As someone who has never been able to finish a Rubik’s Cube, I’m always fascinated by those who are able to do it in seconds. There are videos on YouTube and on Reels where you can observe them while they do it or they even give tips on how to become faster. This toy is celebrating its 50th anniversary and what better way than to make it even more difficult for people to do so by creating the world’s tiniest Rubik’s Cube.
Designer: Megahouse and Iriso Precision
The two companies have collaborated to create the smallest metal Rubik’s Cube and this has been verified by Guiness World Records. It is 1/1000th of the regular 3D puzzle, at least the 3×3 sized-one. It’s so small that you might need to use a tweezer or something small like that to finish the cube. Well, unless you have really tiny hands that you can do the turns and shifts of the colored cube. But to give you an idea how small it is, it is the same width as three rice grains.
Each of the squares of the main body is 0.16 cm with the length at 0.50 cm. These parts are made by cutting metal with the machine that can make ultra-fine trimming processes with the technique called “micro cutting”. They are cut and shaped by the machine but they are assembled by hand to be able to put them together precisely and still be used just like the regular Rubik’s Cube.
The middle part has the cross design of the original so the other parts can still be rotated. It even has the Rubik’s logo at the center which you cannot see with the naked eye. It has an aluminum base which is actually way bigger than the tiny cube. You place it in the middle like a trophy, just so you’ll be able to actually see it.
It took me a week and a few YouTube videos to learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube, but only a quick look to decipher the obvious: the Smart Rubik’s Cube Clock is just the name, it wouldn’t require you to match random colors to tell the time.
As the designer states, the table clock is designed to “subvert the tradition.” What does that mean in context of this clock, if I may decipher, is that you get an aesthetically pleasing block for your nightstand that does more than tell the time in digital format.
Designer: Li Wenkai and Dan Yu
The Smart Rubik’s Cube Clock is integrated with three USB ports for charging as many devices simultaneously. Two physical buttons: Power and Brightness Adjust let you interact with the clock. A notable feature here is the smart brightness adjustment that allows the clock display to be tinkered to the level of glare you desire.
In addition to telling time and fast charging devices (at 20W), the clock can be programmed to set an alarm or connected to the home Wi-Fi to display real-time weather updates. Interestingly, you can set up to ten alarms for your daily schedule with this nifty gadget.
Smart Rubik’s Cube Clock unlike most table clocks is meticulously designed to rest unhindered on a table or nightstand. For stability, the clock has an anti-skid pad on the bottom that prevents it from slipping off.
For the pleasure of the more design-oriented, Wenkai has created the Smart Rubik’s Cube Clock in black and white colors. Overall this concept table clock is feature-packed to make life smarter and easier for modern-day geeks!
Challenged your assumptions of how gaming handhelds should be with this innovative spin on a tangible video game system.
Smartphones, the Nintendo Switch, and now the Steam Deck have all given gaming a new face. No longer confined to desks or couches, gaming has taken on a more tactile and more portable character. That said, even touch-centric mobile games still use traditional controls, like D-pads on the left and actions buttons on the right. Video games, however, don’t necessarily have to be limited to a single screen or a single surface for that matter. Take, for example, this ingenious creation that takes a decades-old toy and gives it a modern spin that will really make you wonder why no one has thought of it before.
You’ve probably seen plenty of Rubik’s Cubes and their variants, and you’ve probably seen plenty of gigantic displays made up of dozens of small screens acting as a single entity. What you probably have never seen before is a Rubik’s Cube with small screens on all sides that can either act independently or together, each small display showing different things or a single 2×2 image. And each surface of a cube is a touch screen as well, letting you tap and swipe to play a game or control an app. The more interesting part is that you can also shake the cube or twist and turn its movable parts, opening new possibilities in the kinds of games that can be made and played on this gaming device.
Immersive Gaming Experience – Interact with the digital world like it is a real object. Control games by twisting, shaking, and tilting the console.
There are plenty of details that will really make you go “WOW!” both on a technical level as well as in terms of possibilities. For example, each of the eight small cubes that make up the WOWCube System is actually an independent computer with its own CPU. Those modules are still able to communicate quickly and change their configuration in an instant, thanks to special magnetic connectors. After all, you can’t expect a Rubik’s Cube to be able to twist and turn like a Rubik’s Cube if there are wires inside to connect each part.
Unique Technology – WOWCube® allows video games to be played on all 24 screens, covering 6 sides of the device, that run simultaneously.
