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“Foxbots” Set to Replace Human Foxconn Employees

Michael Kwan — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:46:23 +0000

You know how there are ongoing discussions about the working conditions at factories like those run by Foxconn? You know people talk about overly strict policies, extremely long hours, and unfair pay? You don’t have to worry about those kinds of things with robots, because “robot rights activists” simply do not exist. And that’s possibly why Foxconn is prepping 10,000 “Foxbots” to replace their human employees.

This is just the initial deployment of Foxconn’s human-replacing robot army and they plan on having a much larger deployment in the coming years. In fact, Foxconn is planning to have 20,000 more of these “Foxbots” in their factories by the end of the year, leading up to a robot apocalypse-sized squadron of one million iPhone-creating bots within the next three years.

To be fair, these Foxbots can’t replace all of the human employees; they’re only good for repetitive tasks like “lifting, selecting and placement,” since the mechanical arms can’t really handle the incredibly intricate assembly of something like an iPhone. It’s only a matter of time, but it looks like many Foxconn employees could be out of the job. It’s like the industrial revolution all over again, except it’s not Detroit; it’s Shenzhen.

[Source]

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Man Attempts to Smuggle 30 iPhones Taped To His Chest into China (Video)

Michael Kwan — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:34:33 +0000

He was just trying to get them home, like how salmon return to their original birthplace to spawn. A security video has caught a smuggler red-handed with 30 Apple iPhones taped onto his body. He was trying to get them from Hong Kong into China, flipping the iPhone 4S for a quick buck.

The logic is fairly simple. You can buy an iPhone 4S in Hong Kong for $125 less than you’d pay for the same iPhone 4S in Mainland China. The smuggler, who you can see in the video below, strapped a bunch of iPhones on his chest and tried to walk across the port entry point. What I find strange is that he was only caught when security noticed the man couldn’t bend over to pick up his briefcase.

Don’t they have metal detectors like how they do at just about every airport? You would think that having thirty cell phones on your person would trigger that detector, right? In any case, a total of 3,000 smuggled iPhones have been confiscated since the beginning of the year. The irony is that they’re being smuggled primarily into Shenzhen, where the iPhone 4S is made in the first place.

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Grefu iPad 2 Knockoff Runs Android 2.3 Instead

Michael Kwan — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:12:06 +0000

Want the iPad look but can’t afford the iPad price? There is certainly no shortage of knockoffs and clones coming out of China, but many of them can be spotted as fakes from miles away. That’s not completely the case with this iPad 2 knockoff from Grefu. If you don’t boot up the screen, it really does look like the Cupertino creation.

However, outside appearances can be very deceiving. It doesn’t have the Apple logo on the back, but the design of the home button and bezel are certainly Apple-esque. As far as the rest of this iPad 2 clone goes, you’ll find that it has a similar 9.7-inch display as the iPad 2, but it gets its power from a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor instead.

Not surprisingly, it runs Android, but this isn’t Honeycomb. Instead, you’re stuck with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and it’s pretty safe to say this product isn’t officially sanctioned by Google. That means no Market access for you. Rounding out the specs are the 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, SD card reader, 3MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, HDMI-out, optional 3G, and 7600mAh battery. Grefu ain’t no Apple, but at least they’re trying to look the part.

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