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."

They could also use this to play Tennis!

[Tezkah (771144)]

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!

Hooray!

[ThatGeek (874983)]

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.

Grab it while...

[Rosco P. Coltrane (209368)]

...you can, before George Lucas sues the authors.

Re:Grab it while...

[NTiOzymandias (753325)]

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

fat kid swinging a macbook

[tddoog (900095)]

So when are we going to get a video of a fat kid swinging his macbook around.

...followed by a lawsuit of course.

Re:fat kid swinging a macbook

[Aladrin (926209)]

Give me a new macbook and I'll make that video. Hell, I'll even wear a cape. or wookie ears or something. (You'll have to provide that, too.

Re:fat kid swinging a macbook

[93,000 (150453)]

Duh. There's a scene in the upcoming Special Editon II where Greedo's first shot ricoches off the cantena wall and blasts off Chewbacca's ears. Han then gets so mad at seeing his companion in pain that he shoots Greedo, even though he doesn't want to and really feels quite bad about it. That's why Chewie is earless for the rest of the trillogy.

Suggested mods

[Original Replica (908688)]

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

Re:Suggested mods

[Original Replica (908688)]

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

Re:Suggested mods

[Reverend528 (585549)]

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.

Complete Idiocy...

[localman (111171)]

And I love it :) I'm sitting here waving around my spankin' new 17" and smiling like an idiot. Luckily you don't have to wave it too hard to get the cool sounds.

And the SMS data display is just kinda neat anyways. I had no idea it was so detailed... now I know that my desk leans 3 points to the left.

Cheers.

Mirror

[antdude (79039)]

NetworkMirror [networkmirror.com] since the original site didn't connect for me. :(

Other apps/games make use of the Sudden Motion Sen

[green pizza (159161)]

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

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

Rendezvous

[Avatar889 (670455)]

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

What do they look like, Jimmie?

[XO (250276)]

Dorks. They look like Dorks, Mr. Wolfe.

Thanks alot.

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

Hooray! It is already patented!

[Misagon (1135)]

According to this article [kernelthread.com] 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.

And when you drop it...

[isny (681711)]

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

Re:Okay...

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Fatal to who? The laptop, or the Sith Lord that you're trying to brain with the thing?

Re:Okay...

[Jeremi (14640)]

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.

Re:Okay...

[Rosco P. Coltrane (209368)]

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.

Re:Old News

[System.out.println() (755533)]

The Macbook (and before it, Powerbook) line has had the motion sensor for a while now. The sensor isn't the news.

Re:Hasn't this been around for a while?

[wed128 (722152)]

the software is the news, not the sensor.

Re:Accelerometer

[iphayd (170761)]

The Sudden Motion Sensor is accurate enough that there is a dashboard widget that emulates a bubble level. Of course, this is in my PowerPC-based Powerbook, so the SMS is not actually "new."

Re:Accelerometer

[Jeremi (14640)]

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...