Foxconn has been under scrutiny this year after ten of its workers at its Chinese manufacturing plants have committed suicide. The harsh working conditions at the factory are blamed by some for the rash of suicides.

Foxconn has opened the factory to report to see the working conditions for themselves and the company gave the workers as much as a 66% raise depending on their performance. Foxconn is rumored to be considering a decisive action in the wake of the deaths.

The folks over at Neowin are stating an anonymous contact inside Google has provided them a tip that the Nexus One will be coming to Verizon on March 23rd. Google originally launched their first handset back in January from themselves only for $529, and very shortly after with T-Mobile for $179 with a 2-year contract.

When the Nexus One was launched the Google website stated it would be coming to the Verizon network sometime this spring but did not give an exact date. These rumors give it an exact date to coincide with the International CTIA wireless show in the United States, however pricing have not yet been provided.

According to a recent report from Gizmodo on Tuesday, Microsoft is confirming rumors that it actually does have a new dual-screen tablet in the works, codenamed Courier. According to the article and a short demo video, the Courier is a real thing and is more like a “booklet” than a tablet as it folds together and has two interactive touch screens side-by-side with loads of fast functionality.

The project has apparently been kept under pretty tight wraps with very few, both inside and outside of Microsoft, with knowledge about it. In fact, rumors are that the team working on the project, led by J. Allard (a designer involved in the Zune and the Xbox) has been kept away from the main Redmond campus to help keep it secret.

Blockbuster has been rumored to have been secretly working on some new technology in the works that would allow streaming video content from an online rental service direct to consumers televisions, and could be available as soon as the next few weeks. No information has been given on the exact technology or price but the service could again bring the home video renting giant back up to par and possibly ahead in technology, compared to other rival video renting services from Netflix and Apple.

Netflix would be directly affected by this new service by Blockbuster and has recently upgraded their service to provide unlimited streaming to some subscribers, however it streams to their computer and not necessarily to the living room of most consumers. In order to work their way into more entertainment centers, Netflix is also looking into providing streaming video rentals through Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console.

The folks over at T3 did a pretty nice job with a mock up of a Wii Phone last year at about this time and this year they’re creating another stir. They’ve posted images today of what they envision as a lighter, slimmer Sony Playstation 3 which is reportedly heading for shelves as soon as this fall.

Sony does have a history of slimming things down just like they did last year with the slimmer PSP but it seems like an unlikely move from a company that’s trying to cut costs and increase the market for their latest game console, but maybe with Blu-ray pulling ahead they feel they have it made? T3 also is speculating that this new slimmer model would have the rumored 160GB hard drive in it as well, and of course a slim Blu-ray player.

According to some leaked information from a Best Buy employee, the retailer sent out an internal memo that the 80GB Playstation 3 is scheduled to be “going closeout”, which basically means they will sell what’s on shelves and not stock anymore. The internal communication states that this is expected to take place as soon as January 28.

It’s been apparent that the 80GB model of the PS3 hasn’t had the selling power of the smaller and cheaper models, but since the removal of the 60GB models this leaves the shelves with nothing that is backwards compatible with PS2 games. It also limits consumers to the scaled down PS3 without the memory card reader and fewer USB ports.

According to Wired magazine, a insider to Apple who works at a third party vendor to the company got the “skinny” on the new super-thin ultraportable MacBook that we’ve been hearing rumors about. The MacWorld 2008 keynote speech is just hours away and according to his source Jobs will be announcing a very thin, wireless Apple notebook dubbed the MacBook Air due to it’s like of wires. Supposedly it will have no Ethernet port and rely solely on WiFi. It also will not come with any type of optical CD/DVD drive and could look something like the photoshopped design shown here. There were not details given on actual dimensions, price or real specs but more than likely we’ll get the real scoop later this morning.

As if it hasn’t been hard enough to find a Nintendo Wii game console this year, rumor has it that a retail chain called Slackers is taking their shipments of the popular console and selling them on Ebay at a jacked up price.

According to Ars Technica an insider with Slackers stated that any Wiis that they receive, at least in the Illinois/Missouri area stores, are not available for the suggested $249 retail price at the store and are instead marked up to $499 on Ebay. Recently reports say that the Buy It Now price has been dropped to $399.99, which is still $150 over suggested retail by Nintendo.

According to the Wall Street Journal Steve Jobs has been in talks with Masao Nakamura, president of NTT DoCoMo, about launching the iPhone in Japan next. The iPhone has already made its launch overseas in the UK, Germany and France and could soon be trying its hand at one of the largest markets for mobile phones in the world.

