(You're reading all posts by Nicole Martinelli)
About Nicole Martinelli
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+. If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple-related, email her about it.(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)
Meet The Everyman Mac Owner Crusading To Pull Change.org’s Anti-Apple Petition [Interview]
![Meet The Everyman Mac Owner Crusading To Pull Change.org’s Anti-Apple Petition [Interview]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Meet The Everyman Mac Owner Crusading To Pull Change.org’s Anti-Apple Petition [Interview]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Picture-1.jpg "Picture 1")
Mark Shields’ petition on Change.org sparked by Mike Daisey’s This American Life story earned over 250,000 online signatures and led to protests outside Apple stores across the country.
That doesn’t sit well with Paul Dost, who launched a counter petition after the TAL story was debunked. Cult of Mac reached out to Dost via email for the story behind the anti-petition petition.
Did Apple Dodge A Powder Keg In Europe With Italian Warranty Case?
Although many EU consumer laws already guarantee twice as much protection, Apple can continue to rip off customers there by selling AppleCare extended warranties.
Lawyer Carlo Piana told Cult of Mac that although Apple lost its appeal over fines for unfair business practices in an Italian court, that probably won’t affect Apple’s stance in the rest of the EU-27, although consumer laws are “harmonized” across member states.
Here’s How To Snap Award-Winning Pics With Your iPhone [Interview]
![Here’s How To Snap Award-Winning Pics With Your iPhone [Interview]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/A2008-IPPAWARDS-Michael_Hopkins.jpg "A2008-IPPAWARDS-Michael_Hopkins")
In the five years since the iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) launched, the iPhone camera has gone from disappointing to out-snapping Nikon as the most popular camera on Flickr.
As the March 31 deadline for this year’s award approaches, IPPA founder Kenan Aktulun talks to Cult of Mac about his favorite pics, the distinction between good and great iPhone photos and why apps may not help you create them.
This iPad Class For Lawyers Hopes To Settle Tiffs Over BYOD [Interview]
![This iPad Class For Lawyers Hopes To Settle Tiffs Over BYOD [Interview]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/law.jpg "law")
Carol Gerber wants to help reconcile lawyers who bring in their own iPads to work with the IT department.
Gerber is an former bankruptcy attorney who has been imparting tech training to lawyers for a decade. On the front lines of the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) movement, she’s created an iPad class approved by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board.
Robot Freedom Fighters Booted From Apple Store In Siri Liberation Plot [Humor]
With all the recent protests outside Apple stores, you might think this placard-carrying duo was taking the Cupertino company to task about labor in China.
Nope: it’s a publicity stunt for a play called Robot the Rock Opera. Members of the merry troupe of the Planet X Players descended on the Cherry Creek Mall store in Denver to promote the upcoming play.
Despite the fact that it was the day of the new iPad launch, they were allowed in and given the boot (albeit cordially) by Apple employees after handing out a few flyers about liberating Apple’s robot voice assistant Siri from “slavery.”
Cult of Mac talked to writer/director Seth Iniguez Bertoni about how services like Siri are leading to “digital servitude,” whether Siri considers the work fair labor and how the actors got that mesmerizing silver sheen.
From Silicon Valley To Shenzhen [Exclusive Book Excerpt]
![From Silicon Valley To Shenzhen [Exclusive Book Excerpt]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/800px-Shenzhan_landmark2.jpg "800px-Shenzhan_landmark2")
Mike Daisey’s NPR monologue may have misrepresented his experience at Foxconn in China, but his main findings about working conditions there ring true.
Underage workers, health hazards and debilitating overtime are findings echoed by sociologist Dr. Boy Lüthje, who has spent the last decade researching labor conditions at China’s contract manufacturers where U.S. tech giants including Apple, Dell and HP make the electronic devices that populate our homes.
(You can read Cult of Mac’s exclusive interview with him here.)
Along with a team of researchers, he’s the author of a forthcoming academic work titled From Silicon Valley to Shenzen. The data here, Lüthje notes, is from late 2009 (before the wave of suicides hit Foxconn) but the general conditions remain largely unaltered. When it hits shelves, the book will include updated comments on Foxconn and Apple, he says.
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield granted Cult of Mac permission to publish an excerpt from Chapter 4, which similarities between electronics assembly plants in Mexico, China and Eastern Europe.
Here’s What Working Conditions At Chinese Electronics Plants Are Really Like [Exclusive Interview]
![Here’s What Working Conditions At Chinese Electronics Plants Are Really Like [Exclusive Interview]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/barcode.jpg "barcode")
If you own an iPhone, laptop, Kindle, Android device, electric toothbrush, baby monitor or GPS navigator, it was probably put together by a worker in a Chinese factory.
Although Apple is currently juggling the PR hot-potato over working conditions at Foxconn plants in China, a situation made more murky by the factual takedown of Mike Daisey’s monologue, dozens of other global companies make their must-have electronics there.
For a wider perspective, Cult of Mac tracked down one of the world’s leading experts on modern labor in Asia.
Dr. Boy Lüthje is a sociologist at the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research and currently a visiting scholar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii who has spent a decade visiting factories to study working conditions at electronics manufacturers in Asia, including Foxconn.
The Economist Dropped A Story On Mike Daisey When The Facts Didn’t Check Out
Economist contributor and Macworld senior contributor Glenn Fleishman is a fan of Mike Daisey’s monologues, and was interested in writing about “The Agony & The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.”
But Fleishman spiked the story when some of the facts didn’t check out.
Apple Needs To Think Different About Chinese Workers, Say Protesters
Apple fans and journalists asking them why they stood in line overnight weren’t the only ones outside retail stores for the debut of the latest iPad.
Consumer groups protesting labor conditions at the factories in China where those shiny new tablets were made were also out making their voices heard.
Here’s How Police Departments Use Mac Tools For Computer Forensics
If you’ve ever taken apart an Apple device, you know what delicate work it can be.
Imagine trying to extract incriminating child pornography photos from a laptop and you’ll understand why tools that help you see what’s on the device before opening it up are increasingly important in law enforcement.
