ADVANCED CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

How apple electronics changed the world

Macintosh: Defining the computer for the rest of us

Steve Jobs didn't create the Mac, but he did create the mythos around it and recognized that it heralded a new, better way to use computers. Ironically, the horribly expensive Mac became the emblem of computing for the masses, a human device for real people who had seen computers as unfathomable tools used only by engineers and scientists.

Microsoft took the core principles of the Mac's graphical, direct-manipulation interface, itself inspired by work at Xerox PARC, and brought them to Windows, delivering the promise of the Mac to the masses for real. Today, the approach pioneered by the Mac is simply how computers work.

iPod: The music world, reinvented

After Steve Jobs' 12-year journey in the wilderness of Next and Pixar, he returned to a near-dead Apple -- and came up with the iPod. MP3 players already existed, but none really mattered. Portable CD players and the industry's portability granddaddy, the Sony Walkman, still ruled.

In 2001, the iPod changed all that, thanks to a better user experience. It also changed the music industry: Songs now mattered, not albums, and with the iTunes Store, Apple shifted the distribution of music from physical stores to downloads. The music business -- and music listening -- in 2014 bears little resemblance to the experience in 2001.

The iPod also changed Apple, converting the computer

company into a consumer technology company, which is the source of its strength today.iPhone: The end of the cell phone, the beginning of mobile computing

When the iPhone debuted in 2007, InfoWorld's Tom Yager derided it as a $1,975 iPod, due to its required data plan. A year later, Apple debuted the App Store, and the iPhone was no longer an iPod that could make calls.

Apple smartly created several rich apps -- iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Keynote, Numbers -- that to this day are unrivaled as mobile apps and show that a smartphone isn't a cellphone that supports email, as the once-dominant BlackBerry had been, but a computer in its own right. Apple had this vision back in 1993 with its Newton MessagePad, which clearly presages the iPhone of 2007.

Today, Android rules much of the smartphone world; like Windows used the Mac as inspiration, Android used the iPhone.

Touch: The gestures we all use came from Apple

It doesn't matter what devices or operating systems you run, when it comes to touch gestures, they all work very much the same way -- at core, Apple's way. Apple has vigorously protected some gestures through patents, but the basic gestures it introduced on the iPhone are practically universal. They've become like mouse movements, used by everyone.

That universality has quickly let the gesture approach to computing take off, as both developers and users can focus less on learning the UI and more on, well, using it. Most of Apple's impact has been on mobile devices, but its adaption of touch to computers via touch-enabled mice and trackpads probably means when touch PCs finally get popular, they'll use Apple's gestures, too.

ADVANCED CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

How apple products are made

ADVANCED CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

How apple products are made

Photographs: (top left, top right) = the cramped and crowded working conditions on the floor of the foxconn plant in china where all apple products are made.

(middle left, bottom right) = “suicide nets” are installed at foxconn. Workers are so dismayed at their working and living conditions that they were leaping out of windows to their death. In order to keep their labor source intact, suicide nets were installed to catch suicidal workers and return them to their posts.

(bottom left) = the prison-like living quarters of the foxconn employees, each room housing between 20-30 people, all of whom have no more than a bunk cot and a small locker to themselves.

Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive "sweatshops" to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.

Last month, Gou defended his firm's industrial workshops that have helped outmuscle rivals through vast economies of scale and cost savings that have made it the world's largest contract manufacturer.

"What's wrong with sweatshops?" Gou told Chinese workers visiting Taiwan in late April. "We toil hard with blood and sweat, so long as we don't break any laws. I believe in reaping what you sow," he added in videoclip posted on YouTube.

Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.

The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.

Affordable CONSUMER goods

“ALWAYS LOW PRICES”

Eight in ten Americans shop at Wal-Mart. “Always Low Prices” is not the only reason why most Americans prefer doing big-stop shopping in Wal-Mart. This gigantic store meets most of customers’ wants by providing numerous store locations, 24-hour openings, variety of goods, and low prices. Each year, Wal-Mart’s Foundation gives millions to charities, charter schools, community organizations, military families, and disaster victims.

Wal-Mart provides something that people want--low prices. A range of studies have found prices at Wal-Mart are anywhere from 8 to 39 percent less than its major competitors.

Global Insight was hired by Wal-Mart to quantify the national benefits of Wal-Mart’s lower prices, and they found out that total consumer savings by 2014 were $263 billion, which is the equivalent of $895 per person or $2329 per household.

For some people, seeing items in Wal-Mart cheaper than the same items in other stores might lead them to doubt the quality of Wal-Mart products. But there is nothing suspicious about it. The reason for cutting prices in Wal-Mart is that the stores can earn more at cheaper retail prices by selling an increased volume of merchandise, rather than what they would have earned by selling less items at the higher price. So, by selling items for relatively low prices, Wal-Mart increases the quantity of sold product, which helps to refresh the store shelves frequently and refill them with new and better items.  

