Samsung is trying to make more big noise in the mobile phone market. I don't think there's really any need for additional concern about this from Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). I also don't think they'll be quaking in their boots over at Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT). Life will probably continue to be good for LG. However, Samsung really wants to move some phones in the UK and to do that, it's calling out the big guns like Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE). I don't think there's danger in store for the iPhone, but I'm sure they're talking about this situation over at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

In conjunction with a smattering of mobile service providers, Samsung is bundling it's new Soul U900 cell phones with some of today's hottest electronic equipment. For instance, if UK consumers purchase a Samsung Soul U900, and contract with T-Mobile for 18 months in it's Flext 35 service plan, those consumers will receive a FREE Wii system plus Wii Sports! Likewise, If UK consumers buy the phone and contract with Orange Panther 75, they can receive a FREE XBOX 360 Elite!. For the time being, these deals appear to only be available in the United Kingdom. Could this marketing strategy move to the U.S.? One can only hope.

In the mean time, Samsung is also creating some fairly interesting video marketing materials. In my opinion, the video below doesn't do much for the marketing of cell phones, but it's pretty cool none the less. It's called simply; "10 optical Illusions in 2 minutes." Enjoy!

MOST NOTEWORTHY: GlaxoSmithKline, FreeSeas and SINA Corp were today's noteworthy initiations:

• ING believes GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) should benefit from the appointment of Andrew Witty as CEO and see limited downside risks. The firm initiated shares with a Buy rating.
  
• FreeSeas (NASDAQ: FREE) was started at Oppenheimer with an Outperform rating and $8 target, as they view FREE as an early stage growth company in the smaller dry-bulk vessel segment and finds the valuation attractive at current levels.
  
• Kaufman Bros. initiated SINA Corp (NASDAQ: SINA) with a Buy rating and $4.50 target, and believes China represents a compelling long-term growth opportunity.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Level 3 Comm (NASDAQ: LVLT) was initiated with a Underperform rating at Wachovia.
  
• Jefferies assumed Savient Pharma (NASDAQ: SVNT) with a Buy rating and $30 target.
  
• Lehman initiated Brown & Brown (NYSE: BRO) with an Underweight rating.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: FreeSeas, Nektar, Altus Pharmaceuticals and AbitibiBowater were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Cantor initiated shares of FreeSeas (NASDAQ: FREE) with a Buy rating and $10 target, as they expect the company to benefit from the continued strength in the dry bulk market.
  
• JP Morgan resumed coverage of Nektar (NASDAQ: NKTR) with an Overweight rating, as they view weakness from the discontinuation of Exubera as a buying opportunity given the company's base royalty business and pipeline opportunities.
  
• Altus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALTU) was initiated with a Buy rating and $19 target at Jefferies. The firm expects news flow from the company's two lead products over the next 6-12 months that should act as catalysts.
  
• AbitibiBowater (NYSE: ABH) was initiated with a Sell rating and $18 target at Banc of America, as they are cautious on newsprint trends; the firm recommends reducing existing positions.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Caris initiated Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS) with an Average rating and $18 target and Under Armour (NYSE: UA) with an Above Average rating.
  
• Stifel started shares of Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) with a Hold rating.
  
• PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) was initiated with a Sell rating at Goldman.

Warren Buffett bought a prominent Massachusetts furniture company -- Jordan's Furniture -- in 1999 for between $200 million and $300 million. At the beginning of the season, Jordan's announced it would reimburse the furniture purchases of anyone who bought sofas, dining tables, beds, and mattresses there between March 7 and April 16 if the Red Sox won the World Series this year.

According to the Boston Globe, Jordan's took almost 30,000 orders during the contest. One customer stands to get back $40,000. Jordan's covered this bet through an insurance policy. It would not disclose which company issued the policy, but it would not shock me if it was issued by Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A).

As a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, I am absolutely thrilled that they are in the World Series for the second time in a few years. And last night's blowout victory against Colorado was a great way to start. Unfortunately, my years of being disappointed by the Red Sox are making me wary about whether they can keep pulling off wins.

NBC, a division of GE (NYSE: GE), announced late today that it would offer free downloads of its popular TV shows. The programming will be available for PC viewing. TV commercials will remain in the shows and cannot be skipped.

According to The New York Times, the shows can be downloaded for one week after they are broadcast. "The NBC service, called NBC Direct, will begin a testing period in October with plans to be operational in November."

