@Hectorvex:

as far as i can tell, she could be anywhere from 14 to 30 years old.

@DarkMirage:

here's a grain of salt. take it.

nutbastard

Also, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

92BuickLeSabre

"He didn't comment on the number of lashings she received" nothing better that starting a working day with a good laugh AND an erotic fantasy.

now, about that spreadsheet........

dysthymia

@DarkMirage: That's not fair. I don't pretend to be an expert on China because I read BoingBoing. I pretend to be an expert because I am a semi-anonymous commenter on a gadget blog.

(Although I must admit, it did totally get me into trouble the time I agreed to give that speech on "Sustainable Urban Development in Changsha" at the Kennedy School.)

92BuickLeSabre

@DarkMirage: Und ze zolushin eez to juz zit bach, rrrelax und tek een ze humor!

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

@DarkMirage: I think actually, we're pretending to pretend to be experts. Haven't you been reading the comments? Do we sound like experts?

Hectorvex

@Hectorvex: Yes and Americans are all gun-toting red necks who don't like Asian people in the first place. I guess you are even then.

As an Asian myself, that girl does not look under age to me. Moreover, unlike a real communist economy, Chinese factories are run by private businesses and not the government. Oh, and did I mention the fact that Foxconn is a Taiwanese company?

Seriously, I'm sick of everyone on the Internet pretending to be an expert on China just because they read Boing Boing.

DarkMirage

@nutbastard: That and the whole asian underage thing right? Right?

Hectorvex

i think it's the hat that makes her extra cute.

nutbastard

@92BuickLeSabre: Comment of the week.

Metropolis

I feel badly. Can we donate money to help her finish elementary school?

SpeneyG

"Now that our cute viral marketing iPhone girl has brainwashed those Western dolts, we can begin phase 2 of our masta plan!" *lips keep moving*

*All together*

"Ha haha ha ha haha ha hahaha ha!"

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

@Hectorvex: Nothing different in that case from other countries, other than the free press.

twilight-arc

That iPhone now probably has the Free Tibet album loaded on it, ironic.

CEOself

Was the factory in Taiwan or China? Makes a big difference on whether to believe they canned her or not.

jibbly

That's great. I'm pretty sure that they won't allow this to happen again in the future. If so, someone may be fired.

KJA

@Hectorvex: I heard they keep them in the factory as a "warning" to others. Human sacrifices aren't like aspirin, but more like mineral ice. You need to apply them to the affected areas.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

I'm sure it wouldn't have been the first young woman whose life was ruined by Adam while he was vacationing on the Cape.

92BuickLeSabre

Yeeeaaah Adam! Pssh. You got off easy this time.

ripfire

Seriously? You're taking the Chinese's word for it? They are a Communist country based on lies and misinformation. I wouldn't be surprised if her body was found in 12 different pieces all over the interior of the country.

Hectorvex

Umm... "test photos?"
Lets see, one million iPhones in two months and this girl poses adorably for each and every one, huh?

yeah, she's probably already dead.

homerjay

@nutbastard: Nah, it's the shadow that makes her look like she has huge sideburns that did it for me.

ceilingFANBOY

Wouldn't the person taking the photos be in more trouble than the person in the photos? I know our stereotype is that hwoever's in charge would punish the photo's subject jsut to have soemone to punish, but if this were an American company wouldn't you assume she was merely interrogated and the photographer who left the pics on the device was fired?

Zlevee

@DelSource: She's already vested in her 401k and two years away from early retirement.

Hectorvex

Jesus Christ she's just a kid. And I bet she's a veteran of Apple's child labour providers.

DelSource

Actually, that is not the Fozconn factory worker. She wasn't cute enough, so they replaced her with this girl.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@Hectorvex: Please. If those gymnasts from China were "16", then this girl must be 40.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

Isn't that the 14 year old Olympic gymnast?

plankbr

@nutbastard: Hey, that's a good range. I like my women like I like my scotch. Sitting in a barrel for 12 years.

Hectorvex

Wow. Giz has gone all Red Scare today. What gives?!

