Continue reading Biscotti TV dunked in the FCC’s latte, still a bit hard

Biscotti TV dunked in the FCC’s latte, still a bit hard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Dell Inspiron R refreshed with removable lids and Intel’s latest processors

Dell Inspiron R refreshed with removable lids and Intel’s latest processors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yet another scandal coming out of China relating to its factories. Last time it was Apple that got in trouble, now it’s Microsoft. An undercover investigation, carried out by the National Labor Committee over a period of three years, discovered that several factories there, including ones used by Microsoft to produce things like webcams and mice, were treating their workers like garbage. “We are like prisoners. It seems like we live only to work. We do not work to live. We do not live a life, only work.”

I had mentioned in our chatroom that I’m surprised these type of stories are still “news” to people, right or wrong. (Probably wrong.) When I think of Chinese factories, I don’t necessarily think of exquisite working conditions or kind and caring bosses.

That applies to all factories from the beginning of time, by the way, not just Chinese factories. It’s just that China is the world’s manufactory these days. A couple years ago you’d have stories about kids in Manchester textile factories putting up with pure hell. It’s simply the nature of the beast.

The NLC investigation says that it found workers would work for 15 hours per day at 65 cents per day. One-thousand workers crammed inside a 105 by 105-foot room doesn’t exactly sound comfortable.

Again, Microsoft is the biggest company implicated here, with some of its components being constructed in said factories. Other companies include HP, Samsung, Acer, Logitech, and Foxconn. Microsoft says it has launched an investigation of its own to figure out what’s going on.

That fancy new gadget you just bought? Odds are it wasn’t created in what you’d consider “nice” working conditions, at least by American standards.

Stories like these can easily mutate into “anti-China” stories, and that’s not really fair. If anything, they should be “anti-terrible working conditions” stories, and these have popped up through the ages.

When the first 720p webcams came out, I was pretty skeptical. And I still am, considering that their image quality isn’t very good. I mean, you may as well stick with 640×480; at least it’ll be clear. 1280×720 pixels is a lot to ask from a sensor the size of a ladybug. And those cheap little lenses simply can’t resolve the detail necessary to justify such a pixel count. But that won’t stop Samsung. They’re going to pump out tiny, “HD” sensors like there’s no tomorrow.

I don’t know, guys. It just seems silly to be pushing “definition” when the product really has none. I don’t speak merely of the Samsungs, which of course I haven’t seen yet, but pretty much every cheap HD product out there. What’s the point of resolution if you lose out on smooth motion, good color, and clear edges? But alas, “HD” sells. Expect even the lowest-end laptops to be sporting HD webcams soon. At least you can probably choose VGA in the settings.

The HP Slate has been showing up in all sorts of places since it’s CES 2010 debut. But we really never knew much about it. We didn’t know what CPU or GPU it was running, along with if it had 3G, GPS, webcams. But a Spanish site seemingly has all the answers and we like what we hear.

The Slate will rock an unspecified Atom CPU chipset that will handle Flash just fine. A memory card reader, USB ports, and a rear-mounted webcam are also mentioned to be included.

A €400 ($546) price is thrown around but let’s not speculate on the $549 USD conversion price. Products like the Slate can range in price dramatically depending on its target market, and let’s just hope HP has enough smarts to price it lower than the competing iPad. After all, so far we still haven’t heard anything about a 3G modem residing within the Slate’s sexy frame.

Attention citizens! Your benevolent overlords have released three new entries in the LifeCam series. Now all of your long-distance correspondences can be in glorious 720p. Unfortunately, none of them are nearly as cool as the camera on the left.

The three new contenders are the HD-5000, 5001, and 6000 for notebooks. Real imaginative guys. In fact, I can’t find any real differences between the 5000 and 5001 models. All three offer 720p video recording at 30 fps and auto-focusing. The two desktop models have an aspect ratio of 16:9. All three are only Windows compatible, even back to XP, but do Mac users ever use external webcams? I think not.

All three run between $50 and $60. They aren’t available quite yet, but you can pre-order them on Amazon and feel great about yourself.