School spies of students via webcam?

The school district near Philadelphia accused of turning on webcams in student issued computers is getting a lot more press recently.

Blake Robbins filed a lawsuit against Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia, alleging that the school district activated the webcam in the student's school-issued MacBook to photograph him in his own home.

The school district claimed they had a picture of the student doing drugs.  The student says it was candy.  Nonetheless, there are some majjor privacy concerns here.

If you have a school issued computer I suggest you put some electrical tape over your webcam if you suspect it may be accessed remotely.

no webcam on the iPad?

It seems to me the iPad is missing a huge feature - a webcam.  Why didn't apple decide to put this on there when almost every netbook on the market has one?

Skype in 720p HD

It seems you can now skype webcam chat in 720p High Def.  The only problem is it doesn't seem like you have many options for a low lost high def webcam right now.  As far as I know, the only solutions to date are high def video camers over a firewire link. Luckily, at CES they did introduce some low cost 720p webcams starting at $69 that are due out next month.  Keep an eye out for the FaceVision's FV Touchcam N1.