Hasta La Gadget!

We suspect there’s more than a few chapters left in the story of 25-year old Foxconn factory worker who died in an apparent suicide this month, following the disappearance of a prototype next-generation iPhone. The latest newsbit, this time care of Bloomberg, is that a security official for Hon Hai, a company with 72 percent stake in Foxconn, has been suspended and turned over to Chinese government authorities, with the suspicion / implication here that there’s a direct correlation between this and the suicide. Though unconfirmed at this point, reports circulating say the worker had been harassed by company security prior to his death. Yahoo! Tech has all those details, and the official investigation is ongoing. We’d like to say there’ll be conclusive answers in this case sometime in the near future, but we’re not getting our hopes up.

Read – Hon Hai Suspends Official After iPhone Worker Suicide
Read – China suicide puts spotlight on secretive Apple culture

Filed under: Cellphones

Security official suspended, turned over to authorities in apparent connection to Foxconn employee’s suicide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new HDMI 1.4 spec adds a host of new features (and, most likely, a lot of new ways to get scammed on cable purchases) but for those excitedly anticipating Audio Return Channel, HDMI Ethernet Channel and 3D over HDMI should know Silicon Image has announced its first line of chips supporting them. Destined for HDTVs, receivers, Blu-ray players and the like, the new port processor and transmitter have the extremely specific sample delivery date of “second half of 2009” so while we certainly don’t expect to see any actual hardware until well into next year, keep an ear to the ground if you’re considering an upgrade before then.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

3D, ARC and Ethernet capable HDMI 1.4 hardware announced, still a long way off originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for a way to further push the Snapdragon processor while constrained with a 4.1-inch screen, the Japanese-based Usuda Research Institute and Systems Corp has tacked on a MEMS motion sensor to Toshiba’s T-01A, also known as the TG01, for motion-based navigation around what it’s touting is a 2,000-inch picture. According to Nikkei, this “MotionPlus” like adapter has been shown to work alongside the camera, potentially paving the way for some AR application like we’ve seen with Tegra. It’s hard to tell from the videos just how accurate it is, but we’d love to see this go official — after a few cosmetic improvements, of course. Check out footage of the dongle in action after the break.

[Via WMPoweruser]

Continue reading Toshiba TG01 gets third-party motion sensor for large picture viewing, not virtual golf

Filed under: Cellphones

Toshiba TG01 gets third-party motion sensor for large picture viewing, not virtual golf originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We haven’t heard from Olive in a white hot minute, but hey, given the price of its wares, maybe it just decided to take the whole recession off. At any rate, the boutique outfit is sashaying back onto the scene with the Opus No. 4, the newest member of its long-standing Opus Hi-Fi Digital Stereo family. As with the models that have come before, this ultra high-end music server packs loads of internal storage (2TB if you’re counting), giving you enough room for around 6,000 CDs stored in the lossless FLAC format. There’s also a handy, full-color display on the front that probably won’t get much use, and ’round back, you’ll find a WiFi adapter (for wireless music streaming, you dig?), optical / coaxial digital audio outputs, a left / right analog output, a USB socket and an Ethernet port (for more of that streaming stuff). Look good? You bet. Does it look $1,799 good? That’s debatable.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Olive blesses Opus No. 4 music server with 2TB of space, charges $1,799 for it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Palm Pre ad is much better, don’t you think? Truth in advertising. Also, see if you can pick an even more creepy actress next time. [YouTube]

Want to make one? Go here.