Smack Da Book

I’ve finally got a Mac. Everybody who knows me knows that I have one. I love it. It’s got a beautiful, sleek exterior, great build, a very intuitive interface, and a great hardware configuration.

Hey, you… Stop drooling… That’s MY Mac I’m talking about… You go get yourself your own piece, buster!

I’ve been using it for about a month now, and it’s taken me some time to get used to the interface. It’s great and all… but having used a PC for over 17 years of my 25 years of existence has made me partial to it’s quirks. I needed more to get me hooked. It was then that I came across Shadow Book, Smack Book and VirtueDesktops. VirtueDesktops (Download Link) is no longer in development because the author figured that Leopard‘s spaces would have more to offer. I run tiger for the moment… and I guess I’ll use VirtueDesktops until my copy of Leopard arrives (it’s in the mail).

VirtueDesktops offers multiple different desktops so that you can arrange your applications logically, into conveniently separated views. Shadow book and Smackbook then offer a very ingenious way of switching between these desktops. Smackbook lets you use the motion detector that is built into the hardware of almost all Apple Notebooks. You tap the laptop, and it Smackbook detects the movement and changes desktops; Smack Da Book.

Shadow book uses the ambient light sensor built into the Mac Book Pro to detect the light differences between the left and the right sensor. If you put your had over the left hand side ambient light sensor, the software switches your desktop. Great Stuff!

I installed the last beta of VirtueDesktops (possibly the last build of this software ever, what a shame!) and to my pleasant surprise, I found that I could activate switching of desktops using the motion or ambient light sensors from directly inside the software! Now I didn’t need Shadow book, but take a look at it in action in the video above… I wonder whether Leopard can do that!