I bought a webcam off of AliExpress that was supposedly shipped from the US and they said they had stock. It was ~$25 so I'm not expecting much but it will be something. I'm doing facetime/facebook video chats with family members so they can see my 15 month old son. We have been using the built-in camera in either a phone or laptop but my son keeps trying to reach out and smash the keyboard or touch the phone screen. The idea is to use a webcam and then hook the laptop up to the TV so that we can be visible.
Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
241–250 of 410 posts
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#242Why shouldn’t the price increase with a supply chain disruption and demand boom? Would you prefer a shortage with no incentive to increase production?
If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production. Notice here that raising the price is not at all required to increase profits. It's just something companies tend to do because they know they can get away with it in high demand markets. And since raising prices to increase profits is not nec…
> If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production.
For what it's worth, this isn't how "supply and demand" works in economics.
The idea is that a given firm is already producing as much as they can at that price. There's not usually a ton of slack just laying around that could respond to a spike in demand. For instance, my wife who works at a soap factory right now, has seen a ton of demand. They would love to increase production to accommodate but it's just not immediately possible, without retooling the factory. They're managing to increase supply a little, by not offering as many varieties of scents and such, but that's the extent of what they can do immediately.
The reason prices increase with an increase in demand, according to standard economics orthodoxy, is because that allows more firms to enter the market, as well as existing firms to do less efficient things (more workers, more expensive supply chain, etc), to meet that demand.
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#243Feels like Apple could boost their ecosystem by making great iPhone/macOS webcam integration. There's Kinoni's EpocCam and it seems to work, but it is a bit rough and requires installing their driver which I don't love.
Or Apple could put a better cameras on their laptops. Video conferencing was already in wide use for businesses prior to covid19. While they are at it, they could put FaceID on it.
To fit a better lens and image sensor, they would either have to thicken the Macbook lid or add a camera bump. Seems unlikely.
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is this, but I haven't tried it: https://apps.apple.com/app/epoccam-webcam-for-mac-pc/id44913...
I have tried it and it works flawlessly when paired with an iphone 11. You can even use the main iphone camera, not just the front facing one. It is by far my best webcam (compared to my laptops and a stand-alone logitech I own). PS. To make it work you need to install a driver on your PC, so it can be a no-go for many company owned computers.
I tried it and it did not work for me. (Macbook Pro and iPhone 8)
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#245Wyze cheap security cameras released a firmware that turns them into a webcam. Still in stock. You will also need a USB a-a cable that I didn't know existed or was legal. And a 32gb microsd. I did this last week, came in one day on Amazon prime. Under $50 for everything. Setup went okay, although the 3-4 minutes for firmware write was under a minute for me with their branded microsd. Quality is passable, lens is more…
> You will also need a USB a-a cable that I didn't know existed or was legal. They exist, but are not allowed by the USB standard. The basic premise of the classic USB standard is that the A side provides the 5V power, while the B side consumes that 5V power. With an A to A cable, you are shorting both power supplies together. (USB-C changes that to resistors; IIRC, the side with the pull-up resistors will initially…
Yeah, the a-a cable needed is a male-male, but the wyze camera is accepting power via it in this case. The normal power for it via micro usb is disconnected.
I don't use wyze normally, not sure what the type a female port is for.
It's a hack on top of a hack that functions reasonably, and helps with supply chain issues.
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#246Also bidets, nintendo switches, instant yeast, powdered milk, etc. I actually snagged some wine yeast on amazon and I'm on my third loaf of bread. Bidet was the best "waste of money" I have spent in a long time. My TP usage has been slashed.
A few friends switch to bidets a while ago and wont look back. Personally I just jump in the shower if it's that bad.
I used bidets a lot when I lived in Argentina. The sensation of having a clean butt is pretty unbeatable. When you poop and then wipe with paper you still feel dirty for the rest of the day.
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#247I tried to pick up a webcam last week... nothing anywhere.
I think it was covered previously but Wyze offered an image that makes their security / surveillance camera into a webcam. Requires a USB cable and sd card in addition to the camera. I see Wyze cameras available on Amazon at a markup and with some delay, but their website seems to have them in stock? I didn't go through the checkout process to verify. https://wyze.com/wyze-in-response
Thanks! These are new to me, one normal and one Pan on order. Thank you again!
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#248I still don't understand how the quality of front facing cameras on smart phones has gotten so high, and yet even the most high end laptop's built in cam caps out at 720p. Why?
It's because the standard webcam interface is based on a slow USB 2 interface which can only support enough bandwidth for 720p video. To upgrade your webcam, laptop manufacturers would need to make significant changes to both the interface and the operating system. Add that onto the lack of economic incentive, it's just not worth the cost. Here's a good video that gives a run down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BL…
Very interesting, thanks for the info!
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
That still depends on where you are. Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Here in South Korea, 100M symmetric is the bare minimum. For just a few dollars more, you can upgrade to an "up to 500M" plan that usually provides something like 300M symmetric. Often, upload speeds are even faster than download speeds because there's less congestion in that direction.
> Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Where was the US mentioned, and how is this relevant?
I'm trying to point out that, in some countries, it doesn't even occur to people that their upload speeds might be significantly different from their download speeds. The very fact that the parent worries about such a difference is an artifact of where they're from.
I picked the US as a worst-case example because it has some of the most asymmetric broadband plans in the developed world. How on Earth does an ISP get away with selling something like 100/5?
Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams
#250I don't see any evidence webcams are worse than other stuff though. Amazon's been sold out of current-gen iPad Mini's for a while too. (Though regular iPads are there.) Global supply chains are disrupted, so all sorts of random individual products are either jumping in price or sold out, while plenty of other ones are perfectly fine. But aside from masks/TP/sanitizer/rice and similar, I'm not seeing a lot of whole pr…
iPads are really nice for video calling. My in-laws recently (within last 2 months) got one almost entirely for FaceTime with family (they had Skype on laptop but was always a hassle for them). So this is the same kind of thing as a webcam.
I've resorted to "draping" my iPad with folding cover (it's stable!) on top of my 24" monitor (old airplane seat trick) for video conferences.
The resulting camera angle is just perfect [1], and the iPad's camera is excellent compared to a laptop's.
[1] Tom Ford's guide on how to look good on a video conference. Tip 1: camera should for top of head.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/style/tom-ford-video-chat...