The WOWCube Entertainment System is primarily a new kind of gaming system, and it already bundles a variety of popular games like Butterfly, Hyper Space, 2048, and the addictive Cut the Rope. Unlike their “normal” incarnations on other gaming devices like smartphones, you can play these games with more tactile and more physical controls, like twisting the halves of the cube or even shaking it. It makes games not only more interesting but also more interactive and more immersive on a physical level.
Widgets – Broadcast any information you’d like, including currency exchange rates, photos, the weather forecast, or notifications from your apps.
Aquarium – Put fish or other pets in the aquarium, feed them by tapping the top, and watch them grow over time
The cube, however, isn’t just for gaming. Thanks to the availability of a Development Kit, the possibilities are nearly endless, allowing you to make your own games for this innovative console. You can even make other kinds of apps called “widgets” that can display different pieces of information on each screen, from stock prices to weather, thanks to its ability to connect to your smartphone. You can turn the cube into a desktop aquarium where you feed your virtual fish by simply tapping the top of the cube. Because it is a programmable computer at its very heart, the WOWCube System can become almost anything, including a multi-functional controller for computers or IoT devices.
Gaming is supposed to cultivate creativity and problem-solving skills, but the very gaming systems we have today seem to be lacking those qualities themselves. Who would have expected that an old toy would lead to one of the most innovative entertainment systems to ever hit the market? That’s exactly what the WOWCube Entertainment System brings to the table, but it’s probably going to do more than just sit on that table unless you’re feeding your digital fish.
You can find dozens of tutorials and tips on how to solve a puzzle cube, but a company called Heykube figured out a way to build the guide into the cube itself. The eponymous toy has LEDs at the center of each side. When you begin turning part of the cube, one of the LEDs will light up and will rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise, implying that you should do the same to that side.
The cube comes with a companion app that extends the cube’s “modes”, thanks to different patterns that you can try. It also has a timer. If you want, you can even turn off the LEDs and solve the cube like a regular one. The company also made Heykube’s Python library open source. If you have a Raspberry Pi, you can play with the cube’s lights and sounds, and even create your own puzzles.
You can buy the Heykube straight from the company’s online store for $100 (USD). It’s also on Amazon (affiliate link).
Inspired by the classic look of a Rubik’s Cube, Instructables user blueboxes has created a step-by-step guide for building your very own mini light cube, a wood and acrylic cube that glows along all the seams between the smaller cubes. I can already imagine myself staring at it when I can’t fall asleep at night.
The cube is constructed of 26 smaller wooden cubes with pieces of cut acrylic between each (all held together with superglue), with no cube in the center of the bottom or middle layers so you can insert the LEDs and power cord. Blueboxes mentions following his tutorial will create a cube light that’s about 6.6cm square (a traditional Rubik’s Cube is 5.6cm square), but the design can be scaled up or down to your liking.
I’m going to build one with color-changing LEDs and paint all the exposed wooden sides to resemble a Rubik’s Cube even more. Or accidentally glue my head to my workbench. Either way, my wife will just be happy I spent some time in the garage so she could watch her shows in peace.
When I read “All-White Rubik’s Cube” I thought, finally, a Rubik’s Cube I’ll actually be able to solve. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the All-White Rubik’s Cube, because each side has a different tactile surface to differentiate it from the others. I already give up.
Available from the Japan Trends Shop for $43 or from Amazon Japan for ¥2,000, the cubes have six different materials on their pieces: synthetic leather, wallpaper, plastic, synthetic fur, silicone, and Velcro. Now I know what you’re thinking, but no, as tempting as it sounds you probably shouldn’t try to solve it with your tongue. Oh who am I kidding, I say go for it.
There are two kinds of people in the world: people who understand how to solve Rubik’s Cubes, and people like me. I’ve actually had the same Rubik’s Cube since I was six, and it’s spent its entire life outside of the packaging unsolved. Every once in a while I’ll pick it up and have a go at it, and every time I disappoint myself. A couple of months ago I tried following a guide to solve it, but even that was over my head. Threatening it with a hammer didn’t work either.
The Rubik’s Cube has been around for decades. I’ve toyed with the cube, probably in the very late ‘80s or early ‘90s, but never even imagined being able to solve one; from entirely shuffled, to perfectly ordered. But wouldn’t it be satisfying if I co...
