Recent Apple PowerBooks and MacBooks feature a ‘sudden motion sensor,’ that’s designed to detect when the laptop is in freefall and park the hard drive heads. It turns out that the thing is a pretty nifty accelerometer, and there are several unexpected uses for it. One is the Carpenter’s Level dashboard widget, which… er… turns your extremely expensive laptop into a duff spirit level. Huh.
Another use is MacSaber, which plays lightsabre sounds as you swing your MacBook around (video here).
Unexpectedly, there may be a practical use for all this nonsense: desktop switching. Huh? SmackBook Pro, a patch for a Mac multiple desktop manager doohickie, allows you to switch views by… er… slapping the side of your laptop. Watch the video and tell me that doesn’t look cool.