Foxconn workers wonder why their hours are being cut

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Reuters:

But at the Foxconn factory gates, many workers seemed unconvinced that their pay wouldn’t be cut along with their hours. For some Chinese factory workers – who make much of their income from long hours of overtime – the idea of less work for the same pay could take getting used to.

What would people in North America or Europe think if a Chinese company came over and said “we’re cutting back your hours and the amount of overtime you can work.” I’m betting it wouldn’t be a welcomed decision.

I understand what Foxconn is doing and if the workers end up benefiting from it, then that’s good.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos discovers Apollo 11 engines

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The original rocket engines — “one and a half million pounds of thrust, 32 million horsepower, and burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second” — that powered that historic launch fell to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and have not been seen in the four decades since. But that won’t be the case for long. Today on his blog, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announced that he has located the rockets, and he plans to bring them to the surface.

Wow, that’s impressive.

Heineken Design Challenge winners

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Selected from a pool of six finalists among more than 30,000 entries from 100 countries, design student Rodolfo Kusulas of Monterrey, Mexico and freelance designer Lee Dunford of Sydney took top honors in the Heineken Limited Edition Design Contest, and their winning design will be featured on the brand’s 140th anniversary bottle.

No, no, no! I like my Heineken in a green bottle.

Android has generated just $550 million since 2008

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Charles Arthur:

Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011, if figures provided by the search giant as part of a settlement offer with Oracle ahead of an expected patent and copyright infringement trial are an accurate guide.

Almost 50% of U.S. mobile subscribers have smartphones

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Overall, Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the U.S., with 48 percent of smartphone owners saying they owned an Android OS device. Nearly a third (32.1%) of smartphone users have an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 11.6 percent of the smartphone market. Among recent acquirers who got their smartphone within the last three months, 48 percent of those surveyed in February said they chose an Android and 43 percent bought an iPhone.

MailTags 3

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MailTags 3 is an enhancement for Apple’s Mail client in OS X 10.7 to add powerful tagging and search capabilities. MailTags 3 seamlessly integrates into Mail.app to make the attachment, search, and collation of tags, such as keywords and notes, a powerful part of email management.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about MailTags.

An iPad firestorm about nothing

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Apple’s newest iPad hit the market three weeks ago and already their have been a number of controversies surrounding the device. As expected, all of the issues fizzled out because there was really nothing there in the first place.

My latest column on Techpinions.

Samsung ships 5 million Galaxy Notes, but who cares about ‘shipped’ numbers

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Macworld:

Samsung Electronics has shipped 5 million units of its “smart notepad”, the Galaxy Note, surpassing most expectations, according to analysts.

How can shipping 5 million units possible surpass anyone’s expectations? That is not the number of Galaxy Notes sold, that’s just the number that Samsung managed to get out of its factory.

Samsung could ship 100 million Galaxy Notes and have them sit in a warehouse somewhere — that doesn’t mean they sold 100 million. I’m never impressed with shipped numbers because they don’t mean anything.

Loren Brichter talks about pull-to-refresh

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It was recorded before this became news (about a week ago actually), so it’s kinda weird it came up in this chat! Loren talks about how he came up with it and about the patent itself, but also talks about much more interesting things regarding being an indie dev, supporting your apps, paid upgrades and dispenses some sage wisdom on those topics.

Loren is the guy that came up with the concept. Worth a listen.

Tim Cook visits Foxconn

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Reuters:

Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, on his first trip to China as the chief executive officer, has visited an iPhone production plant run by the Foxconn Technology Group, which is being accused of improper labor practices.

Photoshop CS6 beta hits 500,000 downloads

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Adobe’s John Nack:

I’m delighted to see that the Photoshop CS6 beta has been downloaded more than half a million times in less than a week! The response I’ve seen so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

The Talk Show: Pre-Amplified

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Jim Dalrymple is back with Dan Benjamin to talk about journalist responsibility in the wake of Warmgate, international 4G and things Apple didn’t think of, patents and trademarks and how much care Apple gives them when naming products, guitars, domains, and a major announcement.Sponsored by Studio Neat and AppsFire

Shaan Ware’s photographs

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I don’t know much about photography, but I know what I like. I like these, especially “Park.”

DSLR cameras as iPhone docks

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Ilya Birman:

The solution: remove everything from the back side of the camera and make it an iPhone dock.

The iPad for Photographers eBook

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Very nice eBook written by my friend Jeff Carlson: Apple’s popular iPad tablet is an incredibly useful tool for photographers on the go. Instead of hauling a laptop on the road or to a photo shoot, you can tuck the … Continued

I’ll be speaking at the Úll iOS/OS X conference in Ireland this April

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I’m excited to tell you that I have accepted an invitation to speak at the Úll Conference in Dublin, Ireland next month.

Úll is a conference for iOS / OSX / mobile web developers and designers. The three day event will include workshops, keynotes, talks and in-depth presentations on all the aspects of building, designing and marketing your apps.

I’ll be joining a nice line-up of speakers including Michael Lopp, Horace Dediu and Matt Gemmell, among others.

iPhoto + iPad + DSLR

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Abdel Ibrahim: Since Apple’s first iPad came on the scene in 2010, people have wondered if tablets could stand in for computers. Few would argue they’re not up to casual tasks like Web browsing and emailing, but what about the … Continued

Guitar amp fail

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This is just classic. For those that don’t know, the mic is supposed to be on the cabinet on the bottom, not on the amp.

Complaints over iPad 4G marketing in Europe

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Eric Slivka for Mac Rumors:

Concerns over the 4G marketing are now getting the attention of regulators in several European countries as well.

This is starting to snowball.

Úll iOS/OS X conference in Dublin, Ireland

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Úll is a conference for iOS / OSX / mobile web developers and designers. The three day event will include workshops, keynotes, talks and in-depth presentations on all the aspects of building, designing and marketing your apps.

The conference takes place April 27–29, 2012 and there are still tickets available — I’m looking at making the trip myself. They also have a great list of speakers that includes Michael Lopp, Horace Dediu, Matt Gemmell, and others.

Redesigning a Web site with personality

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Aarron Walter:

Redesigning a website can be the seven-layer taco dip of hell. You’ve searched for inspiration on dozens of websites, captured screenshots, jotted down notes, consulted friends and colleagues, maybe even interviewed users. But despite your due diligence, your vision for the new website remains unclear.

Yeah, I’ve been there.

The pull-to-refresh patent

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Twitter now owns this patent. I use pull-to-refresh all the time — I even try to use it on apps that don’t have it, which annoys me.