While you probably don’t have a need for a Rubik’s Cube in your house these days, you definitely need to take a bath from time to time to keep from stinking. So why not make it fun, and grab this Rubik’s Cube soap block, from DigitalSoaps?

This thing is a dead-ringer for the original puzzle, with all the perfect grooves and 54 colorful stickers hand-applied to the underlying form. Only the bottom is a little different (it’s completely flat), presumably because that’s how the soap molding process works. Still, it’s got yellow stickers on it, but you probably don’t want to show off that side.

Just like the original Rubik’s Cube, you’ll need to peel off the stickers to solve this puzzle – unless you want a bunch of stickers stuck to your bottom when you get out of the tub. Unlike the original Cube, this one smells like grape soda. This was only the case with the original if your little brother got out those Mr. Sketch scented grape markers and drew all over yours.

If you’d like a Rubik’s Cube soap for yourself, head on over to Etsy, where you can grab one for $22 (USD).

Puxxle is the brainchild of two sisters, who have always been fascinated by puzzles. They took this love for puzzles, and combined it with pixel art to come up with these. Puxxle tiles are adhesive vinyl, and will work on a number of surfaces. They can be easily removed and shouldn’t leave any residue, though once removed, they can’t be reused.

Unlike a jigsaw puzzle, though, Puxxles include an instruction guide to help make sure you get the pattern right. They come in a variety of designs including a squirrel, alligator, hedgehog, reindeer and shark, as well as a cactus if you’re into plants more than animals.

The kits are available from the Puxxle website for €18 (~$24 USD) to €45 ($59 USD).

[via DesignYouTrust]

This cube has one regular thickness layer, but then all the other faces are super skinny, creating many more permutations as you rotate each layer, never mind the off-kilter handling that you’re bound to encounter with a puzzle shaped like this. You can choose from a 3x3x9 variant, or the slightly simpler 3x3x7 version, if you’re intimidated by the more complex cube. Despite their looks, there’s apparently a “New Playing Method” which can be used to quickly solve these too.

And no, these aren’t official “Rubik’s” brand cubes – they’re simply listed as “IQ Brick Cubes,” but you get the point. You can get the 3x3x9 or the 3x3x7 over at Brando for $26.90 (USD) each.

The Rubitone was designed by Ignacio Pilotto back in 2008, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. The cool thing about this cube is that not all of the cubes on the same side are the same color. Instead, they are different intensities, which makes things interesting and a bit more difficult to solve. At least each row has the same shade. He could have made it even more challenging by making each individual cube a different PMS color.

If you’re a digital artist, it definitely makes choosing the right Pantone color quick, since you have access to 18 selections in one handy cube.

[via Jay Mug]

With the Jigazo, however, that won’t be the case.

Jigazo is a 300-piece interactive puzzle set that makes sure you won’t get bored every time you decide to give puzzling a go. I call it “interactive” because you’re the one who chooses what picture to put together, using the same puzzle pieces each and every time. This is possible because what’s printed on each of the puzzle pieces isn’t an actual part of a specific picture. Instead, the puzzle pieces are printed with a unique hue and tone with an accompanying pattern instead.

This means that you can put together Mona Lisa today, a panda tomorrow, and something else the next.

Jigazo also comes with software that you can use to convert your photos and digital images into puzzles to put together. Cool, right? It definitely puts a whole new twist to puzzles and gives them more of a personality with these new additions. The Jigazo is available from Firebox for ~$35 (USD)

Some college students at the Swinburne University of Technology including David and Richard Bain, Daniel Purvis, Jarrod Boyes, Miriam Parkinson and Jonathan Goldwasser built a robot for their engineering project called Ruby. Ruby is able to solve that Rubik’s Cube much faster than I ever could.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The bot solved the puzzle in just over 10 seconds. It is able to solve the puzzle by scanning each face of the cube and then it uses a software algorithm to solve the puzzle. The scanning process is very fast since it can scan, identify the solution, and solve in less than 11 seconds. While Ruby is the fastest documented cube-solving robot, the fastest human time for solving the cube is 6.24 seconds so Ruby still needs some improvements to beat that.

