14 DAY TRIAL // Speaking of cool iPhone apps, Apple should make an ad just for Eric Faller's CubeCheater. The app can take a snapshot of the current state of your Rubik's Cube, solve it for you in seconds, and even show you how to do it, too!
Users simply need to input their cube's state and CubeCheater will show them how to solve it. Given that iPod touch users don't benefit from a camera, there is an additional way to input the state of your cube: by choosing the colors manually from the color palette when prompted. By choosing to take a snapshot of your Cube (on your iPhone), CubeCheater will use computer-vision techniques to automatically recognize the colors for you. On both versions of the app, CubeCheater then uses the famed Kociemba algorithm to find a solution quickly.
“CubeCheater finds optimal or near-optimal solutions in only a few seconds. Even a really mixed-up cube only takes around 20 turns to solve, vs. hundreds for a human algorithm,” developer Eric Faller says.
And if you thought CubeCheater was already too cool for a one dollar app, think again. Eric has also added a bonus, allowing users to put their cube into pretty-looking patterns. Users first need to start with a solved cube, then input the pattern they want, and the solution will be offered within seconds. Eric does ask app users to note that not all potential patterns are actually possible due to the physical constraints of the cube.
The app’s most recent update adds support for different styles of cubes, such as the Blue-opposite-White cubes sold in Japan. Those who have a non-standard cube can also specify a custom cube, so the app works for them, too.
iPhone users may experience camera issues at times, Eric says, as the phone sometimes runs out of memory and kills the app. While Eric is looking into making it use less memory, a workaround is to reboot the device and launch the app again.