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INTEREST: Security company KASPERSKY exec turns tattle-tale.....
by Wayne Billing 15 May '12

15 May '12

…..Apple has hired Kaspersky Labs (a maker of ant-virus software) to help them analyze what security vulnerabilities OS X has. The Kaspersky CTO has begun "talking out of class" about those vulnerabilities as the analysis proceeds; also, doesn't seem to know who owns JAVA and thinks Apple is responsible for fixing it……. …from: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers… Apple OS "really vulnerable", claims Kaspersky Lab CTO * * * * inShare<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…>17 * By Stuart Sumner<http://www.computing.co.uk/author/profile/1484/stuart-sumner> 14 May 2012 Comments: 4<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> [apple-store-2] Apple has invited security company Kaspersky Lab to advise it on the security of its Mac OS<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> – according to the security provider's chief technology officer. Speaking exclusively to Computing, Kaspersky CTO Nikolai Grebennikov said his firm had recently begun the process of analysing the Mac<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> OS platform at Apple's request. Further reading * Apple should open up iOS within a year, says Kaspersky CTO<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2079758/apple-ios-kaspersky-cto> * Apple releases tool to tackle Flashback malware<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2167719/apple-releases-tool-tackle-flas…> * Apple fixes 81 security flaws with iOS 5.1 update<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2158748/apple-fixes-81-security-flaws-i…> "Mac OS is really vulnerable," he claimed, "and Apple<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2174190/apple-vulnerable-claims-kaspers…> recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it," said Grebennikov. Grebennikov claimed that, in his personal view, Apple does not take security seriously enough. "Our first investigations show Apple doesn't pay enough attention to security. For example, Oracle closed a vulnerability in Java, which was a target for a major botnet several months ago." Earlier this year, a botnet of 600,000 Macs was found to have been infected by the flashback Trojan<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2167719/apple-releases-tool-tackle-flas…>, which exploited the Java vulnerability. "Apple blocked Oracle from updating Java on Mac OS, and they perform all the udpates themselves. They only released the patch a few weeks ago – two or three months after the Oracle patch. That's far too long," he said. Grebennikov pointed to the existence of the botnet as evidence that Apple needs help with its security. "This botnet, which the security community identified, is a huge sign that Apple's security model isn't perfect," he said. Kaspersky has often been quoted as criticising the security of various Apple platforms, and now will have the opportunity to improve at least one of them. This appears to be the successful culmination of a long-term Kaspersky strategy to work with Apple. A year ago<http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2079758/apple-ios-kaspersky-cto>, Grebennikov told Computing that Apple could not hope to keep its mobile platform iOS locked down without outside expertise. While he admitted that no iOS-specific malware has yet been identified, Grebennikov stated that he expects to see iPads and iPhones being infected by malware in the next year. "Our experience tells us that in the near future, perhaps in a year or so, we will see the first malware targeting iOS."

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INTEREST: (US) Judge Rules You Can’t Be (Definitively) Identified by Your IP Address
by Wayne Billing 12 May '12

12 May '12

…from: http://gizmodo.com/5907290/judge-rules-you-cant-be-definitively-identified-… Judge Rules You Can’t Be (Definitively) Identified by Your IP Address Common sense dictates that an IP address is just a number associated with a connection, and not a human being. Copyright crusaders aren't exactly known for loads of common sense and rationality. Thankfully, a New York judge has ruled<http://torrentfreak.com/judge-an-ip-address-doesnt-identify-a-person-120503/> that an IP address alone is not enough to pin illegal downloads on a specific person. The ruling comes in the context of mass torrent lawsuits that just dump thousands of IP addresses into the court and charge everyone associated with them. Cases like the Hurt Lockersuit filed against 5,000 people for downloading the movie. Judge Gary Brown's ruling isn't the first to point out that these cases are idiotic, since there is no practical way to efficiently tie that many address to the specific individuals doing the downloading, but it's by far the most detailed. We've embedded the full ruling below. …more info and the full ruling by Judge Gary brown can be found at the above link….

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PERSPECTIVE: Security firm claims Mac security fall short may be exaggerated
by Wayne Billing 28 Apr '12

28 Apr '12

…from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/kaspersky-trolls-apple-claims-mac… Security firm claims Mac security is "10 years behind" Microsoft By Chris Foresman | Published a day ago Not content to dispel the "myth" that Macs are impervious to malware last week, Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky is sounding the Mac malware alarm again this week. During the Info Security 2012 conference, he claimed that Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft on the security front. "I think [Apple is] ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told CBR. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but [Flashback] was a bit different. For example, it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms." Kaspersky suggested that OS X's relatively low incidence of malware over the last decade has caused Apple to fall behind, while the abundance of viruses, worms, and trojans targeting Windows forced Microsoft to step up its game. There's some truth behind that thinking—Windows 7 is by far the most secure operating system Redmond has built. But Apple hasn't entirely rested on its laurels for the last ten years. The company has added malware detection to OS X, continued to remove default installs of popular exploit vectors like Flash and Java, and added features like address space layout randomization (ASLR) and sandboxing to prevent one application exploit from affecting the whole system. Furthermore, Apple intends to improve security in the next version of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion. Features like ASLR and sandboxing will have a more robust implementation in Mountain Lion. Meanwhile, Apple is also adding a new feature called GateKeeper, which allows users to limit software installs to either the Mac App Store or to only verified developers. The recent hubbub over the Flashback trojan has certainly raised concerns over the security of OS X, and we agree that Apple could do more to be responsive to malware threats when they are discovered. But to suggest Apple is "10 years behind" belies the efforts it has made to secure the OS from different angles.

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FYI: Office for Mac 2011: "Please upgrade the Office database" procedure
by billing 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

…from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2702740 Share Article ID: 2702740 - Last Review: April 20, 2012 - Revision: 5.0 Outlook 2011 start error: "Please upgrade the Office database" View products that this article applies to. System Tip This article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled. Expand all | Collapse all SYMPTOMS After Service Pack 2 (SP2) is installed for Office for Mac 2011, you may receive this message: Please upgrade the Office database …but an easier to follow explanation can be found at: http://www.macworld.com/article/1166434/undoing_the_damage_wrought_by_micro… Undoing the damage wrought by Microsoft's Outlook update by Christopher Breen, Macworld.com Apr 18, 2012 1:30 pm Reader Charles Dane has entered a hellish loop of Microsoft’s design. He writes: COMPLETE COVERAGE Review: Outlook for Mac 2011 SIMILAR ARTICLES Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 Modernizing an email client Lion: The Complete Macworld Review Microsoft Entourage 2008 Panther Secrets Declassified Outlook 2011 tips that owe a debt to Entourage I installed the latest Office 2011 update and now I can’t open Outlook. When I try I’m told that I must update my Office database. I do that and some tool appears that updates my identity. When it completes I’m then told that there’s a problem with the Office database and I have to rebuild it. Okay, so I do that and then I’m told that my identity is older than the version of Outlook that I’m now using. The solution is to launch Outlook to rebuild the identity, but when i do that, the loop starts over. Help!! I wish you were the only affected party, but I’m afraid you’re not alone. I encountered the same problem as I’m sure many others did (particularly given that Microsoft issued a support documentthe same day the latest upgrade shipped that explains the way out). This is a document you should read as it outlines every inconvenient step you must take to make Outlook usable again. For those non-Outlook-using readers following along who take some pleasure in the discomfort of others, here’s the gist. First, you quit Outlook. Then, locate the Office 2011 Identities folder, found via this path—youruserfolder/Documents/Microsoft User Data. Duplicate the Office 2011 Identities folder. (My folder included more than 650,000 items that consumed 20.6GB of data. It took nearly 50 minutes to duplicate.) This is simply a backup copy should something go wrong. Now that you have a backup copy, launch Outlook while holding down the Option key to open the Microsoft Database Utility. In that window click the Plus (+) button to create a new identity—it will be called Identity 1 by default. Don’t set this identify as the default and close the utility window. Return to the Microsoft User Data folder inside your Documents folder, open the original Office 2011 Identities folder, and seek out the Identity 1 folder. Open this folder and then open the Data Records folder within. While holding down the Control key click on the Database Headers folder and choose the Copy Database Headers command from the resulting menu. Once you've replaced Outlook's Database Headers with a working copy, you can rebuild your main identity's database Return to the Office 2011 Identities folder, open the Main Identity folder, and open its Data Records folder. Choose Paste Item from the Finder's Edit menu and then click Replace All in the alert that appears. Not done yet. Now, launch Outlook with the Option key held down to open the Microsoft Database Utility. Choose the Main Identity (or whatever you’ve called your main identity) and click the Rebuild button. If you have a lot of items the rebuild process can take a very long time—time you might devote to thinking about moving to a different email client that doesn’t demand this kind of rigmarole. Once the database has been rebuilt you can go back to using Outlook. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: Oracle, Google wrangle over Android's use of JAVA
by billing 03 Apr '12

03 Apr '12

….from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-oracle-going-to-trial-as-settlement-ta… Google, Oracle going to trial as settlement talks collapse By Rachel King | April 2, 2012, 1:22pm PDT Summary: After trying to give an out-of-court settlement one last chance, it is definite that Google and Oracle will now go to trial. It’s on: Google and Oracle are set to go to trial two weeks from today now that a last-ditch attempt at a settlement has failed. Last week, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal asked both parties to give settlement talks another chance, with a decision required by April 9. Even though they had another week, it must have been clear that a settlement just isn’t in the cards. Google did propose an offer that included a cut of Android’s revenue stream through 2018, which was a stipulation for damages if (and only if) Oracle prevails on patent infringement. Grewal — the same judge who presided over similarly failed settlement talks last fall — issued a memo on Monday explained that “the parties have reached an irreconcilable impasse in their settlement discussions with the undersigned,” and that “no further conferences shall be convened.” Even more simply, Grewal wrote “in the end, some cases just need to be tried.” He also wished them both “good luck” when Google and Oracle’s legal teams meet up at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco in front of Judge William H. Alsup on April 16. This latest turn of events is just one of many in the patent infringement battle between Oracle and Google. Oracle is suing Google over Java-related patents and technology that appear on the Android mobile operating system. Google’s lawyers have repeatedly responded by discussing Google’s relationship with Sun Microsystems, Java’s creator now owned by Oracle. Google argued that Sun was a big fan of Android from the start, seeing it as a tool to “spread news and word about Java.” Since last July, there have been a number of delays to getting a trial underway with proposed failed start dates in October 2011 and March 2012.

