Apple Corporate

Facing increased media coverage and more scrutiny from its customers after a wave of suicides at its Shenzhen, China, plant, Foxconn said Monday that it will raise the monthly salary of its factory workers once again.

The company said it plans to increase pay to 2,000 yuan ($293) from 1,200 ($176) yuan, an increase of about 67 percent. This follows last week's 30 percent pay raise by the Taiwan-based company.

The new salary does come with a few conditions, according to Foxconn. Workers will have to pass a three-month performance evaluation before they can receive the raise. … Read more

Authorities have finally begun examining the computers, server, and other electronic gear seized from a Gizmodo editor as part of the investigation into a missing iPhone prototype.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, told CNET on Wednesday that a court there had appointed a "special master" to search the items seized from the home of Jason Chen in late April. The court has asked the special master to collect only information that pertains to Gizmodo's dealings with an iPhone prototype that the blog purchased for $5,000.

In March, an Apple employee lost … Read more

Following a rash of worker suicides this year at a massive factory in China, Foxconn is giving employees a 30 percent pay raise.

Taiwan-based Foxconn, which manufacturers laptops, mobile devices, and other hardware for the likes of Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony, announced Wednesday that the pay raise will take effect immediately at all of its factories in China.

The increase is higher than the 20 percent pay raise the company initially proposed as a way to deal with the labor shortage in China. The basic salary at the company's China factories is around $130 a month, according to … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Although CNET worked dilligently to convey all the highlights of Steve Jobs' talk here last night in our live blog, there's really no substitute for hearing it straight from the horse's mouth.

Thankfully, the folks at D: All Things Digital have offered up some embeddable video, which we have included below. (And for those who just want a recap, feel free to check out my summary story of last night's talk.)

One of the more interesting things Jobs had to say was that Apple was working on a tablet before a phone, even … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--At the D8 conference here, Steve Jobs didn't whip out the newest iPhone or tell us which category will be next to get an "i" before it, but his words offered a glimpse of where the iconic CEO thinks the industry is headed.

Speaking for an hour and a half at the D: All Things Digital confab, Jobs said the day is coming when only one out of every few people will need a traditional computer.

"When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that's what you needed … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and a few CNET editors. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--The D: All Things Digital conference kicked off Tuesday night with an appearance by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. CNET's Ina Fried covered the event live, with additional coverage from Josh Lowensohn and Apple watcher Erica Ogg.

In a wide-ranging chat with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D8, Jobs told why PCs are like trucks, shared a secret of the iPad's birth, and said the story of a missing iPhone would make a great movie. Jobs' talk comes just as Apple has passed Microsoft to become the most valuable tech company and takes place on the eve of Apple's developer conference.

We'll also be covering the rest of All Things D, which runs through Thursday and includes appearances by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, HTC CEO Peter Chou, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, and many others.

6:01 p.m. PDT: We're all seated, just waiting for Jobs, Swisher, and Mossberg.

6:03 p.m. PDT: News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will kick things off, with Jobs likely to take the stage around 6:10 or so.

6:04 p.m. PDT: Despite the fact that this is a crowd full of big wigs, folks were lining up to get a good seat. A sign of just how big a draw Steve Jobs really is. I saw him earlier, he's in his standard uniform.

6:05 p.m. PDT (Josh Lowensohn): Hello readers, thanks for joining us. I'll be keeping an eye on your comments and adding some to our stream. Also, some of your questions will be answered by Ina, Erica Ogg, and myself, if we can squeeze them in. Please don't get too frustrated if we don't include yours, as we tend to get quite a few of them during one of these events. Thanks! … Read more

The federal government's inquiry into Apple's business practices isn't restricted to digital music, according to a published report.

Investigators with the Department of Justice have begun asking questions of executives in the film industry and other media sectors, according to a story that appeared Friday in The New York Post.

"The [Justice Dept.] is doing outreach," an anonymous Hollywood source told the Post. "You can't dictate terms to the industry. The Adobe thing is just inviting the wrath of everybody."

CNET could not reach its film industry sources this weekend and could … Read more

WebKit, the open-source project behind Apple's Safari browser, is a pretty obscure name to ordinary folks. And perhaps Apple wants to keep it that way, judging by Apple's May 18 WebKit trademark application.

WebKit got its start from the open-source KHTML engine for the KDE project's Konqueror browser. (KDE is a user interface software that puts a nicer graphical face on Linux.) Apple brought the project to a wider audience with the Safari browser for Mac OS X, and now Google is doing the same with its Chrome and Android browsers, both also based on WebKit.

In … Read more

After a spate of suicides at Hon Hai Industries' Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, three of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer's largest clients have said they're organizing their own investigations into the conditions of the factory.

"We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn," Apple said in a statement Wednesday to Bloomberg. "Apple is deeply committed to ensuring that conditions throughout our supply chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity. We are in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously.&… Read more