MacBook: Private API measures folding angles of the display – and makes music

Not all sensors that are in the Mac are obvious: Current MacBooks have a so-called Lid Angle Sensor, which can determine the angle in which the display lid is currently. This is used for sleep mode, for example, but the API available for developers is not accessible. The developer Sam Gold has now changed this with an open source project: on GitHub he provides for it ready the codethat enables a reading.

Attention, caution, flex cable!

So far, the applications are primarily a gimmick: Gold shows on bluesky, as he does emulate a squeaky door and a Virtual Theremin (see Wikipedia). Gold also published the code for the “Theremin Mode”. However, users should be aware that if the flex cable bundle that connects the screen with the main board, you can crack, crack, crack or even break. “Don’t do that too often or you have a broken flex cable,” writes a bluesky user. “The risk is worth it,” says Gold humorously.

Incidentally, such handicrafts with hardware sensors on Macs are not new. One thing there was one of the apps that the integrated acceleration sensor (Sudden Motion Sensor, SMS), which actually served to protect the hard disk protection – and from it A lights sampled “game” made. Here, too, it was true that you shouldn’t overdo it. He tried this for about 10 seconds before he realized that he was swinging a laptop of $ 1500, another user commented.

Apple-Silicon machines creak with

The lid-angle sensor API is currently working with Apple-Silicon-MacBooks. It was tried out with an M4 model, but it should also work with M2 and M3. According to gold, there are difficulties in M1 devices-why is still unclear.

Apple introduced the current sensor in the MacBook Pro with 16 inches from 2019. MacBook-Air machines with Apple Silicon (from M2) also work with the software. Incidentally, interesting on the subject: If you install the sensor as a spare part (such as from an old device), it must be calibrated. That was For free repair companies A real problem for a long time.