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New Android App Encourages Users To Throw Device As High As Possible
kdryer39 writes "Like to tempt fate? Then you might want to check out Send Me To Heaven, the Android app that uses your phone's accelerometers to track how high it travels when thrown upward. Assuming you don't fumble your handset on its return trip, its distance will join that of other daredevils on the game's leaderboards. That's all there is to it. Really."
I can't wait for the desktop version.
We need a version that runs on a VAX 11/780.
"HOLY SHIT DUDE FIVE INCHES! That's awesome!! ...why is the floor cracking?"
*CRASH*
The people at Codepoke had an app which did exactly the same thing. They removed it from the app store a while ago.
Click
Casio Commando owners finally have a way to measure their machoness.
...that it's the first app collaboratively designed by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon? ;)
What a great way to get return on the insurance you paid for.
Tie a string to the phone and spin it in circles. New world record and no broken phone.
...we'll see if this is really "lifeproof" or not today.
Aaaaaaand its quickly not about how high you can throw. (Maybe a parachute, too, will be used if the phone isn't a cheapy sacrificed for the purpose.)
The developers got high...!
They should add this to a diaper so that I can see how high I can throw babies!
The G
AngryDroids.
Next up: the app that uses accelerometers to detect sudden deceleration and encourages you to throw your cell phone against the wall as hard as possible.
Because, really, why take chances when you can have a sure thing?
Cool.
Now what they need is an app that detects when it's pointed at the ground, and snaps a couple of pictures!
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Somebody remember N900Fly ... been in circulation for more than 3 years http://maemo.org/packages/view/n900fly/
Why on their official websites animated trailer does it show an iPhone 3GS?
This is not exactly a new idea. http://maemo.org/packages/view/n900fly/
...but there's probably already a thread at http://www.rocketryforum.com/ about it. Hell, they've discussed the methods and legality of using phones as tracking devices to death; might as well make them accelerometers as well. Of course, that'll mean somebody will have to figure out how to make the phone fire a pyro at apogee for the recovery chute.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
just like HangTime, which premiered for the iPhone in 2008.
http://iphonehangtime.com
(No longer available, alas)
by the Android Manufacturers Association.
I'm seeing a vision... of broken phones... and angry people.
I'm quite the prognositcator.
Back when I had an iPhone, several features encouraged me to throw device as hard as possible against a very solid surface. I never took them up on the offer, but it sure was tempting.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
..now, if *only* they had survived until the expansion of the mobile market, Darwin awards may now be plus a few embedded skulls. None of whom would be missed ;)
Wasn't there an apple app that did that as well?
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I tried playing something a lot like this on OnLive a while back, but somehow I didn't do very well.
Soon as someone invents the app I'm throwing my G3 phone off the roof of a building, or perhaps into a botomless pit.
Step 1:)
Purchase a waterproof smartphone enclosure from a sporting goods store. Like say, these generic ones. insert the phone inside the protector, and seal it.
Step 2:)
At the local post office, purchase a normal cardboard shipping box. I understand walmart also carries these. Then, buy a can of expanding foam insulation. Squirt the expanding foam insulation into the cardboard box, then, while the foam is still expanding and workable, embed the enclosure inside the foam. (You want to be able to get the phone out of the enclosure later. Keep that in mind.)
Step 3:)
Load the cardboard "shock box" into a "pumpkin chucker" trebuchet. You may need to troll newspapers or craigs list to find someone who has one. (they tend to advertise having them, so all you need to do is look.) Set the angle nigh, then let it rip.
Enoy your ballistic smartphone score.
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...for the next time something borks my SD card. I bet you can score really high if you aren't worried about catching it.
This wouldn't be a problem for the otterbox cased I've had. Once, several years ago while going through my divorce, I threw my (HTC HD2) phone down a flight of cement steps, impacting first at the very bottom fairly hard. The phone survived without nary a scratch, dent, or defect; I was actually still on the call when I picked it up several moments later. The case did get a bit scratched up, though.
While that phone is sadly no longer with us (best one I've ever had - the hardware buttons have stopped working, still might be fixable with a little investigation...), I have no doubt that a similarly equipped phone with an otterbox would survive simlarly. I'd definately run this app on it, and, in fact, might be tempted to rig the game a little bit.
The only other phone I've had to survive stuff like that was one of the pre-polyphonic Nokia flip phones that pretty much everyone had, right before cell service became a 'mass consumer' thing.
This thread reminds me of the 'iPhone throwing competitions' I heard of happening up in one of the Nordic countries. Related, maybe?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
If I needed to create this app I would probably just measure the time spent in freefall/micro-g. No need to get fancy past that right?
The app assumes acceleration due to gravity is a constant...
And the winner is? The International Space Station!
So, just take it to micro gravity, tie a string on it and spin it "up". You can do the same here on Earth, but it could be trickier since they can check for a wobble due to Earth's pull.
