MacRumors

Back in January, popular radio show This American Life aired an episode dedicated to working conditions at Foxconn's factories in China, drawing heavily from Mike Daisey's theater monologue entitled "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs". In the monologue, which has been a notable part of the push to address working conditions at Apple's suppliers, Daisey relates tales from his visit to China where he met with Foxconn workers.

In a remarkable reversal, This American Life has now announced that it is retracting its January broadcast of Daisey's content, citing a number of fabrications discovered in a follow-up investigation on his claims.

The China correspondent for the public radio show Marketplace tracked down the interpreter that Daisey hired when he visited Shenzhen China. The interpreter disputed much of what Daisey has been saying on stage and on our show. [...]

Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast. That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake.

An accompanying press release relates a number of Daisey's claims that were shown to be false, from claims of having met workers injured by use n-hexane to an anecdote in which he described meeting a man who had had his hand mangled in equipment while producing the iPad and showing the man a functional iPad for the first time.

Daisey reportedly lied to This American Life's staff when asked for contact information for the interpreter he used during his travels, but once the interpreter was found through other means his story began to come apart.

For his part, Daisey acknowledges that some of the information he presented was not entirely truthful, arguing that his monologue was created for theater. Consequently, he agrees that it should not have been presented as journalism, although he stands behind the intent of his work.

I stand by my work. My show is a theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge. It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity. Certainly, the comprehensive investigations undertaken by The New York Times and a number of labor rights groups to document conditions in electronics manufacturing would seem to bear this out.

What I do is not journalism. The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed THIS AMERICAN LIFE to air an excerpt from my monologue. THIS AMERICAN LIFE is essentially a journalistic ­- not a theatrical ­- enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations. But this is my only regret. I am proud that my work seems to have sparked a growing storm of attention and concern over the often appalling conditions under which many of the high-tech products we love so much are assembled in China.

This American Life is devoting the entirety of this week's episode to discussion of the fabrications present in the original report.

Update: Marketplace's Rob Schmitz has written an article addressing his efforts to investigate Daisey's claims.

One of the major selling features of the new Verizon iPad Wi-Fi + 4G LTE is its compatibility with GSM networks for international roaming purposes. But what hasn't been clear is whether users could insert an AT&T micro-SIM card into a Verizon iPad and receive data connectivity. Given that the Verizon iPad supports the same GSM frequency bands for non-LTE networks as the version sold for AT&T, it appeared to be technically possible to use a Verizon iPad on AT&T although Apple could have opted to restrict the device's operation on other networks.

Big question on everyone's mind buying the Verizon iPad was whether data from AT&Ts 3G network would work on this iPad, or if Verizon/Apple would block this.

I was one of the first to obtain a Verizon iPad and can happily confirm that this is allowed! I used my ATT iPhone 4S sim card and took out the Verizon sim, and data worked! You must apply the AT&T APN carrier settings before this works though.

It is important to note, however, that a Verizon iPad will be limited to non-LTE bands (EDGE, 3G, HSPA+ 4G) on AT&T. The Verizon iPad hardware supports only the 700 MHz band for LTE to match the carrier's technology, while the GSM version sold for use on AT&T's network supports both the 700 MHz and 2100 MHz bands as used by that carrier.

Initial pre-orders of the new iPad are arriving today, while retail outlets in ten countries are offering in-store purchase for those still looking to purchase an iPad on launch day.

Claims of redesigned MacBook Pro models continue to surface ahead of the official launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, and Digitimes now reports that slimmer versions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro are currently in production. Notably, the report claims that the MacBook Pro line will remain distinct from the MacBook Air line, with the new MacBook Pro models losing their optical drives but retaining more advanced specs than seen in the MacBook Air.

The MacBook Pro will no longer have an optical drive enabling thinner designs, the sources indicated. Despite the slim profile, the new devices will feature more advanced specs than the MacBook Air in terms of CPU performance and storage capacity, the sources said.

Production for the next-generation MacBook Pro has already begun with shipments to Apple kicking off in March, the sources noted. Monthly shipments will eventually climb to 900,000 units from the 100,000-150,000 units targeted initially, the sources said.

The report is very similar to one issued by Digitimes several weeks ago, but the new report offers the explicit claim that production on the new models has indeed begun.

For roughly a year we've been hearing word that Apple was working on a slimmer form factor for the MacBook Pro. Rumors have continued to pile up since that time, with some suggesting that Apple might gradually unify its notebook line with the release of a 15-inch "MacBook Air" in the near future being followed by a similar 17-inch model a few months later. But rumors have been split on whether Apple's larger notebooks would become true MacBook Airs or if they would retain the MacBook Pro name and more advanced specs while still adopting some of the MacBook Air design aesthetics.

The 3rd Generation iPad continues to launch around the world to long lines in many locations. The iPad is launching in ten countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK.

Paris was the most impressive line photo we received. This photo at approximately 10pm local time showed hundreds lined up at Apple's Store in Paris. (Thanks Matthew)

Houston's new Highland Village Apple Store is being unveiled overnight just in time for the iPad 3 launch. (Thanks Matthew)

The U.S. got an early launch at Wal-Mart stores which started selling at 12:01 AM local time. From the few reports we received, lines and stock were relatively small. (Thanks Lee)

Finally, despite launch day availability, there are scalpers in Hong Kong already, looking to take advantage of any short supply. (Thanks Andy)

Those who pre-ordered the new iPad early enough should start receiving them on Friday. The new iPad will also be available in Apple Retail, Wal-Mart as well as Verizon and AT&T stores.