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FYI: iOS: access to UofM EXCHANGE requires new certificate
by Wayne Billing 26 Mar '12

26 Mar '12

IST did maintenance to the Microsoft EXCHANGE environment over the weekend to improve performance. One side effect of this maintenance is the need to accept a new security certificate on iOS devices and the addition of the "ad" domain name in your email configuration for the UofM EXCHANGE account. See the image below for where to add the "ad" domain in your configuration. The Exchange Maintenance has been completed successfully. We have tested and verified that everything is working as expected. Due to the change there will be one item to note: On the iPhone/iPad (possibly other Activesync devices as well) you will need to enter the domain name now which is "ad" if you have not already done so (see image below) in SETTINGS > MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS > ad.umanitoba.ca<http://ad.umanitoba.ca> (or whatever you've called your EXCHANGE account). [cid:88E71E02-7863-48D3-A3F8-DB5F56552D6A] Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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INTEREST: This American Life #460 “Retraction” 3/16/12
by billing 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

….from: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction 460: RETRACTION Originally aired 03.16.2012 We've discovered that one of our most popular episodes contained numerous fabrications. This week, we detail the errors in Mike Daisey's story about visiting Foxconn, which makes iPads and other products for Apple in China. Marketplace'sChina correspondent Rob Schmitz discovered the fabrications. Play podcast: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcas… This American Life #460 “Retraction” 3/16/12 PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE 100% ACCURATE AND MAY CONTAIN MISSPELLINGS, FORMAT MISTAKES AND OTHER INACCURACIES. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction © 2012 Chicago Public Media & Ira Glass From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life, distributed by Public Radio International, I'm Ira Glass And I'm coming to you today to say something that I've never had to say on our program. Two months ago, we broadcast a story that we've come to believe is not true. It's a story that got a lot of attention. More people downloaded it than any episode we've ever done. This is Mike Daisey's story about visiting a plant in China where Apple manufactures iPhones and iPads and other products. He's been performing this story onstage as a monologue since 2010. We didn't commission this story, we didn't send him to China. We excerpted the stage show that he's been telling in theaters around the country. We did factcheck the story before we put it on the radio. But in factchecking, our main concern was whether the things Mike says about Apple and about its supplier Foxconn. which makes this stuff, were true. That stuff is true. It’s been corroborated by independent investigations by other journalists, studies by advocacy groups, and much of it has been corroborated by Apple itself in its own audit reports. But what's not true is what Mike said about his own trip to China. As best as we can tell, Mike's monologue in reality is a mix of things that actually happened when he visited China and things that he just heard about or researched, which he then pretends that he witnessed first hand. He pretends that he just stumbled upon an array of workers who typify all kinds of harsh things somebody might face in a factory that makes iPhones and iPads. And the most powerful and memorable moments in the story all seem to be fabricated. At the time that we were factchecking his story we asked Mike for the contact information for the interpreter that he used when he was visiting China, who he calls Cathy in his monologue. We wanted to talk to her to confirm that the incidents that he described all happened as he describes them.   1  And When we asked for her information he told us her real name wasn't Cathy, it was Anna and he had a cellphone number for her but he said when he tried it, it didn't work any more. He said he had no way to reach her. And because the other things Mike told us – about Apple and Foxconn – seemed to check out, we saw no reason to doubt him, and we dropped this. We didn’t try further to reach the translator. That was a mistake. I can say now in retrospect that when Mike Daisey wouldn't give us contact information for his interpreter we should've killed the story rather than run it. we never should've broadcast this story without talking to that woman. Instead, we trusted his word. Although he's not a journalist, we made clear to him that anything he was going to say on our show would have to live up to journalistic standards. He had to be truthful. And he lied to us. All this came to our attention because the China correspondent for the public radio program Marketplace, Rob Schmitz, who lives in Shanghai, heard the story and had questions about it, he had suspicions about it. And he went out and he found the translator. And although Mike told us her name is Anna - he now admits, to keep us from finding her - her name actually is Cathy, just like he says in his monologue. Rob ran the details of Mike's monologue by Cathy and learned that much of the story is not factual. Cathy gave Rob emails between her and Mike that corroborated her version of some of the events. Today on our show we're going to hear what she said to Rob, and then we're going to talk to Mike Daisey about why he lied to all of you and to me, off the air, during the factchecking process. And we're going to end our show with someone who actually knows the facts of what happens in Apple's suppliers in China, who’s going to review those with us. I should say, I am not happy to have to come to you and tell you that something that we presented on the radio as factual is not factual. All of us in public radio stand together and I have friends and colleagues on lots of other shows who – like us here at This American Life – work hard to do accurate, independent reporting week in, week out. I and my coworkers on This American Life are not happy to have done anything to hurt the reputation of the journalism that happens on this radio station every day. So we want to   2  be completely transparent about what we got wrong, and what we now believe is the truth. And let's just get to it. Here's Rob Schmitz, who usually reports for Marketplace, in Shanghai. [Act one. Cathy's Account.] Rob Schmitz: One of the big things that didn’t sit right with me came early on in Daisey’s monologue, when he talks about arriving at the gates of the Foxconn factory.    [CLIP] Mike Daisey: And I get out of the taxi with my translator. And the first thing I see at the gates are the guards. And the guards look pissed. They look really pissed, and they are carrying guns.   I’ve done reporting at a lot of Chinese factories, and I’ve never seen guards with guns. The only people allowed to have guns in China are the military and the police...not factory guards. Later, Daisey meets with factory workers who he says belong to an illegal union, one that’s not authorized by the Chinese government.   [CLIP] Mike Daisey: And I say to them, how do you know who's right to work with you? How do you find people to help you organize? And they look at each other bashfully, and they say well, we talk a lot. We have lots of meetings, and we meet at coffeehouses and different Starbucks in Guangzhou. And we exchange papers...    Wait, hold on. Rewind.   [CLIP] Mike Daisey:  ...we meet at coffeehouses and different Starbucks in Guangzhou. Factory workers who make fifteen, twenty dollars a day are sipping coffee at Starbucks? Starbucks is pricier in China than in the US. A reporter friend of mine didn’t believe this, either. He said Chinese factory workers gathering at Starbucks is sort of like United Auto Workers in Detroit holding their meetings at a Chinese teahouse.  I talked to other reporters over here - we all noticed these errors - and it made us wonder ... what else in Daisey’s monologue wasn’t true?      3  I decided to track down his translator, Cathy, who’s a big character in the story.     I could pretend finding her took amazing detective work.     But basically, I just typed “Cathy and translator and Shenzhen” into Google.     I called the first number that came up.  Rob Schmitz: I’m looking for somebody in Shenzhen named Cathy, and that’s why I’m calling you; who worked for a gentleman named Mike Daisey, and I’m wondering if you ever worked with a man named Mike Daisey?   Cathy Lee: Yes! He’s from America, right?  Rob Schmitz: Did you work with him?   Cathy Lee: Sure.   Rob Schmitz: So that was you, actually?   Cathy Lee: Yes.    Her name is Li Guifen, but with westerners, professionally, she goes by the anglicized name Cathy Lee.     I tell her that Daisey put her in a stage show about Apple and Foxconn. I ask her if she knows about this. Nope. She knew Daisey was writing something, but that’s it. She hasn’t heard from him since 2010, when he hired her in Shenzhen.    So I fly there to see her and the next day, she takes me to the exact spot she took Daisey – the gates of Foxconn.    [ambient noise] Rob Schmitz: You guys came here – what, in 2010?   Cathy Lee: Yeah, 2010.  Rob Schmitz: The night before, I sent Cathy a link to the This American Life episode with Daisey. And I brought a copy of his script with me to the gates.   Cathy Lee: You know, I listened to the radio of Michael Daisey. I think it’s ok he write things. But some of them he write is true, some of them he write is not true.   4  But he’s not telling the whole truth.  She says a lot of details were exaggerated...some of them were just plain made-up. We start with their itinerary: Daisey makes it sound like he talked to lots of workers - in interviews he’s said hundreds - but Cathy says it was maybe 50 people on the outside - they were just at Foxconn’s gates for two mornings. And emails between Daisey and Cathy, which she gave me, show that the chronology of the story that Daisey tells on stage is a fabrication. In his monologue he says he visited Foxconn’s gates and then decided to pose as a businessman to get tours of factories. In fact, he visited Foxconn the morning after he arrived in Shenzen a factory called KTC technology that very afternoon. It was all set up in advance.    Daisey told Ira that he and Cathy visited ten factories, posing as business people. Cathy says it was only three.    And then, there’s the guns.      Cathy Lee: You know guns are not allowed to be carried by security guards. It’s illegal.     Cathy says she’s never seen a gun in person, only in the movies and on tv, so she’d remember it.     And there are more important parts of Daisey’s story that she says didn’t happen.    The biggest is the children. Daisey describes meeting a worker from the iPhone assembly line.     [CLIP] Mike Daisey: And I say to her, you seem kind of young. How old are you? And she says, I'm 13. And I say, 13? That's young. Is it hard to get work at Foxconn when you're-- and she says oh no. And her friends all agree, they don't really check ages. I'm telling you ... in my first two hours of my first day at that gate, I met workers who were 14 years old, 13 years old, 12. Do you really think Apple doesn't know?  Rob Schmitz: did the guards have guns when you came here with Mike Daisey?   Cathy Lee: No. Definitely no.  Rob Schmitz: So he wasn’t telling the truth about that.   5  In fact, underage workers are sometimes caught working at Apple suppliers. Apple’s own audit says in 2010 when Daisey was in China, Apple found ten facilities where 91 underage workers were hired ... but it’s widely acknowledged that Apple has been aggressive about underage workers, and they’re rare. That’s 91 workers out of hundred of thousands. Ira asked Mike about this on the This American Life broadcast, and he admitted it might be rare, but he stuck by his story:    [CLIP] Mike Daisey: I know that I met people who were there. And I know that I talked to them. I mean there weren’t very many as a proportion of the total group. I talked to more than 100 people I met 5 or 6 that were underage. Ira Glass: All in one group? Mike Daisey: Yes they were. They seemed like savvy kids honestly.     Rob Schmitz: Do you remember meeting 12 year-old, 13 year-old, and 14 year- old workers here?   Cathy Lee: No, I don’t think so. Maybe we met a girl who looked like she was 13 years old, like that one, she looks really young.   Rob Schmitz: Is that something that you would remember?   Cathy Lee: I think that if she said she was 13 or 12, then I would be surprised. I would be very surprised. And I would remember for sure. But there is no such thing.    She’d be surprised, because she says in the ten years she’s visited factories in Shenzhen, she’s hardly ever seen underage workers.    Then there’s the meeting Daisey says he had with workers from an unauthorized union, a secret union. Cathy confirmed that this did happen.     Daisey told Ira that they met with twenty-five to thirty workers, in an all-day meeting. Cathy remembers two workers, she says maybe there were two or three others, and it was couple hours over lunch, at a restaurant.     Daisey describes a birdlike woman who showed them a government-issued blacklist of people companies weren’t allowed to hire. She remembers the blacklist, but she also remembers that it didn’t have an official government stamp. Anything government- issued in China carries an official stamp. So she wonders if the blacklist was real.    Here’s another part of that meeting with the illegal union, from Daisey’s monologue:    6      [PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY AND THEN CROSSFADE INTO]   Rob Schmitz: ..shake uncontrollably. Some of them can’t even pick up a glass. Did you meet people who fit this description?  Cathy Lee: No.   Rob Schmitz: So there was nobody who said they were poisoned by hexane?   Cathy Lee: No. Nobody mentioned the Hexane.   Rob Schmitz: Ok. And nobody had hands that were shaking uncontrollably?   Cathy Lee: No.     So where did this come from?    Two years ago, workers at an Apple supplier were poisoned by n-Hexane. It was all over the news in China. But this didn’t happen in Shenzhen. It happened nearly a thousand miles away, in a city called Suzhou. I’ve interviewed these workers, so I knew the story. And when I heard Daisey’s monologue on the radio, I wondered: How’d they get all the way down to Shenzhen? It seemed crazy, that somehow Daisey could’ve met a few of them during his trip.     Cathy suggests that Daisey saw reports about this in the news, and copied and pasted it into his monologue.    Which bring us to the most dramatic point in Daisey’s monologue – apparently onstage it’s one of the most emotional moments in the show. It comes at this union meeting.    Daisey describes an old man with leathery skin who used to work at foxconn ... making metal enclosures for ipads and laptops. ... he says the man got his hand caught in a metal press, and that it was now a twisted claw. He says he got no medical attention, and then Foxconn fired him for working too slowly.  [CLIP] Mike Daisey: There's a group that's talking about hexane. N-hexane is an iPhone screen cleaner. It's great because it evaporates a little bit faster than alcohol does, which means you can run the production line even faster and try to keep up with the quotas. The problem is that n-hexane is a potent neurotoxin, and all these people have been exposed. Their hands shake uncontrollably. Most of them...can't even pick up a glass.   7    [CLIP] Mike Daisey: And when he says this, I reach into my satchel, and I take out my iPad. And when he sees it, his eyes widen, because one of the ultimate ironies of globalism, at this point there are no iPads in China. .... He's never actually seen one on, this thing that took his hand. I turn it on, unlock the screen, and pass it to him. He takes it. The icons flare into view, and he strokes the screen with his ruined hand, and the icons slide back and forth. And he says something to Cathy, and Cathy says, "he says it's a kind of magic."      Cathy Lee: No. This is not true. You know, it’s just like a movie scenery.   Rob Schmitz: it sounds like a movie.   Cathy Lee: yeah. Very emotional. But not true to me.    Cathy does remember this guy. But she says the man never told them he had ever worked at Foxconn.    There are other details of Daisey’s monologue Cathy says never happened when she was with him: The taxi ride on the exit ramp Daisey says petered out into thin air 85 feet up off the ground. The workers with repetitive motion injuries. The factory dorm rooms Daisey claims they saw. Cathy says they never saw any dorm rooms. The emotional conversation between them, where Daisey touches her hand. Didn’t happen that way, she says. Even the conversation where Cathy warns Daisey that interviewing workers at the gates of Foxconn wouldn’t work....of course it would work, she told me. She’s taken other foreigners to Foxconn and other factory gates for years — it’s part of her job. It always works.    Now of course Cathy’s memory isn’t perfect. This was nearly two years ago - June 2010 - and neither she nor Mike took notes. On some of these things, her memory’s hazy. She didn’t seem mad at Mike at all.      Cathy Lee: He is a writer. So I know what he say is only maybe half of them or less actual. But he is allowed do do that right? Because he’s not a journalist.   Rob Schmitz: I don’t know. You’re right. He’s a writer. He’s a writer and an actor.   Cathy Lee: Yeah.  Rob Schmitz: However, his play is helping form the opinions of many Americans.   Cathy Lee: Um....As a Chinese, I think it’s better if he can tell the American   8  people the truth. I hope people know the real China. But he’s a writer and he exaggerate some things. So, I think it’s not so good.    Rob Schmitz: I wanted to talk to you about what you saw in China....     It’s a week later. I’m in my tiny Shanghai studio talking to Mike Daisey, who’s sitting in This American Life’s studio. Ira’s there too - with questions of his own.    Rob Schmitz: How many factories did you visit when you were there?    Mike Daisey: I believe I went to 5.    Rob Schmitz: You told ira 10.    Mike Daisey: I know. Rob Schmitz: OK. Mike Daisey: But, now that I’m looking at it, I believe it was 5.     Cathy remembers three.    Daisey also revises the number of illegal union members he met. He originally told Ira 25 to 30. Now he knocks it down to ten. Cathy remember, said it was between 2 and 5.    I ask Mike about the underage workers. I explain to him that Cathy said there weren’t any. I tell him that foreigners often think Chinese people look younger than they actually are.  Mike Daisey: Well they did look young, but the girl I spoke with told me she was 13. So I took her at her word, and that’s what happened.  Rob Schmitz: Why would Cathy say that you did not meet any underage workers?   Mike Daisey: I don’t know. I do know when doing interviews a lot of people were speaking in English. They enjoyed using English with me and I don’t know if she was paying attention at that particular point. I don’t know. There was a lot of wrangling that Cathy was doing, talking to people and sort of pre-interviewing.   Rob Schmitz: So Mike, according to what you’re saying, these are migrant workers who are preteen, 13 or 14 years old, there English isn’t going to be very   9  good. You’re telling me that they were speaking English to you, in a way that you could understand?   Mike Daisey: Well, I only know – only one of them was really talkative and that was the main girl I was talking to. Rob Schmitz: So you have a clear recollection of meeting somebody who was 13 years old? Mike Daisey: Yes. Rob Schmitz: And twelve years old? Mike Daisey: Yes of the girl who was thirteen and her friends who represented themselves as being around her age and so the spread there is just an effort to cover the ages that I suspect they are around that age.   Ira Glass: Mike did somebody actually say 12, or did somebody say they were 13 and then you looked at group and you’re like OK, maybe one’s 12?   M: Yes one person said they were 13. The others with her, and those were the friends I talk about.   Ira Glass: But none said them said they were 12, right? Like, you have one who gave age who was 13, and the others didn’t actually give their ages and you’re just kind of guessing.   Mike Daisey: That’s correct. That’s accurate.   Rob Schmitz: Let’s talk about the hexane poisoned workers. Cathy says that you did not talk to workers who were poisoned by hexane and were shaking uncontrollably.   Mike Daisey: That’s correct. I met workers in Hong Kong going to Apple protests who had not been poisoned by hexane but had known people who had been, and it was like a constant conversation we were having about those workers. So no, they were not at that meeting.   Rob Schmitz: So you lied about that. That wasn’t what you saw.   Mike Daisey: I wouldn’t express it that way.   Rob Schmitz: How would you express it?   Mike Daisey: I would say that I wanted to tell a story that captured the totality of   10  my trip. So when I was building the scene of that meeting, I wanted to have the voice of this thing that had been happening that everyone been talking about.   Ira Glass: So you didn’t meet any worker who’d been poisoned by hexane?   Mike Daisey: That’s correct.  Daisey has not just said these things in his show and on This American Life. The script of his monologue, which is called “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” was posted online, for anyone to download for free and then perform. In the first 48 hours, 42,000 people downloaded it, according to Daisey.     Since he appeared on This American Life he’s been in the press constantly...  in newspapers and magazines...he’s written op-eds, he’s been on television programs and online news sites ... he’s become one of the most visible outspoken critics of Apple, and he usually says things like this, from an appearance on MSNBC a month ago:    [CLIP MSNBC ]   I saw all the things that everyone’s been reporting. I saw underage  workers, I talked to workers who were 13, 14, 15 years old, I met  people whose hands have ben destroyed by doing the same motion again and again on the line. HOST: Making Apple products? MD: Yes! [FADE UNDER] carpal tunnel on a scale you can hardly imagine. Making products     Rob Schmitz: Thing is, people believe he saw these things.    And except for the n-hexane, Daisey insisted in our interview that he did see them.    Talking to Daisey was exhausting. There were so many details that didn’t check out, and even when he admitted that he didn’t see what he claimed he saw, he’d qualify it with something. For instance he admitted that he didn’t go on the exit ramp with Cathy like he says in the monologue .... but insisted that the whole thing did happen ... it’s just that Cathy wasn’t there.    He insisted that he did see the inside of workers’ dorm rooms, but admitted, no, there are no cameras there like he claims in his monologue. There are only cameras in the hallways.      11  It was never simple. He never just said: “I lied.”    Rob Schmitz: Does it matter if the things you’ve said in this play are untrue?  Mike Daisey: Yeah I think the truth always matters, truth is tremendously important. I don’t live in a subjective universe where everything is up for grabs. I really do believe that stories should be subordinate to the truth.   Rob Schmitz: Then in parts of this why didn’t you tell the truth?   Mike Daisey: Everything that’s in this monologue is built out of the trip I took and time I spent on the ground. So I don’t know that I would accept that interpretation. I don’t know that I would agree with that.    The morning after this interview, Ira and I called Cathy, to see one last time if we could square Mike’s story with hers.    We asked her a bunch of questions: Were you and Mike ever separated at the gates of Foxconn? Could that have been when he met the 13 year old? She said no, she doesn’t remember any time when they were separated. Did Mike ever talk to workers in English? She said no, she doesn’t remember that, and it’s very unlikely the workers would speak English.     Cathy says some things from Daisey’s monologue were true: He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. They did pose as business people in the factories they visited.   And before they did that, Daisey did have a conversation with her about his plan. She says this conversation probably happened on June 2nd when she first met Daisey. He told her that he would pretend to be a businessman and he needed her help. Here’s how he tells the story:     [CLIP] Mike Daisey: And she listens to this, and she says, but you are not a businessman. And I say, that's true, I am not a businessman. And she says, and you aren't going to buy their products. I say, that's true, I'm not going to buy their products. And she says, you will lie to them. And I say, yes Cathy, I'm going to lie to lots of people.  That part, says Cathy, was true.

