Top 6 Gsensor Apps for Windows Mobile

Taking their lead from the success of the iPhone and the deluge of software and widgets available from the AppStore, these gsensor developers have given iPhone-like fun to Windows Mobile users.

I’ve put together a list of the best of these gsensor apps, games, applications and curiosities, each of which are perfect for showing off the capability of your HTC Touch Diamond, Samsung Omnia or similarly equipped Windows Mobile 6.1 device.

The secret of the old Nintendo Super Mario Bros games was jumping – jump on the platforms, jump on the clouds, jump on your enemies. The secret of BeMario is also jumping, and this is achieved not by pressing buttons but by moving your phone!

BeMario can be sent up into the clouds, and as long as he passes the red line across the screen, the movement is classified as a jump. There is no score, however – BeMario is really nothing more than a fun way of seeing how good the g-sensor in your phone is.

There have been several versions of this made available for Windows Mobile g-sensor-equipped devices, but this is by far the slickest, even including the Star Wars theme tune.

To activate, simply tap the onscreen lightsaber handle and the blade appears with a whoosh!

To enjoy, move your phone around, like it’s a real lightsaber, and listen to the amazing sounds! DiamondSaber is best enjoyed by multiple users of mobile lightsaber software!

This is one of those applications that you think “wow – brilliant!” and then spend ages trying to find a really good use for it despite the fact that you become addicted to its ingenuity. I’m sure there must be a really good reason for me to sit using my mobile rather than my wireless mouse to interact with my desktop PC, but I haven’t yet found it.

GRemote allows the user to control their PC or laptop via a console on the touch display of their Windows Mobile handset. Working via WiFi or USB the application offers 5 different interfaces from a laptop style mouse to game controllers.

What is particularly pleasing is the haptic feedback response the phone’s touchscreen provides when you click on a button.

The available interfaces are:

1. Mouse - mouse control similar to the Logitech MX Air
2. Touchpad – emulation of a laptop touchpad
3. GPad – this is built especially for interaction with Windows Media Center
4. GMedia – provides a set of multimedia keys for Windows Media Player, such as volume, play, next/previous track, etc.
5. Keyboard plus laptop touchpad – this utilises your device keyboard and the touchpad emulator.

I’ve even written some of this summary with the keyboard interface – although I don’t think that this the is end of desktop keyboards!

The countdown continues with Diamond Cubes. You'll really enjoy this if you're a fan of dice games. The Diamond Cubes application is a cute little dice throwing widget. Up to 5 standard dice can be selected and they are thrown by shaking your Windows Mobile g-sensor device. With a rattling dice sound effect (which can be turned off) the dice come to a rest on a green felt background.

However as with BeMario, it is little more than a bit of fun, again to demonstrate the uses of g-sensor. I certainly wouldn’t recommend any form of gaming with these simulated dice, not least because they seem to be loaded in favour of throwing a 2. Ten minutes of trying, and not one snake eyes!

Touchdown is a cool helicopter game, where the aim is to guide the helicopter beyond some obstacles and enemy missiles to a safe landing area.

Control of the armoured and heavily armed helicopter is either via touchscreen, the phone control pad or by motion sensitivity. It’s difficult to begin with, but ultimate satisfying. Two levels currently exist, with more to come.

This amazing application allows the navigation through your Windows Mobile 6.1 GUI via simple hand gestures!

It utilises the g-sensor to control a cursor which highlights each onscreen button in turn, as well as detecting movement (such as left to right) to run through the Windows Mobile 6.1 TouchFlo 3D interface. Complete with calibration software, GController is another useful application that shows the path that mobile devices will be taking in the near future.

This is a great set of software, and developers are only just scratching the surface of what is possible with the g-sensor on the modern Windows Mobile devices. There’s much more to come from this exciting technology. All of the software reviewed in this article can be downloaded from FreewarePocketPC.net.