Company News: Nokia adds music, games to its phones

Nokia Corp. unveiled new services and cell phones Wednesday that customers can use to download music and play games, a bid by the world’s largest mobile phone maker to challenge Apple Inc.’s higher-end iPhone, as well as iTunes and the iPod.

The move by Nokia, whose basic handsets give it a strong position in emerging markets, is the latest recognition that high-end markets require handsets with photo, music and video capabilities and quick access to the Internet.

One of Nokia’s new phones can hold up to 6,000 songs. Other new gadgets include headphones, docking stations and speakers.

Nokia said it will focus its new Web services in a site known as “Ovi” – Finnish for “door” – that will include an online music store “with millions of tracks from major labels.”

With the new services, consumers will be able to transfer music from PCs to compatible Nokia devices and play and download N-Gage games on “tens of millions” of existing Nokia devices, the Finnish company said.

The announcement in London sent Nokia’s U.S. shares up $2.17, or 7.2 percent, to $32.18, setting a new 52-week high.

“Weaver Popcorn Co., one of the nation’s top microwave popcorn makers, has switched to a new butter flavoring, replacing a chemical linked to a lung ailment in popcorn plant workers.

The Indianapolis-based company began shipping new butter-flavored microwave popcorn a few weeks ago that contain no diacetyl, a chemical undergoing national scrutiny because of cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare life-threatening disease often called popcorn lung.

Company President Mike Weaver said that while his workers have experienced no such cases, the family owned business wanted to lead the popcorn industry and allay consumer fears by eliminating the chemical for its product line.

Weaver said his company sells about 600 million bags of microwave popcorn a year, giving it about a 20 percent share of the U.S. market.

“ Monster Worldwide Inc., a major online job-search site, said Wednesday it was beefing up its security measures following a significant data breach this month.

Sal Iannuzzi, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said the company was improving its surveillance of how the site is used as well as limiting the way data can be accessed.

Iannuzzi declined to provide specific details about how the new security measures will work, saying he didn’t want to make them vulnerable to potential hackers.