On the Mac Pro, the G4 Cube and their shared vent design

Apple’s Mac Pro’s lattice grill design:

Stephen Hackett for 512 Pixels:

In a recent episode of ATP, the guys spoke about a conversation that was overheard at WWDC between Tim Cook and Jony Ive that included an interesting detail of the holes in the front and back of the new Mac Pro.

Then there’s video Marco posted on Twitter, in which Ive appears to compare the opening of the Mac Pro to the Cube:
https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1135638973517197312

In short, it seems that the vents on the new machine came from a design rooted in the era of the G4 Cube, nearly 20 years ago… This morning, I saw a tweet from Huxley Dunsany, complete with a macro shot of the underside of the Cube:

Big tip of the virtual hat to @68kMLA member jessenator for catching this: the "new" multi-layered grill design of the 2019 #MacPro actually debuted on the PowerMac G4 Cube in 2000! Check out this close-up shot of the underside of the Cube @apple @arstechnica @ismh #MacPro2019 pic.twitter.com/7w9Vb1RyYE

— Huxley Dunsany (@Huxley_D) June 18, 2019

MacDailyNews Take: Yes, that design idea was “kicking around in Apple’s design labs for some time.”

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when you already have a timeless design element.

Ina Fried for Axios, June 4, 2019:

Those cut-outs on the new computer’s front — which some think are super cool and others think make it look like a cheese grater — are made by machining out spheres from the aluminum chassis of the Mac Pro.

• They are functional, allowing far more air flow than would typically be possible from a front-facing grate.
• And that design was kicking around in Apple’s design labs for some time, before even the new Mac Pro was on the roadmap.