Foxconn will replace some workers with 1 million robots within 3 years
Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn has said it will replace some of its workers in the next three years, replacing them with 1 million robots.
The company, most notably known for manufacturing iOS products among thousands of other devices, has 995,000 employees in the Chinese mainland, and another 200,000 elsewhere.
By replacing human workers with robots, the company will curb rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, says chairman Terry Gou (via xinhuanet).
Foxconn has been in the news in the past year due to a string of suicides by workers.
Average line workers at the factory make about 900 yuan ($140 USD) per month.
Apple Mac OS X Lion sees 1 million downloads in first day
Apple says Mac OS X Lion (10.7) is the biggest OS launch in the company’s history.
The OS cost $30 and is only available as a digital download to those Mac users running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.
Says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing:
Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic. Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.
Next-gen Xbox will offer ‘Avatar’-esque graphics
AMD, the company behind the Xbox 360’s GPU, has said this week that the upcoming next-gen Xbox model will offer graphics on par with those seen in the blockbuster film “Avatar.”
The company says the Xbox will launch with those graphic capabilities, making it much more powerful and advanced than current gaming consoles and PCs, even those with the most expensive video cards.
Director of ISV relationships at AMD Neal Robison would not confirm that the company is working on the hardware for the Xbox, but it would make sense for Microsoft to keep their existing relationships in tact.
Furthermore, Robison says AI in games like Grand Theft Auto will be given individual mentalities, removing them from the unrealistic “mob mentality” of current games.
For example, Robison notes (via Examiner), that in current games, if someone is shot, the entire group around will likely run away and yell in a mob. In the future, each pedestrian will have their own mindset and perform their own action.
Apple crushes earnings on record iPad, iPhone sales
Apple has completely blown out their quarterly earnings report this afternoon, on the back of strong growth in China and record iPad sales.
Profits for the quarter were $7.31 billion, up 125 percent year-over-year, and revenue was $28.57 billion, up 82 percent YoY.
Following the report, Apple, which closed the day at $376.85 jumped to as high as $405 per share, a new all-time high.
Additionally, the company confirmed it will be releasing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion tomorrow, as reported earlier.
iPhone sales jumped 142 percent to 20.34 million units (a record) and iPad sales jumped to 9.25 million units (also a record).
Says CEO Steve Jobs:
We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent. Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.
Sales in China, and the Asia-Pacific region in general, had the most explosive growth with COO Peter Oppenheimer saying overall sales in China are up 600 percent “and just beginning.”
A few other figures of note from the report was weak Mac sales (3.95 million units, up 13.8 percent YoY), the continued decline in iPod sales (down 20 percent to 7.54 million units) and an overall gross margin of 41.7 percent, huge for any industry.
Apple is also expected to release the iPhone 5 in September.
Yahoo willing to bid $2 billion for Hulu, with certain demands
According to BI, Yahoo would be willing to purchase on-demand streaming TV service Hulu for $2 billion, as long as certain demands are met.
Hulu is owned by Disney (ABC), News Corp. (Fox), Comcast (NBCU) and private equity firm Providence.
Yahoo is only willing to make the deal if Hulu guarantees them 4-5 years of exclusive access to the media content.
Hulu, on the other hand, seems to be only willing to give 2 years of exclusivity, albeit with 5 years guaranteed access to the content.
Says one source:
If [Hulu's content creating owners] came out and said, we’ve renewed [Hulu's exclusive rights] for four years at the same terms we have today – it’s really easy to model [a valuation between] $1 billion and $2 billion – maybe more.
Without four or five years of exclusive streaming rights to TV shows and movies, Hulu is not worth anything.
If Hulu does offer 5 year exclusivity, Yahoo would have enough time to “build enough equity with consumers that you’ve created a real leader in premium content and premium advertising,” adds the source.
Without exclusivity, Yahoo (and other bidders) could simply just bid for the rights to stream the content in the future, as it would cost significantly less. In fact, when the exclusivity period for Hulu’s current content ends, Google and Amazon are expected to bid hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights.
