Unboxing the GoCube — A Smart Bluetooth Connected Speed Cube! (#UnboxGoCube)

Hey, everyone. So, yeah, it’s been a while. Again. Like almost exactly a year. My last post was about the Kickstarter GoCube campaign, and here I am again talking about the same thing. See, the campaign funded, they produced the cube, and I’ve got one on my desk. The technology is pretty incredible; they crammed a lot of stuff into a cube that still manages to perform pretty well.

I don’t do unboxings all that often, but I wanted to support the campaign and get back into the swing of things on this blog and my YouTube channel. So, why not? Here’s the unboxing-slash-review, with all sorts of comments following below the fold:

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GoCube Kickstarter Campaign

Hey, gang. No over-produced video of average solves today. Just a quick post about a promising Kickstarter campaign around a “connected” cube. The GoCube seems to be a cube with accelerometers and motion sensors that track the relative position of each cubie and the absolute position of the cube itself. According to the campaign, the cube is:

An incredible smart connected cube with tracking and whole new way to cube. Learn, improve, and even compete.

Check out their promotional video:

It may not move like a speedcube, but it seems like a promising training cube — and, at a minimum, a fun novelty gadget. So, yeah, I ordered two. Naturally.

OLL 56 Redux

OLL 56
(spinner)

(Rw’ U’ Rw) (U’ R’ U R) (U’ R’ U R) (Rw’ U Rw)

setup: (r U r’) (R U R’ U’) (R U R’ U’) (r U’ r’)

Hola, amigos. ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo! I’ve been reinvigorated over the past couple months to get back into cubing — and, yes, the attendant trappings of blogging and producing videos. A little rusty, but it’s coming back.

There was a period of time a few years ago that I rushed to learn a bunch of algs, and ticked through them at a strong clip. The problem, however, was that I never really committed them to muscle memory and auto-retrieval. Fast forward a couple years, and I’ve forgotten many. So much so, in fact, that I sat down to learn OLL 56 without realizing that I not only had learned it in January 2016, but I had blogged about it and recorded a slo-mo video. (Looking back, my execution was actually pretty good!)

Well, two-and-a-half years later, I learned it (again, as it were) for the first time with a new alg that I prefer:

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Light-Up, Illuminated Cube

Yes, I’ve re-decorated. Really, more of a gut-job and rebuild. I like the new look of the site and will post separately about the process and new template soon.

Ahoy to the loyal followers in AIC land. Just a quick check-in post to demonstrate, more than anything, “Yes, I’m still here.” Busy as hell, but re-inspired to get back into cubing after a chance run-in with a hell of a cuber during Toy Fair in New York. He was working a booth next to ours, and I took a few mins to say hi. We wound up grabbing drinks and having a great time nerding it up about cubing and life — perhaps the first two people to trade algs and pointers in a Manhattan speakeasy. (You know who you are. Thanks, mate. It was a blast.)

Thusly re-motivated, I began cleaning out some drawers — and, in so doing, unearthed a special cube that I had modified a few years ago. When I say “modified,” I don’t mean tension and lube. I mean solder, wire cutters, and micro-switches. Yes, the hacked Crystal Cube about which I’ve written a few times.

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18 Months Without Practice (Yikes!?!) / Father’s Day Shout-Out to AZACH’S WORLD

Hey, gang. It’s been 18 months since I’ve posted a video, and just about the same amount of time since I’ve practiced cubing. Maybe a random solve here or there when they kids find a cube somewhere. But that’s it. The simple explanation: I got really, really busy. All good stuff. Just very distracting and time consuming. Not much spare time over the past 18 months for hobbies.

Cubing is not like riding a bike. You don’t do it for a bit, and you forget. Quickly. Below is a solve I posted as an excuse to accomplish something else entirely. You can see how rusty I am. My recognition is abysmal (let’s be honest, it was never great); my technique and finger tricks are embarrassing; and I forgot several cases (or at least they didn’t come reflexively). Oh well. I’ll start practicing again, and I’m sure the muscle memory will come back.

So, why all of a sudden crawl out of the woodwork to post a crappy solve? Because it’s Father’s Day, and my son has been begging me to. That’s why.

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