I think a big reason smart cubes get pushed to the side and not talked about is actually the price, a lot of people can only spend so much on cubes at once and would much rather buy a flagship that they can use in a comp over a smart cube, they definitely have a load of future potential though
Yea I understand that, but I feel like we are at the point where current flagships are pretty similar to older flagships. So I’m just suggesting that instead of buying the next flagship, people should consider a smart cube.
I feel like a pretty easy fix to that issue could be gan just adding some sort of switch on the cube to disable bluetooth (I assume that’s what’s used to connect to the apps) so it can’t be tracked from a mobile device.
I got a GO cube around a year ago. But unfortunately it recently stopped working, so I haven't been able to use it. Maybe in the future when more smartcubes come out ill buy a new one.
Thanks!! Right now I’m using the gan icarry and it works pretty well. However the new moyu ai cube looks pretty interesting (especially if you don’t care about the moyu software and are just going to use Cubeast) and I might try to get one in the future
just found your channel about 2 weeks ago. i have been loving your videos soo much. there so entertaining. keep up the godly content. im tired so ima go to sleep now lol
One other reason why smartcubes are rarely talked is because it can't be used in official competitions because it's basically an electronic gadget, something competitors can't touch in official attempts. Remember that Max Park once lost his 6x6 WR because he touched his camera while inspecting the cube.
I was hoping to hear more about your ways to take advantage of smart cubes. Personally, I find them fun to get your stats and know your splits, but otherwise, I know my weakest point is F2L lookahead - and I just can't do anything about it. No matter what I try, I average 15ish at best. It would be nice if the smartcubing software gave more insights, like: you're particularly bad at such and such cases, your lookahead was bad - let's practice some more cases like that and learn where to look. But they don't. Or it's all behind the paywall in Cubeast - I can't even try it because my Russian cards don't work abroad anymore because of sanctions.
I think what you could do is just do untimed solves, where you turn as slow, that you don't pause anymore You don't have to turn at 1 tps, just at the tps where it's hard to look ahead, but you can still do it This made me improve very fast. Hope it helps!
@@projectflea9905 I tried that a lot of times. However slow I go, I can't go consistently pauseless. And if I go even slower, my muscle memory doesn't work. Like, 1tps doesn't work for me. I don't know what's wrong with me apart from being 40yo. Whenever I do slow solves, I just kinda doze off, it's extremely hard to turn and concentrate on something else at the same time. I've been sub-16 since late 2021.
@@OlgaFyodorovaOh, well I'm only 16yo and I started cubing in 2022 summer. So it really can be the age. Or that you developed some bad habits in your f2l. I have no idea lol.
@@projectflea9905 yeah same :) I was told my F2L was good enough to be sub-10. But I suck at lookahead. Even if I can do decent slow solves, somehow it doesn't translate to my fast solves. There are solves where I see pieces right away, and then I get 12-13s. And there are solves where I can't see anything, the pauses are big, and I get 17-18. So the global average boils down to high 15 - low 16.
Yea that feature you mentioned is behind a paywall (in the academy page). What I do to get around it is that in my database I have embeds of each solve, so I go through them and find which pairs take the longest and have the highest movecount. From there I either, 1.) avoid them or 2.) find a better way to do them. When it comes to lookahead, I struggled with finding ways to work on it with a smart cube. It can track how long it takes for you to recognize cases (pauses), but personally I don’t find that stat too helpful. Also I recently watched Kian’s vid on his thoughts about lookahead and I found it pretty interesting (ruclips.net/video/sswpnh5yg0c/видео.htmlsi=z1Fy4a32-CBB4RmX).
You vastly underestimate Cubeast's comparison tools. You can do a lot with sessions, searches and choose stats and categories to display. Compare averages over numerous solves, etc.
i got my GAN ICARRY recently but i was wondering if i can use a lube to make it turn smoother without damaging the components? and what kind of lube? water-based lube or normal lube? thanks
"why don't people talk about smartcubes more?" for me, cubing is a hobby. "sessions", "analyzing", "improvement", i don't care about that as long as i have a fun and relaxing time. (of course u can disagree, that's personal.)
