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iPod special!!


Chatty
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Sweet - but what music would have to go on it??? Something Funky, Moody, Smooth, Patriotic, something to signafy what a long time that is alot of people dont live to 60 these days - what bout Louis Armstrong - "we have all the time in the world"

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Great idea but i hope it wasnt made in the infamous "IPOD CITY" i just heard about in the news, The report, dubbed "iPod City," offers a rare glimpse inside Apple's massive iPod manufacturing facilities, which are owned by Foxconn and situated in China.

By itself, Foxconn's Longhua facility is reported to house over 200,000 workers -- or a population larger than the British city of Newcastle. Its exterior gates flaunt billboards encouraging anyone over the age of 16 to apply for a job.

Inside Longhua, workers labor a 15-hour day building iPods, for which they usually earn about $50 per month. When they're not on the assembly lines, they live in secluded dormitories that each house 100 people and prohibit visitors from the outside world. The workers are allowed "a few possessions" and a "bucket to wash their clothes."

"We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It's like being in the army," Zang Lan, one of the workers at Longhua, told the Mail. "They make us stand still for hours. If we move we are punished by being made to stand still for longer. The boys are made to do pushups."

According to the report, the iPod nano is made in a five-story factory called "E3" that is secured by armed police officers. The super-slim digital music player is said to include over 400 parts which arrive from component manufacturers all over the world.

Another factory in Suzhou, Shanghai, manufacturers iPod shuffles and is completely surrounded by barbed wire. At this facility, 50,000 workers are housed outside the plant and earn about $99 per month. However, they must pay out of pocket for their accommodations and food, "which takes up half their salaries."

One security guard told the Mail that the iPod shuffle production lines are staffed by women workers because "they are more honest than male workers."

According to the report, Apple is just one of thousands of companies that now use Chinese facilities to manufacture its products. China's low wages, long hours and industrial secrecy, make the country attractive to business, especially as increased competition and consumer expectations force companies to deliver products at lower prices.

You can find pictures here: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1815

TOTAL SHOCK HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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So are you showing disrespect if you fill it full of porn and keep it in your back pocket?

you'll sit on it and break it. that's disrespectful i suppose.

DJLEX: some of that shock-and-horror expose stuff about manufacturing in china is true--however, it's a gross oversimplification of a complicated place.

keep in mind that there are rural poor in parts of china that make isaan look like billionaire's row. the government, rightly or wrongly, tries to keep people from moving to the cities. there are many people who jump at ANY possible employment opportunity, including a factory like that. and yeah your clothes, your computer whether it's an apple or some other windows compatible brand, and most every electrical appliance you own was made there under less-than-north-american-unionized-shop conditions. these masses of rural poor are arguably the biggest obstacle to china becoming the 'economic giant' that many people tout it as becoming (there are quite a few other obstacles too).

by the way the barbed wired is most likely to keep intruders and knockoff-artist engineers OUT of the factory, workers are eminently replaceable, they don't need to fence 'em in.

a word of caution to anyone feeling outrage over workers' conditions in china:i'm sure your outrage is rooted in sincere human compassion, but be careful about taking a holier-than-thou stance on stuff manufactured in china, ipods or otherwise.

if you're boycotting ipods while standing in your nikes, levis, etc... and own just about ANY computer... you're being a fuckin' hypocrite, you know.

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I was shocked, and i know the majority of our electronics are made in factories like this, but it a pisser to me that the workers are "punished" for moving. Pressups for the guys, what a joke, sure make them work but physical punishment for not wprking hard enough or whatever is discgracefull. They need to chill out a bit, how about free ipods to all the workers with some ambient sounds to help them chill out :D

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  • 7 months later...

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