Cool Cell Plans

OpenWays lets you turn your smartphone into a key

Openways has developen an application that allows you to open your hotel room with your smartphone. It will be compatible with most hotel lock technologies. For those that have ever had problems getting your key card to work, this is great news. This technology has the potential to go beyond locked hotel doors into other applications.

According to Openways the app uses the speaker in your smartphone to generate a specific tone that is picked up by the lock mechanism. This tone is different at each use, so there is no danger of someone recording the tone to get access.

Openways Video

Sprint Nextel is celebrating The HTC EVO, the first 4G phone in the US as its next big seller, and hopefully, one of its flagship products. There is much with the device to be admired. It boasts a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back, a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front, an 8GB microSD memory card, Android 2.1 OS and a Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

The HTC EVO is not without its problems. Some users have encountered a problem with the 8GB memory card not being accessible. Many users are finding that restarting the phone or switching out the card fixes the problem. HTC promises to send out an update to fix this issue. Like some other large screened phones, there have been complaints about battery life.

The phone retails for $ 199 with a two year contract and a $ 100 mail in rebate. Sprint will be pushing it’s Everything Data plan for $ 69.99. There will also be a $ 10.00 add-on fee for accessing Clearwire’s mobile WiMAX network.

Additional info

3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art are smartphone games that you might find on any legitimate mobile software site. What’s different about these two programs is that they are bundled with malware. The malicious software automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy along with other countries, potentially racking up hundreds of dollars in usage charges.

According to John Hering, CEO of Lookout, a San Francisco-based security firm, the victim quite often does not know their phone has been compromised until they receive their phone bills and see the huge charges, on their wireless bill

The programmers of the software also operate the premium services that the victim’s phones dial into.

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AT&T recently announced changes to data plan pricing that will go into effect on June 7th, the same day that Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone. The new pricing will be tiered in an effort to charge more for heavy data usage and less for average, more moderate to light usage.

Here is the breakdown of the data usage plans:

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Lauren Rosenberg is suing Google for directions that she claims resulted in her injuries when she ended up walking down the middle of a state highway.

Rosenberg, a native of Los Angeles, CA used Google Maps on her Blackberry to get directions from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. The directions included a half mile walk down “Deer Valley Drive” which is also knows as “Utah State Route 224″
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Up till now, iPhone customers were not able to get insurance coverage on their phone through their wireless carrier. The only way to get protection from drops, water damage, theft or loss, would be through a provider like Square Trade.

The coverage will be underwritten by Asurion and will be available on June 6 under the “Mobile Protect” product name. The plan will run $ 13.99 per month, and will be billed on a credit card through iTunes and will not appear on the customers wireless bill.

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Jason Cross writes in his article why he switched from iPhone to Android. He is joining a number of techies that are doing just that. He’s getting in line with the likes of Daniel Lyons and scores of nerds and cellular enthusiasts that are leaving their iPhones behind to join the Google Android crowd.

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More information about Windows Phone 7 is emerging from a variety of sources For example developers at XDA-Developers have been hacking into a leaked Windows Phone 7 ROM. Some of the previously used development tool are not geared to work on the revamped OS.

The XDA developers hacked the ROM of an un-released HTC smartphone called Mondrian, that runs on a Windows Phone 7 software build. Information in the code refers to Cingular, the carrier that is now AT&T Wireless. It’s likely that this carrier will be the destination for this phone. Additional info in the ROM’s contents point to additional possibilities: 4.3 inch wide VGA (480×850 px) which puts the device in the same range as the HTC HD2. The CPU could be in the 1.3 to 1.5GHz.

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The Ontario Securities Commission has accused Paul Donald, a former Vice-President at Research in Motion (RIM) of insider trading. The Securities Commission alleged that Donald made a profit of $ 295,000 after buying shares of Certicom, the target of a hostile takeover by RIM.

The Ontario Securities Commission claims that Paul Donald attended a RIM golf outing, and sat at a table with Chris Wormwalt, VP of RIM’s Strategic Alliances Group. It’s alleged that Donald learned of the takeover bid and Certicom’s undervalued share price.

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In a move following Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, AT&T is raising the early termination fee (ETF) for smartphone users. This move comes ahead of the planned launch of the new Apple iPhone 4G.

New contracts that subsidize smartphones and netbooks will have buyers paying $ 325, doubling the current $ 175 fee for breaking a contract. One consolation, the fee will decrease by $ 10 per month during the two year contract.
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