So I'd spent some of my holidays around a bunch of other people at gatherings and I brought with me the WowCube I had unboxed. I had some of my own opinions on it after opening it and playing with it for a bit, but I thought it might be good to get others' thoughts on it before I finished my review.
Ultimately, the WowCube is a 2x2 Rubik's Cube where all the 24 faces are mini displays - each a 240x240 display; made up of 8 'modules', and each module has a gyroscope in it to determine orientation, speakers, and connectors for it to determine what modules it's connected to in what means. Which is interesting in how it can do that and still let you twist the device like a regular Rubik's Cube. But it is so much more.
So, to start off, because it is a 'smart device' it has to be charged, to accomplish that there is a special stand that has like a wafer sticking up from the centre. It's thin enough to fit between the modules.
What's nice is that it can work in any orientation. The downside is that because it's so thin, I just have this fear that I'm going to snap it off trying to get it on.
The base plugs into the USB charger, and there's a button that you can press that will cycle it through various lights on the base to give it a 'cool tech look'. Kinda neat. It definitely looks neat on our little fireplace mantle in our living room.
The battery at full charge should give you about 7 hours of use. I found about 2 hours of use it would be down to about 60%, so not too far off from that claim.
Now using it, picking it up and flicking a face it starts to light up, and let me tell you, it's an impressive look, and definitely gets people saying "what is that?" Genuine interest (and I'm usually the tech geek guy so they're used to me having something techy).
To use it, you have to look at the device, holding it in your hand and the 'apps' on the cube, to select the app you want to do you'll notice a little moving white marker going over a 'space'. To move it around you tilt it in directions.
This is where I start to have some issues. It's not as responsive as I would have expected (having had phones as our benchmark), so getting it to the icon I want takes some finagling. Not only was it not as responsive, but you'd have to control how you're holding it - are you looking at it dead on in front of you, holding it down and looking down on it, or somewhere in between (like 45°)... I have no specific answer to what works best, just kinda live with what's going on.
Once you're on the app icon you want to use you gently tap the cube twice.
Loading up an app can vary, but what's general is that it's not fast. I feel like my old HTC Magic kind of speed. Not probably that bad, but just ... yeah it's not like using my flagship device.
But once it loads up, you have a game to play.
For me, it's doing the 2x2 Rubik's. I'm used to a 3x3 - and I have found some 'rules' on how to go about and solve the 2x2 - so just trying to learn. Works like a Rubik's Cube should.
To get out of that app and back to the main 'home' you give it 2-3 good 'shakes'. And then try something else.
One other game I like is the crossword one, where there are letters on certain screens and you have to rotate the cubes in a way to get it to spell a word. It's really nice to think about these in 3D.
The Cut the Rope game is also similar where the ball has to float/roll around and you rotate the screens so they can allow it to connect and roll on to the next. Shame the gyroscope is slow and it takes some while to get it to follow through.
Speaking of that slow response, some games are worse for that. Like the White Rabbit game. In the video you see how slow it is and then how slow it is to respond to the orientation - just isn't dependable, and especially when timing is important, well... it's not a fun experience.
Okay, but how do you get the games and apps onto the cube? Well there is an app.
You connect to it and like other smart devices you can then see apps to install on it.
Immediately you can see that there's not a lot of apps.
I guess it's still new and developers are slow to adopt. And of those apps there are not many that are free. And then those that aren't free cost like 9.99CC$ (which is like a cube coin).
So the conversion for coins to money is $30USD buys you 30CC$... so almost a dollar to coin 1:1 (and us in Canada that's an extra like almost 40%).
What bugs me is that I want to buy that game... it's 9.99. So I spend $10 to get 10 coins. Well, it's going to be $10 + tax... okay... and then I'll have 0.01 coins left over. How am I ever going to spend that? ludicrous.
And you have to buy it via credit card, not through Google Play. Gah
Okay, well, I'll subsist on regular free apps then.
What is kinda cool is that there's a spot for you to build your own apps... but it just looks like images to place on the cube, and then it's a 6 image puzzle.
Not what I had imagined.
Overall, it's a novel idea. I like the concept of playing a game in 3D. Using Rubiks Cube logic to move things around and rotate.
Just like most new tech it's held back by lack of adoption to give it enough traction. So for most of the users I showed they tried the 2x2 Rubiks, or the crossword or cut the rope. Everything else didn't capture their interest. And there's no way they'd pay the $400USD.
The end of the story here is that when i was going to do the review video, turns out one of the displays stopped working. I thought "oh crap". a couple weeks of light use and 1 display out renders the whole thing a dud.
Now, talking with the company, they said they can send a replacement for that module - apparently they can be separated and replaced. So they're going to send me one to replace. But, I do some troubleshooting and rebooted it a few times, left it alone and it started to work again (hence why I got a video now).
I'm still getting the replacement module, so I'll do a follow up video on how that works. It's odd that it would do that, odder that a couple of reboots fixed it, but has me on edge for its overall stability.
But, I'll keep you updated.
I'll continue to still use it, I still find it's a unique and novel. Whether it's worth the price tag - that'll be a difficult decision for me to square up, you may be different.
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