Novelty app
SlapMac
Slap your MacBook, it screams back. Forty-eight hours from a joke to a product.
Forty-eight hours from zero to release — app, landing page and licensing. · source
What it is
SlapMac reads the accelerometer in an Apple Silicon MacBook and plays a sound when you hit it — 160-odd clips across nine packs, plus screen-crack animations, a USB alert, a break timer and a slap counter. It costs $9.99, frequently discounted through codes.
It exists because a reel of Tonino Catapano slapping his laptop and making the noise himself went viral on Instagram. He then built the thing people in the replies were asking for. His own account of it: "Swift app, landing page, licensing – everything. 48 hours from zero to release."
It is the cleanest example in this directory of the whole shape — no company, no funding, no plan. A joke that got attention, turned into a paid product inside two days, while the attention was still there.
Timeline
- 26 Mar 2026A reel of him slapping his MacBook goes viral on Instagram.
- 28 Mar 2026Released 48 hours later. #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt.
- 31 Mar 20267,000+ installs and over $5,000 in sales, three days in.
- 22 Sept 202630,000+ downloads. An iOS version is rejected by Apple as a clone of its own clones.
Founder
App developer in Amsterdam. Built SlapMac in public, which later cost him — clones reached the iOS App Store before his own version did.
How it broke out
The video came before the product. Catapano posted an Instagram reel of himself slapping his MacBook and supplying the noise; it went viral, and he built the app the comments were asking for.
Then it went again: roughly 3M organic Instagram views and 23,000 landing-page visits in the first week, #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt with 472 upvotes, and pickup on 500+ US radio stations.
28 Mar 2026 · the post
Paid advertising
We have not checked this app for paid advertising yet. That is not the same as finding none.
In the news
- SlapMac: Slap your MacBook. It screams back. That's it.
#1 Product of the Day, 472 upvotes.
- This app makes your MacBook moan when you slap it, and it's going viral
Confirms the 48-hour build, 7,000 installs and $5,000 in the first three days.
- Developer created SlapMac and made $5,000 in three days
- Apple rejects the iOS version as spam — because the clones got there first
Building in public meant the copies reached the App Store before the original.