What do you get when you combine a Rubik’s Cube with mobile gaming capabilities? The WOWCube Entertainment System, a $250 gaming platform with 8 processors powering 24 individual screens that allows players to twist, tap, shake, and tilt the unit to play games and solve puzzles. Well, consider it added to my birthday list.
The WOWCube’s developers bill the system as “the first-in-class immersive-reality innovative console and gaming platform providing a unique experience of interacting with the digital world as if it’s a real object.” So basically the lovechild of a Rubik’s Cube and Bop-It that can play smartphone games.
In addition to 3-dimensional gaming, when placed on its charger the WOWCube also doubles as a widget display, connecting to your smartphone or smart home and being able to display their information, including social media posts, weather, photos, and more. But can it slice and dice and make Julienne fries?!
I’ll be honest: I’m not the world’s greatest puzzle solver. And if I can’t peel off the screens like the colored stickers on a Rubik’s and replace them on the correct sides, I don’t think I’ll be able to solve any of those puzzle games. At least not without my patent-pending Cube Puzzle Solver. Which, yes, is the 2-pound steel hammer I borrowed from a neighbor and never returned.
Right off the bat, the idea of a dynamic Rubik’s Cube with displays instead of colors sounds like a weirdly awesome idea. It’s fun, tactile, and has a little for people of all ages and walks of life… but most importantly, it’s unabashedly innovative. The Wowcube, as this little gizmo is called, is the brain-child of a 13-year-old YouTuber by the name of Savva Osipov. “What if to place characters and gameplay on Rubik’s Cube surface and control the game by twisting tilting and shaking,” he thought. His father, inventor, and entrepreneur, Ilya Osipov, was instantly captivated by the idea – which sort of explains exactly why the Wowcube has such an ageless appeal. Together, the father-son duo decided to put the wheels in motion and the Wowcube was born.
Designed on the framework of a 2×2 Rubik’s Cube, the Wowcube comes with tiny, high-resolution microdisplays built into each of the cube’s 24 square-shaped segments instead of your conventional colored stickers. These displays go above and beyond when it comes to gaming with the Wowcube, as you’ve also got to factor in the fact that the cube looks and functions exactly like a Rubik’s Cube would, allowing you to flip, turn, and rotate elements. This very interaction forms the framework of the Wowcube’s gaming interface, allowing you to play not by mashing buttons or pulling triggers, but by rotating parts of the cube – or as an 8-year old called it, “video Lego.”
The Wowcube comes with 8 processors on the inside (housed within the cube’s 8 individual mini-cubelets. It also runs on an open-source API that doesn’t just come with its own slew of games, but also allows people to develop their own games to run on the Wowcube. The hope is to enable practically anyone to design their own games/puzzles/learning-exercises for the Wowcube, a feature that should only help expand its appeal further! At its heart, though, the Wowcube is a brilliant fusion of traditional and modern… with a cube that’s wonderfully tactile in the way it satisfyingly clicks when you rotate it, and multiple displays that should keep you engaged for hours. Oh, and when you’re done with the Wowcube, you can just pop it onto its charging base and the cube’s individual screens become functional widgets, displaying things like the date, time, weather, notifications, and a lot more! The Nintendo Switch wishes it were this clever and innovative!
The original Rubik’s Cube is one of the most iconic and popular toys of all time. From its deceptively simple design to its frustrating complexity for noobs, to the amazing way that some people can solve them in seconds, they’re a mechanical masterpiece of puzzle goodness.
The original 3x3x3 puzzle has inspired many variants, including much more complicated versions, and shapes like pyramids and dodecahedrons. Now, you can buy some Rubik’s inspired puzzles that look good enough to eat.
These Fruit Series “cube” puzzles are anything but cube-shaped, but they work in a similar way to the original Rubik’s Cube, with a multi-axis pivoting mechanism to scramble then arrange their parts out. The puzzles come in five tasty and nutritious versions, including orange, banana, pear, lemon, and apple. Okay, plastic isn’t actually nutritious.
At first glance, these things look like they’d be more challenging to sort out than a piece of fruit that you already took a bite out of, but apparently, they’re not that hard. Despite the temptation, don’t try and chomp down on one of these, or you’ll certainly chip a tooth.
All of these fruity puzzles are available individually from Hong Kong novelty shop Brando, where they sell for $16 each. The SpeedCubeShop sells a set of three that includes the orange, apple, and banana for just $17.95. I also found a set of four on Amazon for $19.99.