That’s a good point. I’m a really competitive person so I love pushing myself to see how fast I can get, so I talked about the competitive side since that’s what I was focused on this month. Smart cubes do have some fun features for casual cubers like head to head racing, but honestly, they aren’t super special compared to normal cubes for casual cubers.
1.) I Feel It All So Deeply - Bail Bonds 2.) Crazy - Patrick Patrikios 3.) Kawaii! - Bad Snacks 4.) Six Seasons - Unicorn Heads They are just some interesting tracks I found in the RUclips audio library.
Prediction from start of the video based on my own opinions: Smart cubes aren't better. Sure, it's ton of useful features, but implementing them takes weight, space and money. Weight makes cube heavier and space makes more difficult to design cube that feels good. That's why they are not so common. Also, if they are mediocre (feeling and prce not so good), people will choose better options (cheaper with better feeling), so that's why smart exists but only on few models in each brand.
I definitely do think that the price and performance play a part in why many people don’t use smart cubes all the time. Yes you can get a smartcube that’s cheap, but then the performance suffers. And if you get a good performing one, it’s expensive. Personally I got a gan I carry and use it about once a month to check my stats and where to improve, but it performs so bad especially for roux.
Yea I understand that. I can see why it sucks for roux. I don’t have the new moyu ai cube but it’s as expensive as the icarry and is based off of the wrm v9 piece design, so I would assume that it’s better. I’ve been thinking about getting one, so if I do I’ll make vid on it.
It can't be the price because these not-as-good not-comp-legal cubes are cheaper than the most expensive versions of flagship cubes, and it can't be the performance because these ones that cost way too much are good enough
You say a lot that smart cubes are incredible to progress... But you don't explain how! Having stats and times for each steps is nice and can spot weak points but it don't see how it can help me being better! Maybe that's the reason why they are not that popular, people don't see a big help in them, just a little extra fun with the online VS mode.
Good point! That is true that there isn’t much out there to help you, besides the stats (and Cubeast academy page). However, I would like to argue that there aren’t many ways to improve besides doing solves and analyzing them. Yes you could practice lookahead by doing slow solves, but I believe that practicing lookahead isn’t as important as practicing efficiency (unless your like sub-15), and you can, and should, do slow solves with smart cubes so you can track your move count and recognition time (pauses). From there you can find bad habits, see where you are inefficient, and find out ways you could have done better.
I think a big reason smart cubes get pushed to the side and not talked about is actually the price, a lot of people can only spend so much on cubes at once and would much rather buy a flagship that they can use in a comp over a smart cube, they definitely have a load of future potential though
Yea I understand that, but I feel like we are at the point where current flagships are pretty similar to older flagships. So I’m just suggesting that instead of buying the next flagship, people should consider a smart cube.
I love how you chuckle every time you plug your discount code
yea lol
Hey, it's me! Great video! The editing is smooth and the flow is fantastic. 🙂
Thanks!!!!
Happy to hear that you enjoyed it :)
I feel like a pretty easy fix to that issue could be gan just adding some sort of switch on the cube to disable bluetooth (I assume that’s what’s used to connect to the apps) so it can’t be tracked from a mobile device.
That’s actually a great idea!
As always, amazing video! Have you switched to ZZ?
Thanks!!
Yea I guess I have. I’m starting my month of apb so we’ll see if I end up sticking with it.
AYYY more ZZ solves! I actually went into this video wondering if you went back to CFOP or switched over to ZZ
Yea I’ve been doing a lot of zz recently!! I just started my month of apb so we’ll see if I end up sticking with it.
I got a GO cube around a year ago. But unfortunately it recently stopped working, so I haven't been able to use it. Maybe in the future when more smartcubes come out ill buy a new one.
Nice vid! Your really underrated and I hope more cubers, even non cubers would check out your content. Btw, what smart cube would you recommend?
Thanks!!
Right now I’m using the gan icarry and it works pretty well.
However the new moyu ai cube looks pretty interesting (especially if you don’t care about the moyu software and are just going to use Cubeast) and I might try to get one in the future
If you wait a little bit, QiYi is going to release a smart cube soon 😉
just found your channel about 2 weeks ago. i have been loving your videos soo much. there so entertaining. keep up the godly content. im tired so ima go to sleep now lol
Thanks!!!
