Apple Inc. said it’s opening a new plant in Mesa, Arizona, that will create 2,000 jobs to make components for its products, part of a push by the world’s most valuable company to boost manufacturing in the U.S.
Apple struck a deal to pay $578 million to GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (GTAT) to supply equipment for the facility, GT Advanced said in a statement. The machines make materials out of sapphire, which is increasingly used in smartphones to cover camera lenses and home buttons.
After years of outsourcing much of its manufacturing to Chinese suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group and facing criticism from labor groups and politicians for the practice, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has made adding jobs in the U.S. a priority. The Cupertino, California-based company will next month release a new Mac Pro that is being assembled in the U.S.
Adafruit has had paid day off for voting for our team for years, if you need help getting that going for your organization, let us know – we can share how and why we did this as well as the good results. Here are some resources for voting by mail, voting in person, and some NY resources for our NY based teams as well. If there are additional resources to add, please let us know – adafruit.com/vote
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
