As most people know, many of the electronic components sold in the US are manufactured overseas because of cheaper labor costs. This has always been a mixed blessing as it provides more affordable products, but also prevents more jobs from coming to American shores. Though from the look of things, not many American laborers would be lining up for a job at Foxconn.

Foxconn, one of the world’s largest electronic component manufacturers for companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, reportedly dealt with the threat of a mass suicide from some 300 workers from the Foxconn Technology Park in Wuhan, China from the WantChina Times. Gameplanet also reports that these workers were specific to the XBox 360 line.

The dispute reportedly began after workers went to company officials looking for wage increases. Foxconn denied the request and offered employees the option to either continue working at the current wage or be given a dismissal package. Many opted for the latter. Upon this, Foxconn reneged on the offer.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, in response to the situation was quoted, “Foxconn has been an important partner of ours and remains an important partner. I trust them as a responsible company to continue to evolve their process and work relationships… That is something we remain committed to – the safe and ethical treatment of people who build our products. That’s a core value of our company.”

Later, Microsoft released a general statement regarding the incident stating, “Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously, and we are currently investigating this issue… We have a stringent Vendor Code of Conduct that spells out our expectations, and we monitor working conditions closely on an ongoing basis and address issues as they emerge. Microsoft is committed to the fair treatment and safety of workers employed by our vendors, and to ensuring conformance with Microsoft policy.”

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Unless you’re pretty knowledgeable, when you think of powerful server hardware for your business or other enterprise level needs the first manufacturer that pops into your mind probably isn’t Apple. It’s more likely Dell, HP or even IBM that comes to mind.

To most consumers, Apple is the company that makes the iPhone, iPad and the Mac and not a line of server hardware designed for businesses. It seems Apple sees themselves that way too as the company has announced it will discontinue sales of their Xserver server hardware as of January 31, 2011.

The company made the announcement via a post on its Xserve splash page. Apple does indicate it will continue to support the Xserve but you just won’t be able to buy a new one after that date. Apple has also made a PDF “transition guide” for Xserve users (Or potential users) which explains the alternatives to Xserve for users wishing to deploy Apple hardware and OSX Server software.

With this announcement it begs the question what Apple has planned for its server software. For the moment, the Mac Pro and Mac Mini server support OSX Server and based on the “transition guide” it sems they will continue to do so, at least for now. Perhaps this means Apple is going to license its server software for use on other Intel based platforms?

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MSI's Dual Touchscreen Tablet

Don’t think that the PC-oriented manufacturers are just sitting idly by while Apple takes the tablet world by storm. Oh no, not at all. While some of these tablet-based competitors to the iPad will be running a touch-enabled version of Windows 7, some are gravitating to Google’s Android OS.

Even though Microsoft’s Windows Touch Software for Windows 7 provides the ability to manipulate items on a screen using gestures and up to 100 touch points including single and double taps, dragging, rotating, flicking, zooming in and out, as well as a special tap that equates to a right-click on a mouse, Google’s Android OS has a competitive advantage with its extensive library of mobile apps.

With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at the forthcoming Android and Windows 7 powered tablet line-up for 2010, shall we?

Dell’s Mini 5: With a 5-inch wide screen, slim form-factor and WiFi connectivity, the Dell Mini 5 seems a bit smaller than the iPad, but more easily held in one hand. Sporting a 5-megapixel camera along with a LED flash on the back, the Dell Mini 5 will release with a big competitive advantage over the camera-less iPad.

It even works as a phone with its built-in microphone, but expect to pair it with a Bluetooth headset or risk looking completely ridiculous holding the huge slab up to your ear as you talk.

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Whether you understand Twitter or not, it’s hard to argue the phenomenal success of the social web site. For those few of you who don’t know, Twitter is an online service that allows you to follow other people’s message “stream,” sharing thoughts, comments and web links 140 characters at a time. It’s sort of like instant messaging but instead of isolated conversations you’re speaking to a crowd (although, you can send messages to individuals if you want).

While it has been around since 2006, Twitter really picked up mainstream momentum this year. Moving beyond your standard web service, the social tool has become a platform for communication. Corporations and consumers alike now broadcast everything from product sales to thoughts on the latest films. It’s that last point I want to focus on.

The L.A. Times ran an interesting story about the “Twitter Effect” on movies. That being, how talking about films on Twitter may effect moviegoers and influence their movie watching choices. Take the data at face value and Twitter sounds like it may not be the smart bomb of film criticism everyone thinks it is:

“OTX did an online survey of nearly 1,500 moviegoers in mid- September, the bulk of the sample being moviegoers from age 13 to 49, the key moviegoing demographic group. When asked what was the most influential source for word of mouth, most respondents picked “family and friends and coworkers,” which scored 40%, followed by Facebook (31%), MySpace (9%), IMDB (8%), with Twitter and online message boards bringing up the rear with 6% each.”

I completely disagree. Why? Simply put, the study is inherently flawed. OTX went and separated sites like Twitter and Facebook from the “family and friends and coworkers” category which fails to recognize the fact most of the information we get from those two social sites are from family and friends and coworkers. Take that into consideration and it stands to reason Twitter is making up a portion of that 40% belonging to the other category.

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