than I can count too. I love them both in their own mediums.

thanks to the massive cut-offs of the background history

I'm a huge fan of the books, but I would have walked out if they'd kept in all the little bits of history that were in the books. On-screen that stuff can get way too boring way too fast.

the shortcuts t

Re:Reminds me a bit of the Shakers

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

Yes, I have read the books a number of times, and I think "authentic" is just fine, because it has nothing to do with the faithfulness to the books. There were a lot of things I didn't like about the choices in translating the books to film, but the movies looked really made you believe this world existed. There was a weight and depth of reality to them. Compare this to any number of TV fantasy shows which look very artificial (MAD TV's "Prehistoric Glamazon Huntress A.D." does a great job of spoofing th

It's Cubes because if it was 1 x 4 x 9 slabs...

[vkg]

everybody would know that Jobs was here from Another Dimension to accelerate human evolution.

Duh!

Re:It's Cubes because if it was 1 x 4 x 9 slabs...

[nounderscores]

But isn't he a proponant of Queer science theory forced on children? [timecube.com] You one corner!

because it's HIP to be SQUARE!

[m33p]

doncha know!

Re:because it's HIP to be SQUARE!

[bedouin]

In '87, Huey released this..."Fore," their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip To Be Square." The song's so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself.

Re:because it's HIP to be SQUARE!

[daemon_mf]

You just keep telling yourself that, Huey...

"What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes, cubes, cubes

[dTaylorSingletary]

Ever read From Satori to Silicon Valley [amazon.com]?

It's the acid. Left an imprint in his brain.

Developers, Developers, Developers.

[ro_coyote]

"What's with Mr. Jobs and the cubes, cubes, cubes anyway?"

He's just jealous of Ballmer's "Developers, Developers, Developers"? [msboycott.com]

Apple is a true innovator

[Anonymous Coward]

And I've never said otherwise. They mix outstanding engineering with common, everyday bailing wire and duct tape.

Highly functional. Well engineered.

I only have a problem with the cost of it. Sure, when you buy a MAC, you're supporting all of their other remarkable ventures. But at the end of the day, I'm a gamer and I want to play games. More games are ported to MAC, rather than ported from MAC.

Apple has been, and continues to be, an excellent engineering company. I would rather take half of Microsoft's cash, and hand it right over to Apple.

But I'm sure as hell not giving up my Opterons...

Re:Apple is a true innovator

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, I understand the gaming thing.

But a couple of things:

It's "Mac" - ease off the capslock key...

And if you can take half of Microsoft's cash, remember to keep enough to buy a nice Mac before giving it to anybody. Preferably... me.

And if you're using multiple Opterons for... gaming... then maybe you can afford to have less of a problem with the cost of a Mac.

Re:Apple is a true innovator

[BeerCat]

But I'm sure as hell not giving up my Opterons...

Not even for one of these? [shuttle.com]

OK, so it's only an Athlon, but at least it's nearly a cube.

A recent Macformat article covered the Shuttle - they say that they saw the G4 Cube and wondered if they could make a similar PC.

borg cubes?

[hitmark]

why the hell do this makes me thing of borg cubes?

Re:borg cubes?

[unconfused1]

I am Jobs of Borg. Resistance is futile.

Problem on electrical function.

[Anonymous Coward]

If the cube worked as described, then sneakers or a plastic table would defeat the circuit " loop closed by the earth ."

Far more likely is that it uses a capacitive oscillator that looks for a change in frequency. The touch of a conductive material ( hand ) serves to increase the capacitance and thus usually drop the frequency relative to a control frequency. Note that voltage and current are both very low for this application; probably a few mV and nA or uA not things that a cheep meeter would be able to

I don't know how to feel.

[teamhasnoi]

Should I be disgusted that some geeks were scared to take something apart because "they might break it", or should I be filled with pride that they used a multi-million dollar piece of equipment rather than a screwdriver to look at the internals?

I don't know. I guess I'll ask the guys who are giving my car a colonoscopy to look at the sparkplugs.

If you don't know what you're doing...

[jeko]

... go learn what you're doing before you irrevocably break something. Especially on something that's non-disposable.

Not just plunging in and trying to crack the thing open isn't cowardice on their part. It's wisdom. And using a non-invasive tool to get the job done is the sign of a working brain.

Flat!

[AmicoToni]

His obsession for cubes is obviously inappropriate. Everyone knows that geeks prefer flat things. [amazon.com]

Shooting yourself in the foot, Coral Style

[n6mod]

So the victim of this slashdotting has replaced his page with links to a mirror at is-a-geek.com and the Coral Cache.

Guess what's in the Coral Cache now?

creeped out

[kLaNk]

Was it just me or was anybody else creeped out by the way this guy sounded like he was about to blow his load over the inner beauty of this cube?

so it lights up when you touch it...

[vena]

but does it moo when you turn it upside down?

Re:so it lights up when you touch it...

[Mononoke]

but does it moo when you turn it upside down?

Didn't you mean Moof! [techtarget.com]

Hey, I recognize that monitor stand!

[melted]

It's now in iMacs and the new displays. Looks like Steve basically took what they did in NeXT and moved it into Apple, piece by piece.

Re:Hey, I recognize that monitor stand!

[pianophile]

It's now in iMacs and the new displays. Looks like Steve basically took what they did in NeXT and moved it into Apple, piece by piece.

You're right! It's the descendant of the NeXTstation [z80.org].

Cobalt Qube

[Krafty Koder]

Interesting , historical , aside:

Vivek Mehra and Mark Orr , two of the co-founders of Cobalt Networks were ex-Apple , and the cube thing re-appeared with the Cobalt Qube in the late 90s:

Cobalt Qube and Cobalt history [cobaltqube.org]

You forgot one "cubes" link

[Guy Harris]

Or maybe that's two "cubes" links - one for the OS X Setup Assistant (if you can find a link for that), which, at least on machines with enough graphics horsepower, uses a rotating cube effect, and Keynote [apple.com], where a rotating cube is at least one of the transition effects you can use.

Re:You forgot one "cubes" link

[splateagle]

a 6th cube (appropriately enough) can be found in iPhoto 4 - that same cube effect is one of the slideshow transitions :)

Re:You forgot one "cubes" link

[Nermal6693]

And fast user switching!

Pixar Image Computer

[romequez]

Ever heard of the Pixar Image Computer
http://www.specktech.com/PixarZoom.html

Silly

[futileboy]

I would have just taken the screws out of the bottom to look inside. Why go to all the trouble to scan it. It's not like it was wired to explode or anything. I will admit the the pictures are pretty cool looking.

Forget the Borg

[white meat]

Steve is all about the Time Cube!http://www.timecube.com/ [timecube.com]

stereotypes

[Anonymous Coward]

I just have to point out that I've met plenty of perfectly straight women that use Macs.

Re:Apple users are gay

[dabigpaybackski]

So is projection.