gyroscope

It's skinny , it's fast , and it can do some seriously fun stuff with itsaccelerometer. Yes, we're talking about the Galaxy S II , Samsung's upcoming followup to one of Android's biggest successes to date, the Galaxy S. The new handset will bring with it a revised version of Sammy's Android skin, TouchWiz 4.0 , which will harness the motion sensors inside the phone to allow you to zoom in and out of webpages as well as navigate the UI with the movement of your hands. Basically, instead of the traditional pinch-to-zoom, resting two fingers atop the screen will allow you to zoom in by bringing the S II closer to your face or zoom out by holding it further away -- a naturalistic gesture that makes all the sense in the world to us. Moreover, when adding new widgets to your home panels, you'll be able to move between them by propelling the phone laterally. It's quirky and appealing stuff, see it on video below.[Thanks, Lawrence]We initially thought this was done using the gyroscope inside the Galaxy S II, but as commenter ClioCreslind helpfully points out, it's far likelier that Samsung's using the phone's accelerometer to achieve its new fanciness.