Author: Amanda Natividad

—Player X: Co-founder and CEO Tony Pearce is leaving to explore new opportunities. Six months ago he sold the company to Zed Worldwide.

—Smule: The company, responsible for such iPhone apps as “I am T-Pain” and “Leaf Trombone,” has appointed three new executives to its rankings. Scott Bonds is VP of engineering, Sunil Pareenja is CFO and Jim Routh is VP of business development. Despite any lack of musical talent, the company ensures that they are all rock stars at business. Bonds most recently served as senior development director at Electronic Arts; (NSDQ: ERTS) Pareenja previously served as VP of finance at Engine Yard; and Routh spent the first seven years of his career at Apple.

—Booyah: The MyTown app creator has closed a $20 million funding round and added Jim Breyer, a partner at Accel Partners, to its board of directors. Breyer is also the lead and presiding director of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Stores and a director of Dell. Last week Richard Yanowitch, a former News Corp (NYSE: NWS). senior consultant, joined as independent director to its board of directors.

»  Twitter (finally) rolls out an iPhone app for users and even non-users of the microblogging service. [Twitter blog]

»  AT&T (NYSE: T) CEO Ralph de la Vega doesn’t think a Verizon-iPhone deal will result in a rush of defections to the rival carrier. [Electronista]

»  Flash Co-creator Jonathan Gay accuses Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) of destroying the openness of the web. [Cold Hard Flash]

»  China’s Huawei Technologies is open to acquisitions. [Reuters]

»  iPhone OS 4 has a new tethering option but whether AT&T supports it is uncertain. [Geek.com]

»  Music downloads struggle to make headway as only 24 percent of U.S. and western European mobile users listen to music on their phone. [Reuters]

»  Intel’s Wireless Display technology could someday power your TV with smartphone content. [GigaOm]

»  Kindle for Android will be available this summer. [TechCrunch]

»  Foursquare Mayors of Starbucks can now get discounts. [Mashable]

»  Visa officially announces its new case that enables your iPhone to be used as a credit card. [MobileCrunch]

»  OnStar is using Google (NSDQ: GOOG) technology to build Chevrolet mobile apps. [Release]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) updates the Android Market site but there’s still no search and over-the-air downloads for apps. [TechCrunch]

»  Taiwanese Foxconn will ship 24 million iPhone 4G handsets in 2010. [DigiTimes]

»  Top five games for the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad. [jkOnTheRun]

»  Could Windows phone services be the key to Microsoft’s success? [Mobile Tech World]

»  Results are still inconclusive in the ongoing cellphone-brain cancer link. [AP]

—Nexage: Ernie Cormier has been appointed CEO and president, taking over for Founder Devkumar Gandi. Cormier has held executive roles at Lagardere, Nextel and Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED). He also serves on the boards of directors for Integrated Mobile and New Potato Technologies.

—PlayPhone: Three digital media execs join the team: Chia-Lin Simmons is VP of marketing, Richard Hancock is chief commercial officer to EMEA and Ata Ivanov is VP of engineering. Simmons has held management positions at AOL (NYSE: AOL), Amazon’s Audible, Wired and CNET, among others. Hancock previously spent nine years on Zed’s worldwide management team and Ivanov co-founded TV search company Jacked.

—Clearwire: Sean Maloney has resigned from the company’s board of directors due to medical reasons. He is currently on leave from Intel (NSDQ: INTC), where he holds the positions of executive vice president and co-general manager of Intel Architecture Group (IAG). In the interim, Arvind Sodhani, EVP of Intel and president of Intel Capital, has been nominated to the company’s board of directors.

—Motally: The mobile analytics firm added members to its board of directors and advisory board: Former M:Metrics and Jupiter Research executive Seamus McAteer is joining Motally’s board of directors. Joining the advisory board are Web Analytics Veteran Rand Schulman, former AdMob VP & Managing Director Niren Hiro, former President of Jupiter Media (NSDQ: JUPM) Metrix Doug McFarland, and former TheBroth COO Ben Wan.

