Apple's patent application notes that it is in the best interest of an electronics manufacturer to be able to know when a device has been "compromised" and opened, thus voiding its warranty. Unauthorized tampering with an electronic device can destroy it, and without evidence of such tampering, a manufacturer may be obligated to support its warranty. Apple's technology, the company said, could save manufacturers "substantial costs.

In another patent, Apple is looking to broaden the role of the accelerometer in it's portable devices, noting that motion could be used to navigate and control the device itself. For example, users could shake the device to play a song or flick it to scroll through menus. That idea has been tossed around before as I recall, so it's not really all that surprising. Perhaps its just a ploy to get us to buy more iPods as more movement will likely result in more drops, tosses and smashes. [Appleinsider]

I mean, it's not the kind of game that should be played at a distance, and this custom-built board doesn't even have holes along the track. Although, I have to give the designer credit for the gumball prize—that was a nice touch. Check out the project page for full details on the build. [Marble Maze via Trossen Robotics via Hacked Gadgets]

I saw this game in the Top 25 free applications section of the iTunes Store and I downloaded it thinking it was going to be bad. After all, every arcade game I've tried in the iPhone has been horrible. Not having physical controls is a real drag when it comes to control platformers and complex shoot 'em ups. Specially shoot 'em ups like this, where you are fired dozens of bullets from every single direction. Without a D-pad, I thought, it would be impossible to do it right. However, I like WW2 games and I loved Capcom's 1941: Counter Attack. And it looked pretty and was free, so I downloaded it.

And oh boy I'm glad I did. The game may not be finished yet—it's only one level—but it's incredibly well polished and pretty. Most importantly, it shows how you can implement accelerometer-based controls for these kind of games and get it right. At first I tried touch controls, but those are not good. I then tried motion, which is the one you want to use. It works amazingly good—calibrate it first—allowing you to dodge enemy fire with maximum precision. You can also lightly tap at the bottom of the screen to fire more quickly—the game comes with auto-fire on by default, but it's too slow—but that doesn't make the control of the plane difficult at all.

Now I can only hope other iPhone/touch developers work in their controls like these guys, opening the way to old-style games that don't depend on imprecise software-based touch D-pads. iFighter Life addictive. I can't wait for them to release the full version.

The motion-based control is great and allows for surprisingly precise motion.

Great retro graphics and effects.

[iTunes Store]

The new and much-improved Power Glove is positioned as kind of a 20th anniversary present to the original Glove. The video below gives a pretty detailed instruction for how to tear apart your own Power Glove, presuming you can find one, and also shows him using it with an iPhone boxing game he's developing.

Power Glove 20th Anniversary Edition — Build Video from Matt Mechtley on Vimeo.

Finally, the future looks like we imagined it would in 1989. [Instructables, creator's blog]

Why the hell would you need a motion-sensing SIM card you ask? Well first off, it could give any run-of-the-mill handset the capability to navigate menus, send calls or SMS messages with a simple shake or tap. It could even allow users to pre-program an emergency contact into the phone that could be called or sent a text message on a trigger of rapid movement—like a fall. So you are covered should you fall and break a hip or pass out in a bar.

The card was just introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, so there is no word on when we might see something like this available commercially. But my guess it will come sooner rater than later. [PR Newswire via Uberphones]

Creator "Polymythic" used a Construx building set as his mechanical base and an ioBridge to control the system. It pours the beer a bit violently, just like this previous hack, but if you're drunk enough to insist that tipping your iPhone should result in a real beer, it should do you just fine. [Instructables]

This will require two cameras, one for video chat and the other for the "hand reading," but it opens a lot of possibilities. To start with, the entire keyboard can become a gesture control pad without even having to touch the surface. In addition to that, it can be combined with actual touch technology to identify single fingers on the surface, with the possibility of assigning specific functions to them.

The system even contemplates combining all this with accelerometers and force sensors, so the touch action can generate secondary data. One example of this may be applying a deformation effect to an image or a sound effect to a music track, giving it more or less strength depending on the force you use in your action. [USPTO via Unwired View]

To be fair, Monkey Ball has improved a lot on its spiritual forebear, with lush, fully 3D graphics and over 100 well-designed levels. It superficially reflects a few generational steps forward in handheld gaming. One thing that hasn’t changed is the control mechanism. Consider this IGN review of Kirby from April of 2001:

This tilting feature is an integral part of the gameplay, and it really makes Kirby original and a lot of fun. The designers built the game around this sensor instead of putting a sensor into the game, and it really shows... Since you cannot zoom Kirby around the mazes without screwing up, patience is needed. Of course, you can't take your sweet time—the clock is ticking.

This could just as easily describe the experience of rolling AiAi around on your iPhone. The tilt sensor technology, built into the GBC cartridge, was functionally flawless, even by iPhone standards. The tilt-sensing scheme surfaced in a few more (equally impressive and well received) games, but none ventured too far from the navigation paradigm of Tilt 'n' Tumble. Over the next few years, position-sensitive handheld gaming faded into relative obscurity.