Affordable CONSUMER goods

THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE

Wal-Mart pays it full-time workers an average of $17,000 per year.

These wages are too low for over 50% of employees to afford Wal-Mart's health insurance, so management counsels workers to apply for government programs such as Medicaid.

Wal-Mart workers are atop the Medicaid rolls in at least 16 states, costing taxpayers billions every year.

Wal-Mart’s production facilities in Bangladesh and China pay workers as little as 18 cents an hour.

Currently, Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest class action discrimination lawsuit in history, including over 1.5 million current and former female employees who were paid and promoted at significantly lower rates than their male co-workers.

The International Labor Rights Fund filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart for violating workers’ rights in foreign countries, alleging that Wal-Mart denied minimum wage, required overtime, and punished union activity. In some cases, workers alleged they were beaten by supervisors.

The suit alleged that one Bangladesh worker worked seven days a week from 7:45 a.m to 10:00 p.m, without a single day off, for six months straight.

In another instance, Wal-Mart was accused of failing to provide adequate safety equipment (gloves) for its fabric cutters and seamstresses overseas. According to one report, in Wal-Mart’s cost-benefit analysis, it was cheaper to wash workers’ blood from clothing before shipping the clothing overseas for sale than it was to provide gloves.

The combined owners of Wal-Mart (6 members of the Walton family) are worth as much as the bottom 30% of all Americans combined.

Photographs: (top left, top right, middle right): workers protest Wal-Mart’s treatment of women and low wages. (middle left): grieving family and friends mourn the 112 workers (mostly women) that were killed in a fire in one of Wal-Mart’s Bangladesh clothing factories. (middle right, bottom left): the 2013 collapse of the Savar clothing factory in Bangladesh, another of Wal-Mart’s garment factories. Cracks in the building’s structure were discovered the day before the collapse, but workers were told they would be withheld one month’s pay if they did not return to work the next day. 1,127 workers were killed.

Name: __________________ Date: _______

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONHAS INDUSTRIALIZATION HELPED OR

HURT SOCIETY?DO NOW: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY?

Review: 1) What was one reason the Industrial Revolution began in England?

2) What was one effect of the Industrial Revolution?

ADVANCED CONSUMER TECHNOLOGYHow apple electronics changed the world

Directions: After reviewing the slides of how Apple changed the world, fill in the graphic organizer below and answer the question.

How has Apple helped society?

1) What do you think was the most significant achievement of Apple? Why?

How apple products are made Directions: After reviewing the slides of how Apple products are made, fill in the graphic organizer below and answer the question.

How has Apple hurt society?

2) Place a mark on the line spectrum below. The far right represents the opinion “Apple has helped society.” The far left represents “Apple has

hurt society.” Place your mark according to where your opinion lies regarding this issue.

----------------------------------Apple hurt society Apple helped society.

Affordable CONSUMER goods“ ALWAYS LOW PRICES ”

Directions: After reviewing the slides of the benefits of shopping at Wal-Mart, fill in the graphic organizer below and answer the question.

How has wal-mart helped society?

1) What do you think is the best reason to shop at/support Wal-Mart?

The HIGH COST OF LOW PRICEDirections: After reviewing the slides of the disadvantages of shopping at/supporting Wal-Mart, fill in the graphic organizer below and answer the question.

How has wal-mart hurt society?

2) Place a mark on the line spectrum below. The far right represents the opinion “Apple has helped society.” The far left represents “Apple has hurt society.” Place your mark according to where your opinion lies regarding this issue.

----------------------------------Wal-Mart hurt society Wal-Mart helped society1) Imagine your favorite piece of technology cost $100. You then find out that it is made using abusive labor practices. The employees are underpaid, work in hazardous conditions, and are often injured and possibly killed on the job. How much would you be willing to pay for that product in order to ensure those labor practices ended? Alternately, would you be ok with the labor practices abuses getting even worse, if it lowered the price of your favorite product?

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2) Based on everything you have learned this week, craft a claim regarding whether you believe the Industrial Revolution has helped society or if you believe the Industrial Revolution hurt society. Next, back that claim up with evidence and analysis. Evidence must be taken from any of the documents (texts, pictures, graphs) that we have covered this week in class. Analysis should be your own.

Claim:Evidence:

Analysis:

3) On this final line spectrum, place a mark that shows to what extent you believe the Inudustrial Revolution has helped society, hurt society, or affected it somewhere in between. Be prepared to defend your opinion with evidence.

----------------------------------The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution

hurt society helped society