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INTEREST: Google, Motorola Mobility Must Give Android Development Data to Apple
by Wayne Billing 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

…from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-06/google-ordered-by-judge-to-give-ap… Google, Motorola Mobility Must Give Android Data to Apple By Andrew Harris - Mar 5, 2012 11:36 PM CT Google Inc. and a Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MMI:US> unit were ordered by the U.S. judge presiding over an Apple Inc. (AAPL)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AAPL:US> patent lawsuit to turn over information about the development of Google’s Android operating system. The Motorola Mobility unit and Google must also hand over to Apple information about Google’s pending $12.5 billion acquisition of the mobile-phone maker, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner in Chicago<http://topics.bloomberg.com/chicago/> ruled yesterday. Posner’s decision came in a patent lawsuit filed in 2010 by Cupertino, California-based Apple against Motorola Mobility, which has countersued. “The Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses,” Apple’s attorneys’ said in a March 2 filing requesting the judge’s order. Apple, maker of the iPhone, has been waging a global fight with the former Motorola Inc. unit that sells phones using Google Inc. (GOOG)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GOOG:US>’s Android operating system. Posner, a federal appeals court judge who is presiding over the trial court-level case, has scheduled back-to-back trials before separate juries starting June 11. The first will address six Apple patents, and the second will cover three Motorola patents. “Motorola shall be expected to obtain full and immediate compliance by Google with Apple’s liability discovery demands,” the judge said in a February order. Motorola’s Opposition Motorola Mobility opposed Apple’s request, arguing that Google, the operator of the world’s most-visited Internet search portal, isn’t a party to the lawsuit. “Google’s employees and documents are not within the ‘possession, custody, or control’ of Motorola, and Motorola cannot force Google to produce documents or witnesses over Google’s objections,” lawyers for the mobile phone maker said in a court filing earlier yesterday. Motorola Mobility was spun off from Motorola Inc. -- now Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MSI:US> Jennifer Erickson<http://topics.bloomberg.com/jennifer-erickson/>, a spokeswoman for the Libertyville, Illinois-based company, declined to comment on the ruling. Niki Fenwick, a spokeswoman at Google, said in an e-mail that the company wouldn’t comment beyond what was submitted in court papers. The case is Apple Inc. v. Motorola Inc., 11-cv-08540, U.S. District Court, Northern District ofIllinois<http://topics.bloomberg.com/illinois/> (Chicago).

