July 3, 2001: Apple suspends production of its Power Mac G4 Cube, one of the most notable busts in Apple history — and the first major flop following Steve Jobs’ glorious return to the company.

Although Apple leaves the door open to possibly reintroducing the remarkably clear G4 Cube at a later date, this never happens. The stylish computer is superseded by Apple’s upgrade to G5 processors and then Intel Core-based Macs.

As a design student back in the 1980s, a teenage Jony Ive spent a semester with a design agency in London, the Roberts Weaver Group. One of his first projects was designing a new pen for Japan’s Zebra Co. Ltd., a pen-maker based in Tokyo.

Ive’s TX2 pen was made of white plastic — the beginning of a life-long obsession with the color — and had a pair of rubbery side panels for a better grip. But what set the pen apart from every other was a nonessential feature — a ball-and-clip mechanism on the top that served no purpose other than to give the owner something to fiddle with.

Ive noticed that people fiddled with their pens all the time. So he decided to give his pen something he called the “fiddle factor.” This crucial insight ultimately became an essential element of Apple design as Ive rose to become Cupertino’s chief design officer.

While Jony Ive’s departure from Apple is being called “the end of an era,” not everyone is sad to see him go. This company’s Chief Design Officer has legions of fans but he also has detractors who blame Ive for repetitive designs, flawed keyboards and more.

Apple’s long-time design boss Jony Ive revealed today that he is leaving the company.

After helping create some of the most iconic consumer products of all time for Apple, Ive says he is going to strike out on his own to create a new creative business called LoveFrom.

June 23, 2003: Apple launches its gorgeous Power Mac G5, a powerhouse desktop computer with a perforated aluminum chassis that earns it the affectionate nickname the “cheese grater.”

Starting at an affordable $1,999 ($2,650 in today’s terms), the Power Mac G5 is the world’s first 64-bit personal computer. It’s also Apple’s fastest machine yet.

The new Mac Pro sure looks a lot like a cheese grater, but it turns out that it’s pretty bad at grating cheese.

YouTuber machinist Winston Moy painstakingly re-created the complex circular structure of the new Mac Pro grille using his Shapeoko mill to put Jony Ive’s work to the test. The video of the entire process proves quite fascinating. However, the end result kind of disappoints.

Skip to the 5:30 mark to see it in action:

Most of us will never own the new Mac Pro, but our lesser Apple devices can still be cheese-grater chic.

Anyone with an iPhone, iPad or a more mortal Mac can now get wallpaper inspired by the futuristic ventilation holes on the Mac Pro unveiled by Apple at last week’s WWDC.

It’s obvious that the new Mac Pro, unveiled this week during Apple’s WWDC keynote, is a reboot of the venerable Power Mac G5, a machine released in 2003 that featured a distinctive “cheese grater” grille.

Aside from looks, there are many similarities to the G5, plus a couple of ideas from other older Apple machines. Here are some of the clearest design influences on the new Mac Pro.

This week on The CultCast: WWDC 2019 is right around the corner, and a new report sheds light on everything Apple’s prepping to reveal. We discuss! Plus: The magic of Corning glass, and how making your iPhone just slightly thicker would make it indestructible. And we reveal how (and why) Jony Ive created the massive mystery rainbow stage now present at the heart of Apple Park.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..