Gearfuse

While I applaud the concept of mashing together the classic design of Rubik’s Cube and the iconic gadgetry of alarm clocks, I’ve got to admit a slight disappointment that turning off the alarm doesn’t entail actually solving the puzzle. Would the complete and utter frustration be worth the ultimate geek cred you’d obtain with one of these things at your bedside?

Despite the lacking of actual Rubik’s-like movement, the alarm clock brings the thunder with the added functionality of temperature, letting you know whether it’s chilly enough out to wear your Mega Man knit cap. To slide between settings, just turn the top layer of the cube. Available for $24 from Chocosho.

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While digitizing a Rubik’s cube would offer little more than confusion and frustration, at least it’s a one-up from Hasbro’s Lights Out. However, it is not a one-up from the original design of the Rubik’s cube, which is a classic amongst puzzle games worldwide. Rubik’s cubes were always the cheap toy you could throw around when you couldn’t solve it, but now that it’s electronic, it’s more expensive and therefore more fragile.

This is the future. So why not add credit cards into Monopoly, digital dice into Double Trouble and a digital display on to each card of Uno? I’ll tell you why: because it’s lame. Leave the classics alone, people.

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Unless you’re one of those crazy Rainman-like guys who can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute, then the cube has caused you some sort of frustration or grief at one point in your life. Well, this new Rubik’s Cube appears even more difficult than its predecessor.

Without colors on any side, the only leeway you get is from the varying sizes and even that will probably throw you off track.  On top of that, to create even more frustration, the surrounding sides of each individual block have reflective mirrors on its surface. I’m getting angry just thinking about solving this thing.

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