Foxconn

Foxconn, which has come under fire due to allegations of poor working conditions in its factories , may now be the victim of a hacking attack. 9to5Mac is reporting that a group calling itself SwaggSec was behind the alleged compromise, and was able to gain access to Foxconn's internal networks thanks to an exploit in an unpatched copy of Internet Explorer that was being used by a Foxconn employee. The group made a 6.04MB file available earlier this evening — first on Demonoid , and then on The Pirate Bay — which...

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Two men have been charged with planting cyanide-tainted bombs on a Taiwan high-speed train and at an office where the head of global electronics powerhouse Foxconn was scheduled to visit in April. The devices failed to explode. One suspect, a non-practicing lawyer, hired the other man to place the bombs and made stock market orders anticipating he could profit in the aftermath of the explosions, according to the Xinbei Prosecutors' Office. The bombs placed at a...

Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn , the world's largest electronics manufacturer, will launch up to 10,000 consumer electronics retail stores in China, says China Daily . Until now they have not had a significant retail brand or presence. What will they sell? Probably some of the many products that they build for well known brands, including the iPhone, iPod, iMac, Sony Playstation, Sony Vaio notebooks, Amazon Kindle, Nokia phones and Nintendo Wii. But part of the plan, we've heard from an independent source, will be to use...

Mozilla and Hon Hai Industries — the trading name for electronics manufacturer Foxconn — have announced date for a major announcement in Taiwan, which is setting off speculation that the companies are teaming up on a new smartphone or tablet. A Mozilla spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that the event would take place on June 3 in Taipei City but declined to provide details on what the companies may be cooking up. Mozilla made a stir in February when the company showed off its Firefox OS, a new mobile operating system, and...

A report from The New York Times has highlighted complaints that Foxconn, which assembles components for Apple and other technology companies, has been forcing vocational student workers to make iPhones. The accusations come from two groups, which have been following Foxconn's practices closely: A Taiwanese group called Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior and the New York-based group China Labor Watch. China Labor Watch has also been vocal lately about working conditions in Samsung factories,...

The move by Apple and its supplier Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of electronics, to overhaul working conditions in overseas factories is putting a spotlight on the labor practices of the U.S. technology industry and increasing pressure on Apple's biggest rivals to respond in kind. Some of these firms said Friday they were digesting the news that Foxconn would limit workers' hours and raise their pay — costs that could be passed on to U.S. firms. But beyond the dollars and cents of Foxconn's...

After helping This American Life sift through the monologue of performer Mike Daisey, NPR Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz got his own look at the Shenzhen plant of Apple supplier Foxconn in southern China. Schmitz reports that 99 percent of the nearly quarter-million workers at the factory are migrant workers who are earning money for workers back home. Workers, on average, are 18 t0 25 years old. Following the assembly of the iPad through several production lines, Schmitz shows...

Foxconn has stopped production at its facility in Taiyuan, China, following the eruption of a huge fight Sunday night that reportedly involved around 2,000 workers of the Apple contractor. Reports indicate that the fight broke out in the company dormitories, though accounts conflict as to whether the fight was between groups of workers — the company's official account — or between workers and factory guards. The incident brings fresh scrutiny to Foxconn, already in the public eye after a rash of...

Foxconn, which applies and assembles electronics for several top electronics companies, has closed down one of its plants after a fight broke out in a company dormitory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan. According to the Associated Press , it's not clear what started the fight, but as many as 2,000 workers may have been involved. About 40 people were taken to the hospital, according to reports from the AP and state-run Chinese news sources. Xinhua News Agency reported that the fight...

Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant that produces the iPhone 3G for Apple , has ramped up production to 800,000 units per week, says a source close to Apple with direct knowledge of the numbers. This is "above current full capacity" and there may be some concerns with quality control. Apple sold just 6 million of its first generation iPhones. Foxconn factories will be able to ramp production up significantly over time, says our source. But at current sell rates, the company is producing iPhones at a...

Apple said that underage workers were allowed to work at its supplier plants in China because labor agents in the country faked paperwork to make workers appear older than they were. The company said Friday that it terminated its relationship with the supplier, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics Co., after discovering instances of underage workers. The report says Apple also traced the source of the faked paperwork to a central third-party labor agent, called Quanshun.

Apple had quite the year, refreshing the majority of their product lines, dealing with a controversy or two and fighting off the competition. The company was also the subject of close scrutiny, as investors and others obsessively analyzed Tim Cook's first year as chief executive officer. Legal battles, new competitors and expectations have all buffeted Apple's ship this year, but at the end of the day it still carries the title of the world's most valuable public company. Product success: Apple has had a...

The president of Foxconn, the company that builds Apple's mobile devices, told reporters in China on Wednesday that the iPhone 5 is so hard to put together that his normally speedy, cutting-edge factories cannot build the devices at the rate expected of them. And it's not the first time someone from his company has said so . "It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Terry Gou said, according to Reuters . His comments echo what an anonymous Foxconn official...

It seems those snarky Samsung ads are working. According to data from Strategy Analytics, the Samsung Galaxy S III was the world's hottest smartphone in the third quarter. The phone shipped 18 million units to the 16.2 million in shipments from Apple's iPhone 4S. Neil Shah, a senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement that it's the first time that the Galaxy S III has taken the top spot in the market ,with 11 percent share overall. The party, however, may be...

The moderator, CNN host Candy Crowley, asked a great question during Tuesday night's presidential debate : "iPad, the Macs, the iPhones, they are all manufactured in China. One of the major reasons is labor is so much cheaper here. How do you convince a great American company to bring that manufacturing back here?" It was clear, based on the candidates' responses, that neither of them had a clue. Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney...

Apparently it's not easy to assemble one of the world's thinnest and lightest smartphones. Who would have guessed? The iPhone 5 is almost 20 percent thinner than iPhone 4, at just 7.6 mm or .3 inches, and it's 20 percent lighter than the previous model as well. Plus, those diamond-cut chamfered (sloping) angles and glass inlays are not easy to get just exactly perfect. That's why Foxconn execs are calling the iPhone 5 "the most difficult device" that the company has ever assembled.

A report from M.I.C. Gadget mentions that Foxconn is in the midst of a hiring drive for production of the iPhone 5, causing some to speculate that the next iPhone will be coming in June, instead of in the fall. Apple reworked its iPhone release schedule to show off its newest iteration in the fall instead of the summer, and it seems unlikely — no matter who's hiring — that the company would cut the product life of its most successful iPhone to date. That said, it's Apple and if the company is planning a...

Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that Apple heavily relies on for its products, may have tried to clean up its act before inspectors from the Fair Labor Association descended on its factories, according to a Hong Kong non-governmental organization dedicated to workers rights. Foxconn allegedly pushed underage employees out of sight before the FLA inspection, Debby Sze Wan Chan, a project officer from Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), ...

Foxconn, a major supplier to technology companies such as Apple and Microsoft, admitted Tuesday that it hired 14-year-old interns, breaking Chinese law. The company's Yantai factory is at fault, having employed a number of interns under the legal age of 16 for three weeks. Foxconn says that the facility that hired the interns does not deal with Apple products, and that it is launching an investigations into the decision and those behind it. It also mentioned that this is not only against Chinese law, but...

A Chinese man reportedly killed himself last month in response to treatment from his employer, Foxlink — a firm that supplies components to Apple. According to a report from the IDG News Service , He Cheng jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a company building on Sept. 29, just 20 days after beginning work there. His family told the news service that he was despondent after managers at the company denied his request for three days of personal leave in order to visit...