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INTEREST: Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview: Email
by Billing Wayne 02 Mar '12

02 Mar '12

Today saw the end of the Mobile World Congress 2012 (MWC - http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/virtualtour.html) taking place in Barcelona, Spain. With 67,000 attendees which include all of the major mobile technology manufacturers, the description of the MWC is not far wrong: No longer limited only to communications, mobile is now a force transforming our world in an unprecedented way. Mobile connects, entertains, informs and inspires us, ultimately changing how we live and who we are. Mobile World Congress is the global epicenter of this redefinition as our participants enable, lead and accelerate it. One of the major events at MWC was Microsoft's Consumer Preview for Windows 8 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview?ocid=O_MSC_W8…). …from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Consumer_Preview_.28The_Public_Beta.… Metro UI Windows 8 will employ a new user interface based on Microsoft's Metro design language. The Metro environment will feature a new tile-based Start screen similar to the Windows Phone operating system. Each tile will represent an application, and will be able to display relevant information such as the number of unread messages on the tile for an email app or the current temperature on a weather application. For the first time since Windows 95, the trademark Windows "Start" button will no longer appear - instead being replaced by a sliding panel-based menu. …from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/03/windows-8-mail-client-gets-ra… E-mail shines in Windows 8 with radical overhaul of mail client By Jon Brodkin | Published about an hour ago The Windows 8 Consumer Preview comes with a pre-installed e-mail client for webmail and Exchange. While it's designed with the touch-friendly Metro interface in mind, it's quite usable even in traditional desktop mode, at least for the basic tasks of reading and writing messages. Windows 8 Mail is an alternative to the mail client in Windows Live Essentials, a free productivity suite for download on the stable versions of Windows in use today. Microsoft has not yet released a Windows 8-specific version of Outlook, the fee-based, business-class e-mail client that is part of Office. A beta version of "Office 15" is expected this summer, Office President Kurt DelBene said this week. For now, we have the free, consumer Mail client to look at, and it's one of the highlights of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It's not as fully functional as Windows Live Mail, yet it outshines much of the rest of this experimental version of the operating system. So far, I have a hard time picturing myself using the Metro interface as my regular desktop. One reason for that is it so clearly geared toward touch usage. Peter Bright explains just how to use Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard, including the proper use of those pesky "hot corners," but many of the operating system's applications are still in a proof-of-concept phase. The Mail app stands out in Windows 8 because it is quite usable for daily e-mailing, even with a mouse and keyboard. Let's take a look at Windows Live Mail running in Windows 7: Windows Live Mail in Windows 7 And now, here is the Mail client that comes with Windows 8: Mail in Windows 8 Consumer Preview As you can see, there is a big difference. Windows Live Mail looks a lot like Outlook, with the familiar ribbon interface offering tons of options for reading, sorting, and flagging e-mail. Windows 8 Mail is far more basic, yet perfectly usable and (to my eyes) easy to look at. If I could separate the Mail application from the rest of the operating system, I'd probably have no trouble using it today despite its status as a beta product. That's not a criticism of Windows 8—this is a preview version of the operating system that Microsoft does not intend for daily use. I set up the Windows 8 Mail client with Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange, and all three accounts loaded perfectly with no hassle or extra configuration required—just type in your e-mail address and password. The available options are the basic ones, with the ability to move e-mails to folders, mark as unread, search through mail, and more. One limitation arises from Microsoft's decision to create separate Windows 8 clients for Mail and Calendar. Windows Live puts your e-mail accounts and calendars into the same program, making it easy to add events from your inbox. In the Consumer Preview of Windows 8, there's no integration between the separate Mail and Calendar applications. Both work fine, they just don't work together. Early screenshots of Office 15 show a fusion of the ribbon and Metro interfaces, and an integrated mail/calendar client. Outlook for Windows 8 will be the premier mail client, but it will cost money, and many people—particularly those tablet buyers Microsoft wants to court—will be satisfied with an easy-to-use, free mail application. While it will be months until we see a final version, Microsoft looks set to deliver just that.

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INTEREST: Pressure Drives Changes at Foxconn
by Wayne Billing 21 Feb '12

21 Feb '12

…from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin… Pressure, Chinese and Foreign, Drives Changes at Foxconn [cid:09F4190D-0FBE-4BE3-AFA4-DF14E71C0104] Xuan Hui/European Pressphoto Agency Foxconn, which recruited workers at a 2010 job fair in Shenzhen, China, said Saturday it would sharply raise its wages. By DAVID BARBOZA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/david_barboza/…> and CHARLES DUHIGG<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/charles_duhigg…> Published: February 19, 2012 BEIJING — The announcement Saturday that Foxconn Technology<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/foxconn_technology/in…>— one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers — will sharply raise salaries and reduce overtime<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/technology/foxconn-to-raise-salaries-for-…> at its Chinese factories signals that pressure from workers, international markets and concerns among Western consumers about working conditions is driving a fundamental shift that could accelerate an already rapidly changing Chinese economy. Enlarge This Image<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> [cid:41EE66C2-5D45-404A-AB02-130D013F5BC0]<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> Thomas Lee/Bloomberg News Trainees at a Foxconn industrial park in Shenzhen, China, walked beneath a poster of Terry Gou, chairman of Foxconn's parent, Hon Hai Precision Industry. Enlarge This Image<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> [cid:C7AE0457-39FF-452D-98BC-8D787237EAC1]<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> Ym Yik/European Pressphoto Agency Foxconn employees in Shenzhen. The company has announced plans to invest in automation. But the true meaning of Foxconn’s reforms, analysts say, will depend in part on how effectively the company can remake an economic system that has relied for much of the last decade on luring migrants to work cheaply for long hours in mammoth factories building smartphones, computers and other electronics. Plants depend on workers’ being at assembly lines six or seven days a week, often for as long as 14 hours a day. Such facilities have made it possible for devices to be turned out almost as quickly as they are dreamed up. For that system to genuinely change, Foxconn, its competitors and their clients — which include Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and the world’s other large electronics firms — must convince consumers in America and elsewhere that improving factories to benefit workers is worth the higher prices of goods. “This is the way capitalism is supposed to work,” said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “As nations develop, wages rise and life theoretically gets better for everyone. “But in China, for that change to be permanent, consumers have to be willing to bear the consequences. When people read about bad Chinese factories in the paper, they might have a moment of outrage. But then they go to Amazon and are as ruthless as ever about paying the lowest prices.” Foxconn, with 1.2 million Chinese employees, is one of China’s largest employers. It assembles an estimated 40 percent of the smartphones, computers and other electronic gadgets sold around the world. Foxconn’s decisions set standards other manufacturers must compete with. The announcement by Foxconn, which said that it would raise salaries as much as 25 percent, to about $400 a month, came after an outcry over working conditions at its factories. In recent weeks, labor rights groups have staged coordinated protests in various countries after reports that some of Apple’s Chinese suppliers operate harsh, abusive and dangerous facilities<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-hum…>. To stem criticism, Apple hired a nonprofit labor group<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/apple-announces-independent-factor…> to inspect the plants it uses. Workers welcomed the announced raises and overtime limits, though some were skeptical they would cause much real change. “When I was in Foxconn, there were rumors about pay raises every now and then, but I’ve never seen that day happen until I left,” said Gan Lunqun, 23, a former Foxconn worker. “This time it sounds more credible.” By bowing to such demands, Foxconn has conceded that employees and consumers have gained a sway once possessed only by Chinese bureaucrats and executives at the global electronics firms that hire Foxconn to build their products. Foxconn’s announcement also reflects how quickly China’s economy is shifting. Many of the country’s employers are facing labor shortages, which also puts upward pressure on wages, as do inflation and government demands to raise minimum wages. Over 100 million migrant workers returned to their village homes this month to celebrate China’s Spring Festival, otherwise known as the New Year. Traditionally, factories have had no problem luring those workers back. But many Chinese cities are still confronting serious labor shortages, even though the holiday ended weeks ago. A recent Chinese government report said this year’s labor shortage was more pronounced than those in previous years. And just as China’s exporters are struggling to cope with labor shortages in coastal regions, they are also confronting higher raw material costs and a strengthening Chinese currency, which makes Chinese goods more expensive in other nations. “China can’t guarantee the low wages and costs they once did,” said Ron Turi of Element 3 Battery Venture, a consulting firm in the battery industry. “And companies like Foxconn have developed international profiles, and so they have to worry about how they’re seen by people living in places with very different standards.” No other company in the world has quite the manufacturing scale of Foxconn. Nearly every global electronics company has some tie to the manufacturing giant, and while much of its work can be done cheaply, with low-skilled workers, the sheer volume of goods and scale of its operations make it China’s single biggest exporter. Some of its campuses are considered small cities, with as many as 200,000 workers. Many are housed in dormitories near the assembly lines and are expected to be ready to rush into work should new orders flow in. The Foxconn model, though, is under pressure. While most companies operate with similar dormitories, wage structures and work schedules, staffing Foxconn’s large sites has grown increasingly difficult. A new generation of young people in China are more reluctant to migrate to coastal cities, live in factory dorms and toil long hours. Many are staying closer to home, because of new opportunities in inland provinces. That has created labor shortages on the coast. Social scientists say young people here are also less willing to accept factory jobs for long periods. Meanwhile, demographic changes have meant China has fewer young people to join the work force. If the workers will not move to the coast, the logic is that the coastal factories ought to move to where the workers are living. Big manufacturers like Foxconn have responded to such challenges by moving factories inland. And worried that the old model is dying, Foxconn has announced plans to invest in millions of robots and automate aspects of production. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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INTEREST: The Dilemma of Cheap Electronics
by Wayne Billing 20 Feb '12

