February 21st, 2008
MacBook Air: Motion sensor 'bizarrely' enabled with solid-state disk option
MacBook Air owners will find that Apple’s motion-sensing technology — to protect hard disk drives in notebooks — is enabled even on models with the solid-state disk option.
In his blog, developer Wil Shipley called the protection “bizarre.”
More bizarrely, if I drop the Air a foot (onto a soft, fluffy pillow on my bed — I’m not an idiot) the sudden motion sensor will still shut down the SSD (tell it to park its heads?) and stop processing for a second. I think that’s pretty funny. Hey, hardware guys: “SSD stands for SOLID-STATE DISK.”
I admit there could still be problems I don’t know about with dropping SSDs, and I’m just being snide. I’m sorry, hardware guys. Still friends? Buy you a drink? Hug it out?
However, I bet MacBook Air owners will be glad to have the motion sensing for a game like Wally Bally. It uses the technology as an input for a game.
Or Oriol Ferrer Mesia’s fun Liquid Mac, which makes a great demonstration of the brilliance of the MacBook Air. Earth, Water and Air — only Fire is missing.
David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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