Counterfeiting, by its nature, depends on secrecy and misdirection. Shining a spotlight on the nature and methods of counterfeiting is one step toward battling the problem. I’ve been covering this topic for 20 years, and there are still things that surprise me. Anti-counterfeiting efforts are being spearheaded by the best minds in the US government,…
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BANNOCKBURN, Ill. — To help the electronics manufacturing industry comply with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) final conflict minerals regulation, IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries® will hold three, one-day seminars, “Conflict Minerals Critical Issues,” on October 24, 2012, in Boston, Mass.; November 1, 2012, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Calif.; and…
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Recently, I was astonished to learn there are nearly 49 million old or unused mobile phones left and forgotten in the corners of UK households. What was even more surprising for me was that the commercial value of these items exceeds £1 billion. At the exchange rate of £1 = $1.59, this is $1.59 billion.…
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More criticism of how workers in the electronics supply chain are treated emerged early this month from China Labor Watch (CLW). The nonprofit has published a 122-page report on what it called “severe labor abuses” at eight {complink 4751|Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.} factories in China. Ironically, such watchdog groups can do what they're doing because…
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In one of the recent articles I wrote, there was a comment regarding document security and embedded RFID tags. The questions related to how the recipient would know that the document had not been tampered with, even if the RFID tag was genuine. I followed up on that comment and discovered the author of the…
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LA FOX, IL — Richardson RFPD, Inc. today announced the launch of its redesigned website homepage. The refreshed homepage design offers more direct, one-click access to Richardson RFPD's extensive portfolio of products and industry-leading suppliers, best-in-class design support, and purchase options. The new homepage is divided into sections, including: Scrollable list of suppliers, with one-click…
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On September 12, 2012, {complink 379|Apple Inc.} introduced the iPhone 5. One of the biggest rumors surrounding the device was whether it would have Near Field Communication (NFC) built in. A big reason for the rumor is that Android has supported NFC since the Gingerbread operating system was released, and the first Android NFC-enabled phone…
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MANSFIELD, TX — Mouser Electronics, Inc., an award-winning authorized distributor for semiconductors and electronic components, announces today it has received the ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 certification. In sync with Mouser’s goal of continuous improvement, the certification represents another high benchmark for quality and control for the global design-fulfillment distributor. The new certification adds to Mouser’s AS9120A/ISO9100:2008 standards…
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Electronics companies have long shaped their businesses around the mantra, “Make it faster, better, and cheaper than the next guy.” It shouldn't come as a surprise then that this exact scenario is starting to aggressively play out in the still fledging but already heated tablet market, where everyone and their mothers seem to be diving…
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Few will dispute the notion that the Internet is an innovation. In the electronics supply chain, however, the Internet hasn't quite changed the game the way many expected. In its heyday, the Internet was going to replace entire business models and enable buyers to bid for the components they needed. Inventory management was going to…
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