Unlock hotel rooms remotely!

One of these hotels is the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm, and this hotel is currently running a trial program that allows visitors to check in and collect their room key without waiting in line at the reception. In fact, there are no keys, when you make a reservation, you get a message with a link that allows you to open door to your hotel room with your smartphone. You just need to put your phone next to your lock and that’s it, because Near Field Communication will do the rest.

Although this idea is still on trial, it sounds like this is the future for managing hotels and its guests, no mention on what mobile OS this is to work with though.

NFC mobile phones replace hotel room keys in Sweden

A world’s first pilot is starting at the Clarion Hotel Stockholm in Sweden. ASSA ABLOY, Choice Hotels Scandinavia, TeliaSonera, VingCard Elsafe and Venyon, a fully owned subsidiary of Giesecke & Devrient, have joined forces to replace hotel room keys with NFC-enabled mobile phones. The technology makes it possible for hotel guests to check-in and out using their mobile phones.

Google sues US government, says bid terms favor Microsoft

WASHINGTON, Nov 2, 2010 (AFP) – Google has filed suit against the US government claiming the terms for a large Department of the Interior contract favor rival Microsoft.

The lawsuit was filed by Google and Onix Networking Corp., a reseller of Google products, in the US Court of Federal Claims on Friday.

Google argues that the terms of the bid for an email, calendar and document collaboration system for some 88,000 Interior Department employees implicitly rule out a Google product and favor one from software giant Microsoft.