After reports that Foxconn wanted to get out of the Apple business, Apple has gone ahead and started getting out of the Foxconn business, dumping its partner in human rights crime for the production of the rumored cheap iPhone. Get ready for the human-rights crowd to come out of the woodwork again on Pegatron.
Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't specifically mention The New York Times' exposé on working conditions at Foxconn in his company-wide email yesterday, but it's clear that this was the first attempt at damage control.
A year ago, we probably would've been excited about new reports that the Foxconn is starting to manufacture the new teardrop-shaped iPhone for a midsummer launch, but now we just feel weird about the whole thing.
A huge A1 story in The New York Times about safety problems at Chinese electronics factories is sure to turn up the heat on Apple as Americans become more and more aware of the true price of their beloved gadgets.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama talked a lot about bringing back American jobs as well as American ingenuity as represented by Steve Jobs. But talking about them together somehow seems oxymoronic.
Though Foxconn is spinning CEO Terry Gou's comparison of his workforce to zoo creatures as a cultural mis-communication, it doesn't change the fact that the company actually treats its workers like animals.
Apple released a complete list of its suppliers for the first time on Friday, saying some of the 156 companies with which it contracts don't adhere to its standards for labor or environmental practices, including a ban on child labor.
Now that Foxconn has fixed one pay dispute, we can't quite stop feeling guilty that the workers making our iPhones and Xboxes hate their lives so much they threaten suicide.
As American consumers ogle over shiny new gadgets at this week's Consumer Electronic's Show, the workers that make those products are threatening mass suicide for the horrid working conditions at Foxconn.
The Chinese electronics giant plans to commission 1 million factory robots by 2014
What caused the accident and what it means for Apple
A Foxconn plant near Chengdu explodes leaving two dead and several injured
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