Factories Archive

  • Republican Party discovers the scourge of Internet trolls on new Web site: ‘Stop teaching about heliocentric universe, it contradicts the Bible’

    Republican Party discovers the scourge of Internet trolls on new Web site: ‘Stop teaching about heliocentric universe, it contradicts the Bible’

    Posted on May 27, 2010 | No Comments
    There's just no hope anymore. The GOP, one of the two great political parties in the United States, recently requested people submit ideas to be incorporated into the party's platform this fall. A Web site was created. And then, predictably, people starting trolling the site. "A 'teacher' told my child in class that dolphins were mammals and not fish! And the same thing about whales! We need TRADITIONAL VALUES in all areas of education. If it swims in the water, it is a FISH. Period! End of Story." Well, I'm assuming that's a troll. You never can tell anymore.

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  • Don’t cry for the workers at Foxconn

    Don’t cry for the workers at Foxconn

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    I’ve been interested in gadget manufacturing for a while now and, as I reported a few months ago, things are pretty bad but they’ve been worse. Now, however, we’re seeing clusters of suicides at Foxconn as well as an undercover “report” from Foxconn’s “Hell Factory.” I’m calling bull. First, consider that Foxconn has 400,000 employees in [...]

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  • Workers sue iPhone maker Wintek over n-hexane poisoning

    Workers sue iPhone maker Wintek over n-hexane poisoning

    Posted on May 14, 2010 | No Comments
    Forty-four workers are suing iPhone screen manufacturer Wintek for forcing them to use n-hexane, the same stuff they found in soy burgers a few weeks ago, to clean iPhone screens. The chemical causes “nerve damage and sometimes paralysis.” Chinese media is reporting a manager forced his employees to use hexane because of its cleaning properties. The [...]

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  • Nokia furloughing up to 20 percent of employees at only Finnish factory

    Nokia furloughing up to 20 percent of employees at only Finnish factory

    Posted on December 17, 2009 | No Comments
    Of its nine factories around the world, Nokia has just one in its home country -- the only one left in all of Western Europe -- in the town of Salo. As you can imagine, its well-being is probably a pretty touchy subject, not just for locals but for Nokia fans around the world -- especially when you consider that the company's highest-end devices are assembled here, making the health of the factory a bellwether for the health of the coolest models in the range. The company has revealed this week that it'll be sending home up to 20 percent of the plant's staff for up to 90 days at any one time, saying that there's simply no need for it to operate at full capacity in the current market; we say you could argue that making the right phones could lead to a need for full capacity, but what do we know? Anyhow, the move closely mirrors one that had already been made for 2009, and you could look on the bright side -- at least they're not closing it down the same way they did Jyväskylä.

    Nokia furloughing up to 20 percent of employees at only Finnish factory originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Report: Sharp and Philips agree on LCD TV deal

    Report: Sharp and Philips agree on LCD TV deal

    Posted on December 17, 2009 | No Comments
    The consolidation process in the TV business continues and now even becomes international. Just last month, Sharp inked a "historical" joint venture deal with former rival Sony, agreeing to supply LED backlights to Sony for their LCD TVs (which happened this month).

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  • Apple quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce over environmental policy

    Apple quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce over environmental policy

    Posted on October 6, 2009 | No Comments
    Seemingly overnight, Apple has become the poster child of the responsible, Green company. (Apple recently posted all the details of its efforts; Greenpeace is now BFFs with Apple.) In fact, it's so pro-enviroment (as if anyone is anti-environment!) that it just quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is a huge organization that represents business interests to the various powers that be. The USCC, however, is all up in arms about all this “nonsense” about new laws designed to protect the environment and whatnot, so it's doing its damnedest to ensure that those laws don't get passed. That's what has upset Apple.

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  • Greenpeace hates Apple, HP a little bit less today

    Greenpeace hates Apple, HP a little bit less today

    Posted on September 30, 2009 | No Comments
    Like many of you, my knowledge of Greenpeace begins and ends with that one Seinfeld episode, the one where the NBC executive, so in love with Elaine, freaks out and joins the organization in order to impress her. That is to say I don't really understand the “point” of the organization, or who appointed it the protector of the environment. But, it is, somehow, so let's roll with it. Good news for HP and Apple: Greenpeace hates you two a little bit less today! Break out the champagne!

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  • Sony loses $390.5 million

    Sony loses $390.5 million

    Posted on July 30, 2009 | No Comments
    Poof! Sony lost $390.5 million in the first quarter compared to a profit of almost $800 million in Q1 last year. TV sales are way down along with still and video cameras. Samsung, it seems, is kicking their butt.

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  • Toshiba is making a whole lot of flash memory chips this month: New iPods? Tablet-related? Puppies?

    Toshiba is making a whole lot of flash memory chips this month: New iPods? Tablet-related? Puppies?

    Posted on July 27, 2009 | No Comments
    New iPods usually come out in September, right? There or thereabouts, at any rate. Well then maybe we should look into this report that says Toshiba will “ramp up” production of flash memory chips during the month of Auguest. Word on the street is that Toshiba is doing so to fulfill a big order from Apple. So, new iPods on the way? Speculate away!

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  • On the apparent Apple suicide

    On the apparent Apple suicide

    Posted on July 22, 2009 | No Comments
    Every once in a while you get a story so strange and horrible that it takes a while to sink in. I’m talking about the suicide of a Foxconn employee who was caught doing something with an “iPhone prototype” and jumped out of the window. Matt wrote: So the story goes that a 25-year-old man at Foxconn [...]

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  • New service enables total control of factory workers

    New service enables total control of factory workers

    Posted on July 3, 2009 | No Comments
    In principle, any advance in any field of technology is welcome, but I have my doubts about this new service developed by a Japanese company called DSS. It's basically aimed at establishing a "big brother"-like control system [JP, PDF] within factories.

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  • G.S.M. Palm Pre spotted in Vietnam

    G.S.M. Palm Pre spotted in Vietnam

    Posted on June 30, 2009 | No Comments
    Waves of exultation and joy must be coming out of Saigon as the first secret G.S.M. Palm Pres begin wending their way out of the secret Pre factories in the jungles to the south. A crack team of commandoes have wrested one of these super secretive models out of the hands of an unsuspecting courier and taken video and photos of it. Remember that the Palm Pre originally came in G.S.M. flavor back at MWC 2008 and that O2 and Movistar probably have Pre exclusivity which allows us to assume the G.S.M. model will drop sooner than later.

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