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What could be better than a super loud alarm clock at 6 am? How about a super loud alarm clock that makes you feel like an idiot?
This is not, quite, a Japanese puzzle box: But it is a transforming storage unit that has so many sliding, slotting, complex inner drawers, pockets and shelves that it comes close to being a puzzle. Designed by Martin Sammer, Transformer Shelf is just a solid shelving unit when "closed," but sliding it open reveals its labyrinthine innards, intended so that you can configure it however you want, and jamming lots of storage options into one unit. Somewhere in there there's an entrance to Narnia...I just know it. [Martinsaemmer via Tuvie]
So I can totally see the point of the new Mirror Rubiks cube, since it's a harder, weirder, even more tactile version of the classic...but this LED Magic Cube 2.0 version just leaves me scratching my head. Why make a physical digital pushbutton version of an absolute classic puzzle?
Check out this new variation on the Rubiks Cube: instead of colours and symmetrical cubes, this beast has all-mirrored surfaces and a bizarre asymmetric rectangular block setup. As you twist it, the blocks poke out in different ways, and its these cues you're supposed to use to solve the puzzle. Bloody hell it looks hard. Apparently it's due for release in Japan soon for around $US20, but there's no word yet on when it'll bring its fun/screams of frustration/puzzle-induced headaches to the US. [Technabob]
Nothing says hilarity like forcing the more dim-witted of your friends to endure skidmarks and dingleberries by putting a puzzle on your toilet paper roll. Boy, you sure are a jokester! You really have an eye for when puzzles and trickery are appropriate and for when they clearly aren't! A toast, to you! [Product Page via NerdApproved]
The last LEGO-ish calendar we saw was kinda boring, but that's definitely not the way we'd describe this Puzzle Calendar (not affiliated with LEGO). It features the days of the week as the top row, which you have to rearrange every month in order to make a correct calendar. What's even better is that if you really, really want today to be Friday, you can totally make that happen. [ThinkGeek via Random Good Stuff]
It may not be quite as sophisticated or cerebral as Starfleet's bio-neural computing gel packs, but scientists have made a start towards this sort of tech by making bacteria solve a math problem. The team from Davidson College and Missouri Western State University added genes to the harmless Escherichia coli, normally found wiggling its way 'round your gut. The result was a bacterial computer able to solve the classic mathematical puzzle called the Burnt Pancake Problem... kind of fitting for a gut bacterium, no?
It may be way too early on Monday morning to get you pondering the inner workings of your IQ and EQ, but nevertheless here's this new gizmo from our favourites Brando. It's a puzzle supposedly designed to improve both of those measures of intelligence, working in a sort-of, but not quite, Rubik's Cube kind of way. The idea is that as you twist and wiggle the the cone-like wings of the puzzle, trying to match up the colours on each face, you're working on your right brain (with spatial reasoning and mental imagery) and your left brain (strong nonverbal logic). Both halves of my brain are currently stalled and needing a coffee, but then maybe a spin with this toy would perk me up just as well. Available now for US$14.90. [Brando]
At the moment you wake up, how smart are you? If you're like me, your answer is "not very." Which is why I hate some jerk for teasing me with this IQ-test alarm clock. We've seen puzzle alarm clocks before, but none that try your cognitive skills in this manner when all you wanted to do was sleep in for another two hours. Then again, how smart can you possibly be if you take the time to insert yellow triangle, red star and green hexagon in their proper niches instead of simply hurling the base across the room until it goes "crack"? [Urban Trend] Thanks Gina!
Lite-on's concept for a USB puzzle game involves e-paper, puzzle pieces and software that feeds an image directly onto the puzzle board. Kids rearrange blocks in order to construct the puzzle (which is made out of the image you chose from your computer). However, it looks like the puzzle pieces themselves never actually change—just the images do. So all but the slowest of kids should be able to figure this out in no time. [Everything USB]
