Los Gatos, Calif. - Online DVD rental service Netflix (NASD: NFLX) announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Samsung to offer subscribers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from its website to Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players. The players will allow Netflix users to browse its catalog from their TV screens, read synopses and rate films, and fast-forward and rewind the video streams.

Milpitas, Calif. - Korean electronics giant Samsung has withdrawn its $5.85 billion offer to acquire SanDisk (NASD: SNDK), the maker of memory cards and MP3 players. "After nearly six months of efforts to pursue a transaction with no meaningful progress, we are withdrawing our proposal to acquire SanDisk," Yoon Woo Lee, vice chairman and CEO at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.

London - Shazam, the operator of a mobile music discovery service, announced on Tuesday a deal with Korea's Samsung, to embed its application on Samsung phones, including its new Beatb and Beats handsets. Shazam recently announced 1.5 million downloads of its application for Apple's iPhone.

Santa Clara, Calif. - A consortium of consumer electronics and wireless technology developers -- including Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Samsung -- announced on Wednesday that they have partnered to jointly develop a new industry standard for wireless high-definition video. The WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface), a technology developed by Israel-based Amimon that includes a video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band, will form the basis of the standard, which the companies hope to complete yet this year.

Seoul, Korea - Korean electronics makers LG and Samsung announced on Wednesday that they have partnered to develop a new mobile TV delivery standard for the North American market, as the standards body for the region prepares to adopt a technology in early 2009.

Seoul – Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chip maker, said today it plans to spend $1.37 billion in 2008 upgrading semiconductor lines, Reuters reports.

Barcelona - Korea's Samsung Electronics, U.K. chip designer ARM and U.S.-based Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) separately announced plans on Monday to introduce mobile products based on Google's (NASD: GOOG) Android mobile phone software platform, with the latter planning to introduce a prototype this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Las Vegas - The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), an alliance of U.S. commercial and public broadcasters aiding the development of mobile digital television, said on Tuesday that it will test two competing technologies in 2008 that use digital broadcast TV spectrum to deliver mobile television signals.

Seoul, South Korea - A group of consumer electronics, technology and broadcast companies have formed dotTV, a consortium that aims to bring interactive elements like social networking and online video to the TV viewing experience.

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless on Wednesday introduced its latest music phone, the Juke by Samsung, which features 2GB of storage and will be available for $99 with a two-year contract. The Juke will come in red, teal and navy blue, and feature a swivel display to expose the MP3 player.

New York - Korean electronics firm Samsung on Thursday introduced the Beyonce Special Edition B'Phone, a limited edition handset it will release exclusively to Sprint subscribers in the U.S. The dual-sided phone features the look of an MP3 player on one side and a phone on the other, Samsung said, and will feature exclusive video, music and photos from the Sony BMG/Columbia Records artist. The phone is slated to go on sale Nov. 4 from Sprint.com and in select Wal-Mart stores.

Berlin - Korean consumer electronics maker Samsung this week introduced its line of third-generation Blu-ray Disc players, including a dual Blu-ray/HD DVD player. The Samsung BD-UP5000, which does not yet have a price tag but is slated for release in the fourth quarter, supports playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD media in a range of resolutions, can upscale standard-definition content, and output 24fps video at 1080p.

San Francisco - An "insider" at smartphone maker HTC told gadget blog CrunchGear that Google plans to release a long-rumored cell phone in the first quarter of 2008.

New York - Korean electronics firm Samsung announced this week that it has launched a mobile digital music service, powered by MusicNet, in the U.K., France and Germany. The Samsung Music Studio will be compatible with Samsung phones including the K3, K5, T9 and Z5, and will offer both monthly subscriptions and a la carte downloads. Customers in France and Germany will have access to over 2.6 million tracks, while U.K. subscribers can choose from over 3 million songs. Monthly subscriptions will cost about $20.43 in Europe and $20.60 in the U.K., while single tracks will sell for $1.57 and $1.59, respectively.