Wireless payments are picking up, but there's one sector that's lagging behind: restaurants. Right now, you usually still have to follow that cumbersome multistep process of getting a bill, giving the server your credit card, and then waiting to get the receipt back before you add the tip and sign it.

The company that turned every smartphone into a potential credit card payment terminal is taking a step into the future. Square's now taking pre-orders for the newest version of its credit-card reader, which plugs into the headphone jack on a smartphone or tablet; the $29 dongle now works with the EMV standard that's soon to become the de facto way we pay with credit cards.

Finland-based company Uniqul is preparing to release a payment system that uses facial recognition software to link a customer with his or her bank account. Instead of swiping a credit card to purchase goods (which is so painfully last-century), now you can just gaze into a camera.

Entertainment Weekly has twice now inserted an LCD screen into its paper magazine to show video ads. That's the growing pains that come when an entire medium is going through an upheaval - you get these little half-steps, a nod that, well, this thing we've used for a long time? It probably won't be around much longer. But that new things is maybe scary, or expensive, or not quite ready yet, so let's try combining the two.