Hasta La Gadget!

The Wall Street Journal reports that working conditions are getting better at the embattled Foxconn manufacturing facility where 150,000 Chinese workers assemble iPhones and iPads for the rest of the world. According to the report, wages have been raised by 16 percent and the probation period before entry-level workers are accepted as permanent has been reduced from six months to three months. More »

The Apple supplier in China known as Foxconn has been the subject of study for safety over the past few months under the watchful eye of the FLA – today they report that the factory line is doing quite well. The Fair Labor Association has reported that more than 280 action items completed on time or ahead of schedule, while 76 will be due through July 2013. Over the course of the next year, Foxconn will need to establish that they’ve completed the remaining 76 items and the FLA is confident that they will do so.

A report from the FLA notes that Apple was the first electronics company to make an effort to join their coalition, with Universities, non-governmental organizations, and business across the spectrum having made up the group beforehand. This group is “committed to improving the well-being, safety, fair treatment, and respect of workers” and Apple joined just this year in January. Auret van Heerden, President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association spoke on Apple’s holding Foxconn accountable for FLA-approved safety practices this week.

“Our verification shows that the necessary changes, including immediate health and safety measures, have been made. We are satisfied that Apple has done its due diligence thus far to hold Foxconn accountable for complying with the action plan, including the commitment to reform its internship program.

When we finished our initial investigation in March, Foxconn promised to address concerns with its internship program by ensuring that student interns do not work overtime, their work has a more direct connection to their field of study, and they understand that they are free to terminate the internship if and when they wish.” – Heerden

Legal limits on working hours per week have been the subject of scrutiny here with Foxconn, with the group having not enforced limits before now below 60 hours. “Foxconn has already reduced hours to under 60 per week (including overtime)”, notes the FLA, and they have until July of 2013 to reach the legal limit of 40 hours per week plus an average of 9 hours overtime per week.

Other improvements to the factories that will need to be in place before July of 2013 include enforcement of ergonomic breaks, updating of maintenance policies, and changing the design of worker equipment “to guard against repetitive stress injuries.” Also included in the improvement list is the testing of emergency equipment such as eyewashes and sprinklers.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see reports leading up to this first approval from the FLA and stick around the Foxconn tag to see how the factories are doing in the meantime!

Apple supplier Foxconn gets positive FLA progress report is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It looks like people in China are just as excited about the next generation iOS device as we are. In fact, some of them are so eager to check it out that they’ve already started up lining up for jobs at the Foxconn plant in Chengdu. According to MIC gadget, despite the heavy rains over the country, thousands of people have been lining up with umbrellas outside the factories just to get a job there for the summer. Judging by the photographs, it sure reminds me of those American Idol auditions where thousands line up in the rain just for a shot at Hollywood except here they’re looking for employment.

In addition to having to stand in the rain, candidates also have to submit a registration fee of 150 Chinese Yuan (about $24) just to apply – that’s a lot of money, considering not everybody will be guaranteed a job. Another requirement for the job is good eyesight, which is understandable when you’re dealing with electronics and tiny components. The new iPad mini and iPhone 5 is rumored to be released later this year, so it would make sense for Foxconn to start production now. Would you line up in the rain to work at Foxconn if it means a peek at the next generation iPad/iPhone?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Foxconn workers asked to sign anti-suicide pledge, Pegatron to make 10M initial iPhone 5 units,

Amazon’s Kindle Fire has done a remarkable job carving out its own niche in the tablet space, and it seems a sequel is already barreling down the pipeline for a release in the coming months. That new tablet may not be alone though, as rumblings of yet another Amazon hardware project have started up once again.

After conferring with their sources, Bloomberg reported late yesterday evening that Amazon is working on a new smartphone that they hope will go toe-to-toe with the iPhone and Android smartphones.

For those keeping tabs on rumors of Amazon’s potential forays into hardware, this doesn’t exactly come as a surprise — Citi analysts Mark Mahaney and Kevin Chang first pointed at the possibility of an Amazon smartphone after a series of supply chain checks with Chinese hardware manufacturers last year. What’s more, they also fingered Foxconn as one of Amazon’s conspirators in the project, a tidbit that Bloomberg’s sources confirm.