The report says that Jobs is in talks wtih Softbank Corp. in Japan as well who could also have a shot at carrying the iPhone in Japan and of course makes some friendly competition for Jobs to deal between on an exclusive contract. If Apple ends up partnering with NTT DoCoMo, could this spark the launch of the 3G iPhone?

Rumor has it, spurred by this ad copy for Rogers Wireless, that folks in Canada may have the opportunity to get their legitimate hands on an iPhone from Apple before the end of the year. According to this advertisement floating around, the iPhone would be available exclusively through Rogers Wireless for $499.99 CAD (about $519 USD) with a 3-year contract. Rogers and Apple would start taking pre-orders on the iPhone in Canada on November 20th.

Of course this is still falling under our Rumor category but the ad looks like it could be for real. The fact that the text is actually legible makes us feel like the it’s not an intentional leak by Rogers or Apple, but you might not want to plan on getting in line for anything quite yet. We’ll keep watching.

So an anonymous tipster sent in a purported AT&T internal inventory sheet which lists off an Apple iPhone in red with 4GB and one with 8GB. No price, no delivery date, nothing else except that this thing supposedly exists to AT&T. This is the first report that has surfaced of any kind of alternative color to the iPhone and of course it should be noted that Apple hasn’t said anything about its iPhone coming in another color besides white. Still, bear in mind the color variance of the Nano; did anyone out there really think that Apple wouldn’t release different color iPhones eventually? But why no mention of a black iPhone?

Here’s the other thing to bear in mind: will this “deep red” iPhone be out in time for the holiday shopping season?

It sure is looking that way. Rumor is that the Shiny golden DS Lite you see in the lower left of the picture may be headed for retail store shelves soon. That shouldn’t be a big surprise since we are entering into the holiday season. Plus, Nintendo marketing knows that we like shiny objects. Shiny gold objects, especially. Seriously, we aren’t that hard to please.

The above photograph is believed to have been taken at the Nintendo World Store when “Phantom Hourglass” launched. To make things even more interesting, Engadget is claiming that a certain individual is saying that his company has received orders from Nintendo to design graphics for a “BOX, SYST GOLD W/ZELDA: HOUR USG.” Who knows if this is all true. And if it is true, it could just be a limited run for a contest. But since Santa is coming soon, I’m betting an official announcement from Nintendo will proceed him.

The rumor mill is up and running right away this morning due to rumors that Sony will have a price cut coming soon for the Playstation 3 in the UK. Not only are there rumors on just a price cut but also a whole new 40GB PS3 model, both coming sometime in October.

According to Pocket-lint, “multiple sources” at Sony have confirmed that Sony will be creating a 40GB version of the PS3 for the UK market and it will be retailing for £299, making more direct competition for the Xbox 360. According to the sources they will also be dropping the price of the 60GB model by £56 bringing it to £369. The new 40GB model would feature Blu-ray (making a very competitive Blu-ray player alone) along with Wi-Fi and a SIXAXIS controller, but will be slightly scaled down sans two of four USB ports and a memory card reader.

As the launch of the second generation Zune, or Zune 2, from Microsoft nears the rumors are flying at full steam regarding pricing and the features that the new media players will house. From what we’ve ascertained the launch is scheduled for October 3rd at midnight and will bring three new models of the Microsoft Zune player along with new features and content on the Zune Marketplace (iTunes for Zunes).

Along with some FCC leaks showing 4GB and 8GB flashed-based Zunes (codenamed “draco”), ZuneScene has the skinny on pricing along with some additional juicy details. These are still in the rumor stages mind you, but it looks like a new 80GB version will be going for $249 with an 8GB model going for $199 and a 4GB model for $149. The 8GB and 4GB models are expected to come in black, red, green or pink but the thinner 80GB will come in only black.

The folks over at Hiptop3 have come across some classically blurry rumor-mill photos of the new upcoming Sidekick LX along with an advertisement showing a launch date. The ad shows that the new LX will be available on October 24 where you’ll be able to “kick it to the next level”. So, to answer all of your questions about the release date; I would still file this under “rumors” but just over a month away is the best thing we could find so far.

The advertisement flier also states the that the Sidekick LX will feature 24/7 access to MySpace and a larger, sharper screen. The actual small-print text and an equally blurry photo of the Sidekick LX itself after the jump.