LG Electronics

Besides the Presidential election, there's another big political battle brewing in Washington on Nov. 4. This one is over the airwaves that are used to deliver communications signals to consumers across the country, and like the race for the White House, this contest has created a big divide.

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, said Thursday that it had added EMI and smaller record labels to its "free" music package to challenge Apple's dominance in the digital music market.

Nokia said Carphone Warehouse, the exclusive retailer in Britain for the first mobile phone to include the "Comes with Music" package, will sell it for pound(s)129.99, or $230, starting Oct. 16.

Klausner Technologies, a patent-holding company, is at it again. The New York-based company said late Tuesday that it has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, Google and a long list of others.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Texas said Verizon Wireless' visual voice mail and LG's Voyager phone infringe on Klausner's patent that covers the ability of a user to view and retrieve voice mail via a menu.

Klausner Technologies, a patent-holding company, is at it again. The New York-based company said late Tuesday that it has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, Google and a long list of others.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Texas said Verizon Wireless' visual voice mail and LG's Voyager phone infringe on Klausner's patent that covers the ability of a user to view and retrieve voice mail via a menu.

Building on a technology partnership announced at the International CES show earlier this year, LG Electronics and Netflix are poised to launch a new Blu-ray Disc player with the ability to stream feature films and popular TV episodes from Netflix's catalog of more than 12,000 titles, beginning this autumn.

"It's an important development and Netflix is a good dance partner for LG," said Joshua Martin, a senior analyst at the Yankee Group. "If Netflix can get on stand-alone consumer devices and TV sets with as little added cost to the consumer as possible, they certainly will benefit."

The enV2, one of the latest cool phones from LG Electronics, has everything most consumers will want in a cell phone (aside from an easy to remember name, I suppose.)

The upgrade from last year's popular enV, this is a popular offering from Verizon Wireless for consumers who need a QWERTY keyboard for text messaging and e-mail.

I took one of these for a test drive and compared it to my trusty Motorola Q, with which I have had a love-hate relationship for more than a year.

On Tuesday, Nokia not only moved to acquire Symbian for $410 million, it also partnered with mobile-industry giants to launch a foundation to provide royalty-free software and accelerate innovation.

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo said they intend to unite the flavors of Symbian and create a single, open mobile-software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, the mobile giants are establishing the Symbian Foundation.

On Tuesday, Nokia made a cash offer to acquire the 52 percent of Symbian it doesn't already own. Nokia is willing to pay $410 million for the mobile-platform software found on most cell phones today.

The acquisition is a fundamental step in establishing the Symbian Foundation, which Nokia also announced Tuesday along with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Vodafone.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia, called the acquisition and the foundation significant milestones in the firm's software strategy.

On Tuesday, Nokia made a cash offer to acquire the 52 percent of Symbian it doesn't already own. Nokia is willing to pay $410 million for the mobile-platform software found on most cell phones today.

The acquisition is a fundamental step in establishing the Symbian Foundation, which Nokia also announced Tuesday along with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Vodafone.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia, called the acquisition and the foundation significant milestones in the firm's software strategy.

Microsoft expects its Windows Mobile software to grow by at least 50 percent worldwide in this and the next fiscal years. According to a report by Reuters news service, Eddie Wu, Microsoft's managing director of OEM embedded devices in Asia, projected the software giant will sell 20 million units with Windows Mobile in the fiscal year ending in June. In the last fiscal year, it sold more than 11 million units.

'Not Out of the Question'