Download the new Switched app for your iPhone

Skip to Content

Android coverage by humans
AOL Tech

accelerometer posts

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Browsers, Web

Firefox 3.6 to recognize if your computer is tilted

Firefox 3.6 tilt recognition
If your computer has an accelerometer in it, Firefox 3.6 will be able to detect when your computer is tilting to the left, right, front, or back.

Accelerometers serve a number of purposes in laptops and tablets. In some cases, they can be used to shut down a hard drive if your computer is falling so that less damage occurs when your laptop hits the floor. But they can also be used to add motion-sensitive controls to some applications. And starting with the next generation of the web browser, Firefox will be one of those applications.

Mozilla developer Christopher Blizzard has published a short video showing the new feature in action. Mozilla is releasing an API that allows web publishers to support the feature. Enabled web pages will be able to respond as your computer moves, allowing you to play web games with motion controls or just to rotate your screen and read web pages in portrait mode.

Support has been added for Mac, Linux, and some Lenovo Thinkpad models.

[via CNet]

Filed under: Developer, Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox learns some new accelerometer tricks

You might be able to get more use out of your accelerometer. That little component that recognizes which way your device is tilted - you can find one in the Macbook Pro and the iPhone, amongst others - is getting some love from the Firefox developers at Mozilla, who have just added orientation support to the latest trunk build of Firefox. While it may seem like it should be far from a top priority for browser development, accelerometer support has a lot of potential, especially since it will eventually be available on Windows Mobile devices running Firefox's mobile version, Fennec.

Mozilla developer Doug Turner initially started building the orientation API because he was impressed by a Labyrinth game on the iPhone, where the player rolls a ball through a maze by tilting the phone. iPhone users already know that orientation support is great for gaming, but if it comes to Fennec on other devices that actually support Flash, we could see some amazing web-based accelerometer games. So far, however, the Macbook Pro is the only supported device.

[via MozillaLinks]

Filed under: Fun, Games, Macintosh, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Liquid Mac - Today's Time Waster

Liquid MacThis little Mac application is the definition of a time waster; it performs no real useful function, and yet we can't stop playing with it. It's not a game, as such, in that there is no goal and no score, but it sure is fun to play with.

To see what we're talking about, you're going to need to be running a newish MacBook or MacBook Pro with an accelerometer built in. Got that? Good.

So basically, Liquid Mac uses the accelerometer in your laptop to determine whether it is sitting level, or tipped to one side or the other. It then animates "liquid" on screen, pouring side to side as you move your laptop around, much like real liquid would in a real container. Of course, the fun here is the optical illusion.

That's all it does, but it sure does it well.

Filed under: Fun, Linux, IBM, Open Source

Control your computer by whacking it

knockAgeFor awhile now people have been coming up with novel uses for the Sudden Motion Sensor, the accelerometer that hides inside Apple laptops, but this is the first one I've seen for a non-Apple laptop: knockAge is a Linux program for IBM and ThinkPads that lets you control your system by physically knocking on the side of it. It lets you record unique sequences of knocks and then configure specific commands for that knock. There's a video at YouTube showing knockAge being used to start the screensaver with one sequence of knocks and stop it with another, allowing the user to lock and unlock the computer using secret knocks. Of course, I'm not sure I'd want to use this for real security, but it's still pretty neat and might actually be useful. Of course, basically any laptop could be made to do this by substituting, say, the space bar for an accelerometer, but this is cooler.

[Via Miles Barr]

Filed under: Fun, Macintosh

Party at the Center of the Universe: Accelerometers have all the fun

Party at the Center of the
UniverseAs perhaps you've read, Powerbooks and iBooks have built-in accelerometers that they use to detect sudden motion, i.e. when you drop your laptop. The Party at the Center of the Universe is a fun attempt to do something useful—well, not entirely useful—with that data. If you install the Party client on your Powerbook or iBook, it'll plot the data from your accelerometer alongside data from people around the world in a pretty, if not especially intuitive, way on the Party at the Center of the Universe web site. Even if you aren't a member of the accelerometer club, it's still pretty funny to watch.

Featured Time Waster

Sushi Cat is an adorable, full-bellied Time Waster

Sushi Cat is one of the cutest Flash games I've ever run across. You play a blue cat with a major talent for eating and, fortunately for you, every level is filled with delicious sushi! The controls are simple: you aim and drop from the top of the screen using the mouse, trying to hit as much sushi as you can on the way down. Eat enough sushi, and you can go on to the next level. Your score depends on how much sushi you eat, and which bucket the cat lands in when it finally reaches the bottom of the screen. The more ...

View more Time Wasters


Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Gowalla for webOS
Livescribe Store
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake

 

Follow us on Twitter!

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

DailyFinance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse