Feed: Wired: Gadget Lab - AggScore: 77.5

Foxconn Raises Pay of Factory Workers

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Ever since Wired reported high suicide rates at Chinese iPhone manufacturer Foxconn in 2011, the company — and Apple — have been under public pressure to improve pay and working conditions at the factory. On Friday, Foxconn announced pay increases of 16 to 25 percent for its factory workers, with the exact amount tied to [...]

Why Apple Didn’t Include Siri in OS X Mountain Lion

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Apple's latest OS X update, Mountain Lion, adds a slate of new features, nearly all derived from iOS 5. There's one big omission, however: Siri, Apple's voice-controlled virtual assistant, does not make the migration from mobile to desktop.

Must-Complete Projects for Every Hardcore Tech Geek

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Hardcore tech geeks make things, break things, and DIY things to the hilt. It’s what nerds do best, and if you want to consider yourself a hardcore geek of the highest order, you’ll need to cross off every project in this list.

Why Facebook Is Missing From Apple’s New Desktop OS

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Facebook is the dominant player in social media, but its direct integration is nowhere to be found in Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems. It's a glaring omission considering Facebook updates are a simple drop-down menu choice in Android and Windows Phone.

Mountain Lion vs. Windows 8: Two Paths to Platform Convergence

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Now that Apple's offered a sneak preview of OS X Mountain Lion, we can begin to compare it with Windows 8. Both OSes draw inspiration from, and aim to integrate with, mobile devices. Each OS faces the same basic challenge, but approaches the problem with different strategies.

Hands-On With iMessage Beta on the Desktop: A Good Start, With Beta Bugs

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iMessage on the desktop went from a wish to (beta) reality in just four months. It's now on the Mac OS X desktop as part of Apple's Mountain Lion update, and our friends at Ars Technica have taken it for a spin.

OS X Mountain Lion: 5 Most Exciting New Features

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Today, Apple unveiled a developer preview of its newest Mac OS, Mountain Lion. The OS introduces more than 100 new features to OS X, and we've teased out five of the most important, most innovative aspects of Cupertino's latest release.

Apple Plant Conditions Better Than Others, Auditor Says

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The Fair Labor Association commented on Apple manufacturing partners’ labor practices on Thursday, recognizing their standards as “way above average of the norm.” “The facilities are first-class,” FLA president Auret van Heerden told Reuters after visiting partner manufacturer Foxconn in Shenzen, China. “The physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.” FLA’s recent [...]

Apple Announces OS X Mountain Lion for Mac Desktops

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Apple has announced its latest version of OS X for Macs — and like all iterations of its desktop operating system, the latest version is named after a big cat. It’s called Mountain Lion, and it will be more like iOS than ever, as Apple integrates various mobile services and moves to yearly OS updates across all its devices.

Apple Says Grabbing Address Book Data Is an iOS Policy Violation

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Last week, it came to light that Path, a social media app for iOS, was storing user address-book data without first requesting permission. Today, Apple announced the app's actions were against policy.