Apple has posted a new section on iTunes highlighting "Great Apps for the New iPad". The section lists many new Retina-enabled iPad apps that take advantage of the new iPad's high resolution screen.

The apps include games such as Flight Control Rocket, Sky Gamblers, Infinity Blade II. Also listed are Apps such as Tweetbot and Evernote.

The 3rd Generation iPad has already launched in some countries with the U.S. launch kicking off tomorrow. Wal-Mart will begin selling the new iPad at 12:01 AM local time while Apple Stores will open at 8:00 am.

As noted by Insanely Great Mac, Walmart has issued a statement announcing that it will be offering a "limited supply" of the new iPad beginning at 12:01 AM local time at its 24-hour stores in the United States. Walmart's sales will start eight hours before Apple's own retail stores open for business Friday morning.

If you want to be the first person amongst your friends and colleagues to have the new iPad, you will need to head to your local Walmart. Starting at 12:01 a.m. local time on March 16, a limited supply of the new iPad will be available at your local 24-hour Walmart. Other retailers’ doors don’t open until 8 a.m. local time, so you can get to work on time and beat the rush by coming to Walmart.

Several retailers in Australia also offered midnight sales of the new iPad, meaning that some customers have already been able to purchase the device. The teardown experts at iFixit were first in line at a Telstra store in Melbourne and have been dissected an LTE iPad over the past several hours.

Earlier today, we noted that iFixit was on hand for an early midnight launch of the new iPad at a Telstra retail store in Melbourne, Australia, and the teardown experts are now beginning the process of opening up the device to examine its internals.

A number of the parts appeared in leaks leading up to the device's introduction, but the teardown offers the first confirmation of details on what is included inside the new iPad and reveals some of the additional parts such as the cameras and battery that had not been seen in leaks.

Among the details revealed in the teardown:

- The display appears to be manufactured by Samsung. Samsung has been claimed to be the sole supplier of displays for the initial batch of new iPads, although LG and Sharp are expected to come on board shortly as they catch up from quality control issues in their production.

- The new iPad packs a Broadcom BCM4430 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip. As with a number of other recent Apple product releases, the new iPad supports low-power Bluetooth 4.0.

- The A5X system-on-a-chip carries a manufacturing date code of the first week in January.

- The wireless baseband chip is indeed the Qualcomm MDM9600, as had been suggested in restore code for the device.

- The new iPad indeed contains 1 GB of RAM, and unlike in A5-based hardware, the RAM consists of two standalone chips from Elpida rather than being integrated directly into the A5X package.

- The iPad's flash memory is from Toshiba, while the flash storage seen in the leaked logic board last month was from Hynix. Apple uses a variety of flash memory suppliers, balancing its load based on vendor capacity and pricing.

- The battery cells are roughly 70% larger than on the iPad 2, with the extra thickness of the new iPad providing space to house the larger batteries. Earlier speculation had suggested that Apple may have had a breakthrough in battery technology to allow for greater energy density that would have explained the 70% increase in battery capacity, but this is apparently not the case.

The Verge confirms in its testing with a review unit of the new iPad with 4G LTE that FaceTime video calling remains limited to Wi-Fi networks despite the fact that LTE offers greater bandwidth than many Wi-Fi networks.

We've just confirmed that although the new iPad has incredibly fast download and upload speeds over LTE, FaceTime video chat still won't work directly on the 4G network. As you can see in the positively vexing screenshot above, attempting to initiate a FaceTime call over LTE fails out with a message exhorting you to connect to a Wi-Fi network.

As the report notes, Steve Jobs claimed during FaceTime's introduction at the iPhone 4 media event in June 2010 that Apple still needed to work with carriers to support FaceTime over cellular data networks and that the feature would consequently remain Wi-Fi-only at least through 2010. Well into 2012 and with 3G now giving way to LTE on the new iPad, it seems that carriers are still unwilling to allow FaceTime calls to be transmitted natively over their networks, presumably due to concerns about increased data usage and strained network capacity.

Apple's share price touched the $600 mark as trading opened this morning, just a month after reaching $500/share for the first time. The stock has, however, pulled back slightly since the open and now sits at $594.

The stock price has been on a tear ever since Apple reported blowout earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2012, rising nearly $180/share, or close to 40%, in under two months.

At the end of February, Apple broke through the important psychological barrier of $500 billion in market capitalization. Apple is the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, worth nearly $560 billion, more than $150 billion higher than second-place ExxonMobil.

Apple is now within $50 billion of claiming the "most valuable publicly traded company ever" title. According to the S&P, Microsoft had a peak market cap of $604 billion during the dot-com boom in December 1999. Adjusted for inflation, Microsoft was worth $813.42 billion in January 2012 dollars at its peak, and Apple would have to reach $873/share to surpass that total.

With Apple's official launch of the iPad in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong just hours away, it seems that some of the company's retail stores are beginning their preparations. At Apple's Fukuoka Tenjin store in Japan, which closed for the night a little over an hour ago, employees are currently hard at work removing iPad 2 units from display in order to replace them with demo models of the new iPad.

Apple's retail stores will be opening at 8:00 AM local time to begin selling the new iPad, but some third-party retail partners will be opening even earlier. In fact, our friends at iFixit have traveled to Australia in order to be among the first to obtain an iPad for teardown purposes and were first in line at a Telstra retail store in Melbourne that opened just a few minutes ago at midnight. The carrier is even celebrating the event with a meter square iPad cake.

Update: iFixit now has its iPad in hand and will begin tearing it down shortly.