On Friday, LG announced the launch of its new musically-equipped phone through Verizon Wireless. The Chocolate 3 was probably released at this particular time on purpose, in an attempt to take the consumer market’s mind off the iPhone.

The thing that makes this series of devices special is its compatibility with Rhapsody’s subscription-based music service. Customers will be given the chance to pick any tune from the company’s five million track catalogue and stock up their smartphones.

The device also features an FM receiver and stereo speakers and comes with a microSD memory card that can store up to 8GB of data. Furthermore, the Chocolate 3 packs a 2-megapixel camera and works perfectly with Verizon's V Cast mobile video service.

This is Verizon’s first handset to feature Dashboard, the Adobe Flash Cast technology-based graphical portal. Through Dashboard, users are given access to personalized multimedia and a wide range of entertainment-oriented content. Among the thirteen channels we find Comedy Central, MTV News and ESPN.

At the end of March, Verizon Wireless and Loopt have signed an agreement to make Loopt available on select Verizon Wireless phones, including the LG Chocolate. Loopt uses the GPS capabilities and allows users to share their location and status messages, send proximity-based messages and view geo-tagged photos and content on-the-go. The location of users is updated every 15 minutes. The service will be made available for the monthly fee of $3.99.

Mr. Ehtisham Rabbani, Vice President of LG Mobile Phones, seemed to be very happy with the new features that have been added to the new edition of the device and confident that the Chocolate will help users reduce the number of "electronic devices they need to carry at one time."

The smartphone will be made available starting tomorrow for the price of $179.99 with a two-year Verizon subscription contract.