According to Stratfor Global Intelligence, 44 workers from a factory in Suzhou, China plan to sue the iPhone contractor Wintek after they were allegedly exposed to poison while cleaning iPhone screens with the chemical "n-hexane."

The firm says 62 workers have been hospitalized in the last 9 months due to n-hexane poisoning. The poisoning is so serious that it can "cause nerve damage and sometimes paralysis."

Stratfor goes on to say that a factory manager at the plant made the workers use the chemical because it dries faster than standard alcohol, and also leaves less streaks. That manager has since been fired.

The issue first went public in January when 2000 protesters began smashing car windows and factory windows over a dispute relating to year-end bonuses.

Adds Stratfor: "Lawsuits of any kind are uncommon in China, where disputes are usually addressed quietly behind closed doors. Much more common is labor abuse, and given the rising power of workers, we can expect to see more such suits, which provide legal outlets for social tension, a constant concern for Beijing."

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Just 5 months after purchasing the music streaming service, Apple announced last month that it was planning to shut down Lala, likely signalling that it will be integrated into iTunes.com.

All current members have until May 31st to continue using the service, but as of May 1st the site stopped accepting any new members.

Lala was a download and streaming music service that gives members a "digital locker" to store their music. What made the company different from iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc, is that Lala would also sell streaming rights to tracks for pennies, allowing for unlimited streaming online of the track, but no physical download if they didn't want it.

This week, legal music store MP3Tunes has offered a discount to former Lala members, giving them a chance to sign up for the site for $0.10, a $39.85 discount off the regular price.

Users also get 50GB of free storage space when they sign up.

Adds CEO Michael Robertson: "About a year ago I wrote, "Your music will be controlled by Lala and will eventually vanish, because no company lasts forever." I can't promise MP3tunes will last forever - all companies will eventually go away. But I can do the next best thing. Each MP3tunes customer gets a software program called LockerSync which you can use to download your entire library anytime you like. It's the ultimate insurance policy so that you'll never be dependent on MP3tunes or any other company for your media."

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As had been rumored in the past, the Xbox 360 Project Natal motion-sensing camera was "confirmed" for an October release earlier this month, by Microsoft Saudi marketing manager Syed Bilal Tariq.

At the time, Tariq said (in reference to Natal's release date): "It is going to be somewhere in October and we will be in a position to confirm the date at E3, which is in June, but definitely it is going to be October 2010."

Today, Microsoft has refuted Tariq's claim, saying that the manager is not even directly employed by the company.

Says the MS rep: "Syed Bilal Tariq is not a [Microsoft] employee. He is a vendor employed through a third-party company on behalf of the Microsoft subsidiary in Saudi Arabia."

The company adds it will reveal the official release date during the E3 expo next month.

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According to PreCentral, forum member cdowers has gotten the Palm mobile operating system WebOS to boot on PC hardware, getting it to run on a Dell C600 laptop.

It seems he pulled off the trick by using the WebOS emulator image (which works on x86 processors) and putting it on an IDE hard drive (not the newer SATA standards).

Now, instead of WebOS running on a virtual machine, it is running on a real machine, says the source.

The forum users does say there are four glaring problems still:

1) handle interface issue (touchscreen/gesture area, faux mouse... not to mention the accelerometer issue)

2) drivers. seeing as it's running on top of an x86 kernel... maybe it's just an issue of running a different kernel with some patches? It's hard to say on this one... it really depends on how much palm patched the underlying kernel.

3) software/gui. The gui doesn't draw right at anything but the native 320x480 / 320x400 resolutions (yet). Will likely require a virtual keyboard of some sort (there's a patch for that already).

4) binary compatibility, for apps that don't use the PDK it's matter of correctly translating the mojo framework calls. PDK based apps aren't going to work at all without being recompiled for an x86 processor (anything that uses PDK now is compiled for ARMv7... I think).

Regardless, it is an interesting experiment and the short video is worth watching.

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In late March Sprint unveiled the first 4G/WiMAX smartphone for the U.S. market, the HTC EVO 4G.

The device has the most powerful specs seen on a smartphone yet, and it will run the Android 2.1 firmware.

This weekend, the carrier has given a release date and price for the device, which will hit stores on June 4th. The phone will cost $199 USD with two-year contract.

The EVO 4G has a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive multi-touchscreen display (with pinch to zoom), Android 2.1 with Sense UI, Google Search, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Goggles, YouTube, Google Calendar syncing, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability for connecting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Additionally, the device has GPS with Sprint Navigation, a Digital compass, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, Amazon MP3 store, Qik video sharing, HDMI out a kickstand for hands-free viewing, an 8MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash (and 720p HD video recording) and an additional 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conferencing.

Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM, a 1500 mAh battery and an 8GB microSD card.

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Palm has announced today that the Pre Plus smartphone is now available via AT&T, with little brother the Pixi Plus coming June 6th.

AT&T made note a few weeks ago that the Pre Plus was "coming soon," and that has come to fruition this weekend.

The device will be exactly like the Pre Plus that launched for Verizon earlier this year, except it will use a GSM radio and require a SIM card.

Because the phone has not been selling, (from any carrier), Verizon slashed the price to $30 USD with contract, and has thrown in Mobile HotSpot for free (normally $30 per month). AT&T is not being so generous.

The leading American GSM carrier will charge $150 for the phone with contract, and Mobile HotSpot tethering will cost the full $30 per month.

At that price, it hardly seems that users will opt for WebOS over the iPhone.

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In late April, HP announced it was purchasing the struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion, and it appears that HP was not the only interested party, with at least four other companies giving serious bids.

Palm 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 smartphone maker then reached out to 16 different companies and five gave serious offers. Only HP and Lenovo were named as potential buyers, while two other companies wanted to license Palm's patents, including the mobile operating system WebOS.

HP's first offer was for $1 billion ($4.75 a share), while an unnamed company offered $600 million in cash. The third would-be buyer offered an all-stock transaction. Palm told all three the bids were not competitive and suddenly a fourth company came out and offered $6 per share, as well as the promise that the transaction would happen in the next two weeks.

This move led HP to increase their offer to $5 per share, while the other company dropped their bid to $5.50. HP finally raised its bid to $5.70 per share, and the merger was announced a few days later.

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