AppleMagazine #155

Some things get better with time: wine, jeans and this "smart" music player I've been using on and off for a few months. The idea behind the $399 Aether Cone is that over time, it learns your listening habits and weighs such factors as whether it's a lazy Sunday morning. It then plays what it thinks you're in the mood for. I was skeptical because my music tastes vary depending on how I'm feeling at any particular moment. But I've come to enjoy its sometimes-surprising musical tours. I also appreciate its lightweight simplicity. At 2.9 pounds and not much bigger than half a football, the cone-shaped device packs a decent stereo system into something I can easily carry around or pack into my carry-on luggage. THE BASICS The Cone needs…

First the chefs of a small Italian restaurant got mad at online review site Yelp. Instead of trying to get better reviews, they decided to take a different approach: get terrible ones. The campaign helped Botte Bistro get a rating of one out of five stars, as more than 1,000 reviewers left hundreds of tonguein-cheek reviews panning the Richmond, California, eatery, said chef Michele Massimo, adding that it boosted business. It was the latest protest among businesses who for years have complained that Yelp was extorting them by raising or dropping ratings depending on whether they advertised with the Internet’s most popular review site. Yelp has persistently denied those claims on its website, in court and at every opportunity when the question is put publicly to the company. "It wouldn't…

On his first visit to Facebook-crazy Indonesia, Mark Zuckerberg met the president-elect, spread the word about his company's global Internet-access initiative and posted a photo of himself at an ancient Buddhist temple. The Facebook CEO arrived Sunday, when he climbed Borobudur temple in Central Java and posted a widely shared photo of himself atop its stupas on his Facebook page. On Monday he met Indonesian President-elect Joko Widodo, who used social media extensively in his campaign. "It was a great conversation," Zuckerberg said. "One of the big priorities that he communicated was growing jobs and growing the economy. I think that growing the Internet and connectivity is one of the best ways we can do that." The 30-year-old billionaire is traveling to help advance the Facebook-led project lnternet.org. "We are…

NEW FAMILY MOVIE WINS RAVE REVIEWS What do you need to know about the latest American comedy film, the rather amplytitled Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well, you might want to know about that title, which is taken directly from the 1972 children's book of the same name by Judith Viorst, on which the film is based. It's also released by Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Miguel Arteta and produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Lisa Henson and stars Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner and Ed Oxenbould - and let's make no bones about it, it's the latter who plays the boy at the heart of the story, Alexander Cooper. In short, Alexander has - as the film title suggests - a terrible day, and…

New York City is preparing to end its ban on cellphones in schools, dooming an industry that sprang up near dozens of schools where teens could park their phones in a van for a dollar a day. Mayor Bill de Blasio - apparently the first mayor to have a child in New York City public schools while in office - promised to end the ban during his campaign and acknowledged last month that his own son brings a phone to Brooklyn Technical High School. He gave no date for ending the ban but said that for parents it’s “very, very important to know how to reach their kids.” The out-of-sight, out-of-mind rule is already the de facto policy at most New York City high schools including Brooklyn Tech, where Dante…

WHY THE APP STORE IS A KID'S PARADISE There was a time when you wouldn't have even considered sharing your iOS device with your child. After all, it's a big, bad world out there, and your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch was, and remains, a definite portal to that world. Mind you, there's no question that things have changed somewhat on that front in recent years. It's now much more common to see a child clutching their own iPad or iPhone in public with their family, which might bring to mind your own days of pre-teen Gameboy ownership. In response, Apple has responded to expressions of concern from families with appropriate adjustments to the App Store, all designed to ensure that kids are exposed only to genuinely suitable content. Those…