LaborPractices
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Apple creates academic advisory board to oversee its Supplier Responsibility program
As part of Apple's ongoing efforts to improve labor practices in its supply chain, the company recently formed an academic advisory board to oversee its Supplier Responsibility program. The academic advisory board, which is an all-volunteer group, will be comprised of eight professors from renowned US universities and chaired by Brown University Professor Richard Locke. The Watson Institute reports that the advisory board will make recommendations about Apple's current practices and commission new research with the intent of improving labor practices and working conditions not just in regards to Apple but across the board. Locke hopes that the board will shape the practices of Apple and its suppliers so that the millions of employees involved in Apple's supply chain work under safe and fair conditions, in which "they are paid living wages, work within the legal work hour regimes, [and] work in environments that are safe and where they can express their rights as citizens. While Apple has taken a lot of heat in the media over its labor practices, the company, especially with Tim Cook at the helm, now appears to be a lot more focused and transparent about its efforts to improve the working conditions of the folks who manufacture its products.
Phone Story app critiques iPhone lifecycle, gets yanked (Updated)
It's not every day that we see an iPhone app which serves as an indictment of the entire consumer electronics ecosystem, but it's even rarer that such an app would show up on the App Store only to promptly disappear again. Developed by Molleindustria, the Phone Story game combines economics, politics and environmental awareness with play. The 8-bit inspired graphics trace the origins of our electronic devices from the coltan mines of the Congo to the labor conditions in Chinese factories. The tale ends in the West, where our desire for the latest gadgets drives a cycle of innovation, obsolescence and e-waste. If the story sounds familiar, that's not an accident. Phone Story made its way into the App Store early today, but a tweet by Molleindustria confirms the 99-cent app, like other controversial apps, has been quickly pulled without explanation by Apple. We've reached out to Molleindustria to find out why Apple used the ban hammer on this politically charged app. As our commenters point out below, it may well be the use of the Apple brand that tipped the scales (that's not allowed), but in that case one wonders why the app was approved in the first place. Update: The developers have posted their rejection notice. Crude content, abusive portrayal of children, and two infractions of rules covering charitable donations in-app which actually don't seem to apply. Hat tip to Daniel Sieradski.