Sounds like a rip off of "N900 fly"
*sigh* I miss the N900. They should have kept GTK+ and it could have dominated :(
1. build device to trigger parachute release on specific tone via 1/8" headphone jack
2. write app which detects apex and triggers tonal playback on 1/8" headphone jack
3. slingshot/water balloon launcher
Or
someone puts their phone in a model rocket
"Lame" - Galaxar
I had an app that was effectively a digital scale. You just stand on your iphone to see how much you weigh. I thought it was a great idea so people could measure their weight wherever they were at any time. Seems handy right?
Load the app up in an Android emulator, and feed the accelerometer canned data to simulate orbiting the earth. Indefinite freefall! High score!
I'd just put it on my quadcopter drone and fly that sucker straight up to the FAA-mandated flight ceiling for such craft; 400 feet ABL like it was nothing.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
as an iphone app
That's impressive.
Can't wait to see the IPhone version. That should clean up a bit.
This reminds me of the common 'windows' fix recommended by some on IRC a decade or so ago: 'alt +F4'
just play the game over a body of water, the water will absorb the impact of your phone and it will be teh safes
Here's how you win:
Step 1: Ship via UPS with big FRAGILE label on box
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Win!!!
This is an innovative way to sell more devices. As it turns out, the App was written by a consortium of companies: Samsung, HTC, LG, and Motorola.
MS Surface version is available?
This app was written by either Apple or Oracle, right?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
The developers should release a game where the goal is to throw your phone to the ground as hard as you can (think "Send Me to Heaven", but in the opposite direction). That would be a lot funnier to watch.
This app should only be available for iPhones and (And especially) Windoze phones only! Let them drop and break all their phones, then replace them with Androids! ;^)
Is *that* newsworthy? I remember app that did exactly the sam, for Maemo on Nokia N900 - few years ago...
Here's a camera tossing tutorial.
THIS story and its comments is why I keep returning to /. despite having the many flaws we all know about.
Take any random idea and code it. Post it on /. and two things happen:
- People find prior art of it, to different degrees of precedence.
- People start finding ways to improve/cheat the system, to different degrees of sophistication, complexity and plausibility.
I mean, seriously. You can argue all you want about this community and its (our?) shortcomings, but you can't deny at some point just having a bunch of geeks or whatever you want to call us, discussing things like this story definitely gets interesting and fun.
Cheers fellow /.ers!
Slashdot. Unreadable news to annoy nerds. - wonkey_monkey
3.844 x10^8 meters, N. Armstrong
just a matter of time till it's done
1.8x10^13 meters and still rising: Voyager-1.
With such a head-start, I doubt it will have competition any time soon as the most distant man-made object.
It's been around for a couple of years and is called Freefall! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/freefall!/id416974946?ls=1&mt=8 But I hear they had to say jump instead of throw as apple originally rejected it! It even has a leaderboard.
Electronic device IQ tests...
I wrote a program on a similar principle in 1983. It ran on a mainframe, and was called "He-man, Dangerous-man". Here's how it worked:
1) Draw an ASCII art carnival hammer strength meter
2) Put up text on the terminal telling the user that it is a strength meter
3) Tell the user "When I say 'go!', hit the return key as hard as you can!"
4) Count down from 10, and then print "go!"
5) When the return key is hit, make the little ASCII art "weight" go a random amount 2/3-3/4s way up the screen toward the "bell"
6) If the key to the left of the return key is hit, make it go all the way up and print ^G so you can demonstrate superior strength
Obviously, I was forced to remove it, the first time some idiot actually fell for it and broke the keyboard on a Televideo 912 terminal.
Why not???
Is this high enough for an Android device???
It's a bit over 20km in altitude.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Um ... this app isn't all that original. It's the first app of many (I wrote it while I was learning the platform), and was even the first app that Sergey Brin on Android. He even discussed it at the Android launch press conference "much to the chagrin of some folks on stage, like Andy and whatnot". It's dead simple: measure how long the measured acceleration is 0, and then use the ballistics formula you learned in high school physics to calculate how long the device was in the air, and thus how high it went.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_IFIqGf4ZM
Which begets a question ... how do Slashdot posts get approved? I would like to advertise a few trivial/minor apps too.
Photographers have been doing this thing for years, without relying on cheap Android devices. And they have the pictures to prove it:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/cameratoss/
Comes with a frisbee app
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
I heard Steve Balmer has instigated a project to get this to run on a chair
one "C. Hadfield" with a maximum altitude of 435 kilometers. The legitimacy of that record is disputed.
Another way to competitively break your phone:
smashr.
The app should snap a pic at apogee and post that with submission.
--- Mercutio was right.
Sounds like fun to me. Repeatable fun.
Now ... how to time-delay the release of the parachute? There's probably an app for that (detect the transition from upward flight to free-fall), but is there an appropriate output? Could you do it by, say, driving a solenoid from the data line of the USB connection?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"