Reminder: The FBI Doesn't Just Want To Get Inside One Single iPhone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told Congress on Tuesday that he understands the outcome of the San Bernardino iPhone encryption case will set a precedent for other cases.

Apple Inc has said complying with a court order to grant the FBI access to data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters would set a dangerous precedent that would require it to weaken security in other phones.

The Factory Workers Behind Your iPhone Are Too Tired To Eat, Report Says

WASHINGTON -- A U.S.-based labor watchdog group says it has uncovered disturbing working conditions inside a Chinese factory producing parts for our favorite electronic gadgets.

According to a new report from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, workers at the Zhen Ding Technology Holding factory in Shenzhen, China, are pressured into working 65-hour weeks, made to sleep on plywood beds in bleak dormitories and harassed by the facility’s security force. The work is so exhausting that some of the estimated 15,000 workers choose to sleep through their lunch breaks instead of eating, the report states.

How Apple Gets You To Buy New iPhones Over And Over Again

Ever wonder why your iPhone seems to slow down after a few years? Why the once-amazing device gets cranky and struggles to perform basic tasks or load apps?

The answer lies in Apple's software, and it's a key part of the company's strategy to keep millions of people buying new iPhones.

Signaling Post-Snowden Era, New iPhone Locks Out N.S.A.

WASHINGTON — Devoted customers of Apple products these days worry about whether the new iPhone 6 will bend in their jean pockets. The National Security Agency and the nation’s law enforcement agencies have a different concern: that the smartphone is the first of a post-Snowden generation of equipment that will disrupt their investigative abilities.

The phone encrypts emails, photos and contacts based on a complex mathematical algorithm that uses a code created by, and unique to, the phone’s user — and that Apple says it will not possess.

With the Wages That Have Been Stolen From Them, Apple Factory Workers Could Buy 1,460 iPhone 6s a Month

Apple has just unveiled a fresh batch of cutting-edge products to the dazzlement of consumers worldwide. Also this week, labor watchdogs revealed fresh evidence of systematic labor abuses in Apple’s supply chain in China—to a decidedly more muted response from the tech world. The revelations of wage and hour violations and hazardous working conditions don’t herald a new invention; they instead represent a new status quo of relentless technological progress that comes at a hidden social cost that is shifted onto an invisible labor force.

Apple Wants You To Pay For Things With An iPhone — But There’s One Nagging Problem

Forgetting your wallet at home may no longer be a problem when picking up prescriptions or incidentals, as the nation’s biggest drugstore chain and other major retailers partner with Apple and its new mobile payment system. Apple’s new mobile payment system — Apple Pay — could certainly make life for consumers much easier. But the move also makes the iPhone a virtually indispensable — and invaluable –piece of property that will be even more vulnerable to security risks if lost, stolen or hacked.

SIRI RISING: The Inside Story Of Siri's Origins -- And Why She Could Overshadow The iPhone

The world got its first inkling of the quick wit that would make Apple’s Siri an icon during a packed press conference held before an auditorium of tech elite.

"Who are you?" an Apple executive asked the assistant.

“I am a humble personal assistant,” Siri answered to appreciative laughter.

As Millions Buy iPhone 5, Chinese Workers at Apple Plant Foxconn Protest Workplace Conditions

As consumers worldwide flood Apple Stores to buy the new iPhone 5, we look at why thousands of Chinese workers at a key Apple manufacturing plant walked off the job last week. The group China Labor Watch says up to 4,000 Foxconn workers walked off the job in protest of new employee demands on hours and product quality. Foxconn initially denied that a strike was taking place, but later said a small number of workers had participated in a dispute that was quickly resolved. We’re joined by Li Qiang, the founder and executive director of China Labor Watch.

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Source: Democracy Now!
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China Contractor Again Faces Labor Issue on iPhones

SHANGHAI — As Apple prepares to unveil the latest iPhone this week, the company’s manufacturing partner in China, Foxconn Technology, is coming under renewed criticism over labor practices after reports that vocational students were being compelled to work at plants making iPhones and their components.

 Foxconn has acknowledged using student “interns” on manufacturing lines, but says they are free to leave at any time. But two worker advocacy groups said Monday that they had spoken with students who said they had been forced by their teachers to assemble iPhones at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, in north-central China.