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Hon Hai Precision Industry of Taiwan, the owners of manufacturer Foxconn, say they plan to raise worker's salaries by 20 percent amidst a flood of worker suicides at their Chinese factory.

Foxconn is the maker of the Apple iPhone.

Ten employees of the manufacturer have died via suicide this year, with the latest happening this week, and public anger at the company is rising. On Thursday, an 11th employee tried to kill himself, slitting his wrists. He was revived by a medical team.

Edmund Ding of Hon Hai said the salary increase had been planned for months.

One of the factory's employees, surnamed Wang, said the increase should help with current spate of deaths: "It may help the suicide situation, because we workers just need money and the financial pressure on us is great. Every little bit helps."

Line workers at the factory make about 900 yuan ($131.80 USD) per month, and the company was allegedly giving 100,000 yuan to compensate families of suicide victims.

Foxconn has a massive amount of employees in China, around 420,000.

According to new figures from Strategy Analytics, the Sony PlayStation 3 has seen its quarterly global sales market share jump to 31 percent, a large gap up from 18 percent in the same period in 2009.

For the Q1 2010, the Nintendo Wii had 49 percent market share, the PS3 had 31 percent and the Xbox 360 had the remaining 20 percent.

Unit wise, the Wii had 3.5 million sold during the quarter, with the PS3 following at 2.2 million and the Xbox 360 in third at 1.5 million units sold.

Adds David Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy Analytics (via GI): "The PS3 continues to benefit from the price cut last September. This should help the PS3 maintain growth momentum throughout 2010."

The report estimates that for the full year, 17.5 million Wiis will be sold, followed by 14 million PS3s and 10.5 million Xbox 360s. Those numbers work out to about 42 percent share for the Wii, 33 percent for the PS3 and 25 percent for the Xbox 360.

According to new research from the NPD Group, about four percent of U.S. gamers play videogames for almost 50 hours a week, getting the title of "extreme gamers."

These "extreme gamers" play 48.5 hours per week, while the average gamers play around 13 hours per week.

Overall, gaming time went up from 2009, when the average was 12.3 percent.

Interestingly, portable gaming time fell 16 percent, while PC gaming rose 6 percent and console gaming rose 9 percent.

The age of the average gamer rose as well, from 31 to 32 this year, implying that current gamers will continue to play even as they get older.

Adds Anita Frazier, key analyst with NPD (via GI): "With these kinds of shifts in the composition of the gaming consumer and changes in gaming behaviour, it’s clear that the need to understand gamers and their purchase patterns remains critical information to those that develop, market and sell games."

Amazon will unveil a thinner version of the popular Kindle e-reader in August say two sources, who also say the new, updated model will have a more responsive screen.

The display will also have "sharper picture," but will not have color or be touchscreen, as some had speculated.

Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007 to slow sales, which have since grown, with one report claiming the e-tailer has sold 3.3 million units of the device, to date.

Apple sold over 1 million iPads in just the first month, and international sales began today, with hundreds of thousands of sales expected in the coming weeks.

The device faces increasing pressure from rivals however, as the Apple iPad is a hit, and Sony and Barnes & Noble have both released devices that have better specs than the Kindle, at a comparable price.

The Apple iPad hype reached a fervor today when the tablet began selling in international markets, with fans in the UK and other nations mobbing Apple stores.

Pictures show 600-700 feet lines in Sydney, Tokyo and London and smaller but still large lines in Canada.

The tablet has sold well in the United States, selling over 1 million units in its first month. The unexpectedly high demand caused the international launch to be pushed back a full month.

Rahul Koduri was the first to buy the device at the Sydney location, and says he waited in line for over 24 hours: "It's fantastic, it was so worth the wait," Koduri adds.

The first buyer in the London location was high schooler Jake Lee: "I just came down for the atmosphere, and I don't think I could have waited. I'm a gadget lover."

