Posted on : 07-31-2011 | By : Arnold Kim | In : MacRumors
Xinhuanet reports that Foxconn will be replacing some of its workers with 1 million robots in the next three years to cut rising labor costs and improve efficiency.
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
The company currently has 10,000 robots and employs 1.2 million people. It's not clear how many jobs will be replaced by the robots.
Foxconn is Apple's primary partner in assembling the popular iPod, iPad, and iPhone lines and has been criticized for poor working conditions that may have contributed to a series of suicides at the plant.
In April, Engadget had previously pointed to this concept model FRIDA by ABB as the likely models for Foxconn, though the new report doesn't specify.
Posted on : 07-31-2011 | By : Jake Smith | In : 9 to 5 Mac
Foxconn’s founder and chariman Terry Gou said the company will replace 1 million workers with robots in 3 years. Foxconn is the Taiwanese manufacturer that is responsible for many components of Apple, Sony, and Nokia’s devices. Currently the company has 10,000 robots and will expand to 300,000 next year and 1 million in 3 years.
One interesting aspect of a robotized workforce is that it makes places with more expensive workers more competitive.
The robots will be used to do basic tasks like spraying, wielding, and assembling. Foxconn currently employs 1.2 million people, so obviously 1 million robots could potentially be a big hit on employment in China. (via Xinhua News)
Posted on : 07-31-2011 | By : Rene Ritchie | In : TiPB
Speaking with IndustryGamers, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello puts the previous Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony-led console market into post-iPad perspective:
Consoles used to be 80% of the industry as recently as 2000. Consoles today are 40% of the game industry, so what do we really have?
We have a new hardware platform and we’re putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn’t exist 18 months ago.
So consoles are down by half, and iPad has come out of basically nowhere to become the hottest thing in gaming? Hard core gamers would argue you can’t play Call of Duty or World Of Warcraft on an iPad, just like hard core geeks would argue you can’t run Xcode/Visual Studio and otherwise use an iPad as a “real computer”.
That’s true. It just turns out the hard core base is much smaller than the mainstream, and Apple — and Angry Birds and a host of other, casual titles — is democratizing the gaming platform just as much as the computer.
And iOS 5 AirPlay mirroring, where you can play your iPad games on the big screen via Apple TV, hasn’t even launched yet.
Posted on : 07-31-2011 | By : Rene Ritchie | In : TiPB
Missed a compelling piece of iPad news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPad here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPad for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.
And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPad Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us and follow along!
Posted on : 07-31-2011 | By : AppleInsider | In : AppleInsider
The World Intellectual Property Organization has ordered the domain name ipods.com be transferred to Apple in the favorable resolution of a complaint filed by the iPod maker.
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