Google+ on pace to reach 20 million users by this weekend
According to analysis from Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen, Google’s Google+ social network will hit 20 million users by this weekend.
Allen says the 10 million mark was hit Tuesday afternoon, and the overall user base has increased 350 percent in the last 6 days.
Using “surname-based analysis,” Allen used U.S. Census Bureau data about last name popularity and compared it to Google Plus users with the same last name. The researcher used similar tactics for the international markets.
RWW explains that “Allen used a sample of 100 to 200 surnames to estimate the total percentage of the U.S. population who has signed up for Google Plus. He then used that number and a calculated ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. users (one U.S. user for every 2.12 non-U.S. users) to generate his worldwide estimates.”
On July 4th, the model had user count at 1.7 million, and by July 9th that had jumped to 4.5 million.
Google+ is available to all Gmail users, and on Android. An iOS app is awaiting Apple approval.
Ubisoft says their creativity is limited by PS3, Xbox 360 hardware
Ubisoft, the game developer behind blockbuster franchises like Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed has said this week that its creativity is now being limited by the PS3 and Xbox 360’s hardware.
Says Yves Jacquier, Ubisoft’s executive director of production services at Ubisoft Montreal:
Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox [360] is that we’re extremely limited in what we can do.
It’s a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time.
Ubi hopes that they will be able to significantly improve on AI with the next-generation Xbox and PS4:
The challenge is that, if you see an AI coming, you’ve failed. And that’s a problem we have to overcome as we create the impression of flawless, seamless worlds. In general the industry expects that graphics will not be a strong feature any more… Obviously, graphics are better for marketing purposes because you can show things. AI you can’t show.
We think that the next generation of consoles won’t have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what’s the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?
Although unconfirmed, reports have stated that Sony is already preparing to launch the PS4 in early 2012.
Barnes & Nobles giving away tons of freebies to anyone who switches to a Nook
Barnes & Noble, the proud owners of the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever, are giving users even more incentive to pick up a new Nook.
As of this weekend, anyone who walks into a Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store with a rival e-reader and purchases a new Nook Color or Nook Simple Touch will be given a 2GB microSD card filled with “$315″ worth of free e-books.
A few of the 30 books provided are classics like “Robinson Crusoe” and “Don Quixote” and you can check the full list here: 30 Free Nook books
The Nook Color (more of a tablet than an e-reader, retails for $250 and the brand-new Nook Simple Touch (the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever) retails for just $140.
Barnes & Noble is of course hoping that many will show off their old Amazon Kindle and “upgrade” to the Nook Simple, and the cheap promotion should also help drive foot traffic to the struggling stores.
Samsung Galaxy S II hits 3 million sales, without even reaching U.S.
Samsung has announced today that the Galaxy S II is the hottest smartphone in the world, hitting 3 million units sold in just 55 days.
Making the number much more impressive is that fact that the device has not even reached U.S. shores yet, with expected launch date sometime in August.
At 3 million in 55 days, the sales eclipse the original Galaxy’s 85 days for the milestone.
The phone is also Samsung’s fastest selling phone, ever.
When the device hits the U.S., it will sell as the Samsung Function on Verizon, the Within on Sprint and the Attain on AT&T. There is no word on a T-Mobile release, yet.
Samsung has lofty expectations for 10 million sales of the Galaxy S II by the end of the year.
Cablevision sued by Viacom over mobile streaming
Viacom has sued Cablevision today over its mobile streaming content, alleging it is unauthorized.
In April, Cablevision launched its “Optimum App,” giving subscribers a chance to stream TV programs via their iPad.
Viacom claims the app violates the two company’s current agreement to distribute Viacom programing only on cable TV systems.
The media company is demanding a halt on the streaming and $2 million in damages for each trademark violation.
Cablevision says the Optimum App “falls within our existing cable television licensing agreements with programmers, including Viacom,” and will fight the charges.
The cable operator has 3.7 million customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