The device will go on sale in The iPad will go on sale in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore starting mid-July.

Sony has confirmed today that it will be offering ten free games to new PSPGo owners who register their systems online.

The games included in the deal are not some cheap ports either. Sony says the games included in the deal are: Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Arctic Edge, Wipeout Pure, Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice, FIFA 2010 World Cup, Need for Speed Shift, Gran Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines.

In the past, Sony has offered free games to early PSPGo adopters, and free games to users who upgraded from older PSP handhelds.

While Sony has yet to reveal hardware sales for the Go, the general consensus is that sales have been a complete flop, especially in the EU and UK.

In late April, HP announced it was purchasing the struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion. The deal gave HP all of Palm's patents and the WebOS mobile operating system, which some argue is the best mobile OS available today.

Palm had put itself up for sale in the last two months after it became clear that the company's phones were not selling and it only had enough cash to last the next 12 months.

The ink has not even dried on the deal yet, but HP has seen its first setback, with key WebOS developer Matias Duarte jumping ship to Google, to work on the rival Android operating system.

Duarte's move seems to imply the developer has little confidence in the future of WebOS with HP at the helm.

Speaking to an investor's conference, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has made the revelations that his company plans to release an Andoid tablet soon, as well as a sequel to the very popular Droid smartphone.

The tablet will be between 7 and 10-inces and will act as a "companion product" to HDTVs, adds Jha.

Says the CEO: "We're very focused on participating in this convergence between mobility and home, and I actually think you will see some products from us in a very short period of time."

How soon? Jha would not give any details on a time table, but did say it would run Android, as the open-source operating system remains the company's focus. Refuting recent speculation, the company added it has no plans to create its own mobile OS.

Motorola said to remain competitive, however, it must continue to improve its MotoBLUR user interface, which is seen on phones like the Cliq, which runs Android, with BLUR on top. Jha says BLUR 2.0 will be released later this year, as well.

Microsoft has set some pretty high ambitions for its upcoming Windows Phone 7 smartphone operating system, saying they are aiming to sell 30 million devices with the OS installed by the end of 2011.

The software giant estimates that 40 percent of all mobile phones sold next year will be smartphones, and it seems they want a large piece of that pie.

Currently, only 15 percent of all phones sold are smartphones.

That number is even more over-the-top because Windows Mobile licenses sold have fallen each year, to just 18 million last year.

As a comparison, Apple has sold 51 million of the incredibly popular Phone, in its three iterations, since 2007.

Aiming to differentiate itself from the iPhone and Android phones, which use home screens of widgets and icons, Microsoft says it has tried to blend applications together for a more "integrated experience," allowing the OS and applications to "share information with the user in a natural and seamless fashion."

Pic via MobileTechWorld:

BoyGeniusReports has posted a small blurb today saying that AT&T has confirmed to its store managers that the Apple iPhone 4G will launch in June.

The site even says that the phone will be ready in early June, meaning the launch could be imminent in the next two weeks.

New to the 4G are a front-facing camera for video conferencing, a better standard camera (including larger lens and flash), a Micro-SIM slot (just like the iPad), 960x640 resolution, a second mic, metallic exterior (not plastic) and split side buttons for volume.

The form factor is very different as well. The back is flat and not rounded, slightly smaller screen, a more "square" design all around with less wasted space, a larger battery, and smaller internal components.

Wal-Mart announced this week that it is slashing the price of the iPhone 3GS in half, with the 16GB 3GS model going on sale for $97 USD with two-year contract. The smartphone currently costs $199 through Apple. The move has led many to believe that Wal-Mart is clearing out remaining stock in anticipation of the new iPhone launch.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a study this week which shows that 30 million Americans have experienced "bill shock" after seeing their monthly mobile phone bill.

"Bill shock" means seeing an unexpected increase in the bill, even if the subscriber has not changed their plan.

