Techlife News #154

Apple is expected to step up its efforts to boost recently slumping iPad sales with the unveiling of its latest tablet computer at an Oct. 16 event. The showcase also is expected to feature an update to the operating system for its Mac computers and the possible release of a new digital payment service called Apple Pay. The company’s new iPhones released last month include a wireless chip equipped to make the payments, but the service isn’t available yet. In keeping with its usual practice, Apple Inc. isn’t saying what’s on the agenda. Instead, a cryptic invitation sent Wednesday to reporters and analysts simply said: “It’s been way too long.” This is the time of the year that Apple typically releases its latest products to cash in on the holiday shopping season.…

“Annabelle” couldn’t scare off “Gone Girl” at the weekend box office. The Fox thriller starring Ben Affleck as a man whose wife goes missing overcame the Warner Bros. possessed-doll horror movie with a $38 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. Both films join the recently released “The Maze Runner” and “The Equalizer” in crossing the $30 million mark this fall, a typically low-earning season at the box office. “It was virtually a photo finish,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. “These two movies couldn’t be more different. It shows how if the marketplace presents a diversity of product, audiences will come out. It’s the third and fourth $30 million debut of the past two weeks. It’s been a great post-summer run.” “Gone Girl” is based on the best-selling novel…

It’s a tough challenge for the National Football League to entice fans off their comfy couches and into stadiums when ticket prices are almost as high as the sport’s TV ratings. The temptation to stay home goes beyond cost. Equipped with high-definition televisions, Wi-Fi and laptops, tablets and smartphones, fans at home can watch multiple games on Sunday while simultaneously checking their fantasy rosters and celebrating (or taunting) friends via text. So when the owners of the San Francisco 49ers drew up plans for the team’s new $1.3 billion stadium, they tapped the ingenuity surrounding their Silicon Valley home. The result? Levi’s Stadium is home to the first mobile app designed to enhance every aspect of a fan’s stadium experience, from steering fans to their parking spots to identifying the least-crowded restrooms.…

Actor and comedian Steve Martin is the honoree for the 2014 Lifetime Achievement award from the American Film Institute, the organization said on Friday. Martin, 69, will receive the award recognizing his prolific career spanning four decades at a gala in June 2015, televised on Turner Broadcasting’s TNT. “Steve Martin is an American original,” said Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI’s board of trustees. “He is a multi-layered creative force bound by neither convention nor caution. His work is defined by him alone, for he is the author – and a national treasure whose work has stuck with us like an arrow in the head.” Martin, born in Waco, Texas and raised in Southern California, rose through the ranks of comedy from performing magic at Disneyland to becoming a writer for “The Smothers Brothers…

Hewlett-Packard is splitting itself into two companies, one focused on its personal computer and printing business and another on technology services such as data storage, servers and software, betting that it can drive faster sales growth with more-focused operations. Hewlett-Packard, like other PC makers, has struggled as customers shifted toward smartphones and tablets and away from desktops and laptops. It also has been shifting its services business toward cloud computing opportunities as fewer customers opt for traditional data storage. The company has posted revenue declines in 11 of the past 12 quarters and laid off tens of thousands of people in recent years as it attempts to cut costs. HP hopes that the two units will be worth more separately and be able to grow more quickly apart than they can together. The…

Though she’s long considered one of the great cinematic heroes, Ellen Ripley has generally been a forgettable one when it comes to video games. Steely in her beliefs yet unafraid to show emotion and a friend to felines, the character made famous by Sigourney Weaver in the “Alien” films possesses as much thoughtfulness as action-star bullheadedness. It’s a combustible cocktail of very human emotional traits that until recently were not easily translated into action video games. But is it any wonder the video game industry has struggled to turn “Alien,” especially the 1979 sci-fi horror film of the same name from Ridley Scott, into a notable game? After all, it’s a story in which firing a gun at the enemy, one that bleeds corrosive acid, is essentially suicide. So guns, the favored…