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MacSaber Turns Your Macbook into a Lightsaber

Petey_Alchemist writes "SomethingAwful.com forum goon isnoop has developed a useless but fun app that takes advantage of the new sudden motion sensor available in Macbooks. The MacSaber 1.0 causes your Macbook or Macbook Pro to whoosh and crash like a lightsaber depending on how you swing it around. The reviews from those who have installed it say it is quite fun--although there is some concern about whether or not 'lightsaber battles' fall under warranty."

19 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. They could also use this to play Tennis! by Tezkah · · Score: 4, Funny

    They could also use this to play Tennis! No wonder the Wii looks like an Apple product, it uses bluetooth to let you use your Macbook (Pro) as a paddle! Hooray!

  2. Hooray! by ThatGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can take my $1000 laptop and shake it to hear cool sounds! I can't imagine any downside in that. Oh crap, I just dropped my laptop. I can't wait to see the clip of the starwars laptop kid.

    --
    What are you eating? isItVeg?.
    1. Re:Hooray! by nitrocloud · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are a skilled Jedi to drop your laptop while typing and being able to post before it broke!

      --
      Karma: Good, or bust!
  3. fat kid swinging a macbook by tddoog · · Score: 4, Funny
    So when are we going to get a video of a fat kid swinging his macbook around.

    ...followed by a lawsuit of course.

  4. Suggested mods by Original+Replica · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can you make it scream in terror/pain when you drop it?

    --
    We are all just people.
    1. Re:Suggested mods by Original+Replica · · Score: 4, Insightful

      or yell for help if someone moves it without disabling an anti-theft program.

      --
      We are all just people.
    2. Re:Suggested mods by Reverend528 · · Score: 4, Funny
      I heard that in the newer version it'll scream like a little girl when you toss it down a chute.


      I don't know about the laptop, but the owner certainly did.

  5. Re:Okay... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would probably a lot more cheaper to build a lightsaber out of Lego blocks and some electronics.

    You miss the point: if you shake a lego brick light saber, you look like a dork. If you shake a Mac laptop light saber, you look like a rich dork.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  6. Mirror by antdude · · Score: 4, Informative

    NetworkMirror since the original site didn't connect for me. :(

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  7. Other apps/games make use of the Sudden Motion Sen by green+pizza · · Score: 5, Informative

    The most famous app to use this feature is probably iAlertU, which has a demo on YouTube.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAtRfA1UXc
    http://www.slappingturtle.com/home/

    Bubblegym was one of the first games to make use of thos:
    http://www.balooba.se/baloobasoftware/texts/bubble gym.htm

  8. Rendezvous by Avatar889 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they can use Rendezvous to tell how close they come to other lightsabers for more realistic crashing noises at the right time.

    --
    Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementia (There is no great genius without a mixture of madness) - Aristotle
  9. Re:Grab it while... by NTiOzymandias · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lucas doesn't have a chance to sue. Steve Jobs shoots first!

  10. What do they look like, Jimmie? by XO · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dorks. They look like Dorks, Mr. Wolfe.

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
  11. Thanks alot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just installed this and started playing around with it.

    My daughter saw me and wanted to try. So I let her.

    This lead to a saber duel and the lopping off of her imaginary friends toe.

    Now, I am at the imaginary emergency room.

  12. Re:Okay... by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Funny
    I didn't know AppleCare covers braining a Sith Lord! :P


    The secret to defeating Darth Ballmer is to use the Force, not your eyes. Only with the Force will you be able to parry the onslaught of flying furniture in time.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  13. Hooray! It is already patented! by Misagon · · Score: 4, Interesting
    According to this article the motion sensor is actually a three-axis accelerometer. I doubt that George Lucas would sue, but I know of a guy who claims that he has a US patent on the use of an accelerometer in a lightsaber toy to trigger sound events.

    I suggested the use of an accelerometer on an Internet messageboard, when another user had asked for advice for building a high-end lightsaber toy. I directly got snotty remarks that it would be infringing on this guy's patent. He was then selling circuits with an accelerometer that were connected via radio-link to a PC that played sounds.

    I then told him that I was building such a circuit myself and knew of other people who also had designed similiar circuits independently from eachother, because it was quite straightforward design if you know your way around electronics. I pointed out that I thought that such straight-forward patents were stealing from the community, especially if this was a software patent but that it wouldn't apply to me anyway because he was in the US and I was in Europe. For this I was banned from the msgboard, for "software piracy" (!) .. apparently the admins did not distinguish between different types of intellectual property, or they were friends with this guy. I don't know.

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  14. Re:Accelerometer by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The Sudden Motion Sensor is accurate enough that there is a dashboard widget that emulates a bubble level.


    Cool... but do they have an emulation of that annoying wooden table game, where you steer a little steel ball through a tilting maze while trying to not to fall into the holes? That's clearly what the SMS was originally designed for...

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  15. Re:Doesn't quite work on a 12" PowerBook by Maniacal+Laughter · · Score: 4, Funny
    Roll: Left 1835
    Tilt: -2070
    Force: 0 0
    As you can see, the force is missing. May the force be with you.
    --
    Where are all the mod points when you *really* need them??!!
  16. And when you drop it... by isny · · Score: 4, Funny

    And when you drop it, it's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.