20 Feb '12

…from http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/the-dilemma-of-cheap-electronics/… [Pogue's Posts - The Latest in Technology From David Pogue]<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/> February 9, 2012, 2:37 PM The Dilemma of Cheap Electronics Last week, an important Times article<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-hum…> set off shockwaves in the consumer tech industry by focusing on tragedies and working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese electronics factory that makes Apple iPhones. It describes excessive overtime, crowding in worker dorms, improper disposal of hazardous waste and unsafe working conditions. These revelations have shocked a lot of Apple fans — and fired up a lot of Apple foes. There are petitions and flooded comment boards. This morning, protesters delivered petitions at six major Apple stores, including the new one in Grand Central Terminal. The article and the response are healthy. Nobody wants to see workers exploited, and if Apple can pressure Foxconn to clean up its act, it should. Apple is the poster child for the conditions at the Foxconn factory, and no wonder: it’s the most profitable electronics company. It makes a big, spectacular target. There’s an important factor, however, that seems to be largely missing from the conversation, though it was noted in the article: Apple isn’t the only company that builds electronics at Chinese factories. The truth is, almost all of them do. Foxconn’s other clients are a Who’s Who of popular electronics. They build cellphones, TVs, computers, e-book readers, routers, circuit boards, game consoles and on and on. Its customers include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, I.B.M., Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Vizio. And that’s just Foxconn. There are other big Chinese electronics makers. As the Times article says, “Bleak working conditions have been documented at factories manufacturing products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others.” It’s safe to say that most electronics sold in the United States are made in these Chinese factories. So yes, we should pressure Apple to continue putting pressure on Foxconn. But at the same time, we seem to be ignoring a much bigger and more important question: How much do we care? That Chinese workers are paid less than American workers is no big shock. We’ve known that forever. That’s why everybody outsources to China in the first place. There’s a long list of Chinese manufacturing costs that are lower than American manufacturing costs: hourly employee rates, worker benefits, taxes, the cost of power, buildings and equipment, and more. Bringing workplace standards and pay in Chinese factories up to American levels would, of course, raise the price of our electronics. How much is hard to say, but a financial analyst for an outsourcing company figures a $200 iPhone might cost $350 if it were built here. Do we care enough about Chinese factory conditions to pay nearly twice as much for our phones, tablets, cameras, TVs, computers, GPS units, camcorders, music players, DVD players, DVRs, networking gear and stereo equipment? Not everybody will say yes. But suppose they did. How would we get there? Which electronics brand would jump first? In other words, what assurance would the Apples and Dells and Panasonics have that if they forced their Chinese contractors to adopt American-level wages and conditions, their competitors would all do so simultaneously? That’s the part that the protests are missing. Is Apple supposed to be the only company that takes on the costs of improving conditions? Are the protesters seeking a world where an iPhone costs $350 and a competitive Android phone costs $200? Or don’t we really want all of the companies to make that move simultaneously? The issue is complicated. It’s upsetting. We, the consumers, want our shiny electronics. We want them cheap, yet we want them built by well-paid, healthy workers. But apparently, we can’t have both. Sooner or later, we’ll have to make a choice. The fault, dear Brutus, is not just at Apple, or in China — it’s also in ourselves.

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INTEREST: Foxconn: 1 million robots by 2013….
by billing 09 Feb '12

09 Feb '12

….from: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/30/c_131018764.htm Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years File photo SHENZHEN, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will replace some of its workers with 1 million robots in three years to cut rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, said Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, late Friday. The robots will be used to do simple and routine work such as spraying, welding and assembling which are now mainly conducted by workers, said Gou at a workers' dance party Friday night. The company currently has 10,000 robots and the number will be increased to 300,000 next year and 1 million in three years, according to Gou. Foxconn, the world's largest maker of computer components which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, is in the spotlight after a string of suicides of workers at its massive Chinese plants, which some blamed on tough working conditions. The company currently employs 1.2 million people, with about 1 million of them based on the Chinese mainland. = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = …from: http://www.economist.com/node/21525432 Robots don’t complain Or demand higher wages, or kill themselves Aug 6th 2011 | HONG KONG | from the print edition WITH more than 1m workers, Foxconn may be China’s largest private employer. The secretive electronics giant is renowned for taking designs from Western firms, such as Apple, and using cheap labour to crank them out in huge quantities. But its fantastically successful business model seems to have run its course. At a closed retreat in late July, Terry Gou, the chief executive of the Taiwanese-owned company (which is also known as Hon Hai), unveiled a plan to hire 1m robots by 2013. In a public statement, Foxconn talked about moving its human workers “higher up the value chain” and into sexy fields such as research. But at least some will surely lose their jobs. Robots are easier to manage. Several Foxconn employees have committed suicide; in the latest case, a 21-year-old threw himself off a building in late July. In May an explosion at a new factory in Chengdu killed three employees and, it is believed, caused delays to the production of Apple’s iPads. To pacify its increasingly restive workers, Foxconn has repeatedly bumped up their wages, improved facilities, provided counselling and swathed its factories with nets to catch anyone leaping from a window. All this costs money. China’s competitive edge has long been its vast supply of cheap hands. But as the country grows richer, skills shortages are driving wages rapidly up. Foxconn’s decision to alter its mix of capital and labour is thus logical, and mirrors what many smaller firms are already doing. But the switch may not be smooth. Foxconn’s expertise has been in running well-regimented armies of people making goods for highly visible global companies. It is not known to have skills in running automated production lines; and moving in this direction will put it in competition with companies that do. Rising wages are good for Chinese workers, and for firms that want to sell them things. But they also raise questions. Do they spell an end to the cheap “China price” for manufactured goods? Will multinational firms shift production elsewhere? Or will Chinese firms adapt nimbly to automation and remain fearsome competitors? They might, but Chinese robots may be no cheaper than robots elsewhere. Finally, will the shift to a more capital-intensive capitalism throw legions of workers onto the streets? The Chinese authorities will be watching nervously. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: CNN visits Foxconn factory
by Wayne Billing 07 Feb '12

07 Feb '12

- Added On February 6, 2012 CNN's John Vause describes the conditions he saw while visiting a Foxconn factory…. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/01/12/lklv-grant-china-foxc… - Added On January 12, 2012 Microsoft investigates a report that workers at a plant manufacturing Xbox systems threatened suicide in a pay dispute. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/01/12/lklv-grant-china-foxc… …and the undercutting of production costs by China is not restricted to the American electronics industry: - Added On February 5, 2012 Indian weavers say an invasion of cheap Chinese fabric is threatening an ancient art. CNN's Sara Sidner reports. http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/02/06/sidner-india-chinese-sari-… Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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FYI: Your Deleted Facebook Photos Still Aren’t Really Deleted
by Wayne Billing 07 Feb '12

07 Feb '12

…from: http://gizmodo.com/5882703/your-deleted-facebook-photos-still-arent-really-… Your Deleted Facebook Photos Still Aren’t Really Deleted Three years ago, Ars Technica discovered that when you "deleted" your photos, they were still kept on Facebook's servers<http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/are-those-photos-really-deleted-fro…>, and anyone with a static URL could still access it. Three years later, Ars Technica revisited the matter and found little has changed<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/nearly-3-years-later-deleted-f…>. But Facebook says that things will be different...eventually. Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng got Facebook to comment on the matter, they're developing a new one which will permanently wipe photos off their servers within 45 days of a user "deleting" the photo from the site. "The systems we used for photo storage a few years ago did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens told Ars via e-mail. Wolens explained that photos remaining online are stuck in a legacy system that was apparently never operating properly, but said the company is working on a new system that will delete the photos in a mere month and a half. For really real this time. So if there's some incriminating piece of imagery on Facebook you're really dying to have removed once and for all, maybe all hope isn't lost entirely. [Ars Technica<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/nearly-3-years-later-deleted-f…>] Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

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INTEREST: "rot at US Electronics core could sicken consumers"
by Billing Wayne 31 Jan '12

31 Jan '12

"In fairness, these evils are not unique to Apple. The same factories churn out electronics for Dell , Acer, Lenovo, Nintendo, Panasonic, Samsung, IBM, Cisco, Motorola, Amazon [GE, RIM, Microsoft] and so on." …from: http://adage.com/article/bob-garfield/bob-garfield-rot-apple-s-core-sicken-… …but it could have been from many other 'net sites as we'll…. The Rot at Apple's Core Could Sicken Consumers -- and Its Business They May Be Unable to Stomach Any More Awful News About Labor Practices By: Bob Garfield Published: January 27, 2012 A correction has been made in this story. See below for details. Bob Garfield Let's start by talking about how great Apple is. Apple is sooooo great! This week its fourth-quarter earnings were announced. On the strength of phenomenal sales of 15 million iPads and 37 million iPhones, the company recorded profits of $13.1 billion on revenues of $46.3 billion. In cash. In three months. This windfall helped Apple's stock price, which surged enough to nudge the company past a little boutique called Exxon-Mobil as the largest industrial corporation in the world. Plus, the iPad is super cool, and the iPhone is, too. And, duh, iTunes! And the biography of Steve Jobs, may he obsess in peace, has been on the bestseller list for three months. No wonder President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union Address, singled the company out as emblematic of all we as a nation should aspire to: "You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country. That means women should earn equal pay for equal work. It means we should support everyone who's willing to work, and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs." Now, the mood in Washington is such that if Obama admires the weather, the Republicans will disagree; they will call the weather a path toward socialism. But not Tuesday. In the GOP response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels got his licks in, but he also raced to bow at the altar of the sainted one. "Contrary to the president's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs -- what a fitting name he had -- created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the president borrowed and blew." [,,,] Since then, however, there have been what the TV news anchors call "new developments." One is a series of New York Times stories documenting how Apple's manufacturing jobs -- 700,000 of them -- are provided by contractors overseas, chiefly China, and how workers there labor for long hours at vanishingly low wages in hazardous conditions. Perhaps Mitch Daniels should call the late CEO Steve Offshore Jobs. Then came a long segment on "This American Life" by monologist Mike Daisey, who infiltrated Shenzhen, a Chinese factory city and Apple contract-manufacturing plant, to find out where his iPad came from. There he discovered inhuman dormitory conditions, brutal shop-floor hazards including haphazard use of the neurotoxin n-hexane to spray-clean tablet screens, child labor and a huge net dangling over the shop floor to stem the tide of worker suicides: at least 12 at the plant in 2010 alone. When a worker complained to the local "labor board," she was promptly fired and blacklisted -- in writing, with no attempt to conceal the act: "In a fascist country run by thugs, you don't have to be subtle," Daisey said. "You can say exactly what you mean. The sheet is very clear that it comes from the labor board, and it says right across the top, 'The following is a list of troublemakers. If any of them are found in your employ, dismiss them immediately.' And then there's just column after column after column of names. Page after page after page of them." In fairness, these evils are not unique to Apple. The same factories churn out electronics for Dell , Acer, Lenovo, Nintendo, Panasonic, Samsung, IBM, Cisco, Motorola, Amazon and so on. And over time such enterprise will create a middle class in China, and other developing countries, helping to eradicate grinding property -- and new markets for our own export goods. In the meantime, however, Apple and the rest are raking in billions of dollars of profits by relegating foreign workers to conditions we wouldn't tolerate in our own prisons. The heroes of free enterprise were caught, Red China-handed, being themselves. And the world is beginning to figure it out, because in the digital age all corporations live in glass houses, and people in glass houses shouldn't clean the windows with n-hexane. Furthermore, in the social-media age scandal is traded back and forth, perpetually, at the speed of send. Perhaps many Apple aficionados are prepared to strike a Faustian bargain -- vague tugs of guilt in exchange for the coolest stuff ever -- but some will not. The backlash is no doubt under way. In the Relationship Era, you can surely benefit from 3.27 million spontaneous expressions of affection, but just ask Johnson & Johnson. It can all very quickly turn to dust. Here is but one blog post I located in the wake of recent news coverage: "I don't think I will be an Apple customer anymore! I would rather inferior technology." The headline on the post? "Apple sucks!"

