New LG Chocolate debuts on Verizon Wireless

The latest eye candy from Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) will make its debut on the nation's most reliable wireless network on Sunday, July 13. The new flip style LG Chocolate(TM) 3, the third- generation of the iconic Chocolate music phones, supports all of the latest features in mobile music technology including Verizon Wireless' V CAST Music with Rhapsody subscription music service. The LG Chocolate 3 will be available in black or light blue beginning Sunday in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, including those in Circuit City, and through the company's online store at www.verizonwireless.com.

The marquee music phone for the new V CAST Music with Rhapsody service, LG Chocolate 3 allows Verizon Wireless customers to access more than 5 million songs, create playlists and load hundreds of songs on their phones to take with them wherever they go. Designed to be a powerhouse music player, the LG Chocolate 3 sports a built-in FM transmitter so customers can play music through a car or other stereo system, dual speakers, Bluetooth® headset for wireless stereo sound, and multitasking capabilities while listening to music. An easy-to-use external front navigation wheel and center select key makes music navigation easy, and the phone will satisfy music appetites with its optional expandable memory using a large 8 GB microSD(TM) card.

"We are proud of the success and popularity of the Chocolate series of handsets, and are excited about the upgrades made with this new edition,"

said Mr. Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones.

"The LG Chocolate 3 helps Verizon Wireless customers minimize the number of electronic devices they need to carry at one time, allowing for a large capacity of music storage and connection to a car stereo without any wires."

Entertainment doesn't end with music on the LG Chocolate 3; this feature rich flip phone also packs a 2.0 megapixel camera and camcorder and supports V CAST Video and ESPN MVP, giving customers an on-demand link to news, scores and more. The LG Chocolate 3 can be charged via a computer with its micro USB charging port.

The LG Chocolate 3 is the first Verizon Wireless phone to feature Dashboard, a graphically rich portal powered by Adobe Flash® Cast(TM) technology, which delivers personalized multimedia information and entertainment services directly to the phone. Dashboard features 13 channels -- Mobile Web, VZW Showcase, Get Channels and Search, as well nine more to customize the wireless experience. Verizon Wireless customers can select from News, Community, Comedy Central, MTV News, IGN.COM, FOX Sport, Tones & Extras, Sports, ESPN, Music, Entertainment, Weather, Business, and Games channels to appear on their phones.

Additional features and capabilities of the LG Chocolate 3 include:

-- Additional Music Features

* Music player that supports .mp3, .wma, unprotected .aac and unprotected .aac+ files

* Dedicated music key and preset sound effect equalizer

* Create and manage playlists

* Music library -- organized by artist, genre, album

* Music only mode (RF off except Bluetooth) -- supports up to 24 hours of music playback

-- 2.0 Megapixel Camera/Camcorder Features

* Camera resolutions: 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480, 320 x 240 pixels

* Zoom: up to 2x

* Image editor -- zoom, rotate and crop images

* Video resolutions: 320 x 240, 176 x 144 pixels

* Video recording time -- 30 seconds (for sending) or up to 1 hour (for saving) depending on available memory

* Video player for WMV, MP4, 3GP, 3G2 formats

* Customizable brightness, white balance, shutter sound, night, photometry

* Self-timer: off, three, five or 10 seconds

* Color effects: normal, negative, aqua, sepia, black and white

* Self portrait/video recording capability with flip closed

-- Mobile Web-capable -- customizable, enhanced wireless access to the latest in news, sports, weather and more

-- Mobile Email -- access MSN® Hotmail®, America Online® and Yahoo!® accounts to exchange e-mail

-- VZ Navigator(SM)-capable -- get visual and audible directions to thousands of destinations, locate businesses and other points of interest, get maps of a location and share directions with others

-- Media Center-capable -- downloadable games, ringtones, wallpapers, location-based services and more

-- Mobile IM capabilities

-- Chaperone® Child-capable -- allows the LG Chocolate 3 to have its location shared with family members via the Chaperone Web site, the Chaperone® Parent application or Child Zone® SMS alerts

-- Bluetooth Version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)

* Save up to 20 Bluetooth pairings

* Supported profiles: headset, hands-free, dial-up networking, advanced audio distribution (stereo), phone book access, basic printing, object push for vCard and vCalendar, file transfer and basic imaging

* Send all contacts and calendar events via Bluetooth

* Print and send user generated pictures (JPEG) via Bluetooth

-- One-touch speakerphone

-- Speaker-independent voice commands

-- Voice-activated dialing up to 1,000 entries

-- Voice recording -- 1 minute or 1 hour (standby) up to 1,500 memos

-- .mp3 music ringer support (clips from hit songs)

-- 27 unique ringtones as well as vibrate and silent modes

-- Text, picture, video and voice messaging

-- Phone book with 1,000 contacts -- each entry stores five numbers, two e-mail addresses and a Picture ID

-- Speed dial -- 999 entries; one voicemail default

-- Calendar, calculator, EZ tip calculator, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock and notepad

