Hasta La Gadget!

Hotel chain Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to start using tech as an alternative to traditional plastic hotel key cards. The hotel will allow guests to unlock their door to the room they are staying in with a smartphone.

The hotel chain has a location in NYC called Aloft Harlem and one in California called Aloft Cupertino. Both those locations will be using lock tech from Assa Abloy and the program will start in about 60 days. Guests at these hotels will be able to check in using smartphones via the Starwood mobile app. They will then get a text message with the room number and a virtual key allowing them to bypass the front desk.

The technology uses Bluetooth to open the door and works on any iPhone 4S or higher and Android 4.3 or higher devices. It’s unlikely that the program will be rolled out broadly any time soon because of the costs involved in changing lock systems.

[via Greenville Online]

If there’s one thing I’ve learned when I travel, it’s that my iPhone 5 will run out of battery before I finish the day. When I’m at home, it’s fine, but out and about, I find that searching for networks, GPS, and other everyday usage burns through battery like it’s nobody’s business.  These days, it’s almost a requirement that you travel with a spare battery or backup power source of some kind.

I’ve been using a Mophie Juice Pack Air for a while now, but I’ve had various problems with mine, so I’ve been looking for alternatives. So when I had a chance to check out the new Jackery Leaf battery case for the iPhone 5/5S, my curiosity was piqued for sure.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Jackery Leaf is that it’s a very different design from other battery packs on the market. Its true innovation is that when the battery is removed, your phone is still protected by a case.

In fact, the cases are interchangeable, and the Leaf comes with both a black and an orange iPhone case for you to swap around.

Once you’ve slipped your iPhone into the case of your choice, simply slide the case onto the keyhole hook on the Leaf’s battery back, ensuring the Lightning connector is docked and you can use the battery to juice up your phone. But if you want to travel light, you can just as easily slip the phone off the back, and it remains in its case. While the look isn’t quite as seamless as other battery cases, the convenience far outweighs that minor tradeoff.

With both battery and case snapped together, its total dimensions are 5.4″(L) x 2.4″(W) x 0.7″(H), providing the sometimes too lithe iPhone 5/5S with some much needed substance. The case itself only adds 0.625 ounce to your phone, while the battery and case combo adds 3.375 ounces. This is a tad more than the 2.75 ounce weight of the Mophie Juice Pack Air, but I didn’t notice it in everyday use. Plus, the Leaf has a larger capacity battery. Keep in mind that with the battery on, you may have to use the included headphone extension cable depending on how long and narrow your headset plug is.

Charging the Jackery Leaf is easy – just plug the included microUSB to USB cable between the case and a spare USB port or charger, and it’ll fill up in about four to five hours. Like the Mophie, I’d rather see a Lightning charging jack, but I’m assuming that using one for charging would drive the price up. The case also offers pass-through charging of your iPhone, so you can leave the case on all the time even if you are only using the internal battery of your iPhone most of the time. The iPhone charges first, then the case.

Turning the battery on or off is achieved by pressing the flat button on the back of the case for two seconds. Tapping that button will illuminate to indicate how much power the pack has using a multi-color LED. The 2400 mAh battery inside was enough to juice up my iPhone fully, and then give it another 35% or so after that. A full charge of the iPhone takes about three hours, but you can keep using your phone right away if it’s low on battery and you enable the Leaf, which I did on several occasions when my iPhone dropped down into the nerve-wracking 10% zone.

I really have nothing bad to say about the Jackery Leaf. It offers an innovative interchangeable case design, carrying flexibility, enough battery to charge your iPhone fully (and a little more) and is an all around good deal when compared with its biggest competitor.

In addition to the black and orange combo pack, Jackery is also offering a version with a white and an orange case. Hopefully, they’ll offer more interchangeable cases down the road, in case your case gets damaged, or if you just want a change of color. Regardless, the very fact that you can keep your phone in a case and then dock it with the battery is a big advantage over other battery cases.

The Jackery Leaf lists for $99.95(USD), but is currently on sale for just $79.95 over on Amazon. I’m not sure how long that price will hold, so you should take advantage of it sooner rather than later.

How do you compete with a giant like Apple’s iPad? Well, if you are Samsung, you form a strategic alliance with the coffee company Illy. As a part of the deal Illy coffee shops will put Samsung’s latest tablets on display. That way, people can try them and then decide to buy them.

Illycaffè shops will have a Samsung display booth demonstrating the new tablets, like the Galaxy Note 10.1. It provides a relaxed environment where users can get to know the tablets. Customers visiting the Illy coffee shops will be assisted by ‘Samsung Angels’ who will demonstrate the tablets and its features. That just sounds weird. Unless they are like Victoria’s Secret angels. I’m all for that.

London’s Illy shop was the first to start with the service, but right now the tablets don’t have any special apps for the coffee shop except for the price list. The deal will also have some Illy coffee shops being set up in Samsung showrooms. Desperation or innovative thinking? You be the judge.

[via C|NET via New Launches]

If you find most styluses in the market too big for your pocket, bag, or wallet, then you might want to look into Elektra Nails. It’s the most compact stylus we’ve seen yet – and a wearable one, at that.

Elektra Nails is essentially a stylus in the form of a nail that people can put on their fingers. In a sense, it turns a person’s finger (or rather, their nail) into a stylus so they can draw, write, and doodle with nothing but their digits.

The nails come in a neutral color, so guys can leave them as is while girls can paint over them with nail polish to customize them.

Made by Tech Tips, the Elektra Nails will be sold in packs of six and will come with six index fingernail styluses, adhesive strips, glue, a cuticle stick, and a prep pad for $14.95. They will be available by the second quarter of 2014.

[via C|NET]

Go ahead Android users, roll your eyes. But this is new territory for iOS gamers. A jailbreak app called Controllers for All makes the PlayStation 3′s Dualshock 3 controller compatible with all games use the controller support introduced in iOS 7. So all those new MFi controllers? You can forget about them now.

Assuming you already have a jailbroken device running iOS 7, all you need to do is download Controllers for All, pair your Dualshock 3 controller with your iOS device by following these simple steps and you’re good to go. Here’s a mouth-watering demo video from the app developer, Ori Kadosh:

All current MFi controllers cost about $100. A Dualshock 3 controller costs $35 (USD). Controllers for All costs $2. Jailbreaking is free. You do the math.

[via ModMyi via Touch Arcade]