»  Acer will launch its full line of mobile internet devices by the end of May. [PCWorld]

»  Skyfire releases its 2.0 platform as well as an Android client that allows users to play Flash video. [Pocket-lint]

»  Verizon and TeleNav team up to offer enterprise features, including the ability to track employee locations. [CrackBerry.com]

»  CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile wins its second Emmy, this time for its NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) iPhone app. A few days ago the company won an Emmy for interactivity. [Release]

»  iPhone users are downloading Opera Mini but not many of them are actually using it. [GigaOm]

»  Verizon and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) may not be the only Kin providers—AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile may offer the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) phone next. [Gizmodo]

»  PayPal adds checkout functionality for goods and services sold through iPhone apps. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  ESPN’s live three-day telecast of the 2019 NFL Draft garnered 20.1 million visits, up 40 percent from last year, and 9.2 million video starts, up 47 percent. [Release]

»  T-Mobile is dropping overage charges on its 5GB data plan and will instead slow down data speeds of users who pass the limit. [Fierce Wireless]

»  Only one in 50 mobile ad requests to AdMob came from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Nexus Ones, AdMob says. Motorola’s Droid saw 16 times as many ads. [VentureBeat]

»  RadioShack reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by a 49 percent jump in wireless product sales. [Reuters]

»  MSNBC Digital launches interactive mobile site optimized for smartphones. [Release]

»  Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is replacing Google’s location service with Skyhook’s in “much” of its Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android-based phone lineup worldwide. [SAI]

»  Six Japanese mobile companies team up to create its own mobile app platform in March 2012. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Five reasons iPhone vs. Android isn’t like Mac vs Windows. [O’Reilly Radar]

»  Apple’s iPad is no longer banned in Israel. [eWeek]

»  Some guidelines for using iPhone and Androids for your company. [InfoWorld]

»  Universal Music Group and mobile platform Mozes Connect expand content offerings and services for Spanish-speaking and bilingual music fans. [Release]

»  Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone has 72 percent of Japans’ smartphone marketshare. [BusinessWeek]

»  Lenovo may be a candidate for Palm (NSDQ: PALM). [Reuters]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) says it won’t bring Google Maps Navigation to the iPhone. [Boy Genius Report]

»  How journalism is adapting to the mobile world. [International Symposium on Online Journalism]

»  Oprah is now officially mobile on iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm and Android. [Appolicious]

»  Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens Networks begins LTE production for the 800 MHz spectrum band. [RCR Wireless]

»  MobiTV iPhone app has reached the 500,000 download milestone. [MobiTV]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps 4.1 brings voice search to Windows Mobile and Symbian S60. [Mobile Tech World]

»  What it’s like to blog on the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad. [jkOnTheRun]

»  David Letterman’s “Lost iPhone Top Ten” on last night’s Late Show. [CBS via paidContent]

»  On the iPhone, games are by far the most popular. Least popular? Travel, books, education and sports. [GigaOm]

»  Where’s Waldo? game app reports over 1 million downloads. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Apple’s early outlook for iAd doesn’t look stellar. [MediaPost]

»  Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) halts investment in iPhone-specific Flash deveplopment tools and has words with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). [Engadget]

»  FCC wants to abolish home roaming rules for voice services and move ahead on national broadband plan. [Fierce Wireless]

»  Adobe AIR on the Android platform. [Adobe Featured Blogs]

»  Shoppers are increasingly using apps to compare prices, and retailers are trying to . [WSJ]

»  You may be able to make phone calls from your pacemaker, stent, or defibrillator in the future. [Fortune Brainstorm Tech]

Our first State of Gadget Media event at the Edelman offices in NYC has just started. Joining us for the afternoon are leading voices in the gadget media industry, including: Nick Denton, Founder & President, Gawker Media; Scott Ard, Editor-in-Chief, CNET; Jesus Diaz, Senior Contributing Editor, Gizmodo; Peter Kafka, Senior Editor, AllThingsD’s MediaMemo; Arnold Kim, Founder & Senior Editor, Mac Rumors; Christopher Andrew, VP & Group Director, Media and Social Media, & Practice Lead, Digitas; Robin Liss, President & CEO, Reviewed.com; and Kim Titus, Public Relations Director, Samsung.

