apple

It looks like Nike isn't the only major American corporation facing charges of sweatshop labor. Apple, creator of the massively popular iPod, recently responded to allegations that many of its workers are slaving through excessive hours for just ... dollars a week. The accusations have led to Apple's own investigation into the reportedly affected factories. Most of Apple's iPods are made in China -- perhaps the world's new hot spot for cheap tech manufacturing. The country of some 1.3 billion people is also the major supplier of wares for department store giant Wal-Mart, and is steadily growing ... (view more)

It seems the iPod is everywhere these days. Recently, Infopackets discussed the announcement by Ford, GM, and Mazda that Apple and its iPod would be fully integrated in many future models. However, the most reasonable and yet elusive place for the ... iPod is the cellular phone market. There are rumblings an announcement will be made by Apple in the coming months on such a product, but many insiders are skeptical about how it will work. Without a question, there is a place for an iPod phone. A significantly powerful one -- and we're talking more than 50-100 songs -- could effectively combine the ... (view more)

With the North American automotive industry in a tailspin at the moment, automakers are turning to the latest and most popular technology to regain appeal. And, for anyone not stuck in a cave or buried by a landslide for the last five years, the ... clearest way to catch a techie's eye is to flash an Apple iPod -- the industry's current undisputed "Golden Toy". That's exactly what Ford, General Motors, and even Mazda are doing, as they work with engineers to integrate Apple's wares into future audio systems. Isn't this technology already out there? At this time, most iPod owners are forced to ... (view more)

As previously noted , Microsoft officially confirmed the existence of its own competitor to Apple's successful iPod portable music machine, Zune, after months of rumors and speculation. One of Microsoft's big features for Zune is reportedly the ... ability to download music and videos wirelessly. (Source: cnn.com ) That means you wouldn't first need to download the music to your PC, and then transfer it to your player. This gives Zune a true "on the go" feel. If the speculation proves accurate, the Zune player could detect what music is on other people's players nearby and automatically download ... (view more)

Amazon, the venerable online retailer best known for selling books, CDs, and DVDs, is said to begin offering downloadable films and television shows to Web users next month. A source close to the offering confirmed rumors that Amazon Digital Video ... will allow users to download video either on a pay-per-view basis or by subscription, where a one-time fee is paid to view movies over a certain time period. (Source: news.com ) This news follows closely on the heels of last week's rumors that Apple is heading in the same direction. Competing with Apple? This is not the first time that news has ... (view more)

As if the race for the ultimate next generation gaming experience wasn't tight enough, one of planet earth's biggest companies may be looking to get its feet wet. Sort of. Apple may be looking to go the way of arch rival Microsoft in the ... ever-expanding console gaming industry by purchasing a company whose very name is synonymous with the industry itself: Nintendo. Apple is no stranger to the home gaming industry, despite having a less-than-stellar debut in the mid 90's. In 1995, Apple released the Bandai Pippin: a home gaming console, which, to put it mildly, tanked due to its technological ... (view more)