Rubik's Cube Gets Educational During Its 30th Year
The Rubik's Cube is being billed as an educational toy as its celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The new You Can Do The Rubik's Cube initiative encourage youths from schools, camps and after-school programs to learn how to solve the cube while also learning about algebra and geometry. Details about the program can be found at youcandothecube.com. The site also includes information about competitions that some schools are already hosting.
The Rubik's Touch Cube - first introduced in February - will soon be hitting stores. The website says the touch sensitive electronic Rubik's Cube is already available at Best Buy stores. It will also be available at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Hammacher.com. The digital version of the puzzle has an internal memory that allows you to save your place. The cube has both modern sound effects and a sound effect that sounds like twisting of the original Rubik's Cube. The retail price is $149.99.
Here's a video of the Rubik's Touch Cube in action. Take a look:
Those who find the Rubik's Cube not challenging enough may be interested in this dodecahedron puzzle.
The GIANT 12 surfaces IQ Pentagon! You may never face this complicated one! Your home cannot miss this one. You may not solve it, you can just disassemble it and try it again! This is the most perfect for your Left & Right Brain Training. Let's GRAB and CHALLENGE it!
The 12 Surfaces IQ Pentagon costs $49.90 and can be ordered here. There is also the Rubik's 360 from Rubik's if you like challenges. Even more complex is the Petaminx.
Even though it is only July it is almost time for some of the cool toys we heard about earlier this year to start going on sale. The Telegraphreports that the Rubik's 360 - a difficult looking spherical puzzle - will go on sale next week.
David Hedley Jones, senior vice president of the Rubik brand, said: "It doesn't need batteries and looks as though it should be quite easy.
"But it is incredibly complicated. There are some really cunning tricks to it."
Hamleys, the London toy store, has already had thousands of inquiries for the 360. It's head of sales Nigel Wheatley said: "It is our biggest item on the web. I expect thousands to be sold in days."
The retail price for the new cube is expected to be 18 pounds, which is about $29 U.S. You can learn more about the Rubiks's 360 here in an earlier post that also includes an interview with Erno Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube.
Leather and Chrome Rubik's Cube at Barney's New York
Barney's New York is selling a leather and chrome version of the famous Rubik's Cube puzzle. The specialty Rubik's Cube can be purchased here from Barney's for $195.
Rubik's Cube Dress: The Fashion Show Week One Winner
It wasn't easy to find a winner among the unimpressive designs shown in the first week of The Fashion Show. Isaac Mizrahi expressed his disappointment with what the designers came up with on the first show. He said if they worked for him they would all be fired. The winning dress was this creative Rubik's Cube Dress by designer James-Paul. It can be purchased here on Bravo for $199.
If you have not seen the premiere issue you can it watch it here on Hulu.com. It's a very interesting show thanks to designer Isaac Mizrahi's commentary and the interesting twist to have fashion insiders and buyers as the fashion runway judges.
These Rubik's Cube shaped salt and pepper mills would be make a cute novelty gift. They could also be used as salt and pepper shakers for the kids table or for a themed party. They can be purchased here from I Want One of Those. The set costs 21.99 pounds - about $32.50 U.S. You can also buy just the salt or just the pepper.
Rubik's Cube has gone “touch” with the Rubik's TouchCube. The new cube will make its debut in New York City next week at the American International Toy Fair February 15th-18th. Rubik's cube also recently debuted the Rubiks 360, which is a new design from Erno Rubik, the creator of the original Rubik's Cube.
"We've been working on Rubik’s TouchCube for the last three years—with engineering teams on two different continents-and are really excited to share it with the world," says Eric Levin, president, Techno Source. "Rubik's TouchCube is the 'dream cube' for anyone who's into high-tech gadgets-it combines today's most current technologies with the iconic Rubik's Cube."
Here's some facts about the new touch cube:
How does it work? Rubik's TouchCube features touch sensor technology on all six sides, a motion-detecting accelerometer, and colored lights in every square. It even mimics the movements of the original 3x3 Cube-swipe a finger across three squares and the lights will follow, "turning" a side of the Cube; make an "L" shape to turn the top face of the Cube a quarter turn. Rubik's TouchCube's motion-detecting accelerometer only recognizes moves made on the top side of the Cube, so that a player's fingers won’t move the lights on other sides when holding it.
