Foxconn

Apple iPad plant is 'way, way above average' says inspector

It's not a pressure-cooker environment that is the problem, but boredom and alienation

"The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm."

That's Auret van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, speaking to Reuters after an initial visit to the Foxconn factory where Apple's (AAPL) iPads are built.

Apple has been hit with a barrage of criticism over the working conditions in the Chinese factories where its MORE

Conan O'Brien finds humor in suicides at the iPhone factories

Team Coco's video bits can be hit or miss. The one about Apple's iNett was a miss. 

Maybe it was because I just got back from the return engagement of Mike Daisey's The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at The Public Theater of New York.

Or maybe the details in the New York Times series on working conditions in Shenzhen, China, hit too close to home.

But for me the video sketch about MORE

Apple in China: The New York Times goes for the Pulitzer

Its investigative series about how our electronic gadgets are made could be a contender

When monologist Mike Daisey flew to China to find out why the workers who assemble electronic devices for Apple (AAPL)  -- and every other major U.S. manufacturer -- were jumping from the roofs of their factory-city dormitories, he was shocked to discover that most of the American reporters writing about the suicides had never visited the plants MORE

How Santorum gets Apple to move from China to Charleston

Would an $8 billion tax break on overseas capital gains do the trick?

Rick Santorum has a plan to save Apple (AAPL) from itself.

It came up during Thursday night's Republican presidential debate when CNN host John King -- a self-confessed Apple aficionado -- put this question to the former Senator from Pennsylvania:

"Let's talk about something: Apple Computer is a breathtakingly important American company. It's one of the most respected companies in MORE

Apple factory inspections turn up scores of labor violations

An addendum discloses for the first time the names of 156 Apple suppliers

Apple's (AAPL) sixth annual "supplier responsibility" report is sure to be closely read by both critics and competitors.

For one thing an addendum to the report lists for the first time the names of Apple's major subcontractors -- 156 companies, many in the Far East, representing 97% of the company's supply chain. The list is available here for anyone MORE

Today in Tech: Should SOPA be stopped?

Fortune's curated selection of tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day.

"Simple answer - we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons." - Rupert Murdoch on MySpace (The Hollywood Reporter)

* Republican Representative Lamar Smith is pushing ahead with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), aimed at combating online piracy overseas, despite criticism from tech companies MORE

Excerpted for radio: The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

A 60-minute version of Mike Daisey's one-man show is now available online

UPDATE: This American Life retracted the episode described below. See here.

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If you couldn't make it to the Berkeley Rep or Washington's Wooly Mammoth or New York's Public Theater to catch monologist Mike Daisey's brilliant, funny, disturbing report on working conditions in the Shenzhen factories where most of Apple's (AAPL) products are assembled, Ira Glass has done you MORE

Is Apple suing Samsung -- and tooling up its factories?

CapEx spending is up 9 fold in 3 years, the bulk on equipment for a few key suppliers

When Apple (AAPL) reports an uptick in its cash and marketable securities holdings -- up $5.4 billion to $81.6 billion last quarter -- Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi can usually be counted on to call for the company to return some of that cash to the shareholders (70% of whom happen to be institutions like MORE

Foxconn to build 'an empire of robots'

Broke ground Saturday on a robotics research facility in Taiwan

Here's one way to solve your labor problems.

Hon Hai Precision Industry, the company whose Foxconn division assembles most of the electronic products sold in the U.S. -- including Apple's (AAPL) iPhones and iPads -- broke ground Saturday on a new R&D unit in Taichung, central Taiwan.

"The investment marks the beginning of Hon Hai's bid to build an empire of robots," the MORE

The Louisville bottleneck

My iPhone 4S was making swift progress until it landed in Kentucky

Like more than a million Apple (AAPL) customers I ordered a new iPhone last Friday. Since then I've been been tracking its movements on UPS. I watched leave the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, Saturday afternoon. I saw it pass swiftly through Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. I watched it jet across the Pacific to Anchorage, Alaska, where it arrived MORE