Shake Your N95 To Read Your Messages

Since the iPhone came out, accelerometer-based applications have been all the rage, specifically in the S60 world, since Nokia admitted the popular N95, as well as the recently launched N82 features a built-in accelerometer, and made it easy for developers to take advantage of this. The newest application to make use of the chip’s motion-sensing technology is called ShakeSMS. If you’ve got your N95’s key locked, and you receive an SMS, rather than unlock the keys, click to open the message, then exit out and re-lock the keys, with ShakeSMS all you need to do is give your handset a quick shake. The first shake will bring the message up on your screen, so you can read it, and then shake the handset again to re-lock the keys.

Here’s a video if you want to see the application in action.

I realize this is essentially a pretty gimmicky application, but it goes to show that there’s some really creative people out there looking at accelerometers as a completely new and innovative way of interacting with our mobile devices. Another developer, Samir, has developed applications that rotate the display, as well as allowing you to flip the phone over to silence the ringer, and use the accelerometer to navigate through the menus. In the argument over hardware keys vs. touchscreen, accelerometers certainly bring a whole new world of interesting abilities.