Linked List: December 28, 2012

Friday, 28 December 2012

Crime Is Up and Bloomberg Blames iPhone Thieves ★

Yet another group hopelessly biased toward Apple: thieves.

Hartmut Esslinger’s Early Apple Computer and Tablet Designs ★

Some gorgeous prototypes, with a few turkeys sprinkled in. Splendid “What if?” fodder.

Working Conditions Improving at Foxconn in China ★

Keith Bradsher and Charles Duhigg, reporting for the NYT’s “iEconomy” series:

He turned to the only Apple executive in the room, the senior vice president for operations, Jeff Williams. Apple needed to change as well, the inspector said. Apple, to its credit, had been working for years to improve conditions in overseas factories, but the company was treating such problems too much like engineering puzzles, the inspector said. […]

March meeting to California, changes began. Among them, say people with firsthand knowledge, was the hiring of roughly 30 professionals into Apple’s social responsibility unit in the last year, which tripled the size of that division and brought high-profile corporate activists into the company. Two widely respected former Apple executives — Jacky Haynes and Bob Bainbridge — were recruited back to help lead the unit, reporting ultimately to Mr. Williams and the chief executive, Timothy D. Cook.

Rumors of an Apple/Intel Smart Watch ★

Eric Slivka, MacRumors:

Chinese site TGBus reports that Apple and Intel are currently working together on a Bluetooth-enabled smart watch. According to the report, the watch will include a 1.5-inch OLED display from RITEK subsidiary RiTdisplay and will launch in the first half of next year.

Maybe Apple is working on a smart watch. Perhaps, if Apple is working on a smart watch, they are sourcing certain component chips from Intel. Maybe Intel is working on a smart watch. I’ll bet Intel would love to collaborate with Apple on a smart watch.

But there is no way in hell that Apple is working with any other company, Intel or otherwise, on the design of any unannounced new products. Think, people.