[via Physorg]

These Rubik’s Coasters look like slices of a real cube, but are designed to keep that drinksweat (if that’s a word) off of your tabletop. Of course if you stack these out of order, they’ll form what would probably be the world’s easiest puzzle to solve.

To me, this looks way easier than that time I tried to slice a Rubik’s Cube with a table saw, so I think it’s worth the £12.99 (~$21 USD) for a set of six over at SpinningHat.

There’s not much to be said about this thing, except that it probably requires every synapse to be firing in your brain in order to solve it, since all the pieces look almost identical, and they’re all the same delicious brainy color.

[via Super Punch via Neatorama]

Using 3D printing technology, puzzle-maker Oskar van Deventer managed to create this insanely complex version of the cube.  Oskar assembled the cube from 1539 individually dyed pieces, resulting in this oversize 5.5″ cube. I can’t imagine how anyone could solve this thing, but now that it actually exists, where there’s a will there’s a way, right? I guess there’s the possibility that Oskar could could spend the next few years of his life trying to sort it out.

And since the design has actually been turned into a digital format, you can print one for yourself – for the low, low price of $2006.54 (USD). Unless I can rearrange the stickers to solve it, no thanks.

[via Shapeways via adafruit industries]

This isn’t his first tiny Rubik’s Cube. He’s got 12mm Rubik’s Cubes for sale for $15 if you want one for yourself. If you’re like me and you’ve got trouble with the big version, then you’ll no doubt appreciate how handy and small this one is. You can easily carry five or six in your pocket to share with your friends any time!

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It’s amazing how small this is. I wonder if he’ll be successful in creating an even smaller version – maybe one that could only be solved under an electron microscope with tweezers.

[via Dark Roasted Blend]

The only way I was ever able to solve one of the things was by peeling the stickers off and rearranging them. One geek in the UK liked the cube so much that he decided to make a career in mathematics just to figure out the least number of moves that the thing could be solved in. It took the guy 30-years to get that answer.

According the man, Professor Morley Davidson from Kent State University the magic number of moves is 20. Some configurations can be solved in fewer moves than that though. Apparently finding the solution involved a “good PC” and about 30 seconds for each solution with about 20 billion possible configurations.

[Cube20 via BBC News]

At first it may seem that the game is easy, because you usually don’t have to rotate the items. But true to its roots, this game has diabolical rules. Are you brave (or bored) enough?

Check out Diablo Tetris at XY Games. You can even download the game – if you hate yourself that much. And to Blizzard – I know you guys are busy coming up with new awesome stuff like the Monk and the Wizard, but please assign some of your best employees to come up with a better inventory system for Diablo III.

[via Gearfuse]

Trashbear Labs built this Nixie Soduku board using 81 individual tubes, arranged into a grid, and controlled by a couple of dials and a keypad. There’s even a built-in solver algorithm, in case he gets stuck trying to solve a particularly challenging puzzle.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Want one just like it? Trashbear has been kind enough to share all of the schematics, source code, and design files in one handy .ZIP archive here.

[via Hack A Day via Adafruit Industries]

You read right, it takes this contraption 24.02 seconds to solve a Rubik’s cube. When I had one of these dastardly puzzles as a kid, I quickly decided that it was easier to just take off all of the stickers and glue them back on in the right order. This isn’t the approach that this robot takes, although I’d like to see them build one that does that too.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Created by David Gilday for ARM, the LEGO-bot solves the cube thanks to a custom application running on a Motorola Droid smartphone. This isn’t the first LEGO-based Rubik’s cube solver, but it’s the first that uses Android to figure it out.