Goodnight :)
Awesome Alex!!
One other reason why smartcubes are rarely talked is because it can't be used in official competitions because it's basically an electronic gadget, something competitors can't touch in official attempts. Remember that Max Park once lost his 6x6 WR because he touched his camera while inspecting the cube.
I just wish GAN would provide a way to disable the flashing light when you haven’t connected it to Bluetooth (or disable Bluetooth altogether)
Yea, I would love to see that, the light gets pretty annoying
Thanks!
THANK YOU!!!!!
:D
great video! Your editing is so nice
Thanks!!
I was hoping to hear more about your ways to take advantage of smart cubes. Personally, I find them fun to get your stats and know your splits, but otherwise, I know my weakest point is F2L lookahead - and I just can't do anything about it. No matter what I try, I average 15ish at best.
It would be nice if the smartcubing software gave more insights, like: you're particularly bad at such and such cases, your lookahead was bad - let's practice some more cases like that and learn where to look. But they don't. Or it's all behind the paywall in Cubeast - I can't even try it because my Russian cards don't work abroad anymore because of sanctions.
I think what you could do is just do untimed solves, where you turn as slow, that you don't pause anymore
You don't have to turn at 1 tps, just at the tps where it's hard to look ahead, but you can still do it
This made me improve very fast. Hope it helps!
@@projectflea9905 I tried that a lot of times. However slow I go, I can't go consistently pauseless. And if I go even slower, my muscle memory doesn't work. Like, 1tps doesn't work for me. I don't know what's wrong with me apart from being 40yo. Whenever I do slow solves, I just kinda doze off, it's extremely hard to turn and concentrate on something else at the same time. I've been sub-16 since late 2021.
@@OlgaFyodorovaOh, well I'm only 16yo and I started cubing in 2022 summer. So it really can be the age. Or that you developed some bad habits in your f2l. I have no idea lol.
@@projectflea9905 yeah same :) I was told my F2L was good enough to be sub-10. But I suck at lookahead. Even if I can do decent slow solves, somehow it doesn't translate to my fast solves. There are solves where I see pieces right away, and then I get 12-13s. And there are solves where I can't see anything, the pauses are big, and I get 17-18. So the global average boils down to high 15 - low 16.
Yea that feature you mentioned is behind a paywall (in the academy page).
What I do to get around it is that in my database I have embeds of each solve, so I go through them and find which pairs take the longest and have the highest movecount. From there I either, 1.) avoid them or 2.) find a better way to do them.
When it comes to lookahead, I struggled with finding ways to work on it with a smart cube. It can track how long it takes for you to recognize cases (pauses), but personally I don’t find that stat too helpful. Also I recently watched Kian’s vid on his thoughts about lookahead and I found it pretty interesting (ruclips.net/video/sswpnh5yg0c/видео.htmlsi=z1Fy4a32-CBB4RmX).
OMG! It’s Alex with Cubing! Great video btw!
Hi :D
Thanks :)
@@CubingWithAlex np :)
You vastly underestimate Cubeast's comparison tools.
You can do a lot with sessions, searches and choose stats and categories to display. Compare averages over numerous solves, etc.
Eocross in the recons 👀
i got my GAN ICARRY recently but i was wondering if i can use a lube to make it turn smoother without damaging the components? and what kind of lube? water-based lube or normal lube? thanks
You can use normal silicone based lubricant. I would stay away from water-based lube though.
@@CubingWithAlexThanks, appreciate it! 🔥
nice vid
also why do you use eo cross
It’s fun :)
love ur channel
Thanks!!!
love your contents bro keep it up
Thanks!!!
Cinematic aspect ratio goes hard!
True
I traded for a Gan 356i in 2021 and used it for a bit: in 2022, I picked it up again and broke my PB, but now it doesn't work anymore :(
Aww that sucks. Congrats on the PB though!!
next vid: i got the wr with a smart cube
"why don't people talk about smartcubes more?" for me, cubing is a hobby. "sessions", "analyzing", "improvement", i don't care about that as long as i have a fun and relaxing time. (of course u can disagree, that's personal.)
