We suspect there's more than a few chapters left in the story of 25-year old Foxconn factory worker who died in an apparent suicide this month, following the disappearance of a prototype next-generation iPhone. The latest newsbit, this time care of Bloomberg, is that a security official for Hon Hai, a company with 72 percent stake in Foxconn, has been suspended and turned over to Chinese government authorities, with the suspicion / implication here that there's a direct correlation between this and the suicide. Though unconfirmed at this point, reports circulating say the worker had been harassed by company security prior to his death. Yahoo! Tech has all those details, and the official investigation is ongoing. We'd like to say there'll be conclusive answers in this case sometime in the near future, but we're not getting our hopes up.

Read - Hon Hai Suspends Official After iPhone Worker Suicide
Read - China suicide puts spotlight on secretive Apple culture

Reports have circulated the internet that a 25-year old worker at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, which produces all the iPhone models for Apple, committed suicide last week following revelation that a fourth-generation iPhone prototype, one of the 16 iPhones he was responsible for, had gone missing. Some stories circulating have described illegal searches of the man's apartment and interrogation involving physical abuse by other Foxconn employees. While not confirming the case being a suicide or the cause being the disappearing device, a spokesperson for the Cupertino-based company did release a statement corroborating the news of his death, saying that it is "saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect." The status of the missing iPhone prototype, which may or may not have been one that earlier this month found itself on eBay given the timeframe (although a 3GS model and not "fourth generation") remains unknown. Our hearts go out to all involved.

Read - Statement form Apple
Read - iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide

Not that we haven't heard a few miraculous gadgets-saving-lives stories before, but this one is in a league of its own. According to the always-embellishing Sun, one David Fitzherbert is thanking his smartphone after coming entirely too close to falling 700 feet to his death. As the story goes, he got wedged between a pair of rocks after losing control of his skis in the Matterhorn, and while we aren't quite sure why he chose RIM's BlackBerry over -- say, chap-stick, car keys, his wallet or a fattening breakfast -- he credited it with adding just enough width to his person to keep him wedged. Two hours after finding himself between a rock and a hard place, rescue crews arrived and flew him to a hospital where he used the "0.5-inch wide" phone to tell his wife that he had survived a nasty spill. We still say David owes a round of thanks to genetics, luck and Zeus, but hey, what do we know?

It's been happening for centuries in one form or another, but packing in a favorite diecast car or trophy just seems a bit different than sending your loved one six feet under with a BlackBerry 7290. According to the London-based The Future Laboratory think tank, the amount of people arranging to have their cellphones or portable media players buried with them is on the rise, with a family service counselor for Hollywood Forever funeral home and cemetery stating that "it seems that everyone under 40 who dies takes their cellphone with them." Truth be told, the psychology behind it isn't all that odd; after all, in today's world, mobile phones go a long way to connecting one person with other loved ones. Just make sure to not go down with a Vertu or the like -- wouldn't want to get unwillingly exhumed, now would we?

[Image courtesy of cc275, via The Inquirer]

Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications, has passed away this week at 75. It only takes a brief glance to recognize what a giant Mr. Rogers built, and his legacy will obviously live on for years to come. Ted had suffered from congestive heart failure and was seeing his health decline, but thankfully he was surrounded by friends and family when he passed in his Toronto home. As for now, Alan Horn, Chairman of Rogers Communications, will serve as CEO and president until the Board of Directors can complete a thorough search for a proper successor.

[Via Boy Genius Report, image courtesy of TheStar]

Truth be told, we aren't exactly inclined to believe this here article is entirely accurate, but nevertheless, Modern Ghana is reporting that a resident was recently killed by an exploding cellphone. Notably, this unfortunate accident wasn't due to a faulty battery, or at least that hasn't been blamed just yet. Rather, the young man simply answered his ringing mobile while it was still plugged into the wall, and seconds later, electricity flowed into the cellphone unrestricted and threw the man back. Reportedly, he was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital, and we're sincerely hoping that investigators get to the root cause of all this if indeed the tale is true.

[Via textually]

At first listen, one may assume that leaping onto subway tracks for an iPhone is completely and utterly insane, and while we'd tend to agree, it's not like we haven't seen folks do similarly zany things in the heat of the moment. Reportedly, a vacationer in New York recently dropped his iPhone down onto the subway tracks while shuttling back home, and after realizing his dear mobile was missing and backtracking quite a ways, his pal finally spotted it down below. As you can probably imagine, the crazed owner leaped down, snagged the scratched up (but still fully functional) device and managed to climb back out unscathed. Granted, we can only imagine how painful it would be to drop even more dough on yet another iPhone when all that stands between you and your current one is a leap of faith, but we'd probably just ask one of those friendly MTA employees to help us out before going mano a mano with the Reaper.

[Via Switched]

This certainly won't be the first time that an exploding cellphone battery has been pegged with blame before all the facts shook out, but now it seems that the South Korean worker who perished yesterday was in fact not killed by his mobile. Reportedly, the National Institute of Scientific Investigation "said the injuries were too substantial to have been caused by a battery explosion," and an unnamed medical examiner was quoted as saying that it was "difficult to conclude that the damage of internal organs was caused by [the explosion]." Details are still likely to unfold in the coming weeks, as it will be about a fortnight before autopsy results are analyzed and a final conclusion is drawn. Seems that "virtually impossible" notion from LG may be accurate after all, eh?

[Image courtesy of Yonhap News]

It's no secret that some wily individuals will look high and low for loopholes to escape a wireless contract, but staging your own death in order to bypass a $175 early termination fee is admittedly extreme. Nevertheless, a frustrated and determined Verizon customer decided to do just that after the carrier refused to let him out of his contract. Insistent that a host of dropped calls and "string of defective cellphones" were reason enough to ditch The Network, he went so far as to "fashion a fake death certificate" and convinced a friend to fax it in. Unfortunately, Verizon caught on to the scheme and yet again refused to let Mr. Taylor out, so as you can probably guess, the perturbed ex-customer begrudgingly coughed up the dough, trashed his phone, and hoped that he "sent a definite message about how much people hate being strapped to a cellphone that doesn't work."

[Via Pocket-Lint]

It goes without saying that talking whilst driving (let alone texting) isn't exactly the safest practice, and unfortunately for a British teenager, she could have four solid years to think about it. Rachel Begg, who was found to have used her cellphone nine different times in the 15 minutes prior to crashing into a grandmother's vehicle and subsequently killing her, was recently found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. To make matters worse, Begg was driving nearly 70 miles-per-hour on a dark, rainy night, and the judge reportedly emphasized how costly her lack of reason was. Better leave the texting 'til after the ride's over, eh?

[Via Textually, image courtesy of BrockportStylus]

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and unfortunately, the latest case of exploding battery syndrome led to something far worse than a minor injury. Reportedly, a 22-year old Chinese welder actually perished after a cellphone battery residing in his pocket exploded. The eruption was so violent, in fact, that it "broke a rib and drove the remnants of the pack into his heart," and while rescue crews were able to get him to a hospital, he passed away shortly thereafter. Currently, the manufacturer of the phone and battery are being withheld, but expects in Jinta were dispatched in order to conduct an investigation.

[Via Inquirer, image courtesy of ABC]