[via Make:]

The tile in the middle of the watch is non-essential and can be removed, giving the user the option to slide around the tiles, like in those square tile puzzles (I don’t know what they’re really called, if those things even have a name). Hamilton also claims that the lines in the Time Player allude to the longitude and latitude. Ooookay.

One thing you need to know is that the words on the watch cannot be changed. You’re free to set each miniature watch to whatever time you want, but you’ll always have Dubai, Tokyo and New York there. Obviously I’m not too impressed with the Time Player, but if it fits your needs and your style, you can pre-order the Hamilton Time Player at HamiltonLAB; estimated price is $3,000 (USD).

[via Cool Material]

At least the path has arrows. As far as I know (and that’s not a lot, believe me) each Superplexus Vortex was handmade by a man named Michael McGinnis (he’s the smiling bearded dude shown below).

The acrylic sphere containing the maze measures 36″ in diameter and can be tilted in any direction, and you’ll definitely do a lot of tilting (and swearing) as you try to roll the steel ball from the start to the end of the maze.

Here are some more daunting facts about the Superplexus Vortex: “The entire track laid out on a straight line is 31′ longer than a football field. In addition to the track, the ball must travel on a 1/16″ diameter stainless steel wire pathway at eight points along the journey… successful completion requires a minimum of 425 turns (plane changes) of the sphere–without letting the marble fall off the track.” In other words, you’ll never beat this puzzle.

But perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Superplexus Vortex is its price – Hammacher Schlemmer is selling it for $30,000 (USD). As a consolation, the store does claim that you can adjust the difficulty for your own Superplexus Vortex. Then again, what good is a $30,000 maze if you can solve it in a minute?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[pics via Michael's wife aka thesingingbird's photostream]

Yeah, that helpless-looking blue thing is the soul. As if that disturbing screenshot isn’t enough, Soul‘s trailer is one of the creepiest that I’ve ever seen:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now I really want to buy a new Xbox 360. Starving to death is scarier though, so I’ll have to wait and be content with watching gameplay videos. Dammit. Check out the game’s official website for more nighmarish screenshots. The game will be available “soon” for 80 Microsoft Points ($1 USD). Lucky Xbox 360 owners can download the demo now at the Xbox Marketplace.

[via Joystiq]

The gameplay of Tuper Tario Tros. starts out just like SMB, but as you start to proceed across the platforms, you quickly find out that the Mushroom Kingdom is largely impassable due to the configuration of blocks in your way. How ever do you get through? Simple – press your space bar and flip right into Tetris mode. You can drop your own blocks and create your own path to freedom.

The game combines platforms and puzzles in a way that works surprisingly well. The biggest challenge is that you constantly need to flip-flop between modes in order to battle baddies and to give you a place to go. It’s not easy – but if you do manage to get to the end of world 1-1, you’ll get “rewarded” with a Goomba boss battle where you have to build a castle out of Tetris blocks while being attacked. Fun, no? I dare you to make it past the first level.

Ready to try Tuper Tario Tros.? Head on over to Newgrounds and check it out now.

[via Switched]

Brown exterior, black interior, and cunning little pockets for extras. This is definitely a case fit for a gentleman… and you can top it off with a card case that holds several games and accessories, and these DS covers too, for the full Layton-look.

But, uh, one of these things is not quite like the others. A hot pink Layton case? I guess weirder things have happened.

[NCSX via Tiny Cartridge]

Thinking of how hard and complex something must have been to create – whether it’s a song, a bridge, or in this case a portrait – makes me appreciate it more, and with Rubik’s Cube portraits the arduousness of the process is just so apparent that upon looking at these pieces for the first time I was simultaneously thinking of how nice they look and of how frickin’ maddening they must have been to create.

If you’d like to commission Cube Works, contact Josh Chalom via e-mail. They’re willing to make portraits based on images submitted by clients, so if you want to immortalize yourself in a geeky way, now’s your chance. Check out their website for more portraits.

[via freshome and Vidafine]