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but the programs will only work on Windows-based PCs. NBC cut its ties with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes at the beginning of the month.

PaidContent writes that eventually, users will be able to freely subscribe to pre-selected NBC programs, which will be sent to their computer right after the first broadcast airing. NBC's plans for the next year may include the ability for consumers to own the content permanently instead of having a file that expires a week after a show airs.

The move by the network, which is likely to be followed by other large content owners, may well be an effective way to break the strangle-hold that iTunes has on digital content. NBC did not want Apple to set the pricing for its shows. Offering the content for free would seem to trump that.

Steve Jobs will not be able to check out the new competition. The offering will not work on his Mac.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Free music downloads, sweet! Digital music newcomer SpiralFrog went live yesterday, giving away tunes to all us Thifty McLintpockets, sticking it to iTunes, asking only that we show a little love to its sponsors. Are we back in the Napster shopping-spree days of 2000, ready to grind our employers' networks to a standstill?

Not quite. The tragically titled SpiralFrog -- run by the private Mohen Inc., whose interests appear to be solely this venture -- bills itself as "the market-driven solution to illicit pirate file-sharing sites." It claims to be gunning not so much for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes or Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s forthcoming MP3 site, but instead challenging amorphous peer-to-peer MP3 networks like LimeWire and Soulseek, priding itself on being free of viruses, spyware and other nasties.

Not that this is a bad idea -- it's actually a very good, very natural idea. No need to point out that well before websites gave away content for a smattering of mortgage lenders' ads, radio, network television, magazines and newspapers were all available freely or at least affordably as advertisers footed the bills. So why couldn't music downloads work as well?

My wife and I were at our local Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) branch today and we signed some important papers. The documents we put our names to probably represent the single best investment we have made in our time together. Utilizing a portion of a rather handsome income tax return and some carefully thought out timing, we as a couple today reduced our consumer debt load by approximately 25%.

Being in debt has always made my skin crawl, though I fully understand the reasons why we do it. If you want a nice house and a fine automobile or two, the chances are that the only way you can pull it off is by borrowing the funds to make it possible. That doesn't change the fact though that I hate being in debt, and whenever the opportunities present themselves I do what I reasonably can to reduce my debt level.

While I'm occasionally offered refills at no charge at my local independent coffee shop, I'm never offered free drinks at either that establishment or my local Starbucks Corporation (NADSAQ:SBUX) outlet. (And I'm nice, really I am!) Yet many customers, if a recent thread at Starbucks Gossip is any indication, are. One (must be extremely nice) customer writes in to say that she's comped as much as 2/3 of her drinks.
The post started quite a discussion about free beverages, with one angry district manager writing in to claim that this was theft, and if he were their boss, he'd fire the whole lot of 'em. Some other equally angry and righteous commenters agreed, but the general consensus was that occasional free beverages were good for business -- "Surprise and Delight" 'em, the concept goes, and they'll keep coming back and spending their money in your store. And putting lots of extra bills in your tip jar!

Sure, if a customer is getting most of her drinks free, and putting the $2 in the tip jar instead of the till, that equation is pretty straightforward: sorry guys, that's just a tiny bit of bad ethics there. But a once-a-week freebie for great customers or even (as one barista mentioned) confused out-of-towners? I'm thinking that it will serve to increase business and customer goodwill.

My sister Hannah is the answer to the question, why are AOL's subscriptions falling? A dabbler in the internet, she and her family paid for AOL dialup for years; even though she's now married with a real job, she's kept her AOL address from when she still lived at home with my parents. Last month, she called us to ask about this wonderful world of high-speed internet, and a few days later, Comcast came into her home and switched her over. She cancelled her AOL account.

Many like Hannah have kept their AOL account just for the email address. And though two-thirds of U.S. internet users now have high-speed internet access, AOL's user base is very different; approximately one-third of AOL users are high-speed customers, according to the AP. Yet Time Warner is rumored to be considering a very radical plan: making the coveted aol.com addresses free for users who have switched to other providers' high-speed services.

With Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft all offering a wide variety of free email options, and AOL's content now available to all comers, competitive strategy seems to dictate that Time Warner's decision should be already be made. Is board, who might say yes to the plan in their meeting this Thursday, will have to weigh the potential dollar losses (said to be $1 billion between now and 2009) against the untold customer goodwill and increased "eyeballs."