For up-to-the-minute updates, track #gadgetmedia, follow us on Twitter and keep checking here for more in-depth coverage and breaking news. In the meantime, here are some choice tweets from our own David Kaplan:

»  MacRumor’s Arnold Kim wouldn’t have paid for the ‘lost iPhone’ story either, but would have run it. [@davidaKaplan]

»  @nicknotned: We should have waited to out iPhone loser, to milk pageviews. [@davidaKaplan]

»  CNET’s Scott Ard: We don’t buy stories; our audience expects that from us; we don’t want to create incentives for criminality. [@davidaKaplan]

The event hashtag is #gadgetmedia

»  Apple’s new iPhone may have tons of important features, but it sure looks the same as the previous models. [Slate]

»  Texting is the preferred medium of communication for teens. The least popular? E-mail. [Digits]

»  Learn to type on your iPad… from your iPad. [jkOnTheRun]

»  Was Gizmodo right or wrong in outing the new iPhone? [SocialTimes]

»  Two new Motorola (NYSE: MOT) phones have been leaked. [DroidDog]

»  Next generation iPhone—supposedly found a bar—has a front-facing video chat camera, flash on camera and improved display. [Gizmodo]

»  Those who buy the new HTC Desire handset from T-Mobile UK will get two free films on the operator’s new on-demand movie service. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Your BlackBerry isn’t as secure as you may think. [InfoWorld]

»  Some tips for Opera Mini iPhone users. [Gadgetwise]

»  Another phone outed: BlackBerry Pearl 9105 has a T9 keypad. [Boy Genius Report]

»  Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) patents “Concert Ticket + ” so you no longer have to print tickets for concerts, theme parks and sporting events. [Patently Apple]

»  Firefox, Bolt and NetFront don’t plan to follow Opera to iPhone. [Fierce Mobile Content]

»  Verizon CTO Dick Lynch says LTE services will launch by the end of the year. [Sidecut Reports]

»  Ten useful location apps for your BlackBerry. [SocialTimes]

»  Sprint (NYSE: S) positions its MobiTV-powered Sprint TV service as cheaper and more extensive than the competition with the added bonus of its faster WiMax and 3G. [Light Reading Mobile]

»  Twitter plans for an official Android app. [TechCrunch]

»  Why platforms like iPhone and Twitter are becoming control freaks. [DigitalBeat]

»  New survey says 47 percent of smartphone owners play games on their phone at least once a month, compared to 16 percent of feature phone owners. [PocketGamer.biz]

»  HTC asks Facebook users what it should name its new phone. [Engadget]

»  Doodle Jump is now the most downloaded paid app of all time, so says one of its creators. [SAI]

»  Following in Opera’s footsteps, Skyfire announced plans to build an iPhone browser too. [Pocket-lint]

»  Verizon V Cast Video will stream selected live performances from this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. [Fierce Mobile Content]

»  On weekdays, BlackBerry app usage is higher than that of the iPhone; on the weekend, iPhone owners use apps more frequently. [Localytics]

»  Possible bidders for Palm (NSDQ: PALM), including Huawei. [Wired]

»  Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) adds two Walkman phones, the Zylo and Spiro, to integrate music with social networking. [Release]

»  Will Microsoft’s Zune integration eat away at Apple’s market share? [Information Week]

»  Twitter finally unveils its ad model [paidContent]

»  RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) fared well enough it its post-Verizon life. [WSJ]

»  New designs and cheaper features on smartphones help the market continue to grow through the downturn, while cellphone vendors had a grim 2009. [Reuters]

»  Nokia (NYSE: NOK) says its Ovi Store is now generating 1.6 million downloads a day. [Mobile Entertainment]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Mobile updates its iPhone app to include iPad compatibility. [Mashable]

»  A 20-minute hands-on look with the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Kin. [MobileTechWorld]

»  Eric Schmidt explains what Google’s problem really is. [paidContent.org]

»  The fives achievements and mistakes of Palm (NSDQ: PALM), including the disaster of its first device, Zoomer. [Pocket-lint]

»  Will Shazam’s mobile success translate to the iPad? [Bits]

»  A much-needed iPad app: a nighttime one that doesn’t illuminate the room. [Gadgetwise]