Apple

Tim Cook, Ray Ozzie, and a host of others have proclaimed that we're in a "post-PC world." Well, not quite yet, but you can see it from here.

Like it or not, the post-PC era looks a lot like the iPad, Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, Roku and any number of smartphones. While these devices are way better for some tasks than traditional PCs, we stand to lose a lot in the transition as well.

Let me be very clear at the outset. I'm not saying that tablets, consoles, e-readers and the rest of the post-PC devices are bad. Like many others yesterday, I fought with Apple's shoddy online store to place a pre-order for the new iPad. What time I do spend watching the tube is usually courtesy of Netflix or Amazon Prime via the Roku.

But as tablets and other devices expand functionality to the point that they replace PCs for many users, they're stopping short in ways that matter a lot.

The advantages to our new post-PC overlords are pretty obvious. Most of us who've futzed with trying to set up a PC-based media center of some kind will gladly adopt a Roku or Apple TV instead. They can do almost everything that a PC-based media center could do, but are much cheaper and dead simple to set up.

Source : ReadWriteWeb : Read the full story here.

Fair-labor organizers delivered 250,000 signatures to Apple stores in six cities around the world on Thursday in protest of the company’s working conditions in China.

Apple’s main factory, Foxconn, has faced numerous accusations of providing an inhumane work environment to Chinese workers.

“It’s hard to hear tales of people jumping off buildings and using their hands until they can’t anymore,” said senior organizer of Change.org William Winters, who delivered a stack of petitions to the San Francisco Apple store on Stockton Street. The rest of the 250,000 signatures were being delivered to Apple stores in five other cities in the U.S., the UK, Australia and India.

Foxconn has been accused of making laborers work long hours without breaks, use dangerous chemicals that have caused severe health problems and exposing workers to dangerous conditions. The repetitive work andspartan living conditions have also been to blame for suicides at the factory.

Source : Mashable : Read the whole story here: