Motorola on Wednesday announced that it has closed a deal to acquire Swedish IPTV software company Dreampark. The terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011, were not disclosed. Dreampark’s core software product is called Dreamgallery, a middleware solution that allows operators to provide services over television networks. Motorola will integrate Dreamgallery and other Dreampark solutions into its Motorola Medios software suite. “This transaction enables us to continue to enhance our Medios software portfolio and capitalize upon the convergence of wireless technology, media, mobile computing and the Internet,” said Motorola Mobility’s SVP and GM of Converged Experiences, John Burke, in a statement. “With the acquisition of Dreampark, Motorola Mobility will strengthen its ability to provide systems integrators, service providers, enterprises and content providers with innovative solutions for deploying converged media experiences. It’s great to have the Dreampark team on board.” Hit the break for the full press release.

Motorola Mobility Announces Intent to Acquire Dreampark

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – March 23, 2011 – Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dreampark, a leading IPTV software provider based in Norrköping, Sweden. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Dreampark’s software portfolio maximizes operator flexibility and performance by taking advantage of the powers of open standards, such as HTML and scalable vector graphics (SVG), which, when combined with comprehensive software development kits (SDK) , allows operators to obtain full control of their television portals for complete customization. The Dreampark portfolio is expected to be integrated into the Motorola Medios service management software suite.

“This transaction enables us to continue to enhance our Medios software portfolio and capitalize upon the convergence of wireless technology, media, mobile computing and the Internet,” said John Burke, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola Mobility’s Converged Experiences business. “With the acquisition of Dreampark, Motorola Mobility will strengthen its ability to provide systems integrators, service providers, enterprises and content providers with innovative solutions for deploying converged media experiences. It’s great to have the Dreampark team on board.”

After the transaction closes, Dreampark will be integrated into Motorola Mobility’s Converged Experiences business — complementing Motorola Mobility’s mobile device and home experience and broadening its reach across multiple screens. “We are pleased to join Motorola Mobility and bring a broader software portfolio to our existing customer base,” said Per Skyttvall, CEO of Dreampark. “It’s a fast-evolving time in the industry as consumers are looking to view content on their own terms, and we are excited to be extending our software innovation across multiple devices as a result of this agreement with Motorola Mobility.”

If you’re a keyboard lover and can’t kick that feature-phone addiction, there is a new handset on the block as of today. Samsung’s A927 Flight II sports a 3″ touch screen, sliding keyboard, and HTML browser. It is also full compatible with AT&T’s mobile TV service, featured a 2 megapxel camera, Bluetooth, aGPS, and support for up to 16GB of microSD storage. It’s available today from RadioShack stores, and most likely will be hitting AT&T store shelves in the coming week or so.

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Good news for all of you football soccer fanatics, as two major wireless carriers — Sprint in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada — have announced that their subscribers will be able to watch the historic tournament unfold before their very eyes on their mobile phones. In the U.S., Sprint has entered into a partnership with ESPN to make 56 of the tournaments 64 matches available through ESPN Mobile TV. This service will be provided as a part of Sprint TV and will be free to anyone who has a Everything Data plan. In Canada, Rogers Wireless will allow its Rogers on Demand Mobile subscribers with an Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device to watch all 64 matches from their phone the Rogers on Demand Mobile app. The caveat here is that the service costs $5 per month in addition to a one-time $10 fee to enable access to World Cup coverage. You Canadians are hip enough to the scene to know that was to be expected, right?

Read [Rogers] Read [Sprint]

A few weeks removed from a strong quarter which saw its wireless division receive an 11.3% increase in new subscribers, Bell today continued its push against rivals Rogers and TELUS with Bell Mobile TV for iPhone. As with all things iPhone, there is a lot of give and take. The give is that there’s pretty good coverage including CBC News Network, CTV, MuchMusic, Rogers Sportsnet, Treehouse, The Weather Network, and live coverage of NHL games and the 2010 Winter Olympics. The take is that it only works over 3G (a sad by-product of SIM card verification and carrier exclusivity) and requires the typical $8 per month for mobile video services with the Olympic coverage commanding a one-time payment of $10. Nonetheless, if mobile TV is something that floats your boat and you’re not willing to spend a lot of cash up front to snag a Slingbox, then it might just be worth your while to test it out for a month. We’ve heard it’s actually pretty good.