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INTEREST: Google's new privacy policy
by Wayne Billing 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

…from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-tracks-consumers-acro… FAQ: Google’s new privacy policy [cid:EC8DCBB6-6076-43A3-8608-D62E4E3C687B]<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-moves-to-integrate-us…><http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-moves-to-integrate-us…> View Photo Gallery — Google announced a new privacy policy and terms of service on Jan. 24. Here’s a look at some of the Google products that will be affected by the policy change.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-moves-to-integrate-us…> * [Smaller Text] <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> [Larger Text] <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> Text Size * Print<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> * E-mail<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> * Reprints<http://www.washingtonpostreprints.com/> By Hayley Tsukayama<http://www.washingtonpost.com/hayley-tsukayama/2011/03/25/AFwMAnXB_page.html>, Published: January 24 Google announced Tuesday that it will integrate users’ information<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-a…> across Gmail, YouTube, search and 57 other Google services. Google privacy director Alma Whitten, who explained the changes in a company blog post Tuesday afternoon, said the company will “treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” 49<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> Comments<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> * Weigh In<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> * Corrections?<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/interactivity/corrections/> inShare<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> Gallery [cid:A0D4337A-A21D-4785-9463-1D38BC0925AC]<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/googles-move-toward-online-dominance…><http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/googles-move-toward-online-dominance…> A look at some of the major deals the Web giant has made or attempted in an effort to expand its reach.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/googles-move-toward-online-dominance…> Gallery [cid:5563EB7E-21BE-4AB5-907D-FF14A75B1865]<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-2012-consumer-electro…><http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-2012-consumer-electro…> The annual CES exhibition in Las Vegas is a show-and-tell of sorts for the world’s largest tech companies. Here’s a look at the scene and some of the coolest gadgets unveiled at the exhibition.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-2012-consumer-electro…> More On This Story * Read more of the latest business news<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business> * Google changes privacy policy; no opt-out<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/google-tracks-consumers-acro…> * FAQ: How will new privacy policy impact you?<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> * IMF sees rising recession risk<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/imf-sees-rising-recession-ri…> View all Items in this Story<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/faq-googles-new-privacy-p…> What is Google doing?: In a nutshell, Google is taking information from almost all of your Google services — including Gmail, Picasa, YouTube and search — and integrating the data so that they can learn more about you. Google Books, Google Wallet and Google Chrome will retain their own additional policies, partly for legal reasons, but Google could still integrate data from these services. What kind of information are they collecting and integrating?: Google collects and can integrate almost anything that’s already in the Google ecosystem: calendar appointments, location data, search preferences, contacts, personal habits based on Gmail chatter, device information and search queries, to name a few. Can they do that?: Well, under the company’s current privacy policies for some of its properties, Google says it can “combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services.” The privacy policies for YouTube and search history, however, did not have such language. Now they do and the company has now made its ability to combine information across these and its other services more explicit. Why is Google doing this?: Google says it will be able to do a lot more “cool things” when it combines information across products. There’s “so much more that Google can do to help you” if you share your information with them. Give me an example.: From Whitten’s blog post: Google will be able to “provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what traffic is like that day.” Interesting. Tell me more: Also from Whitten: Google will be able to “ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before.” When do the changes take effect?:March 1. Can I opt-out?: No. So what do I do if I don’t like the policy?: You can close your account. Google has provided information on how to take all of your personal information off of Google by closing your Google Account, which would erase your Gmail, Google+ and other accounts. But I have a lot of data saved on Gmail/Picasa/etc...: Google says it is committed to “data liberation” and that it will allow you to take your information elsewhere if you want to. The company said it would provide directions on how to do this in the help sections for its various services. I don’t have a Google Account, but use Google search. Am I affected?: No. The new policy only applies to people who have a Google Account linked to services such as Gmail, Picasa or YouTube and are signed in.

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INTEREST: Apple's record setting Q1 2012 report
by Wayne Billing 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

…from: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/apple-q1-2012-iphone-ipad-ipod-mac-hardw… http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/01/24Apple-Reports-First-Quarter-Resul… Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods By Donald Melanson<http://www.engadget.com/editor/donald-melanson> [cid:3F2F7D44-B595-4DE1-97D6-B56C99ED267F] <http://www.engadget.com/editor/donald-melanson/rss.xml> posted Jan 24th 2012 5:30PM [cid:ED442CBB-709C-432B-8124-48243D93A967] [cid:6444D9D3-340E-49A9-BF25-F6D96CE470D3]<http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/apple-q1-2012-iphone-ipad-ipod-mac-hardw…> We touched on the numbers in our report<http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/apple-announces-q1-earnings/> on Apple's Q1 earnings, but the company's throwing out a lot of "record" figures so we thought we'd take a moment to focus on just how its hardware sales stack up. The standout number is, of course, the 37.04 million iPhones sold during the quarter, which is up 128 percent from the same quarter a year ago (and up from 17 million in the previous quarter, a jump of 117 percent). That notably puts Apple back ahead of Samsung, which sold a total of 35 million smartphones in its most recent quarter<http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/samsung-q4-2011-earnings/>. And as if that wasn't enough, Apple's Tim Cook also said on the company's earnings call that it could have sold even more if it had more supply. iPad sales also set a new record with 15.43 million units sold during the quarter, which is a 111 percent jump from the 7.3 million sold a year ago, and a 39 percent increase from the 11.1 million moved in Q4 2011. Once again, however, iPods are the one category that continues to decline in the face of the growth of smartphones. Apple sold a total of 15.4 million iPods -- over half of which were iPod touches -- which represents a 21 percent decline from the 19.4 million sold a year ago. The holiday shopping season did boost sales considerably from the 6.6 million sold in the previous quarter, though. Mac sales were also on the upswing, totaling 5.2 million units -- a 26 percent increase year-over-year. Breaking things down further, that translates to 1.48 million desktops (including iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro), and 3.7 million laptops (including the basic MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro). As for the company's "hobby," the Apple TV, it rang up 1.4 million in sales for the quarter, and 2.8 million for the 2011 fiscal year. Fans of charts can get their fix after the break.

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INTEREST: EU to Retailers: Take Back Old Equipment Without Charge or Sale
by Wayne Billing 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

…from: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248415/eu_electronic_retailers_must_take_bac… EU Electronic Retailers Must Take Back Old Equipment Without Charge or Sale By Jennifer Baker<http://www.pcworld.com/author/Jennifer-Baker>, IDG News<http://www.idgnews.net/> Jan 19, 2012 12:01 pm The European Parliament on Thursday approved plans to force large electronic retailers to take back old equipment. The new rules are as part of a shakeup of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and will gradually come into force over the next seven years. Only one third of electrical and electronic waste in the European Union is separately collected and appropriately treated and the revised directive will increase the collection target from its current 4 kilograms per capita to around 20 kilograms per capita by 2020. By 2020, it is estimated that the volume of electronic equipment will increase to 12 million tons and the E.U. authorities want to see 85 percent of that collected and treated. The retailer take-back plan means that larger electrical goods stores, with a shop space of 400 square meters or larger, will have to accept small electronic items, such as mobile phones, free of charge, without making users purchase a new product. Welcoming Thursday's vote, E.U. Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "Proper treatment of WEEE is important to prevent harm to human health and the environment, and its systematic collection is the precondition for professional recycling of the valuable raw materials like gold, silver, copper and rare metals, contained in our used TVs, laptops and mobile phones." The revised directive also includes a clampdown on illegal exports of waste electronic equipment. Equipment that is no longer under warranty can only be exported to non-OECD countries if it has been certified to be fully functional and sent properly. "It is long overdue that we stop making developing countries the dumping ground for our hazardous waste," said Green member of the European Parliament, Michalis Tremopoulos. Follow Jennifer on Twitter at @BrusselsGeek<http://twitter.com/BrusselsGeek> or email tips and comments tojennifer_baker(a)idg.com<mailto:jennifer_baker@idg.com>.

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INTEREST: Apple Navigates China Maze
by Wayne Billing 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