At least, until now. Tilt gaming is now lauded by some as the future of portables, with developers and engineers making inconsistent claims about how powerful and exciting the iPhone is as a platform, even throwing out very favorable comparisons to the PSP and the DS. But does the iPhone really bring anything new to the table? The answer, as you’ve probably guessed by now, is no. Absolutely not.

Think of it this way: The best implementation of iPhone tilt control is conceptually identical to a seven-year-old Game Boy title, which itself was based on the old wooden marble-in-a-labyrinth puzzles that have been around since, well, who knows? The iPhone doesn’t have the buttons of the Game Boy (or DS or PSP), and touchscreen control overlays don’t provide the feedback they need to be adequate substitutes. (Anyone who has played any of NES/SNES/Genesis jailbreak emulators can attest to this.) Perhaps most significantly, the iPhone doesn’t address the shortcomings of tilt gaming that were helpfully pointed out to them in nearly every review of Kirby. Consider again the 2001 IGN review:

You're limited to where and how you can play the game, really... I've played the game outside and in a hotel room with no problems, but on the plane it was a little difficult because of the position you have to hold the system — it's not exactly a game you can sit in your most comfortable position and play.

And another, from the New York Times:

Children who play Kirby in the back seat of the car will learn to loathe potholes and quick turns, which can make Kirby spin out of control.

In respect to the limited locations in which you can play tilt games, the GBC cartridge system is actually superior to the iPhone, as it automatically recalibrates at the start of every game, a feature that Monkey Ball could stand to include.

A portable gaming device that necessitates a certain type of location and position to play isn’t truly portable. Anyone who has tried to play any of the iPhone’s tilt games in a moving car, bus or even train will tell you that slight acceleration in any direction can make sensitive games like Crash Bandicoot Racing and Monkey Ball almost unplayable—and what good are handheld games if you can’t play them in transit?

Since the launch of the app store, nobody has come forward with a truly exciting and original implementation of tilt control. The iPhone has demonstrated that is it capable of retreading tilt gaming territory quite well, but that’s about it.

It sounds harsh to deem iPhone gaming a mere novelty, but until a developer steps forward with something profoundly revolutionary it may be just that. For the most accurate summation of the iPhone’s tilt gaming, don’t listen to John Carmack’s breathless speculation, or Scott Forstall’s eery, glossy-eyed presentations. Look back again, this time to Gamespot:

Yes, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble is a gimmicky game, but it's a gimmicky game done well.

For Nintendo, handheld tilt gaming was a fanciful tangent; when the genre was exhausted, they were able to retreat to traditional controls. This option is unfortunately—and maybe fatally—absent from the iPhone, potentially relegating it to the unfortunate status of a impressive, elaborate gimmick.

As seen in the video, controlling Mario is fairly natural, though quick turns and exact jumps are difficult to execute (playing Mario with the stock controls is often worse, though). Bomberman sort of works, but in that case—and many others—the old touch control overlay is much easier. Obviously none of these games were designed with tilt control in mind, but a surprising number are at least playable. Add this to the pile of reasons we still want an active app black market. NES.app 2.3.0 with tilt control is available now in Cydia. [NES.app]

Sorry, Chris. Hate to break it to you but the Russians have you beat. Their capsule pulled 10 G's reentering Earth's atmosphere the other day and they weren't even trying. Literally. [Pyroelectro via Neatorama]

Its 135-degree field of view camera gets hung on your windscreen, with all the accelerometry going on inside the 4.5 x 3 x 0.8-inch black box itself. Honda hopes this system will turn you into a safer driver, though we imagine it might also make insurance claims a little more straightforward. You can also switch on recording just for the hell of it, and amuse your friends with a show later: "Hey, check out that braking after I missed the red light." Available in Japan for ¥54,600 (around $500), and, sadly, only if you have an Honda car or your name is Jenny or Debra.

Hey, it's Friday. [Honda via Gizmodo Japan]

By utilizing the accelerometers built into devices such as the iPhone or MacBook, this new feature can look for certain movements that are characteristic of theft. In the event of your iPhone or MacBook being stolen, it could either turn on an alarm, lock itself up or even a combination of the two.

What we want to know is what exactly these characteristics are that differentiate thievery and just irrational movements caused by the user? We can just see the alarm triggering in the middle of a call, because an angry bee was chasing us.

Patent interface drawings after the jump.

– Ben Longo

Apple Patents Anti-Theft Phone [Loop Rumors via Apple Insider]

Essentially, the "Mightier Mouse" will use two different mechanisms to track movement. The first, that we already know and love, is the optical tracking sensor. This will stay intact. The new feature will be the accelerometer, as you've seen in the Wiimote. The patent explains that motion detection is a far more energy efficient tool of tracking than older methods, and when periodically compared (even calibrated?) to the optical information, can function with accuracy.

I'm all for energy efficiency and the continuous innovation of the products we use every day. Plus, I just love the word "accelerometer". We'll see how this plays out. – Mark Wilson

Patent Info [via slashgear]