Nexus 7's Smart Cover-like magnetic sensors
Google's Nexus 7 tablet appears to have a feature that isn't showing up in any of the official specs. Over on YouTube, user wwscoggin showed off an experiment in which he used a magnet to discover a sensor that puts the display to sleep. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it's a function that has been used in the last two generations of iPad to allow the Smart Cover to switch off the display when closed.
The Nexus 7 is manufactured by ASUS, and the company has demonstrated a case for the device that is surprisingly like Apple's Smart Case. It's unknown if the ASUS case will take advantage of the magnetic sensor to pull off a Smart Case functionality, but if it does this may add fuel to the fire for yet another patent infringement case from Cupertino.
The original video is shown below for your edification.
