The newer Apple laptops, the MacBooks, have a built-in sudden motion sensor that will tell them if they’ve fallen off a table, for example. This allows them to park their hard drives before they hit the ground, which avoids some types of hard-drive damage.

But I’m not sure Apple was counting on people having so much fun with these things.

Exhibit A: The MacSabre

Using your Mac’s sudden motion sensor, this software turns your computer into a Jedi weapon almost worthy of taking on the real thing by making authentic lightsaber sound effects. It senses speed for the lightsaber movement sounds and acceleration for different levels of striking sounds.

Exhibit B: iAlertU

iAlertU is a car alarm system for your MacBook computer. iAlertU uses the built in motion sensor device to detect movement of your MacBook and triggers an audible and visual alarm. The alarm can also be triggered by keyboard and mouse/trackpad movement.

Exhibit C: Smackbook Pro

Turns out, the laptop has a built-in motion sensor. Nominally, it’s there to protect the internal hard drive. The basic idea is this: If the accelerometer suddenly notices that the gravitational pull of earth is no longer present, the most likely explanation is that the laptop, sensor and all, is currently accelerating at 9.81 m/s² towards said earth. In that case, it will (wisely) try to turn the hard drive off in preparation for impact. It can, however, also be used in situations not involving lobbing the laptop across the room, fun though that may be.

Cool cool cool. Unfortunately, my Powerbook is old, unadorned with such wonderful gadgets.