Sadly, the report is light on some of the juicier details — what OS it runs, how far along the project is, etc. — but there’s enough smoke here that it would be a surprise if there wasn’t any fire. Bloomberg’s report goes on to say that Amazon is bolstering its patent portfolio to give themselves some cover (sadly, this is a must for smartphone players), and Amazon’s acquisition of 3D mapping service UpNext suddenly makes a lot more sense.

That said, at this point Amazon’s potential smartphone play yields more questions than answers. There’s the issue of carrier support for one, something that Amazon luckily didn’t have to deal with when they launched the Kindle Fire.

Comparatively speaking, tablets are easy — slap a Wi-Fi radio in there and you’re off to the connectivity races. That approach obviously doesn’t cut it if Amazon plans on making a splash with a smartphone, and the company will need to link up with one (or more) wireless carriers in order to give their new device some legs. There’s also an argument to be made that carriers aren’t exactly fans of rocking the boat, and the prospect of selling a phone simply because it has Amazon’s name on it may not be the most comforting one to mull over.

Successful smartphones also require a hook — be it thoughtful design, a strong spec sheet, or forward-thinking features. Again, we don’t know what Amazon has planned on any of those fronts, but for their sake it had better be something good. What they almost certainly can’t do though is what they did with the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire is a completely adequate device, but what really made it shine when it launched was its low price tag. Its sheen has begun to wane a bit since Google’s superior Nexus 7 was revealed at I/O, and Amazon is bound to face a similar situation if they branch out into the smartphone space.

Just being cheap isn’t good enough there — most smartphones are attached to multi-year contracts and have their price tags slashed as a result, so there’s literally no shortage of solid devices at nearly every price point. There is of course the possibility that Amazon will try something really novel like selling a super-cheap unlocked smartphone and let users choose their own GSM provider, but I suspect that’s a bit too off the beaten path for them.

Arguably, Amazon’s hook is their ecosystem. Easy access to Amazon’s vast stores of content combined with thoughtful integration of services like CloudDrive could make Amazon a real contender. Still, that won’t appeal to everyone, and it becomes a question of positioning at that point — serious workaholics and power users may want to find something different, but pitching the device as a one-stop shop to everything Amazon has to offer could be a boon for the all-important first time smartphone owner segment.

Much of the device’s potential appeal also rests on the operating system it runs on, and Android is a very likely choice considering their track record with the Kindle Fire. The question then becomes what will Amazon do to Android — the heavily tweaked fork seen on the Fire bears very little resemblance to the mobile OS that most of us know, and it’s not impossible to think that Amazon would do something similar for a new smartphone in an attempt to make it stand out among a sea of competitors.

All things considered, Amazon has a chance at successfully cracking the smartphone market, but they’ve got a long road ahead of them. Plenty of established players still have trouble crafting a formula to satisfy users, and Amazon has more than a little hubris going on if it thinks it can make a name for itself in this terribly competitive space. Then again, hubris is sometimes exactly what it takes pull something crazy off, so the rest of us will just have to wait and see what happens.

[Image via Shutterstock]

“Made in America.” For some reason, my parents — and the parents of many of my peers — take great pride in seeing that phrase. I’ve seen people buy inferior products just because the label on the back proclaimed that it was thrown together in one of our 50 great states instead of across some imaginary line in “another country.” Part of me wonders if people actually check to see if said claims are legitimate. As a business graduate, I fully understand the importance of producing goods within one’s borders. There’s a delicate balance that needs to be struck between imports and exports, and a huge part of a nation’s economic growth hinges on how well that balance is executed.

I suspect the generation before mine remembers a very different America than the one I’ve grown up in — one where smokestacks outnumbered high-rise buildings, and one where jobs requiring steel-toe shoes were more lauded than those requiring a fancy degree and “knowing the right guy.” Manufacturing was the backbone of America through some really, really trying times, and there’s some sense of national pride that comes along with images of swinging hammers and climbing ladders. “We built this country,” as they say.

Continue reading Made in America: could your next phone be homegrown?

Made in America: could your next phone be homegrown? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments