• LG's U.S.-based mobile phone company has appointed Jeff Hwang as president. In his new position, Hwang will oversee all LG Mobile Phones' North American development, manufacturing and marketing efforts as well as strategic planning, carrier relationships and business development. Most recently, Hwang led LG's mobile communication business for the Korean market, and before that he served as senior vice president of marketing and product planning for LG Mobile Phones from 2003 until 2006 where he oversaw marketing intelligence, product management and marketing communications for the North American market.
• Handmark has announced plans to buy UK mobile game studio Astraware. Handmark said the acquisition will help it boost its portfolio of games for smartphones. Handmark publishes portable versions of Tetris and Scrabble, while Astraware's mobile gaming portfolio stretches across a variety of handheld, mobile and PDA platforms.
• Magellan Navigation announced its first portable navigation device to feature cellular connectivity, the Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS. Magellan said the addition of GPRS technology to its navigation devices will allow users to get real time information such as traffic conditions, local events or where to find the cheapest gas. The Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS will also come preloaded with Google business listings and search functionality.
• Sling Media, a digital lifestyle products company, has announced plans to release a version of its SlingPlayer Mobile software for Research In Motion's BlackBerry handsets. SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will enable BlackBerry users a personalized mobile TV experience. The application will be available later this year.
• Nokia Siemens Networks has announced a contract to build a GSM/3G network in Saudi Arabia for Zain worth an estimated $935 million. Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver a full turnkey solution, including managed services for five years from a dedicated local network operations center. The contract also includes network planning, implementation, project management, systems integration, logistics management, multivendor maintenance, field services and network optimization for the base station sites.
• Traffic.com, a Navteq company and provider of traffic solutions to consumers and businesses, and Skyward Mobile, a developer of next-generation mobile applications, have announced the release of Traffic .com2GO, a new mobile application that delivers real-time traffic updates, including congestion, travel times, construction and other incidents on U.S. city area roadways. In addition to a rich graphical interface, the application includes JamCast audio traffic news reports.
• NTT DoCoMo and its eight regional subsidiaries announced that subscribers to its i-channel news and information service surpassed 15 million Jan. 3, 2008. This news comes only nine months before NTT DoCoMo announced surpassing 10 million subscribers, and only two years and three months after the service launched. DoCoMo's i-channel is a push service that automatically sends scrolling-text headlines to a phone's standby screen. The headlines come from the i-channel site, which is arranged into five information channels: weather, news, sports and entertainment, horoscopes and recommended i-mode sites.
• Acacia Research has announced that its subsidiary Contacts Synchronization Corporation has entered into a settlement agreement with Verizon Wireless in connection a patent infringement suit filed in the Western District of Wisconsin in May of last year. Terms of the agreement are confidential. Verizon Wireless settled the case without admitting any liability for the alleged patent infringement. Last week, Acacia settled a suit with Sprint Nextel.