Foxconn - page 18

Labor activist Qiang Li says Apple is doing a much better job of monitoring factory conditions than Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and many others.

“I compared Apple with other cell phone companies, such as Nokia. And the conditions in those factories are worse than the ones of Apple,” he said.

However, Li says that conditions in the supply chain are not the responsibility of the suppliers themselves or the Chinese government. Apple ultimately bears responsibility, and the company should spend some of its record profits in improving conditions.

This is a guest post by Mike Daisey, who’s latest monologue, The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, is at New York’s Public Theater through March 4. We highly recommend you go see it. It made Steve Wozniak cry. The post originally appeared here.

Stephen Fry, brilliant comedian, wonderful actor, and bon vivant just posted this in his Twitter feed:

As a fellow raconteur it’s painful to have to confront Mr. Fry with this fact, but he’s being a total idiot.

He’s in good company—most of the Mac universe is in the midst of a massive propaganda campaign, trying to convince itself and the universe that the cognitive dissonance they are feeling at this moment isn’t real.

So you’re going to see some good people, like Mr. Fry, who happen to love their Apple products very much, say some horrible things because they don’t actually understand how to reconcile the beauty and grace of their wonderful Apple products with the unvarnished, verified truth of how they are produced.

It seems that lengthy report looking into the poor working conditions in Chinese factories assembling Apple products is going to haunt the Cupertino company for some time yet. The latest backlash comes from consumer group SumOfUs, which has launched a petition calling for Apple to “stop worker abuse,” with over 35,000 signatures collected in just 24 hours.

Despite recent reports detailing the mistreatment of factory workers assembling Apple products in China, there’s still a huge demand for jobs at the Foxconn factory. Thousands of people lined up for hours outside a recruitment agency in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou in the hope that they would be chosen to build iPhones at the Foxconn factory.

A Brazil-made iPad has been in the offing since July 2011. However, plans by Taiwan’s Foxconn to build the tablet in South America were held up by negotiations surrounding taxes that could double the cost of Apple’s tablet. Now comes word the government has exempted the iPad, freeing Foxconn to begin churning out iPads stamped “Made in Brazil.”

Did you know that your iPhone’s serial number says a lot about your device? It isn’t just a random string of digits. It reveals the factory in which your device was built, the year it was manufactured, its unique identifier, and more. Here’s how to decode your iPhone’s serial number.

While Apple has been actively seeking to improve the working conditions for employees at the Chinese factories manufacturing its products, a former executive for the Cupertino company believes it could do more. The trouble is, Apple’s infamous secrecy is getting in the way.

“We’re trying really hard to make things better,” said one former Apple executive. “But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”

Apple is preparing to produce its next iPhone model for release this summer, according to unnamed source at the China-based supplier Foxconn. While a number of varying sample devices are floating around, the next iPhone could include a 4-inch screen with a form factor unlike the current iPhone 4S.

The New York Times on Sunday published a provocative piece asking whether Apple has an obligation to make its products at home in the U.S.

The article describes how, in 2007, just before the iPhone hit stores, Steve Jobs angrily discovered that its screen was easily scratched. He ordered the plastic screens be immediately replaced with scratch-proof glass ones.

New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

The Times notes that General Motors in its heyday employed 400,000 U.S. workers. Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas. An additional 700,000 workers build and assemble Apple’s products, mostly in China.

Chinese manufacturer Foxconn has been the center of much criticism lately, with reports of worker suicides and the inhumane treatment of employees stirring up controversy. The issue has even reached the desk of funnyman Jon Stewart at The Daily Show.

Popular radio show This American Liferecently aired an episode on Foxconn that every Apple/technology enthusiast should listen to. Monologist Mike Daisey describes his trip to Shenzhen, China and the mini-city known as Foxconn. (And this isn’t the first time he’s spoken out on Foxconn’s behalf.) It’s an incredibly interesting look at where our gadgets come from and the people that make them.

Facing a storm of criticism over the working conditions in factories building iPods, iPhones and iPads, Apple today for the first time released the names of 156 global suppliers along with a report showing mixed success obtaining fair working conditions. One bright spot: fewer children are working on the much-prized Apple devices.

Foxconn workers at an Xbox plant in China threatened a mass suicide earlier this month after the manufacturer reportedly refused to pay compensation it had promised earlier. Today, Microsoft and Foxconn have announced that the dispute has now been resolved.

Chinese sources revealed earlier this week that Apple’s third-generation iPad is now in production and scheduled for a launch in early March. It was reported that the device would sport a long-awaited Retina display supplied by Sharp.

However, that may not be the case. According to a new report from Korea’s Electronic Times, Apple turned down Sharp’s displays after they failed to pass the company’s approval process, and decided to use panels from Samsung and LG Display instead.

Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron Technology have reportedly begun production of Apple’s next-generation iPad 3. The new device is expected to boast a high-resolution Retina display from Sharp, according to one report, with a launch scheduled for early March.

Apple production partner Foxconn has been tied to worker suicides in the past, but a new wrinkle emerged earlier this month. According to reports, a group of 300 Chinese employees building Xbox 360 game consoles threatened suicide by jumping off the roof of a factory.

Like its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch which utilize the company’s A4 and A5 processors, Apple’s upcoming television set will be powered by a custom-built chip made specifically for the Cupertino company. Sources claim that a number of manufacturers are currently bidding for Apple’s order, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL).

Wow! 2011 has been one of the most interesting years in recent memory for Apple Inc. Of course the death of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, stands out as one of the most important events of the year for Apple, but there have been a load of other stories too that have made 2011 a very memorable year for the fruit company. From one controversy to the next, to record-breaking earnings, and new products, Apple has plowed through 2011 with a steady determination to be the best technology company on the planet. Only one device underwent a redesign (the iPad), while other form factors stayed the same. Instead of focusing on making pivotal leaps forward with hardware, Apple’s main focus of 2011 was to fortify their strong foundation in the software game.

Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on the Apple in the year 2011.

Yesterday, we reported about an explosion at a Shanghai iPad 2 factory owned by Foxconn that injured 61 people, some seriously. It’s the second time in the last year an explosion has rocked an iPad 2 factory, and it’s now been seemingly confirmed that both explosions happened for the same reason: a build-up of aluminum dust in the factory area that eventually combusted.

A Pegatron plant in Shanghai, China, where rear panels for Apple’s iPad will be manufactured, suffered an explosion over the weekend which hospitalized 23 workers and injured a further 38. Though the explosion did not cause a fire, according to a Reuters report, the Pegatron factory reports there is “some damage” to machinery.

For all of the talk of Foxconn opening a factory in Brazil to churn out iPhones and iPads, here’s the big, overlooked reason that Brazilian Apple fans need their devices to be built locally: 46.76% of any Apple device’s cost in Brazil is made up of crazy import taxes.

São Paulo, Brazil – The arrival of the much-awaited Brazilian iPad may be in doubt – although our trip to the Foxconn factory showed that an local iPhone is in the works – one thing is certain: there’s a huge market for gadgets here.

Brazilians pay some of the highest prices in the world for their iDevices, but many of them buy alternatives – black or gray market goods and fakes.

Commerce hub São Paulo has a whole neighborhood dedicated to selling these off-market electronic items called Santa Ifigênia, where I paid a visit with Alessandro Salvatori of Blog do iPhone.

Toys R Us won’t even start selling the Nabi Kids Tablet until next week, but it’s already sold out in pre-orders.

Billed as the first full-featured Android platform made especially for kids, the 7-inch $200 tablet  comes loaded with about $150 in games and uses “kid-friendly” software. (Apparently they haven’t seen how adroit the tykes are with grown-up versions.)

The device, designed by FUHU and manufactured by Foxconn, is being marketed to parents who want their kids to stop messing around with their iPads.

We were fortunate enough to get an exclusive look at Foxconn’s new factory in Brazil earlier this week, where the company will join the Foxconn factory in China in co-producing Apple’s iPhone, and soon its iPad. Although the factory is already up and running, we’re yet to see any Brazilian built iPhones on the market.

That was until today, when Brazilian blog MacMagazine published an image of one of the first iPhone 4 units that was assembled outside of China.

Jundiaí, Brazil – Foxconn’s iPhone and soon-to-be iPad factory about 45 miles north of Sao Paulo is an open secret; despite all the conjecture, it’s exactly where it’s supposed to be and three curious reporters had no problems poking around.

On Oct. 31, the Brazilian telecommunications document agency ANATEL issued the OK for Foxconn to start producing mobile phones for Apple. Although the government started talks for a Foxconn plant back in April 2011, this was the first official document wedding Apple’s name with Foxconn in Brazil. After reading about the news in the Sao Paulo daily Folha, I spent about 20 minutes fudging around with my minimal Portuguese to track down the document with the exact address on the agency’s website.

Curious to see what was actually at that address, I asked (well, pleaded with) MacMais editor Sérgio Miranda to drive me there. He and Alessandro Salvatori from Blog do iPhone agreed to spend the day taking me on a wild goose chase.

Described as an “explosive development in the tablet market,” the holiday season could finally see a two-way race for consumers’ attention as the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire vie for nearly 90 percent of sales. In a survey of North Americans intending to buy a tablet, 65 percent said they plan to buy an iPad, while 22 percent said they would pick the Kindle Fire, according to ChangeWave Research results released Monday. Those percentages may look disparate, but the Kindle Fire is still proving to be a shot across the bow of iPad… and it could soon become a full broadside.