Midway Games said it shipped Greatest Arcade Hits and Rampage Puzzle Attack fro Game Boy Advance. Company also said it would ship latest installment in Cruis'n series, Cruis'n Velocity, for Game Boy Advance Nov. 27.

DVD-R disc manufacturers CMC Magnetics and Ritek will boost annual production to 30 million and 10 million, respectively, in 2002, companies said. Both currently have annual capacity of 1 million units. CMC, which uses Pioneer’s DVD-R technology and Mitsubishi’s dye materials, said it would buy new DVD-R equipment as it increased production rather than convert CD-R line. Ritek has converted CD-R lines to DVD-R by buying new bonding equipment. Other Taiwanese DVD-R manufacturers include Prodisc, which operates 2 lines with annual capacity of 1 million units, and Gigastorage, which has single line.

Best Buy said it had been given U.S. exclusivity on first PCS phone with GPS capability. Samsung’s N300 Sprint PCS phone lists for $150. Best Buy said that although GPS location-based emergency services wouldn’t be available until next year, Samsung N300 has technology required to support those services.

Paula Prahl, ex-Honeywell, joins Best Buy as vp-industry & public affairs, new post; John Thompson, Best Buy senior vp- supply chain & business systems, elected a trustee, Best Buy Children’s Foundation… Robin Richards shifts to CEO of new Vivendi Universal Net USA Group from chmn.-CEO of Vivendi’s MP3.com; Laura Martin, ex-Credit Suisse First Boston, joins Vivendi Universal Jan. 1 as exec. vp-investor relations & financial strategy… David Risher to leave in March as Amazon.com senior vp-mktg. & mdsg… Mark Yonker, ex-Wieden & Kennedy, returns to InFocus Jan. 1 as CFO, replacing Scott Hildebrandt, resigning… Phil Rittmueller, onetime Alpine and Jensen, appointed NEC Technologies vp-automotive electronics, replacing retiring Scott Onuki, who will stay on as executive adviser to company.

News Corp. has sold 3.5 million shares of EchoStar stock since losing bid to buy Hughes Electronics and DirecTV subsidiary. News Corp. had been negotiating to buy Hughes before EchoStar emerged in Aug. with $30 billion bid that later was accepted by Hughes parent General Motors. Since Aug., News Corp. has shed 23 million of 27.5 million shares of EchoStar stock at $23-$49. Along with MCI Worldcomm, it had acquired stake in EchoStar in 1998 in selling satellite slots it controlled at 110? W. News Corp., whose proposed merger with EchoStar collapsed in 1997, had acquired satellite slots as part of planned American Sky Bcstg. (ASkyB) satellite service that it eventually scrapped.

DTV, digital set-top box and digital video recorder manufacturers won’t face complying with new “stand-by mode” energy conservation standards sought by Sen. Baucus (D-Mont.). Although federal EPA standards don’t exist for such products, Baucus unsuccessfully submitted amendment to economic stimulus package (HR-3090) that would require EPA to begin rulemaking on issue by Jan. 1, 2007. Amendment was deemed out of order on stimulus bill, which was passed by House Oct. 24 and stalled in Senate Nov. 15. If bill was to be introduced and eventually passed, stand-by mode standards would be developed for analog TVs and other household appliances within 2 years of its enactment. It’s unknown whether Baucus intends to introduce energy measure as standalone bill or attach it to another legislative measure.

Sanyo will make digital cameras in China, company announced Fri. It will build at various joint ventures there in order to meet growing demand and contain costs. Sanyo also makes digital cameras in Indonesia, Japan, S. Korea. Company didn’t announce volume for Chinese production, but said its worldwide output for current fiscal year was 5.4 million units, up from 3.24 million in previous year.

Zona Inc., solution provider for “massive multiplayer online game” (MMOG) network, licensed tools and middleware licensing program from Sony Computer Entertainment, companies announced Fri. License will be used for further MMOG development, Zona said.

Targasys said it would work with Sun Microsystems to create telematics architecture based on Sun’s Java language. Targasys, Fiat’s telematics service provider arm, is seeking open software system to deliver services to vehicle telematics systems. Java is best known as development platform for software run by Web- browsers on PCs, but also is used for applications in cellphones and PDAs, Sun said. Companies said Java-based architecture would enable Targasys to: (1) Download software components and manage on-board telematics equipment over vehicle life cycle. The ability to update software components helps to negate obsolescence of vehicle electronics and allows for new applications. “This enables a telematics control unit in a motorist’s vehicle to download and dynamically install services like real-time traffic monitoring, on-demand navigation and mobile commerce operations,” said Sun spokesman. (2) Use Java as back-end service delivery infrastructure that would tie into Targasys’ customer resource management and billing system. Java also will allow other telematics service providers and other developers to build easily shared services for any platform that adopts the open architecture, company said. Targasys said it would use new architecture to deliver services to automobiles, cellphones and PDAs with goal of becoming major telematics provider in Europe.