3000 people were surveyed by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the FCC, and 2400 had mobile phones. Of those 2400, 17 percent said at least one time in the last year the experienced "bill shock."

The FCC says 17 percent of all mobile phone users in the U.S. adds up to 30 million Americans that have experienced the unexpected increase in their bill.

84 percent of those that had experienced the increase say their carrier did not warn them at all that they were on the verge of exceeding some portion of their plan, be it minutes, texts, or data bandwidth. 35 percent said their bill increased by $50, while 23 percent said the fee was $100 or higher.

The results are part of the FCC's ongoing investigation into "bill shock."

The CTIA, which represents the wireless industry says the real "bill shock" is the excessive taxes and levies that come as part of every bill.

According to "trusted" sources speaking to Edge-Online, Microsoft's upcoming Project Natal motion control camera system will launch with a price tag of $150, much higher than expected by most in the industry.

The system will also launch on October 26th, says the site, in line with expectations of an October release.

Additionally, Microsoft will bundle the camera with an Xbox 360 Arcade console for $300 USD.

European and UK rates would be based "on a number of factors," including the current exchange rate at the time of release, so those prices remain unclear for the time being.

Rival Sony is releasing its PlayStation Move motion control system later this year, bundled with a game, for $100 USD.

Perhaps more notably, Natal (which will be given its official name in June at the E3 event) will cost just $30 less than the Nintendo Wii, which has motion control out of the box and a huge catalog of games.

Facebook, facing increasing criticism over its new privacy settings, has announced it will be rolling out new simplified settings for users over the next week.

The criticism mainly stemmed from the site making all of a user's basic information available to the public, with no opt-out. The new update will allow users to reduce what is shown to the public.

Additionally, USAToday reports that the new settings will add "an opt-out feature for a myriad of non-Facebook applications."

Says CEO Mark Zuckerberg: "A lot of people are upset with us. One of the big takeaways is: Don't mess with the privacy stuff for a really long time."

Facebook has over 450 million users, and recently became the most trafficked site in the United States, surpassing even the mighty Google.

Last week, rival social networking site MySpace simplified their own privacy settings. Said MySpace Co-President Mike Jones: "Given all the noise in the industry, we want to get out and state a clear position so that our users understand that we take privacy very seriously."

Apple has surpassed Microsoft for largest tech company in the world, by market cap, with its stock finishing the day with a market value of $222.1 billion.

Exxon Mobil remains the largest U.S. stock, with a value of $278.6 billion. Microsoft fell to third, with a market cap of $219.2 billion, as of the close of the market today.

Apple saw revenue and profit soar in the Q2 2010, with iPhone sales surging across the world. The quarterly results did not even include the iPad tablet, which has sold over 1 million units since its launch in April.

"Apple really checks all the boxes when you look at the tech sector," adds Ryan Jacob, a fund manager at Jacob Internet Fund in Los Angeles. "Do they have the opportunity to gain share in their markets? What are the prospects for margins? It’s hard to find a company that you can have more confidence in than Apple."

Microsoft and Apple, pioneers of personal computing, have seen a divergence in recent years, with Microsoft having trouble moving away from its mainstay businesses while Apple continues to try to become leaders in new markets, just like it did with the iPod earlier in the decade, the iPhone in the later part of the decade, and the iPad now in 2010.

According to sources close to the talks, it appears the U.S. Justice Department has been looking into whether Apple "unfairly dominates" the digital music market with its popular iTunes store.

The sources say the Justice Department has been contacting music labels and other digital music providers, asking broad questions about the nature of the market in general, and Apple's role in it.

The new inquiries may have been stemmed by accusations in March that Apple was using its giant market share lead to prevent rival Amazon MP3 from debuting new songs exclusively before they hit iTunes a day or two later.

The iTunes store currently has about 70 percent market share, with Amazon trailing at around 9 percent.

Global music sales have fallen from $26.5 billion at the start of the decade to just $17 billion last year, even as digital music sales have exploded.