Dan, in fairness you also should link to Daisey’s blog, in which he points out that this American Life’s retraction is utter nonsense:

“Given the tone, you would think I had fabulated an elaborate hoax, filled with astonishing horrors that no one had ever seen before.

“except that we all know that isn’t true.”

http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com/

Having been to China more times than I can count, and having seen some of these factories myself, I can unequivocally state Foxconn is a different breed from the other multinationals operating there (or here, for that matter — Foxconn’s Houston factory is notorious for its its serial sexual harassment). twenty (and counting) on-campus suicides do not lie. Multiple factory explosions do not lie. Foxconn runs the only China factory I know of that have armed guards on the premises. (Keep in mind, guns are rare in China, and few criminals use them.)

I know you love Apple, but the fact is that when it comes to monitoring their supplier base, they say one thing and do another.

Media Nation » Three must-reads on the Mike Daisey meltdown

Global consumer watchdog group SumOfUs led a delegation of Apple consumers to Apple’s annual shareholder meeting today.

Dozens of protestors gathered outside, calling for a so-called “ethical iPhone,” while representatives in the shareholder meeting attempted to deliver 300,000 signatures on a petition requesting Apple improve working conditions in its factories.

Lanie Wieland, a SumOfUs member and one of the petition’s signers, attended the AGM and feels obligated to oppose Apple’s factory working conditions.

“I want to be able to buy Apple products with pride,” Wieland said.

The actions come after SumOfUs yesterday released a letter from two Chinese workers who claim to have been poisoned by neurotoxin n-hexane at an Apple supplier’s iPhone factory last year. The workers were among 137 workers who were allegedly injured by n-hexane, which causes eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, as well as nerve damage.

“We have been pressuring Apple and its new CEO, Tim Cook, for years to compensate those of us who were injured working for them,” Rui-Qiang and Jing-Chuan said.

SumOfUs has held events outside Apple stores over the past couple of weeks to draw attention to their concerns. Apple last week called in the fair Labor Association to audit some of its Asian factories, but said it was not prompted by the media attention.

‘Ethical iPhone 5′: First Long Hours, Now Poisoning?

Josh Lowensohn, CNETChange.org petitioners call for an “ethical iPhone” at S.F. Apple store.

Concerned Apple customers will be descending on the downtown Apple store today, where they will deliver petitions from local consumers demanding for a more “ethical iPhone.”

iPhone activists across the nation have been criticizing Apple for its “appalling” working conditions in factories overseas, including death from explosions and maiming.

San Francisco’s effort is part of a larger, national movement to pressure Apple and its suppliers for safer, healthier working conditions offshore. To show they are serious, consumers are delivering more than 255,000 signatures to major Apple retail stores across the nation.

Mark Shields, an ethical iPhone activist from Washington, D.C., launched his own petitions two months ago, hoping to stop Apple from promoting austere working conditions, particularly with the iPhone 5, which is reportedly launching in the next few months.

“At Foxconn, one of Apple’s biggest manufacturers, there is a history of suicides, abusive working conditions, and almost no pay. these working conditions are appalling, especially for Apple,” Shields said.

Bill DeRouchey, TwitterMore than 255,000 signatures were delivered to the S.F. Apple store to petition Chinese factory conditions.​The surge of reported suicide attempts prompted Apple to install precautionary netting in workers’ dormitories last year. Apple cracked down on underage labor and working conditions in its factories last year, and was sympathetic toward the four lives lost in two iPad factory explosions. Apple says it now caps working hours at factories to 60 per week, and requires at least one day of rest during a seven-day work week .

Still,  Apple consumers who feel betrayed by the company that they always believed to be humane are faced with an unexpected dilemma: Continue buying beloved Apple products, or boycott their gadgets in the name of  better working conditions.

“As a Mac user for 17 years, this is the first issue that could make me stop buying from Apple,” James Seale said on the petition, which is being hosted at Change.org.

Follow us on Twitter at @SFWeekly and @TheSnitchSF, follow Erin Browner @eringobro

Apple Consumers Protest Factory Conditions, Demand “Ethical iPhone”

China is infamous for its knock-offs. Some are so well-made, it’s impossible to tell them from the original. and sometimes they are even made at the same factories!

As good as China’s knock-offs are, nothing beats their clever names. there was the iPed, the Yinlips YDPG18 (okay, not so clever) and now, there is iPnoho6!

There are numerous more knock-offs with equally clever, or not so clever, names.

But, wait. this is not an iPhone6 rip-off. it can’t be, because the iPhone6 is not on sale and the world is still waiting for the iPhone5.

This is a geniune iPnoho6. and I want one. wonder if the fake Apple Store is going to carry it.

糖糖 [Weibo via RocketNews]

IPhone6? No, It’s The IPnoho6!

A little known group called SumOfUs has called for Apple to make the iPhone 5 the first ethical iPhone (and indeed the first ethical smartphone) on the market.

SumOfUs, which calls itself, a global movement of consumers, investors and workers from all around the world, claims that it has more than 162,000 members worldwide.

The petition comes after an article in the new York Times criticised Apple for turning a blind eye to the working conditions of Chinese workers who assemble the tens of millions of devices the US-based company sells every year.

It also highlights the fact that people have been dying while making Apple products, referring to the documented cases of explosions at Foxconn factories that produce the iPad tablets or workers dying of exhaustion working shifts of up sixty hours.

Nearly 40,000 signatures have been collected since the start of the petition which wants Apple to “overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers”.

The petition, which has been shared on Facebook and Twitter almost 9,000 times at the time of writing, also asks whether the petitioner owns an iPhone, iPad or iPod device.

Ethical iPhone 5 – Group Calls For Apple To Be Good