After a Foxconn factory worker had adorable snapshots of her discovered in a brand new iPhone and posted all over the internet, many worried that she would be fired--or you know, worse. A Foxconn rep told a Chinese newspaper that "she is definitely not fired," and that the pictures were test photos "accidentally" left on the iPhone. He didn't comment on the number of lashings she received. I'm glad that all worked out, I wouldn't want Adam's conscience burdened by the fact he ruined some girl's life while he's vacationing on the Cape. [Macrumors]

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We've seen pictures from the factory coming loaded on new iPhones before, but this is the first time we've seen what appear to be intentional snapshots loaded on a new iPhone. Surprise: the person who put your iPhone together is a cute girl!

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Today's list from OObject features a collection of 10 videos focusing on German car factories. Why? Because they are gadgety, first and foremost--but the architecture of the factories is significant as well. In other words, German car manufacturers are realizing a vision where both the product and the factory are an integrated work of art. Examples include the VW factory in Wolfsburg that features 200 foot tall robotic silos at the end of the production line and an eco-friendly VW assembly plant in Dresden that is transparent and sits right centre of the city. German engineering at it's finest folks. [OObject]

Deep in the northwest corner of Kobe, Japan, there's a factory hidden away among green rice paddies, and sleepy farming villages of tiled roofs. If you were to travel here, to Takatsukadai--the middle of nowhere--you'd find Panasonic's Toughbook plant quietly making notebooks with the world's lowest failure rate. Well, not so quietly, actually. They employ a regimen of over 500 different tests, smashing, dropping and soaking Toughbooks, with over a thousand sacrifices each year. This is where I learned how the old computer plant manages to pull it off, miraculously, almost all under one roof.

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If you ever wondered where the Galactic Empire gets all those stormtroopers, look no further than the Lego factory in Denmark: here's an exclusive video about how the iconic mini-figure gets its characteristic evil look after getting out of the mold machine. The printing of these mini-figs is one of the most expensive and delicate processes at the Lego factory. The rubber stamping has to be done in a very precise way—printing feature by feature in layers—until it's done. [Giz's Lego Trip]

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