OMG! Ponies!

@DarkMirage: And what makes you an expert ABC? Have you even been to China, or is your Asian heritage sufficient to make you an expert on all things Asian.

I doubt she was fired, since it is up to the company. However, if the company chose to section her and hang her parts on four tress around the factory I'll bet the government wouldn't bat an eyelid. Well as long as they're getting taxes. I suppose they'd prefer to imprison her though, so they could sell her kidneys to rich foreigners.

sxr7171

@bjarnia: I totally agree. The news and media is so PRO-USA that its kind of scary. A friend of mine saw 1/2 of the Olympic in Beijing, and then 1/2 of it here, and she said that the reporters and anchors are much less bias then the one in sitting at the NBC studio. They actually praise the other country when they are doing great even if they are competing against China...

bigcracker22

She wasn't really a factory worker anyway... she was the cuter, more photogenic substitute.

MacTodd

@Ghinn: -and would we be smiling?

You have broken my brain...more so.

strider_mt2k

What if there are people in these factories reading websites that have leaked pictures of people reading blogs? That would be crazy.

Ghinn

If I got a brand new iPhone with this picture on it, I'd have to smile and think 'These poor people who slave away in these factories for 12 hours a day so rarely get to enjoy the things they make. It's nice to see that change once in a while.'

It also shows that at least humans at Foxconn test the damn things before sending them out, which is better QC than a lot of Chinese factories.

markarian

Love it how a lot of you make some horrible assumptions about China. I'm not saying that China treats all of their citizens like kings, but some of you don't quite realize that you yourselves are being fed lies, exaggerated and biased reports and about china by the bucketload by your own government.

While USA is probably a better country to live in, both of the governments lie to their citizens.

bjarnia

Anyone who feels sorry for this girl should stop buying Made-in-China products. Otherwise just SHUT THE F UP!

lulu321

Once upon a time Apple used to credit the programmers on its software.

heroineworshipper

all electronic devices should come with complimentary pics of smiling factory girls.
It just makes this world a better place.

winner

"Wow some girl's pictures are all over my phone. I wonder if she'll get fired if people find out... oh well I'll plaster her all over the net and then worry."

hagrun

@BurntToast:

So she plays WoW now? Sounds more entertaining to me!

linuxidiot

@bjarnia:

Sure but just ask anyone in Tibet how much our stories are exaggerated.

sxr7171

The untold story is that that cute girl isn't making iPhones anymore... she's now been put into the slave gold farming camp.

Gotta love China.

BurntToast

@oyanobaka: I mean than getting fired. Sorry, it's 3:00am here in Japan.

oyanobaka

@92BuickLeSabre: You sir, win the internets.

Wormfather is Wormfather

Of course she wasn't fired, but the even cuter factory worker who TOOK the photos and neglected to remove them was ceremonially killed, along with her family and everyone that owed her money.

AndyDuncan

From what one of the Chinese commenters on Macrumors have said, what happened to her seems to be worse then getting fired. On a Chinese bbs site, someone outed her name and where she works. According to him-
In CHINA,this news has climbed to the first page of our biggest website-sina,many pepole have read it,and comment on it on BBS,just in that BBS,I read that one person had told her name out(I'm sorry I don't to type her name out,so I keep it as a secret),and her address of work-"富士康iDPBG事业群DMPG-MFG02.地址在深圳观澜大水坑观澜科技园C04".
I feel sorry for her. I'm sure she doesn't want this.

oyanobaka

Hey guys, we're talking about China here, NOT Russia! They only hack up women in Russia. In China it's just a bullet to the head. Please get your facts straight!

Noobs-R-Us

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that Frucci.. she is really a dead woman now, as is her entire family.

DMF

While there are government owned factories, most of them are private owned (and the government is also trying to privatize more state-owned factories) and a good chunk are private owned by foreign countries. It's not like the Chinese government have complete say over everything that goes on in all the factories in China.

