After a spate of negative stories about Chinese factory conditions, tech vendors are eager to show that they can also make gadgets in America. The latest example is Motorola, which is advertising that its Moto X phone is being assembled in U.S. Here are a some more gadgets that are or will be "made in the U.S.A."
In May, Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola announced that the Moto X would be built bydomestic contract manufacturerFlextronics. Located in Fort Worth, Texas, Flextronics plans to employ over 2,000 workers for the project. The Moto X offers a slew of customization options for AT&T shoppers who use the Moto Maker website, including 18 back colors, 7 accent colors and a custom message on the back.Motorola wouldn't be able to offer 4-day delivery if it assembled this phone overseas, though its parts are still sourced from foreign manufacturers.
More: Moto X Full Review
Apple announced earlier this year that the next-generation Mac Pro line will be assembled in the U.S. While Apple has not officially revealed exactly where the workstations will be built, rumors suggest that Flextronics will do the assembly at one of its American plants, according to AppleInsider. The Mac Pro sports a striking cylindrical design, dual GPUs, Thunderbolt 2 new Xeon processors and 4K video support. There will be configurations with up to 12 cores, and a unified thermal core will keep the compact chassis cool.
More: MacBook Air 2013 vs. Retina MacBook Pro
IBM sold its consumer hardware division to Beijing-based Lenovo in 2005, but Lenovo looks to restore IBM's American-made legacy in 2013. In June, Lenovo announced the opening a production facility in Whitsett, N.C. The new plant has created 115 jobs in the state, and manufactures such recent products as the the ThinkPad Helix and ThinkPad Tablet 2. Lenovo has hinted that this is just the beginning.
More: 10 Best Lenovo Laptops
To closely monitor the first run of Google's futuristic heads-up display, the Explorer Edition series of Google Glass was manufactured at a Foxconn plant in Santa Clara, Calif.,The Verge and Financial Times recently reported. There's no word on whether the finished product will be made in the U.S., but don't hold your breath. Explorer Edition models went for a cool $1,500, so Google will have to drastically cut costs to make its final price consumer-friendly.
More: Top 10 Features of Google Glass
General Electric (GE) has made a big deal about its plans to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., looking to sink $1 billion into the cause by 2014, according to SmartPlanet. In March, GE dropped $250 million on revamping its Louisville, Ky. "Alliance Park" to produce a new line of premium refrigerators. Starting at $1,699, the fridges are the first-ever to feature a hot water dispenser, which can heat up to 12 ounces of water in just two minutes.
More: 15 Amazing Smart Home Gadgets
With its production facility in Brooklyn, New York-based MakerBot'sReplicator 2 isstill a far cry from a consumer product. At $2,199, this enthusiast-priced 3D printer looks to put the power of manufacturing into citizens' hands. The company claims that the MakerBot Replicator 2 is the easiest and fastest tool for making professional-quality models.
More: Best 3D Printers 2013
Processor manufacturer Intelwill soon complete two new facilities in the U.S. Located in Chandler, Ariz. and Hillsboro, Ore., the plants will create processor parts just 14 nanometers wide. For a ballpark cost of $5 billion for the Arizona plant alone, according to Fox News, Intel hopes each facility will allow it to create chips with even smaller parts by the end of the decade.
More:Intel Haswell Guide
Tesla Motor CEO Elon Musk’s luxury electric cars were U.S.-built from the start. The Model S--built by a fleet of advanced robots in Tesla's Fremont, Calif. plant--starts at $60,000. That buys you some serious technology, like a dashboard powered by not one, but two Nvidia Tegra 3 Visual Computing Modules. And hang tight, as Musk has teased that Tesla is working toward a $30,000 car.
