The current generation of iPhones and Android phones have processors that are about 500 times faster than the computer onboard the Apollo Lunar Module (with the added benefit of not weighing 70 pounds). All this computing power can be used to tackle one of humanity's most vexing problems: the Rubik's Cube.
Using a Droid phone and a Lego Mindstorms robotics kit, engineer David Gilday, created a robot that can figure out a Rubik's Cube. The Android OS has yet to beat the world record of 6.65 seconds – set in January 2011 by Australian teenager Feliks Zemdegs – but Gilday told tech blog Device Guru that his HTC Nexus One solved it in 12.5 seconds.
Gildays works for ARM Ltd., which most likely built the CPU in your smartphone.