…from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h… * JANUARY 14, 2012 Apple Navigates China Maze Firm Details Labor Conditions as Unruly Fans Mar Beijing Debut of New iPhone Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h… By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=JESSICA+E.+VASCELLARO&bylin…> and OWEN FLETCHER<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=OWEN+FLETCHER&bylinesearch=…> Apple<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=AAPL> Inc. is increasingly finding itself pinched between the promise and perils of doing business in China. That challenge was thrown into sharp relief by a pair of developments Friday. Under pressure from activists in the U.S. and abroad, the company released a 27-page report detailing working conditions throughout its supply chain, which sprawls throughout Asia, but especially China. The report followed an unexpected fracas outside an Apple store in Beijing, after fans couldn't get their hands on the latest iPhone. [cid:22CDC884-39CD-4187-8651-009FC08349C2]<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> Apple disclosed a comprehensive list of its major suppliers for the first time, along with a detailed report on factory inspections. Jessica Vascellaro has details on The News Hub. Photo: Reuters Local police ordered Apple to close the store, saying the situation wasn't safe. Apple later said it would temporarily halt sales of all iPhones in its five retail stores in mainland China. Chinese authorities have looked unkindly on such disturbances, and Apple executives scrambled to control fallout from the incident, which was shown in videos around the world. In one of his first interviews as chief executive, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the flap was "unfortunate" and "we will learn some things for the future and change some things." He added that safety was of the "upmost importance" to the company. The Chinese market is of growing significance to Apple. Last fall, it said China was its fastest-growing region, with around $13 billion in annual sales. Enlarge Image [applejh] [applejh] Reuters TV/Reuters Apple said it has set new requirements for how suppliers handle combustible dust after an explosion, above, at a Foxconn plant last year. Demand for the company's iPhones, iPads and Macs reached such a fever pitch in 2011 that some 40,000 people were visiting its Beijing and Shanghai stores each day. But deepening ties to China have brought a new set of complications. In 2009, Apple chose to start selling the iPhone in the country without Wi-Fi wireless Internet capability to comply with government regulations. At the same time, Apple has faced Western and Asian activists, who have complained about conditions at the company's Asian suppliers. In the interview, Mr. Cook said improving working conditions has long been a corporate priority. He said he believes Apple is "raising the bar" for the industry. Apple's supplier report could pique Chinese authorities, who have long sought to stem criticism about business practices there. Apple's Report Card Findings from the firm's annual audit of its suppliers 62% weren't compliant with working-hours limits. 32% weren't compliant with hazardous-substance management practices. 35%failed to meet Apple's standards to prevent worker injuries. (Source: Apple's report) The report is the most comprehensive on the subject in Apple's history, based on 229 audits of factories that do work for the company, the world's second-largest by market capitalization. Apple said that at its direction, suppliers have stopped discriminatory screenings for medical conditions or pregnancy. Apple also said it found 112 facilities that weren't properly storing, moving or handling hazardous chemicals. Apple said it was taking new steps to better monitor and improve conditions at factories, including increasing audits in Malaysia and Singapore and expanding its worker education program. Nearly a third of its suppliers didn't abide by Apple's standards on wages and benefits, the company said. The audits also found five facilities that employed underage workers. Related Video [cid:D26ACFA3-D1FA-441A-8247-3D23B009D181]<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> Google is trying to win over Chinese consumers with services that don't require official censorship. Kelsey Hubbard interviews WSJ's Amir Efrati. Photo: Associated Press. "I have spent a lot of time in factories over my lifetime and we are clearly leading in this area," said Mr. Cook, who previously oversaw the company's supply chain as chief operating officer. "It is like innovating in products. You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem." Chinese government ministries weren't immediately available for comment on Friday. While Apple has occasionally divulged selected suppliers, the new list covers those 156 companies that represent 97% of its materials, manufacturing and assembly spending. Apple's List of Suppliers View Document<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> [[docid=120113175516-d3c9ff54b84b4b7a850e59158458406f|file=applesupplierlist]]<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> Report on Supplier Compliance View Document<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> [[docid=120113175541-0f6d14e42cad4b58a7bf52d180d2957c|file=appleprogressreport]]<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> Enlarge Image [appleart] [appleart] Getty Images San Francisco Apple store It includes a range of global technology companies, such as Sony<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=SNE> Corp. and Intel<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=INTC> Corp., along with lesser-known names like Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co. Ltd. The report makes several references to one of Apple's biggest manufacturing partners, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. The company, also known as Foxconn, grappled with a spate of employee suicides at a facility in Shenzhen, China, in 2010 and an explosion that killed four workers and injured 18 at plant in Chengdu, China, last year. Apple said it has established new requirements for firms dealing with combustible dust after the blast in Chengdu and an explosion at another supplier's factory in Shanghai that injured 59. Apple also said it is joining the Fair Labor Association, agreeing to outside monitoring of its suppliers. "Working hours is a complex issue," said Mr. Cook, saying he was confident the company can improve in the area by "monitoring these plants at a very, very micro level." "I know this is a journey," he said. Aron Cramer, president of BSR, a San Francisco non-profit that works on environment and human rights issues, said Apple, one of its members, isn't alone in issuing detailed working conditions reports. But he said it is doing so from a position of particular scrutiny. "There's interest in everything they do," he said. Meanwhile, Apple was still grappling with the fallout from the Beijing melee. Related Video [cid:464A0354-6A70-4A53-B055-549604B780C6]<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577158764211274708.h…> Google, which pulled its Web-search engine out of mainland China two years ago after a confrontation with Chinese authorities over censorship, has renewed its push to expand there, Spencer Ante reports on Markets Hub. (Photo: Reuters) High-profile launches for Apple products often come with massive crowds and, occasionally, unruliness. In the interview, Mr. Cook said Apple had "taken all necessary precautions." "I think we were all taken by surprise," he said. Chinese state media reports blamed the incident on iPhone scalpers. On Friday morning, authorities began forcing people away from the store and blocking the cameras of reporters who had shown up to cover the event. Men with megaphones began declaring that sales wouldn't start and people should leave.

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INTEREST: flooding in Thailand could affect computer shipments
by billing 21 Nov '11

21 Nov '11

...from: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/pc-shipments-could-drop-more-t… PC shipments could drop 10% due to hard drive shortages By Jon Brodkin | Published 9 days ago The widespread flooding in Thailand that disrupted operations at hard disk drive factories will lead to significantly declining PC shipments, say market analysts. Thailand accounted for 40 to 45 percent of worldwide HDD production in the first half of 2011, but flooding has impacted more than a dozen factories,according to IDC. Much of the PC production for the fourth quarter of 2011 occurred before the flooding, or can be completed with existing drive inventory. But overall PC production will still decline this quarter and drop even further in the beginning of 2012, with normal operations not expected to return until the second half of next year, IDC said. "PC shipments will decline between 2.2 percent and 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, down from a prior forecast for 5.1 percent growth," Bloomberg reported, quoting IDC numbers. "In the first quarter, shipments may drop by 1.8 percent to 13.4 percent. IDC had projected a gain of 8.2 percent." Goldman Sachs is also projecting PC shipment declines of 3 percent year-over-year in the current quarter, and an 8.5 percent drop in the first quarter of 2012, according to Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs further said Microsoft's profit and sales will decline because fewer Windows PCs will be sold. IDC noted that hard drive prices are rising "as demand exceeds supply and manufacturers face increased costs for components, expedited shipments, and shifting of production to new locations." Pricing won't stabilize until June. The smaller hardware vendors are likely to lose out. "In response to the crisis, priority will be given to the large PC manufacturers that drive HDD shipment volumes as well as to the high-margin products used in enterprise servers and storage," IDC Research Vice President John Rydning said in a press release. In the PC category, the biggest impacts will be on emerging markets, netbooks, and entry-level consumer PCs.

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INTEREST: how to get light to shine through aluminum....
by Billing Wayne 07 Nov '11

07 Nov '11

.....well, use lasers to drill some holes, of course. ...from: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/apples-supplychain-secret-hoard-lasers… TECHNOLOGY November 03, 2011, 4:50 PM EDT Apple's Supply-Chain Secret? Hoard Lasers The iPhone maker spends lavishly on all stages of the manufacturing process, giving it a huge operations advantage Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer By Adam Satariano and Peter Burrows Satariano is a reporter for Bloomberg News. Burrows is a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, based in San Francisco. About five years ago, Apple (AAPL) design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer’s aluminum casing to indicate when its camera was on. The problem? It’s physically impossible to shine light through metal. Ive called in a team of manufacturing and materials experts to figure out how to make the impossible possible, according to a former employee familiar with the development who requested anonymity to avoid irking Apple. The team discovered it could use a customized laser to poke holes in the aluminum small enough to be nearly invisible to the human eye but big enough to let light through. Applying that solution at massive volume was a different matter. Apple needed lasers, and lots of them. The team of experts found a U.S. company that made laser equipment for microchip manufacturing which, after some tweaking, could do the job. Each machine typically goes for about $250,000. Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of them to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company’s MacBook Airs, Trackpads, and wireless keyboards. Most of Apple’s customers have probably never given that green light a second thought, but its creation speaks to a massive competitive advantage for Apple: Operations. This is the world of manufacturing, procurement, and logistics in which the new chief executive officer, Tim Cook, excelled, earning him the trust of Steve Jobs. According to more than a dozen interviews with former employees, executives at suppliers, and management experts familiar with the company’s operations, Apple has built a closed ecosystem where it exerts control over nearly every piece of the supply chain, from design to retail store. Because of its volume—and its occasional ruthlessness—Apple gets big discounts on parts, manufacturing capacity, and air freight. “Operations expertise is as big an asset for Apple as product innovation or marketing,” says Mike Fawkes, the former supply-chain chief at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and now a venture capitalist with VantagePoint Capital Partners. “They’ve taken operational excellence to a level never seen before.” This operational edge is what enables Apple to handle massive product launches without having to maintain large, profit-sapping inventories. It’s allowed a company often criticized for high prices to sell its iPad at a price that very few rivals can beat, while still earning a 25 percent margin on the device, according to the estimates of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. And if the latest rumors are to be believed, Apple’s operational expertise is likely part of what gives the company enough confidence to enter the notoriously cutthroat television market by 2013 with a TV set that would tightly integrate with existing Apple software like iTunes. The widespread skepticism over Apple’s ability to compete in such a price-sensitive market, where margins are often in the single digits, is “exactly what people said when Apple got into cell phones,” says Munster. Apple began innovating on the nitty-gritty details of supply-chain management almost immediately upon Steve Jobs’s return in 1997. At the time, most computer manufacturers transported products by sea, a far cheaper option than air freight. To ensure that the company’s new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available at Christmas the following year, Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space, says John Martin, a logistics executive who worked with Jobs to arrange the flights. The move handicapped rivals such as Compaq that later wanted to book air transport. Similarly, when iPod sales took off in 2001, Apple realized it could pack so many of the diminutive music players on planes that it became economical to ship them directly from Chinese factories to consumers’ doors. When an HP staffer bought one and received it a few days later, tracking its progress around the world through Apple’s website, “It was an ‘Oh s—’ moment,” recalls Fawkes. That mentality—spend exorbitantly wherever necessary, and reap the benefits from greater volume in the long run—is institutionalized throughout Apple’s supply chain, and begins at the design stage. Ive and his engineers sometimes spend months living out of hotel rooms in order to be close to suppliers and manufacturers, helping to tweak the industrial processes that translate prototypes into mass-produced devices. For new designs such as the MacBook’s unibody shell, cut from a single piece of aluminum, Apple’s designers work with suppliers to create new tooling equipment. The decision to focus on a few product lines, and to do little in the way of customization, is a huge advantage. “They have a very unified strategy, and every part of their business is aligned around that strategy,” says Matthew Davis, a supply-chain analyst with Gartner (IT) who has ranked Apple as the world’s best supply chain for the last four years. When it’s time to go into production, Apple wields a big weapon: More than $80 billion in cash and investments. The company says it plans to nearly double capital expenditures on its supply chain in the next year, to $7.1 billion, while committing another $2.4 billion in prepayments to key suppliers. The tactic ensures availability and low prices for Apple—and sometimes limits the options for everyone else. Before the release of the iPhone 4 in June 2010, rivals such as HTC couldn’t buy as many screens as they needed because manufacturers were busy filling Apple orders, according to a former manager at HTC. To manufacture the iPad 2, Apple bought so many high-end drills to make the device’s internal casing that other companies’ wait time for the machines stretched from six weeks to six months, according to a manager at the drillmaker. Life as an Apple supplier is lucrative because of the high volumes but painful because of the strings attached. When Apple asks for a price quote for parts such as touchscreens, it demands a detailed accounting of how the manufacturer arrived at the quote, including its estimates for material and labor costs, and its own projected profit. Apple requires many key suppliers to keep two weeks of inventory within a mile of Apple’s assembly plants in Asia, and sometimes doesn’t pay until as long as 90 days after it uses a part, according to an executive who has consulted for Apple and would not speak on the record for fear of compromising the relationship. Not every supplier gives in. An executive who works with a major parts manufacturer says that Apple’s bargaining tactics tend to exert downward pressure on prices, leading to lower profits and margins. After months of negotiations, the company declined a $1 billion payment from Apple that would have required the supplier to commit much of its manufacturing capacity to Cupertino’s products. The executive familiar with these talks, who asked not to be named because the discussions were not public, says that while deals featuring $1 billion in cash up front are basically unheard of, his company didn’t want to be too dependent on Apple—and didn’t want to help it deflate prices. Apple’s control reaches its crescendo in the leadup to one of its famed product unveilings, a tightly orchestrated process that has been refined over years of Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad debuts. For weeks in advance of the announcement, factories work overtime to build hundreds of thousands of devices. To track efficiency and ensure pre-launch secrecy, Apple places electronic monitors in some boxes of parts that allow observers in Cupertino to track them through Chinese factories, an effort meant to discourage leaks. At least once, the company shipped products in tomato boxes to avoid detection, says the consultant who has worked with Apple. When the iPad 2 debuted, the finished devices were packed in plain boxes and Apple employees monitored every handoff point—loading dock, airport, truck depot, and distribution center—to make sure each unit was accounted for. Apple’s retail stores give it a final operational advantage. Once a product goes on sale, the company can track demand by the store and by the hour, and adjust production forecasts daily. If it becomes clear a given part will run out, teams are deployed and given approval to spend millions of dollars on extra equipment to get around the bottleneck. Apple’s enormous profits—its gross margins were 40 percent last quarter, compared with 10 to 20 percent for most other hardware companies—are in large part due to this focus on operations, which is sure to remain a priority under Cook. The new CEO is known to give colleagues copies of Competing Against Time, a book about using supply chains as a strategic weapon in business. According to Martin, the logistics executive, Cook uses a catchphrase to hammer home the need for efficiency: “Nobody wants to buy sour milk.”

