Quick and easy — that's how we roll with this week's Top 5, succinctly answering that ever-present query: What's up?
1. Check Into a Hotel, Unlock Your Room with Your Cellphone
No more waiting around at the hotel front desk, wondering why it takes a clerk 300 keystrokes just to give you a room key. Finally, you'll just walk straight to your room, tap an icon on your smartphone, and you're in. It's starting now with a pilot program at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm.
Via Engadget
2. Logitech Unveils Solar-Powered Keyboard
Even the slightest bit of ambient light will charge up this hyper-efficient solar keyboard from Logitech, available later this month. The $80 Logitech Wireless Keyboard K750 can run for three months in total darkness, and it's just a third-of-an-inch thick.
Via Logitech
3. Mercedes Tests Switchable Transparency Roof
Push a button on next year's Mercedes-Benz SLK, and its glass roof can be darkened like a pair of sunglasses. There's good reason why they're calling this optional feature a "Magic Sky Control." Could this wizardry be on the way to windows in homes and offices someday?
Via Gizmag
4. Election Covered in Real Time Using Twitter, Google, Facebook, Foursquare
There were so many ways to watch the election returns last Tuesday, I was having a hard time deciding which was the best. Statistics were flying all over the web, leaving the boring talking heads of the old TV world far behind, unless, of course, you were watching CNN's whiz-bang riot of holograms and Magic Walls.
Via Fast Company
5. Facebook Rolls Out 'Deals,' Simplifies Password Entry
Location-based smartphone features are set to explode, especially now that Facebook is jumping into the fray. Our own Sean Gallagher shows you how it all works.
Via Tech Goes Strong
