Page 134 of 258

Apple reports child labor in supplier factories

Baby working for the iPod.Apple’s had a rough go with its suppliers of late. If arson, among other things, wasn’t bad enough, the company now reports that several of its suppliers have confirmed child laborers in their employ. The news came in the form of Apple’s own supplier responsibility report, which is really an attempt to clean up the company image.

The report also found that 50 factories have kept employees past than the maximum 60 hour work week and 24 factories paying below than minimum wage. Some 61% of suppliers follow their safety regulations and only 57% have the required environmental permits. It’s not great news, though obviously the child labor thing is the real kick in the pants.

Though Apple wouldn’t reveal where the infracting factories were located, it did say that the children were no longer employed. Apple is still using the suppliers involved.

Source: Bloomberg

Got A Smart Phone? Want to Gamble?

If you’ve got an I-phone or any of the other popular smart phones with full Internet capability and lots of fun applications tailor made to be downloaded by you, there may be one you haven’t thought of yet. If you love to place bets, be they wagers on the outcome of soccer matches or bets on the midweek races at a nearby track, there is an app (application) for that!

Some of the first smart phone applications for use by gamblers involved the more traditional casino games such as black jack and poker. As more people have begun downloading more apps on their smart phones, more applications that center around wagering have been developed. The best casino phone apps are usually the ones marketed by the same people who offer the best gambling web sites online, like Caesars online. Teaming their existing technology with mobile devices is just one more way the on-line gambling industry is quickly becoming the biggest business on the world-wide-web.

Of course, today’s tech-development companies are coming out with new applications to use on smart phones at a rate that might be mind boggling if there weren’t an application designed to keep track of it all. (Is there?) The smart phone has gone from a handy way to take a call and find a good restaurant to an indispensable tool for living, at least for the I-phone generation. So, it is only natural that the gambling industry would up the ante and design apps specifically for these mobile devices that enable a person to gamble from, virtually, anywhere.

Of course, when shopping for any smart phone app, you need to be sure the application will work on your phone. You also want to read the fine print in the agreement and remember that gambling is not legal everywhere. In some places, your gambling app may be illegal. If you get caught, don’t worry. There is a great app for finding a good lawyer available, too!

Apple patent points to camera control for the iPhone

iPhone camera patent.We should be seeing a new iPhone this summer, which makes Apple’s patent filings a whole lot more interesting. There’s one in particular that could make walking and using your phone a whole lot easier. Of course, it could also encourage the one hand on the wheel while the other tries to operate a touchscreen that gets so many drivers into trouble. At any rate, Apple has filed for a patent that would allow a user to navigate the iPhone interface by using gestures over the camera at the back of the phone.

The idea is that swiping one way or the other would allow you to move through voicemails, jump around web pages, skip tracks, and so on. The camera could also be tap sensitive, allowing for easy, one-handed selection in a variety of applications. Since this is all going to be built into the iPhone OS you can bet it would also show up on the iPad, though I can’t say I would find that particularly useful.

The patent is one of those rare useful filings. Since the original date on the filing was Q3 2008, we could assume that the tech would be street ready by the time Apple’s ready to make a new iPhone announcement.

Source: Patently Apple

Amazon tries to stay competitive with Apple, will need a new device

Steve Jobs in a chair with the iPad.The day Apple announced the iPad, Amazon was calling newspapers and publishers before Steve Jobs had even left the stage. As the New York Times’ Bits blog has it, Amazon wanted to hear what Apple had offered. Amazon had been trying for more than a month to sign deals with publishers that would give Amazon customers the best prices anywhere, either by matching or beating the prices given to other dealers.

Amazon tried to sweeten the deal by offering publishers bigger revenues than in the past. Unfortunately, Apple was willing to budge on a much larger issue: price. With Apple, publishers had a bit more flexibility than Amazon would give, which in turn gave publishers bargaining power over Amazon. See, Amazon will do just about anything to stay competitive with Apple.

In fairness to Amazon, it’s not like publishers want to upset that distribution channel. Amazon pretty much pioneered the ebook scene – it certainly made ebooks as popular as they were likely to become before some sort of wonder device came along – which leaves publishers keen to cater to the existing subscribers in Amazon’s marketplace until either the iPad gains enough ground or Amazon releases a new reader.

That last point is very important. If Amazon doesn’t release a new reader within the next year or so, it will pigeonhole itself into becoming solely a content provider, a position I wouldn’t think Bezos wants to be in considering he started the Kindle. Rarely would a company of Amazon’s scale introduce a middling product only to do away with it in a couple years.

Source: Bits

JooJoo delayed until March 25th

The JooJoo tablet.It’s been a while since we heard anything meaningful about the tablet formerly known as the CrunchPad. The device, now named JooJoo, has been overshadowed in a serious way by the Apple iPad. As much as I would like to dissuade everyone from buying one of these things, I know someone will. If you’re willing to dive into one of the more ridiculous tech situations of our time, though, you’ll be waiting to get your hands on your newest gadget. The JooJoo has been officially delayed until March 25th.

Earlier this month, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo Internet tablet went into full production with an anticipated on-time delivery to consumers at the end of February. Last week, the company became aware of a manufacturing issue involving JooJoo’s industry-first 12.1 inch capacitive touch screen which Fusion Garage was quickly able to diagnose and rectify. The company now forecasts the JooJoo will be sent to consumers on March 25.

The manufacturing issue centers on fine tuning the touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen. Fusion Garage will be providing all pre-order customers with a free JooJoo accessory to compensate for the delay in the delivery of their JooJoo.

That’s the official word from Fusion Garage. As nice as the JooJoo seems, the delays and impending litigation are enough to keep me away from the device. To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first of many delays.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Gadget Teaser

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