On the issue of labor rights, it's mostly shady factory owners who violate labor laws and minimum wage laws. Foreign companies really have to keep an eye on factory owners because once you turn your back there's a good chance they'll do something that violates worker rights, esp if they are rushing an order. So China has adequate labor law that is very very poorly enforced. There are other factors too like migrant workers, who don't know or even if they know some of the labor laws, are willing to work under basically any condition (thus giving no leverage to local workers, since the factory owner can always fire you and find a replacement who will work for cheaper) and the fact independent labor unions aren't allowed in China.

stopcrazypp

@Hectorvex: LMFAO! thats pretty mean. Itd be a good statement tho if they took her and put up one of her body parts in every apple factory in China for a lesson that no touching the 2nd gen Jesus phone will be allowed. xD

SneakerFiend

Don't worry. They don't need to fire her. They've already subjected her to ridiculous environmental standards and forced sterilization.

Human Bomb

Here's the truth, y'all: unable to shake my overweening obsession with her, I utilized a little-known feature of the iPhone's GPS function to determine her location, called her on the iPhone that she was working on at the time, and arranged to have her smuggled to the U.S. She's at my apartment now; we still haven't quite managed to overcome the language barrier, but she really rocks on Katamari Damacy.

P.S. She's 23, you pervs.

halloweenjack

1) She should not get fired. She's the subject not the shooter.
2) Foxconn (Hon Hai) plant is in Longhua near Shenzhen. Read about it, its quite a place.
3) I am glad they have work. Many are from farming towns. Its very good money relative to the farm.
4) Now if we could just get Janesville, Wi, and all those other plant closed places retooled to make something useful...

morbo

what if it was an ugly guy in the picture?

alter

@stopcrazypp:
yea nice misconception, "it's the chinese guy running the factory, not the western company".

you sir, are lulz. A western company is still a company, and what do they do ? Maximize Revenues, Minimize Costs.

gothamdarkknight

@Hectorvex:
The most retarded comment ever. Shows western perception of China.
This girl works for FOXCONN. Foxconn the company from the so-called democvratic China of TAIWAN.

Yea, the factory workers don't work for the GOVERNMENT, they work for FIRMS that are usally from AMERICA .

gothamdarkknight

Yay go cute girl! I think she's gonna end up in iPhone adverts to be honest... I bet they'll actually use the picture as is.

DJTripleRRR

That hat she is wearing is ballin.

Duckspwn

uh,how many temporary test pictures would you take before you stop asking people to pose for them?

brundlefly76

After Jobs found out, he angrily went back to his office, sat down in his expensive leather chair, pressed a large red button, and cyanide gas was distributed around the entire manufacturing facility and all factory workers were killed.

Nightsd01

I don't doubt that the pictures were of test photos. My gawd she's a cutie! /rawr /purrrrrrr

ChelseaCosta

@sxr7171: If I told you I was born and raised in China, would that make one bit of difference to what I posted? No it would not. I was not the one making outrageous claims about a country I have never been to before, so I had no need to claim such authority.

And for the record, yes I am Chinese and I was born in China. The only reason why I said that I was Asian instead of Chinese is because I believe what I said stands on its own.

You on the other hand clearly have zero idea what China is like. I don't understand how people can complain so much about the mainstream media lying to them about Iraq and about their own government, but gladly turn around and believe everything that is posted on the Internet about China, a country which most Anglophone armchair commentators have never set foot in before in their lifetime.

China has many flaws, but so does your limited understanding of it. Your comment for example is a hilarious example of self-inculcated sinophobia at work, accumulated over many years of isolated groupthink. But hey, don't let me destroy your fantasy.

DarkMirage

@Hectorvex

..''country based on lies and misinformation.''
aint that the rest of the western world too?..except they've been in the business longer and know how to hide it better...

all this negative thoughts against china is all bull$£$£...they are just the same as anyother country..they have good and bad things about them...no one country is perfect...unless ur american and u live in america..then ur thoughts are different to the rest of us...lol

potty81

A lot of dell parts come from Foxconn

adifferent_hero

its all crap..

Apple just want to show how cute their employees look.

Chandru