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]

We first talked about the Ouya game console back in 2012. That console first turned up on Kickstarter seeking the money to bring the Android games you like to the big screen in the living room. A few years and a lot of pledges later, the Ouya console has been available to gamers for a while now.

Ouya has been criticized for controller lag issues in the past and has announced a new version of the console to address some of the complaints. Ouya says that the new version of the console has a “refined” controller. We don’t know what that means, there is no clear indication of what exactly was refined.

The new version of the Ouya also gets 16GB of storage, improved Wi-Fi, and new firmware. The new version of the Ouya is available for $129(USD). The standard version is still offered for $99 with 8GB of storage. It’s unclear if the controller refinement will eventually come to the 8GB version.

[via Kotaku]

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We know that 3D printers can print objects out of plastic, food, animal tissue and metal. Now a company called Mark Forged claims that its upcoming Mark One 3D printer can print using carbon fiber, the wonder material known for its high strength-to-weight ratio and cool looks. Something tells me this printer will hit a high money-to-ink ratio as well.

The Mark One can print objects with carbon fiber at up to 200 microns thick. It can also print using PLA, fiberglass and nylon at up to 100 microns, so you can make objects mainly out of those cheaper materials then reinforce or decorate them a bit with carbon fiber. You can check out the printer’s other specifications on Mark Forged’s website.

The Mark One will be available this March for $5,000 (USD). Some of Gizmag’s commenters have two major criticisms about the Mark One though. First is that you can already buy carbon fiber-reinforced PLA filament. Which means you can start printing carbon fiber objects now and with your existing 3D printer.

The second criticism is that although carbon fiber is strong in itself, in high-end applications the material is molded – i.e. the fibers are aligned and woven – in ways that maximize certain properties, one of which is strength. In other words, a 3D printed carbon fiber object may not turn out to be as strong or durable as other carbon fiber products.

For my part, I’m worried that future customers will be able to buy the Mark One’s carbon fiber filament only from Mark Forged. And also that folks are more excited about this than the one that prints pizza. Folks. THIS ONE PRINTS PIZZA. Why is that not receiving funding from all living organisms in the universe?

[via Gizmag]