Need some help? Solving the frustrations of hundreds of millions of Rubik's Cube players, Rubik's TouchCube also includes a built-in solver, so now anyone can easily learn how to solve the Cube step by step. Ask for a hint or watch Rubik's TouchCube solve itself.
Afraid you'll lose your place? Internal memory allows players to save their current puzzle so they can resume play anytime.
Love that iconic Rubik's Cube sound? Players can choose between modern or classic sound effects at varying volume levels to have a new or nostalgic Rubik’s experience as they swipe.
Still stressed? Rubik's TouchCube stands alone as a great desk accessory-the colors slide and change while it recharges in its display stand.
There's a new version of the Rubik's Cube on its way. The Rubik's 360 is a spherical puzzle that involves moving three colored balls from an inner sphere through a middle sphere to matching colored slots on an outer spehere.
Now the reclusive Hungarian inventor hopes to recreate the buzz of Rubik's Cube with his new game, featuring six balls trapped within three transparent plastic spheres.
The puzzle, shown to the Sunday Telegraph ahead of its unveiling at a toy industry fair in Germany on February 5, confronts users with the same frustrating challenge – a task that is simple to understand, with only one possible solution, yet extremely difficult to execute.
Players must get the coloured balls from an inner sphere into matching slots on the outer sphere by shaking them through a middle sphere that has only two holes.
It will be tough for the Rubik's 360 to generate the long-lasting interest the original Cube has created. Over 350 million Rubik's Cubes have been sold worldwide. There's also 38,000 Rubik's Cube videos on YouTube.
Entertainment Earth's product page says the Rubik's 360 is coming out in July, 2009.
Erno Rubik talked to Time about how he designed the original Rubik's Cube. He also shows off the latest version of the toy he created, the Rubik's 360.
Sadly, this clever way to look at Pantone colors by putting them on a Rubik's cube is not available to consumers. It is a concept designed by Ignacio Pilotto. You can see his webpage about the Rubitone here. It's certainly another design style for Pantone to consider. They do have the fan shape that lets you see a lot of colors. (via Boing Boing)
The Rubik's Cube was extremely popular in the early 1980s. The Rubiks.com website says that 100 million Rubik's Cubes were sold from 1980 to 1982. Will Smith's hit film The Pursuit of Happyness has reinvigorated interest in the Rubik's Cube. In one scene in the film Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) quickly solves the Rubik's Cube in a taxi cab. The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreports that 22-year-old Rubik's Cube expert and World Cube Association co-founder Tyson Mao helped Will Smith learn the right moves to solve the Cube.
He was the logical go-to guy, who showed Smith how to get all of the colored sides to match in less than 10 hours of instruction. But if you want to learn just to impress your friends, Mao can teach you in a lot less time.
Typically, he says, "After an hour and a half, (people) can solve the Rubik's Cube with a sheet of instructions on it, without any input from me. After 10 hours, Will Smith was able to solve the Rubik's Cube on his own, without anything. Not only learning the process, but committing it to memory. And Will is a pretty busy guy with many responsibilities. Basically, he had to memorize lines for his scenes and all that other stuff as well."
Initially, Mao was enlisted to help fake Smith's manipulation of the Cube.
"The first thought was that we could get a hand double," Mao says. "It turns out that, first of all, Will Smith didn't want that. It seemed to me he wanted to really just understand the character, so he wanted to learn to solve the Rubik's Cube on his own, and he wanted to do this genuinely on camera.
Smith's trainer also holds the record for solving the Cube blindfolded. A return to popularity for the Cube seems a sure bet. There are even Rubik's Cube competitions starting up again. For more competitions check out the Speed Cubing website.
It isn't very hard to find a Rubik's Cube. Toy stores and novelty stores including ThinkGeek.com, Amazon.com, and Toysrus.com sell the cube. There are also hundreds of Rubik's Cube items on eBay. The Rubik's Cube only costs about $10.
The Rubik's Cube was extremely popular in the early 1980s. The Rubiks.com website 
