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Having Fun With PowerBook Motion Sensors

Posted by Zonk on from the twist-and-shout dept.

mjk325 writes "Amit Singh has published a discussion on the 'Sudden Motion Sensor' feature in the latest revision PowerBooks. One utility he has released displays a 3-D view of the PowerBook that follows the actual movement of the physical machine. Another utility creates windows that rotate in opposite directions to the physical machine to appear always straight. My brand new PB has the motion sensor, but apparently the utilities work on any system using software faking."

5 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sweet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    IBM ThinkPads have the same feature (and even the same sort of visualization utility).

  2. Re:Physical Tilt Games... by mmkkbb · · Score: 5, Informative

    There already is such a game. It is called Neverball

    --
    -mkb
  3. Same as IBM ThinkPad sensor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The hacks are pretty cool, but the utility that displays the Powerbook orientation realtime in 3D seems to be exactly like the ThinkPad active protection util that IBM has been shipping for quite some time now.

  4. Re:Wait a minute... by SteeldrivingJon · · Score: 2, Informative


    No, not rotating in 3D. Rotating in 2D.

    The point is that the top of the window will always be up, relative to the earth, regardless of what orientation the laptop is in.

    The window behaves like a compass needle, only relative to real-up and real-down, instead of north and south.

    --
    September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
  5. Re:Thinkpad by Vaystrem · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you have a Thinkpad, with Active System Protection, do the following:

    Control Panel
    IBM Active Protection
    Real Time Status

    I'm running version 1.23 of the software and it is there that it displays the Notebook as you rotate it in realtime.