For years now, hotel chains have been toying with alternative ways to letting patrons check-in, access their room and run up their bill with all-too-convenient in-room services. Marriott began testing smartphone check-ins way back in 2006, and select boutique locations (like The Plaza Hotel in New York and Boston’s Nine Zero) have relied on RFID, iris scanners, biometric identifiers and all sorts of whiz-bang entry methods in order to make getting past a lock that much easier (or harder, depending on perspective). This month, InterContinental Hotels Group announced that they would soon be trialing OpenWays at Chicago’s Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center, enabling iPhone owners to fire up an app and watch their room door open in a magical sort of way. Other smartphone platforms will also be supported, and as we’ve seen with other implementations, users of the technology will also be able to turn to their phone to order additional services, extend their stay or fess up to that window they broke. There’s no word on when this stuff will depart the testing phase and go mainstream, but we’re guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later. Video after the break, if you’re interested.

Continue reading OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’

OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Plenty of other VoIP apps have managed to work in this functionality since Apple / AT&T started allowing it last year, but the official Skype app has been a notable holdout. Now, two months after Skype started doing 3G calls on Android with Verizon, there’s a 2.0 version of the app for iPhone that brings voice calls over 3G at last. Mobile iPhone calls are free until August, after which you’ll need a “mobile subscription.” We’re testing out the app as we write this and it seems to work about as well any other 3G VoIP app we’ve tried: passable, not revolutionary.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

New Skype 2.0 app for the iPhone allows voice calls over 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Paul Miller

We wouldn’t have chalked up the little ol’ Pulse from Huawei to be among the first devices to get upgraded from a 1.x build of Android to Eclair, but T-Mobile’s Hungarian outpost (of all places) has taken the role of knight in shining armor in delivering the goods in the past few days. Happily, users of the Pulse in other locales will find no shortage of cooked ROMs on places like MoDaCo, so no one should get left behind here — but still, T-Mobile UK, what gives?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 2.1 officially hits the T-Mobile Pulse — in Hungary originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 29 May 2010 15:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Dell_Streak_has_an_indestructible_screen_video’; So we’ve been hearing rumors about the Dell Streak being some kind of a rugged bad boy. Word is, the Gorilla Glass display on this 5-inch slate is good enough to withstand pretty much anything a human would care to throw its way. Them’s fighting words where we come from, so we did the only thing a responsible tech blog can do — we put them to the test. Should you be brave enough to follow us after the break, you’ll come upon our best efforts to destroy our own Streak prototype, albeit with little success. Then again, the end result might be less important than the journey there, which is not to be missed.

Continue reading Dell Streak’s Gorilla Glass screen: torture tested for your amusement (video)

Dell Streak’s Gorilla Glass screen: torture tested for your amusement (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

You’ve seen it in San Jose, you’ve seen plenty of it in Vietnam, and now, apparently, you’re seeing the iPhone 4G waving at you from the center of Europe, namely the Czech Republic. We haven’t been able to corroborate that these fellas do indeed have a legitimate next-gen iPhone in their paws, but it sure looks like it. The guys from superiphone.cz have gone above and beyond the leaker’s call of duty, by taking the supposed next-gen screen under a microscope and figuring out its pixel density and display technology. According to them, the new iPhone will sport an IPS panel, much like the other handheld device Apple introduced this year, with a cool 960 x 640 resolution. This quadruples the total number of pixels from the iPhone 3GS — making rescaling of current apps a straightforward affair — while also giving Apple the right to claim the highest pixel density yet seen on a phone. You’ll find similarly zoomed-in pics of the Nexus One and iPod touch screens at the source, and the answers to all your iPhone-related questions at WWDC in a few days’ time.

iPhone 4G put under a microscope, 960 x 640 looks like a lock originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

You’ve seen it in San Jose, you’ve seen plenty of it in Vietnam, and now, apparently, you’re seeing the iPhone 4G display waving at you from the center of Europe, namely the Czech Republic. We haven’t been able to corroborate that these fellas do indeed have a legitimate next-gen iPhone part in their paws, but hey, that’s what they claim. The guys from superiphone.cz have gone above and beyond the leaker’s call of duty, by taking the supposed next-gen screen under a microscope and figuring out its pixel density and display technology. According to them, the new iPhone will sport an IPS panel, much like the other handheld device Apple introduced this year, with a cool 960 x 640 resolution. This quadruples the total number of pixels from the iPhone 3GS — making rescaling of current apps a straightforward affair — while also giving Apple the right to claim the highest pixel density yet seen on a phone. You’ll find similarly zoomed-in pics of the Nexus One and iPod touch screens at the source, and the answers to all your iPhone-related questions at WWDC in a few days’ time.

iPhone 4G display put under a microscope, 960 x 640 looks like a lock originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

You’ve seen it in San Jose, you’ve seen plenty of it in Vietnam, and now, apparently, you’re seeing the iPhone 4G display waving at you from the center of Europe, namely the Czech Republic. We haven’t been able to corroborate that these fellas do indeed have a legitimate next-gen iPhone part in their paws, but hey, that’s what they claim. The guys from superiphone.cz have gone above and beyond the leaker’s call of duty, by taking the supposed next-gen screen under a microscope and figuring out its pixel density and display technology. According to them, the new iPhone will sport an IPS panel, much like the other handheld device Apple introduced this year, with a cool 960 x 640 resolution. This quadruples the total number of pixels from the iPhone 3GS — making rescaling of current apps a straightforward affair — while also giving Apple the right to claim the highest pixel density yet seen on a phone. You’ll find similarly zoomed-in pics of the Nexus One and iPod touch screens at the source, and the answers to all your iPhone-related questions at WWDC in a few days’ time.

iPhone 4G display put under a microscope, 960 x 640 a lock? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

If the whole “smoke -> fire” adage proves true once more, it’s looking like Verizon loyalists can expect to see a Shadow at least a few milliseconds before a CDMA iPhone. Following up on months of leaks and rumors, we’ve got yet another snippet of evidence pointing towards a VZW release of the so-called Motorola Shadow. Spotted here in the carrier’s inventory database, the MB810 moniker aligns perfectly with that WiFi certification we saw earlier in the month. Combine that with the fact that this is definitely some sort of Motorola smartphone, and you’ve got everything you need to start pinching those pennies for a June / July debut. Oh, you already threw down a Benjamin for Memorial Day grub? Good luck with that return policy.

[Thanks, tuan tran]

Motorola Shadow slithers into Verizon’s inventory database as MB810 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph