Around November 1999, right after the G4 towers were introduced (and then unceremoniously down-clocked) and the popularity of the fruity iMacs were reaching their apex, a photo briefly went around which captivated me — then a brand-new owner of a G4 tower and getting online, from home, for the very first time.
Nowadays, we might chalk it up as some kind of cheap Photoshop gimmick. But it left me wanting, hoping it was actually a thing — even an ultra-limited production thing: a grape G4 tower.
It was magnificent — understated, but more lively as an alternative to graphite. Inspired not only by the fruit hues but also by a
harlequin VW Golf III in my neighbourhood, I dreamt of matching it with a tangerine keyboard and a lime mouse and calling it the “secondaries Mac G4”.
In hindsight, it was, gratuitously put, a mock-up (or, less forgiving, a fake, a gag). It was also the direction I sincerely hoped the G4 tower design might eventually explore (namely, color-as-an-option/accessory being in-built for all future Macs, which at the time were all in polycarbonate shells). This obviously would not be the case, and contrary to a lot of fans on here, all the subsequent cladding revisions to the G4 tower case parsed to me as excessive and even gaudy.
Part of me still thinks about that grape G4 mock-up as the “favourite PPC Mac” that never was.
Of the PPC Macs which do exist? What are my favourite(s)?
This may come as a shock, at least to one or two of you:
- the key lime iBook G3 SE/466 (both for its aesthetic externals, its rock-solid stability and reliability, and also for what can be done potentially with its internals, many of which I’ve managed to do): it shocked a lot of people at the time, but dazzled me in the best possible way;
- the 17-inch aluminium PowerBook G4 (its design, features, and breakthrough capabilities generally, but specifically, the well-built internals for the major revision in the late 2005 edition); and
- honourable mention, I think, to the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, for its novelty during its moment. I only got to see one in person at the time (around April 1998, as memory serves), but it was the first time I’d seen an all-in-one design which was as unique and memorable as the original all-in-one 128K. Of course, the iMac G3 would soon follow, but the the 20th reminded me of the BeoCenter CD player design of the early 1990s which I’d never be able to afford.