-- Flash® user-interface for clear images, text and fun animations

-- Simultaneous GPS for enhanced location accuracy

-- Standalone mode (RF off)

-- TTY/TDD support

-- Hearing aid compatible = M3

-- Headset jack: 3.5 mm

-- Technology: CDMA

-- Frequency: 1.9 GHz CDMA PCS, 800 MHz CDMA (Digital Dual-Band)

-- Data transmission: EV-DO

-- SAR: head 1.26 W/kg; body 0.367 W/kg

-- Dimensions: 3.87" (h) x 1.94" (w) x 0.64" (d)

-- Weight: 3.36 ounces

-- Display:

* Internal LCD: 260K Color TFT, 320 x 240 pixels, 2.2"

* External LCD: 260K Color TFT, 176 x 220 pixels, 1.76"

-- Standard battery: 800 mAh

-- Usage time: up to 270 minutes

-- Standby time: up to 350 hour

Netflix Partners With LG to Bring Movies Straight to TV

SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix, the DVD-by-mail company with more than seven million customers, has a new strategy that may one day make those red envelopes obsolete.

The company wants to strike deals with electronics companies that will let it send movies straight to TV screens over the Internet. Its first partnership, announced Wednesday night, is with the South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics to stream movies and other programming to LG’s high-definition televisions.

The partnership will extend a novel feature from Netflix, announced a year ago, that allows paying subscribers to watch any of 6,000 movies and television shows on its Web site free. But that service can be accessed only with a personal computer.

Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, said he hoped to strike other such deals and that Netflix would soon be viewed as a movie channel that might appear on myriad devices.

“We want to be integrated on every Internet-connected device, game system, high-definition DVD player and dedicated Internet set-top box,”

he said.

“Eventually, as TVs have wireless connectivity built into them, we’ll integrate right into the television.”

The move could help transform Netflix from a successful company with a cumbersome dependence on physical media and the Postal Service into an important player in a rapidly emerging digital media landscape.

That landscape has recently been characterized by a frenzy of experimentation, as technology and media companies try to figure out how to bring the unlimited media choices of the Internet to the traditionally restricted confines of the television.

The players include cable, satellite and telephone companies. Newer entrants include Amazon.com, which lets customers buy movies over its Unbox service and download them to their TiVo boxes. Wal-Mart, which experimented with movie downloads on its Web site, pulled the plug on the service last month when Hewlett-Packard, its partner in the project, stopped supporting the technology.

Then there is the digital media heavyweight Apple. At the annual Macworld expo opening on Jan. 15, the company plans to announce a deal to allow users of its iTunes service to rent films from some Hollywood studios and watch them on their computers and iPods.

Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a market research firm, said Netflix’s model had the virtue of being free to existing subscribers and relatively easy for consumers to understand.

“You’re already a subscriber and you don’t pay anything extra. That’s called a slam dunk in most businesses we follow,”

Mr. Doherty said.

The companies said LG products with Netflix’s movie service would begin shipping in the second half of this year. They did not say which devices would have it.

Mr. Doherty, who was briefed on the Netflix announcement and LG’s other plans to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, said LG could integrate the Netflix service into a future version of its dual-mode HD DVD/Blu-ray DVD player, which now sells for $799, and a new line of high-definition TVs with wireless connections to the Internet, among other products.

Mr. Hastings said the new service would combine the benefits of an Internet browser with the luxury of watching movies and TV shows on large, high-definition TV screens. He said subscribers would be able to go to the Netflix Web site to create lists of movies they wanted to see. The Netflix service on the TV would offer a simple way to watch those movies.

“We think we have solved the real fundamental problem, which has been that choosing movies on a television has been extremely challenging,”

Mr. Hastings said.

“Video-on-demand companies worked at it for a long time, but choosing movies on the TV just doesn’t have the power of the Web.”

The Netflix streams will not initially be in high definition, and there are some limits to how many programs customers can watch. For example, customers who pay Netflix’s most popular $17-a-month rate are entitled to watch up to 17 movies on their PC, though a spokesman said the company had been experimenting with unlimited digital viewing.

Netflix says it is able to offer the online service free to subscribers because when customers watch online, the company does not have to spend the money to mail them a DVD.

The deal with LG is something of a strategy shift for Netflix. The company had been experimenting with building its own Netflix-brand set-top box. Last spring, to help create the device, the company hired Anthony Wood, the founder of ReplayTV and a pioneer of the digital video recorder.

But Mr. Hastings said that integrating Netflix into other companies’ devices made more sense. He said Mr. Wood would soon leave Netflix to return to another company he founded, Roku.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said the move was a wise one.

“Software and services companies that get into hardware and try to sell hardware usually don’t end up doing particularly well,”

he said.

Mr. Hastings said that the company’s new digital effort did not augur the end of its valuable DVD-by-mail business, which helped the company earn around $1.2 billion in 2007.

“If anything, we are going to see some extra life and growth in DVD rental,”

he said.

“This doesn’t reflect a view that DVD rental is going to shrink any time soon.”