Techlife News #153

PayPal, Apple and others are betting on billions in mobile payments. But so far, trying to use my phone to pay at restaurants and retailers has been frustrating. It’s easier just to pull out my plastic credit card than to figure out which card works with which app and which app works with which store. In theory, mobile-payment services such as Google Wallet are easy to use. You simply download an app and enter your card information. With Apple Pay, you can even snap a picture of the card or use the one you already use with Apple’s iTunes. Then, when you’re ready to pay, you typically hold your phone near the store’s payment terminal. The transaction is authorized through a special wireless chip embedded in many Android phones and - in…

Rapper André Benjamin had to learn to walk pigeon-toed before he could even begin to transform himself into guitarist Jimi Hendrix for writer-director John Ridley’s new biopic, “Jimi: All Is by My Side.” He started mumbling a bit more when he spoke too. But there’s one thing Benjamin didn’t anticipate when he agreed to depict the man behind Hendrix the icon, a sensitive, introverted sci-fi geek who was so terrified of singing he often turned his back on the audience. “He wore heels,” Benjamin says, “so I had to learn to walk in heels. He also permed his hair, so I had to wear curlers. Heels and curlers, around my house, like all the time.” Benjamin’s own rise to fame as OutKast’s Andre 3000 was markedly different than the rock legend he…

JOURNALISTS INVITED INTO APPLE'S TESTING LABS We should have expected it... the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have barely had the time to get into people's hands, and yet they're already subject to a pretty big controversy. You might remember the 'antennagate' scandal that affected iPhone 4, and which probably didn't even warrant 'scandal' status in the grand scheme of things. Well, what has quickly become known as 'bendgate' might be in the same category of non-issue. Yes, believe it or not... some people are complaining that their new iPhone bends when they have it in their pocket. With the larger of the two new models measuring over six inches in length, one might have imagined them to be more susceptible to bending than the smaller iPhones of years past, but…

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is getting some unsolicited advice on how to turn around the long-struggling Internet company, just like some of her predecessors who tangled with investors dissatisfied with management’s performance. In a letter Friday, activist investor Jeffrey Smith urged Yahoo Inc. to buy another fallen Internet star, AOL Inc. and take steps to reduce the future taxes on the company’s lucrative stake in China’s Alibaba Group. He also chastised Mayer for spending $1.3 billion to acquire an Internet blogging service and more than two dozen other startups during the past two years with little to show in return so far. To bolster his arguments, Smith says he has built a “significant” stake in Yahoo through Starboard Value LP. The size of the stake wasn’t quantified in the letter and hasn’t…

George Clooney married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Saturday, the actor’s representative said, out of sight of pursuing paparazzi and adoring crowds. A smiling Clooney traveled up the spectacular Grand Canal to his wedding standing coolly aboard a water-taxi, waving to hundreds of well-wishers on shore and a flotilla of photographers chasing a glimpse of his final moments of bachelorhood. With the pink sunset casting a gleam on Venice’s most picturesque canal, Clooney rubbed his hands in sweet anticipation and disappeared into the luxury Aman hotel’s tent-covered pier, where celebrity friends including Cindy Crawford and Matt Damon had passed moments earlier. The bride was nowhere to be seen. Clooney’s long-time representative Stan Rosenfield announced in one sentence some 2 1/2 hours later that the wedding had taken place. It is expected to be the…

MAIN SLATE SELECTION NOW CHOSEN Who doesn't appreciate a film festival? If you're a cinema fanatic, you've always had a good choice of such events here in America, with the Sundance and Toronto festivals being the perfect place to discover what you'll be chomping on popcorn to for the year ahead. However, let's not forget another of the must-see events in this vein, the New York Film Festival. It's back on the streets of the Big Apple from September 26 to October 12, for its 52nd running - so what better time to reflect on the delights of an event that has been described by Indiewire as "the granddaddy of American festivals"? Indeed, it's been running since 1963, with the showcased films being selected by the city's Film Society of Lincoln Center. The…