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WiMAX High Quality Mobile H.264 IPTV Deployment by InfoValue

WiMAX customers use InfoValue IPTV services to view high quality H.264 live TV channels and video-on-demand content on their laptop PCs, 3G phones, and other handheld devices anywhere and anytime within WiMAX coverage area.

Elmsford, NY (PRWEB) December 25, 2009 — InfoValue Computing, Inc. (InfoValue), experts in providing innovative, high-performance IPTV platforms and solutions, today announced its IPTV deployment at a brand new WiMAX infrastructure in Asia Pacific. The installation is powered by InfoValue QuickVideo IPTV platform and provides high-quality live TV channels and video-on-demand content to WiMAX mobile customers.

WiMAX customers use InfoValue IPTV services to view high quality H.264 live TV channels and video-on-demand content on their laptop PCs, 3G phones, and other handheld devices anywhere and anytime within WiMAX coverage area. Customers can watch live TV programs in fast moving cars crossing multiple signal towers without any interruption or quality degradation. Customers can watch video-on-demand content with full interactivity, including fast forward and rewind.

“InfoValue IPTV solution empowers WiMAX service providers to offer leading edge IPTV services to their customers in a way that truly helps them build premium quality and increase customer loyalty,” said Monsong Chen, CEO of InfoValue. “We are excited about this deployment as it turns the future vision into today’s experience.”

InfoValue QuickVideo is a feature-rich, reliable and scalable IPTV platform for large scale deployments. InfoValue QuickVideo offers comprehensive powerful features, ranging from high-quality HDTV channels, video-on-demand content, to network-based personal video recording (nPVR) and time-shifted television (TSTV). InfoValue QuickVideo is uniquely positioned to partner with WiMAX to offer premium mobile IPTV services to simultaneously generate new revenues, increase customer base, and reduce operational expenses.

Founded in 1994 and experts in providing comprehensive IPTV platforms and solutions, InfoValue is recognized for innovations and advances in IPTV technology that has set the pace in performance, scalability and intelligence. InfoValue QuickVideo™ IPTV platform is based on a standards-compliant, open architecture that is optimized with innovative, patented technologies. InfoValue QuickVideo, which is currently being used by telecommunication carriers, corporations, governments, educational institutions, hospitality providers, and broadcasters around the world, offers interactive video-on-demand and video multicast capabilities, as well as integrated video indexing, distributed video caching, server clustering, and video service management capabilities. InfoValue delivers turnkey IPTV solutions for specific industries, including InfoValue SuiteTV for hospitality, InfoValue BizTV for training and communications, and InfoValue NextGenTV for residential. InfoValue’s corporate headquarters is located at 4 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523. More information on InfoValue and its products and services is available at www.infovalue.com, via e-mail at info (at) infovalue (dot) com, or by phone at (914) 345-5980.

LG and AT&T announced the LG Invision handset yesterday, a mobile TV-equipped phone that is being heralded as the smallest mobile television-capable product on the market. The Invision, aside from its TV capabilities, is a pretty run of the mill affair, sporting a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3G (of course), and little else. Viewing TV on its diminutive screen doesn’t’ sound terribly appealing to us, but if the prospect of a 4″ tall x 2″ wide mobile television in your pocket is too appealing to pass up, you can pick one up for $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Not too shabby, but not exactly our cup of tea either. For our money, we’ll stick to a SlingBox coupled with a screen big enough to see what we’re watching.

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That’s what our AT&T boys in blue are sayin’! Want some details on it? Well, it’s rumored to have all the usual AT&T stuff like AT&T Music, AT&T Video, AT&T Navigator, and more. But, it’s also going to have AT&T Mobile TV, too. The other specs are pretty well know: a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device with a 5 megapixel camera with face detection, quad-band EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, 3.2″ WQVGA touch screen (sadly it’s 240×400), Bluetooth, and either 8GB or 16GB of internal memory. We’re working on some press shots for y’all, but in the meantime, go on and keep comparing it to the iPhone 3G…

Thanks, Omie!