Money in a Minute – Today’s Headlines From the World of Money

Your phone is starting to replace your wallet

CNN Money: After Starbucks announced last week that you can now use a phone app to pay for your coffee, CNN/Money adds four more ways smart phones can replace your wallet. Included: a new app that enables you to use your phone to instantly transfer money to your friends (ideal for splitting a restaurant check when you don’t have any cash); use your phone to order – and pay for – snacks from your stadium seat; and a tiny credit card scanner that allows you to accept plastic.

3-D television – A dizzying choice?

AP via Yahoo! Finance: “From Hollywood studios to Japanese TV makers, powerful business interests are betting 3-D will be the future of entertainment, despite a major drawback: It makes millions of people uncomfortable or sick.”

Wal-Mart promises to trim your waistline along with your food bill

USA Today: “Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest grocer, says it will reformulate thousands of products to make them healthier and push its suppliers to do the same, joining first lady Michelle Obama’s effort to combat childhood obesity.”

New York raising money like everyone else – Selling stuff on eBay

New York Daily News: “The Empire State is in an eBay state of mind – to make some cash. The deficit-ridden state government pocketed $1.3 million last year by selling its unwanted junk to hoarders across the nation through the online auction site eBay, the Daily News has learned.”

That was a weird vacation!

Time – “There’s a growing trend in the world of travel and leisure, and it’s, well, weird. Hotels where guests sleep on blocks of ice or inside prison cells are on the rise, and there’s no shortage of strange at today’s restaurants either (stir-fried crickets, anyone?). Interestingly enough, when two Columbia Business School researchers looked into this phenomenon, they found an equally odd reason for it all.”

I’m not the only one who thinks it’s time to buy a house

I’ve been talking for months about buying a house while the market is down. Now Smart Money agrees – “Here are four reasons to think residential real estate might represent a bargain – with one big caveat.”