iAlertU is a free alarm system for Intel Mac laptops and works like this: you activate the alarm via your remote or a menu, and if your Mac is moved or disturbed the screen starts flashing and a blaring an alarm sound. How does it do this? It uses your Mac’s built in SMS sensor to detect any movement of your Mac. If you spend a lot of time in libraries, coffee shops, or any public place, this app could really come in handy. While iAlertU is a really fun and creative program, be aware that it is beta software and therefore subject to some issues.

The latest version of iAlertU is 0.21b, and although the functionality to take an email a picture was added in 0.19, I couldn’t get it to work properly on my MacBook. In fact, the iAlertU application would just crash completely, and the alarm would stop. Bottom line, this is still beta software but a great idea, so be sure to test the options out for yourself.

Feature list

• Captured photo can now be emailed automatically to a user specified address
• Camera image capture improved
• May work on other Apple computers other than the MacBook line (this is untested)
• Added Sparkle framework for automatic update functionality
• Arm and disarm iAlertU without the remote
• Alarm now activates when power adapter is removed
• Alarm continues to sound after lid is closed
• Alarm status screen (last alert time, alarm type, number of activations)
• Flashing screen
• Adjustable motion sensor sensitivity
• Adjustable alarm duration
• Mute button disabled when alarm is sounding

System requirements

• MacBook or MacBook Pro
• OS X 10.4 or higher
• Quicktime 7.1.3 or higher
• Apple Mail.app configured with a working email account for photo email functionality
• Note iAlertU may work on other Macs but this has not been tested.

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(screenshots borrowed from iAlertU site)