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Firefox 3.6 to recognize if your computer is tilted
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]
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentspat_boy2008Oct 13th 2009 3:57PM
WOW! This is great since I always tilt my computer when web browsing!
JordanOct 13th 2009 4:14PM
This is the most useless waste of time they spent encoding for this. Why not make the browser less crappy so it starts up faster?
SeanOct 13th 2009 8:07PM
"This is the most useless waste of time they spent encoding for this..."
I do hate it when they waste time encoding for a web browser. Makes the pages all pixelated when they use a low bitrate...
JordanOct 13th 2009 8:07PM
Haha, my bad, but you know what I meant
iofthestormOct 13th 2009 10:12PM
It was mainly for Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox, and they found that it was easy enough to add to the desktop versions so they did it.
HarshOct 13th 2009 4:50PM
Don't be such idiots. This is a web developer api, not something an average user will notice when they're on some random website and happen to tilt their laptop. This api was added to gain parity with webkit, which has had it for quite some time (think spirit level widget). Those websites in the video were specially altered to make use of the new api.
RaffiOct 13th 2009 5:00PM
It's also to prevent you from cheating at pinball.
RGOct 13th 2009 8:07PM
This feature will make me finally switch from IE ;)
scheckleyOct 14th 2009 8:27AM
gimmick
they should have just made this an add-on and focus on performance and security.