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Does the iPad Work in Zero Gravity?

By | June 4, 2010 | 5 comments
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One of the iPad’s best features is its ability to instantly recognize if the screen is oriented in portrait or landscape mode.  To help the iPad figure out which way it’s pointed, it relies on a built in three axes linear accelerometer which measures the direction and speed of how the iPad is being tilted.

This all works great on Earth, but what happens if you’re about to go off on the Space Shuttle to spend some time on the International Space Station? Will your iPad still work?  It seems that this was a burning question for the folks at the Swiss Television show “Einstein” so they took their new iPad up for a zero G ride to see how the accelerometer features would work. Turns out the iPad is not made for space travel.  Check out the video for the full story.

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  • http://www.sebastianhahn.de Sebastian

    Grrrrrreat! Next time I travel to the outer space, I leave the iPad at home. Does anyone really care about this crap?

    Without ever thinking I could have told you that the accelerometer will never work in any kind of zero gravity situation. But, gee, what’s the point.

    Alas, we can all rest assured, since the next version of Android will surely offer such functionality (that everybody needs and evil Apple refused to give us…)

    :-)

  • Andy

    So if the accelerometer won’t work in zero G, just switch the lock screen button on the side of the iPad to keep the screen oriented in one direction. Duh.

    • Tom

      I think you’ve misunderstood the non-serious nature of the video…

  • williamh

    That’s why Apple’s walled-garden sucks. The iPad won’t work when I go to space. That, and AT&T coverage sucks in outer space. I bet they drop calls on the iPhone in space too.

    • Bill

      good one! ;-)