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HUMOUR: remembering Andy Rooney, may he rest in peace...
by billing 07 Nov '11

07 Nov '11

Andy Rooney on "computers aren't nice to us....": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1PO7nyyLn0

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INTEREST: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
by billing 02 Nov '11

02 Nov '11

...from: http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a… October 26, 2011785 notes Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones and Nexus One users have fared much, much better than most Android buyers. I went back and found every Android phone shipped in the United States1 up through the middle of last year. I then tracked down every update that was released for each device - be it a major OS upgrade or a minor support patch - as well as prices and release & discontinuation dates. I compared these dates & versions to the currently shipping version of Android at the time. The resulting picture isn’t pretty - well, not for Android users: Other than the original G1 and MyTouch, virtually all of the millions of phones represented by this chart are still under contract today. If you thought that entitled you to some support, think again: 7 of the 18 Android phones never ran a current version of the OS. 12 of 18 only ran a current version of the OS for a matter of weeks or less. 10 of 18 were at least two major versions behind well within their two year contract period. 11 of 18 stopped getting any support updates less than a year after release. 13 of 18 stopped getting any support updates before they even stopped selling the device or very shortly thereafter. 15 of 18 don’t run Gingerbread, which shipped in December 2010. In a few weeks, when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out, every device on here will be another major version behind. At least 16 of 18 will almost certainly never get Ice Cream Sandwich. Also worth noting that each bar in the chart starts from the first day of release - so it only gets worse for people who bought their phone late in its sales period. Why Is This So Bad? This may be stating the obvious but there are at least three major reasons. Consumers Get Screwed Ever since the iPhone turned every smartphone into a blank slate, the value of a phone is largely derived from the software it can run and how well the phone can run it. When you’re making a 2 year commitment to a device, it’d be nice to have some way to tell if the software was going to be remotely current in a year or, heck, even a month. Turns out that’s nearly impossible - here are two examples: The Samsung Behold II on T-Mobile was the most expensive Android phone ever and Samsung promoted that it would get a major update to Eclair at least. But at launch the phone was already two major versions behind — and then Samsung decided not to do the update after all, and it fell three major OS versions behind. Every one ever sold is still under contract today. The Motorola Devour on Verizon launched with a Megan Fox Super Bowl ad, while reviews said it was “built to last and it delivers on features.” As it turned out, the Devour shipped with an OS that was already outdated. Before the next Super Bowl came around, it was three major versions behind. Every one ever sold is still under contract until sometime next year. Developers Are Constrained Besides the obvious platform fragmentation problems, consider this comparison: iOS developers, likeInstapaper’s Marco Arment, waited patiently until just this month to raise their apps’ minimum requirement to the 11 month old iOS 4.2.1. They can do so knowing that it’s been well over 3 years since anyone bought an iPhone that couldn’t run that OS. If developers apply that same standard to Android, it will be at least 2015 before they can start requiring 2010’s Gingerbread OS. That’s because every US carrier is still selling - even just now introducing2 - smartphones that will almost certainly never run Gingerbread and beyond. Further, those are phones still selling for actual upfront money - I’m not even counting the generally even more outdated & presumably much more popular free phones. It seems this is one area the Android/Windows comparison holds up: most app developers will end up targeting an ancient version of the OS in order to maximize market reach. Security Risks Loom In the chart, the dashed line in the middle of each bar indicates how long that phone was getting any kind of support updates - not just major OS upgrades. The significant majority of models have received very limited support after sales were discontinued. If a security or privacy problem popped up in old versions of Android or its associated apps (i.e. the browser), it’s hard to imagine that all of these no-longer-supported phones would be updated. This is only less likely as the number of phones that manufacturers would have to go back and deal with increases: Motorola, Samsung, and HTC all have at least 20 models each in the field already, each with a range of carriers that seemingly have to be dealt with individually. Why Don’t Android Phones Get Updated? That’s a very good question. Obviously a big part of the problem is that Android has to go from Google to the phone manufacturers to the carriers to the devices, whereas iOS just goes from Apple directly to devices. The hacker community (e.g. CyanogenMod, et cetera) has frequently managed to get these phones to run the newer operating systems, so it isn’t a hardware issue. It appears to be a widely held viewpoint3 that there’s no incentive for smartphone manufacturers to update the OS: because manufacturers don’t make any money after the hardware sale, they want you to buy another phone as soon as possible. If that’s really the case, the phone manufacturers are spectacularly dumb: ignoring the 2 year contract cycle & abandoning your users isn’t going to engender much loyalty when they do buy a new phone. Further, it’s been fairly well established that Apple also really only makes money from hardware sales, and yet their long term update support is excellent (see chart). In other words, Apple’s way of getting you to buy a new phone is to make you really happy with your current one, whereas apparently Android phone makers think they can get you to buy a new phone by making you really unhappy with your current one. Then again, all of this may be ascribing motives and intent where none exist - it’s entirely possible that the root cause of the problem is just flat-out bad management (and/or the aforementioned spectacular dumbness). A Price Observation All of the even slightly cheaper phones are much worse than the iPhone when it comes to OS support, but it’s interesting to note that most of the phones on this list were actually not cheaper than the iPhone when they were released. Unlike the iPhone however, the “full-priced” phones are frequently discounted in subsequent months. So the “low cost” phones that fueled Android’s generally accepted price advantage in this period were basically either (a) cheaper from the outset, and ergo likely outdated & terribly supported or (b) purchased later in the phone’s lifecycle, and ergo likely outdated & terribly supported. Also, at any price point you’d better love your rebates. If you’re financially constrained enough to be driven by upfront price, you can’t be that excited about plunking down another $100 cash and waiting weeks or more to get it back. And sometimes all you’re getting back is a “$100 Promotion Card” for your chosen provider. Needless to say, the iPhone has never had a rebate. Along similar lines, a very small but perhaps telling point: the price of every single Android phone I looked at ended with 99 cents - something Apple has never done (the iPhone is $199, not $199.99). It’s almost like a warning sign: you’re buying a platform that will nickel-and-dime you with ads and undeletable bloatware, and it starts with those 99 cents. And that damn rebate form they’re hoping you don’t send in. Notes on the chart and data Why stop at June 2010? I’m not going to. I do think that having 15 months or so of history gives a good perspective on how a phone has been treated, but it’s also just a labor issue - it takes a while to dredge through the various sites to determine the history of each device. I plan to continue on and might also try to publish the underlying table with references. I also acknowledge that it’s possible I’ve missed something along the way. Android Release Dates For the major Android version release dates, I used the date at which it was actually available on a normal phone you could get via normal means. I did not use the earlier SDK release date, nor the date at which ROMs, hacks, source, et cetera were available. Outside the US Finally, it’s worth noting that people outside the US have often had it even worse. For example, the Nexus One didn’t go on sale in Europe until 5 months after the US, the Droid/Milestone FroYo update happened over 7 months later there, and the Cliq never got updated at all outside of the US. Thanks primarily to CNET & Wikipedia for the list of phones.↩ Yes, AT&T committed to Gingerbread updates for its 2011 Android phones, but only those that had already been released at the time of the July 25 press release. The Impulse doesn’t meet that criterion. Nor does the Sharp FX Plus.↩ A couple of samples just from the past week: 1, 2 - in comments.↩

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New Mac Trojan horse disables Apple's automatic malware updates
by Andre Worms 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

I wonder if Kaspersky picks this up? http://www.macworld.com/article/163133/2011/10/new_mac_trojan_horse_disable… Andre Worms Information Technologist Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management University of Manitoba

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INTEREST: Moog releases another app, well, they say it best....
by billing 18 Oct '11

18 Oct '11

[NOTE: 99¢ for now. Eventually (30 days), $29.99....] ....from: http://moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog#info-tab Animoog, powered by Moog’s new Anisotropic Synth Engine (ASE), is the first professional polyphonic synthesizer designed for the iPad. ASE allows you to dynamically move through an X/Y space of unique timbres to create a constantly evolving and expressive soundscape. Animoog captures the vast sonic vocabulary of Moog synthesizers and applies it to the modern touch surface paradigm, enabling you to quickly sculpt incredibly fluid and dynamic sounds that live, breathe, and evolve as you play them. Visually captivating and sonically immersive, Animoog brings iPad based music production to the next level. Whether you are new to synthesis or a professional, Animoog’s unique user interface gives you the power to easily create a visually vibrant and sonically rich universe. It is the ultimate tool for total creative expression! Animoog’s diverse library of timbres is derived from analog waveforms captured from classic Moog oscillators, both vintage and modern, and run through a boutique’s worth of high-end outboard and analog signal processors. These include modular synth panels, Moogerfooger pedals and more. · Anisotropic Synth Engine (ASE) - An exciting new Moog technology that allows the user to move dynamically through an X/Y space of unique timbres to create an expressive and constantly evolving soundscape. · Timbre page – Assemble unique sounds in the X/Y space from timbres of a wide variety of vintage and modern Moog synthesizers and pedals Note: this is NOT simple sample playback. · Polyphonic Modulation - Simply slide your fingers to control multiple modulation parameters in Animoog right from the keys. · Polyphonic Pitch Shifting - Easily manipulate the exact pitch of each note in a chord by rotating or sliding your fingers. · Delay Module - A classic analog style ping pong delay. · Thick Module - From bit crushing to unison voice detuning and drive, this module adds depth, edge and character to Animoog’s already massive sound palette. · Moog Filter - The classic four-pole Moog ladder filter with High Pass, Low Pass and Band Pass modes. · Record Module - Record your performance and overdub new layers, or play along live. Transfer recordings between Animoog and any other apps which support AudioCopy/AudioPaste · Path Module - Direct ASE through Animoog’s X/Y space to create new expressive and shifting sounds that will blow your mind! · Orbit Module - Control the rate of orbit in the X/Y space around the path you created for subtle to insane voice manipulation. · Flexible Modulation Matrix - Amp,Filter and Mod Envelopes, LFO with infinitely variable wave shapes and sync, and four super flexible and assignable modulation slots. · MIDI in/out - Use your LittlePhatty or any other MIDI controller to control Animoog. Video at: http://moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog#demos-tab Manual at: http://moogmusic.com/sites/default/files/Animoog_manual.pdf iTMS at: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/animoog/id471638724?mt=8

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