That’s a good point. I’m a really competitive person so I love pushing myself to see how fast I can get, so I talked about the competitive side since that’s what I was focused on this month.
Smart cubes do have some fun features for casual cubers like head to head racing, but honestly, they aren’t super special compared to normal cubes for casual cubers.
My friend is getting me the gan 12 ui for my birthday. I can't wait to race online and see my stats!
Nice!!
I'd probably get one if 3x3 was one of my favourite events that I practiced
Part of the reason why smart cubes aren't talked about more is because they aren't WCA legal so most people aren't going to spend their money on it.
Yea
What a coincidence my new video was 6:54 long and this video is also 6:54 long 😂
WOOOOO NEW VID
whats the song you used?
1.) I Feel It All So Deeply - Bail Bonds
2.) Crazy - Patrick Patrikios
3.) Kawaii! - Bad Snacks
4.) Six Seasons - Unicorn Heads
They are just some interesting tracks I found in the RUclips audio library.
Lovely video 📸
Prediction from start of the video based on my own opinions:
Smart cubes aren't better. Sure, it's ton of useful features, but implementing them takes weight, space and money. Weight makes cube heavier and space makes more difficult to design cube that feels good. That's why they are not so common. Also, if they are mediocre (feeling and prce not so good), people will choose better options (cheaper with better feeling), so that's why smart exists but only on few models in each brand.
How much zbll do you know?
Just the U set, but I’m planning to learn the rest (except sunes and antisunes)
I see lots of ZZ solves, do you main ZZ now?
Yea I've been using ZZ ever since I made starting making the ZZ video back in May. I just started my month of APB, so we'll see if I stick with it.
Someday the WCA will add a smart cube event and it will be the most entertaining and exciting event to watch.
Yea kinda like that gan competition that happened not too long ago. That would be awesome!!
0:28 inspection time tho💀
HOW DID I NEVER KNOW ABOUT CUBE BEAST AHHHHHHH
I definitely do think that the price and performance play a part in why many people don’t use smart cubes all the time. Yes you can get a smartcube that’s cheap, but then the performance suffers. And if you get a good performing one, it’s expensive. Personally I got a gan I carry and use it about once a month to check my stats and where to improve, but it performs so bad especially for roux.
Yea I understand that. I can see why it sucks for roux.
I don’t have the new moyu ai cube but it’s as expensive as the icarry and is based off of the wrm v9 piece design, so I would assume that it’s better. I’ve been thinking about getting one, so if I do I’ll make vid on it.
Yeah i ordered it yesterday will get it probably after week or some
you should try the 12 ui
I want to :)
@@CubingWithAlex i have it. its amazing.
Yo sick!!!! #ALEXFORTHEMILLIONS
Use petrus for 31 days💀
Ok 👍
It can't be the price because these not-as-good not-comp-legal cubes are cheaper than the most expensive versions of flagship cubes, and it can't be the performance because these ones that cost way too much are good enough
Maybe it's the fact that you can get good without having to choose between price and performance, and use that very cube to compete
I don’t have it, but the moyu ai cube is $30 and it looks pretty good (has the wrm v9 piece design)
please make gan 14 review
I literally just posted it lol
@@CubingWithAlex oh lmao
i have both gan i carry and i3 and i3 is alot better than i carry
You say a lot that smart cubes are incredible to progress... But you don't explain how!
Having stats and times for each steps is nice and can spot weak points but it don't see how it can help me being better!
Maybe that's the reason why they are not that popular, people don't see a big help in them, just a little extra fun with the online VS mode.
Good point! That is true that there isn’t much out there to help you, besides the stats (and Cubeast academy page).
However, I would like to argue that there aren’t many ways to improve besides doing solves and analyzing them. Yes you could practice lookahead by doing slow solves, but I believe that practicing lookahead isn’t as important as practicing efficiency (unless your like sub-15), and you can, and should, do slow solves with smart cubes so you can track your move count and recognition time (pauses). From there you can find bad habits, see where you are inefficient, and find out ways you could have done better.
😈
helo 👍
Hi :)
meow
its a dog
@@CubingWithKoi it’s tradition
what
0:28 inspection time tho💀
Yea inspecting eocross can be brutal sometimes