Basketball fans will be able to use the Shazam audio recognition app to tag live broadcasts of the NCAA tournament to unlock scores, stats, player information and other March Madness-related content. An LG Electronics USA sponsorship will also let Shazam users tag LG commercials during games to access music-themed promotional material. The LG effort features a parallel music bracket of 64 of the most popular artists on Shazam, allowing fans to vote on their favorites to see who gets to the “Final Four”. Other elements include charts of top tagged songs for each of the 13 cities hosting the tournament …

PeopleLinx, a startup that helps corporations use LinkedIn, has raised $3.2 million in a first-round funding led by Osage Venture Partners and MissionOG and including angel investors. The money will be used to accelerate the company’s growth and continue to expand its base of Fortune 1000 clients. Started by former LinkedIn employees in 2009, the company offers a software platform designed to help companies and their employees get the most out of LinkedIn. It provides dashboards for delivering best practice information, gaming functionality, detailed reporting and other tools to optimize their LinkedIn presence. PeopleLinx clients  to date include Experian, …

There's a restaurant in New York called Little Dishes (actually it went out of business.) Instead of entrees, patrons had to select from a la carte offerings. American Honda is taking the Little Dishes agency approach after a three-month review. Instead of keeping just about everything on RPA's plate, the company is splitting it all up by practice. RPA creative stays with Honda brand, but Mullen gets Acura and MediaVest gets Media.

The growth of smartphones and tablets in the last three months has pushed the number of connected devices in the U.S. past the half a billion mark, according to new data from NPD Group. PCs remain the most common connected device, but for the first time, they’re outnumbered by smartphones and tablets. The battle for the mobile landscape is boiling down to a one-one match between Apple and Samsung. The latter just upped the ante in the smartphone war with its release of the Galaxy S 4, which many experts see as supplanting the iPhone as best handset on the …

Department Store chain Kohl's has selected Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia to handle media duties after a review, according to sources. The company spent around $330 million on ads in 2011 according to Kantar. Interpublic's UM was the incumbent on the account. The Interpublic Group shop had serviced the account for over a decade. Other contenders included WPP's MEC and independent Horizon Media. The client put the account in review in late November of last year. The selection comes just about a week after the company announced nine new store opening and a plan to remodel 30 of its locations this year. …

DWA, a technology-focused shop in San Francisco, has named Zak Garner director of new media. Garner joins from media strategist at Gyro San Francisco, and was with Starcom before that.

Aiming to enhance its digital wallet efforts, PayPal has acquired mobile development firm Duff Research. The startup has created some 40 apps for companies including Tivo and Adidas. Its 18 employees, including co-founder Cheoff Chatterton, will join PayPal under the deal. PayPal last year began trialing a mobile wallet service with retail chains including Home Depot, JCPenney, Foot Locker, Barnes & Noble and Office Depot across 17,000 U.S. stores. At checkout, users can either enter their phone number and PIN linked to their PayPal accounts or swipe a prepaid PayPal card at a POS terminal to pay. Separately, PayPal introduced a …

It's the movie ticket Web site's first original series, hosted by Dave Karger.

What does one do with an expensive, struggling broadcast network scripted series about prospective Broadway show -- and getting just under 3 million viewers? How about moving it to the unusual Saturday night time period? That's what NBC is doing with "Smash" which had been airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. and now will be seen on Saturday at 9 p.m., starting April 6. No worries "Smash" fans -- all 17 episodes will air. Initially, the two year old show got a big 3.5 rating among 18-49 viewers on its premiere a year ago following "The Voice" a year ago. …

The CBS series will become available from Amazon, Hulu, and later, on the Hallmark cable network in addition to traditional syndication to stations.