Media Roundup: Mobile World Congress Underway, Houston Chronicle Cuts 10 percent of Staff and More

(MoneyWatch)  Mobile World Congress underway -- Thousands of mobile industry professionals will meet this week for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The event is a week-long conference where many companies in the mobile industry are expected to show off new products and discuss the state of the economy. Among the early announcements: Microsoft is expected to announce Windows Mobile 6.5, the next version of its mobile operating system, and Sony will offer downloadable music, games and movies via its new PlayNow network. [Source: Los Angeles Times]

Houston Chronicle cuts 10 percent of staff -- In a memo that was posted to local news site The Brazoport News on Friday, Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney announced that the company was cutting 10 percent of its workforce. Sweeney also renewed his pleas for employees to submit their own cost-cutting ideas to help avoid future cuts. [Source: Editor & Publisher]

LinkedIn traffic grows -- In the midst of a down economy featured daily corporate layoffs, career-focused social network LinkedIn has seen a 22 percent rise in traffic last month and total minutes on the site have doubled. While job seekers are likely a large reason for the spike, friends helping one another find jobs also attributed to the boost in traffic: the site's "recommendations" feature saw a 65 percent uptick. [Source: TechCrunch]
Android may see games -- On the heels of the iPhone's growth as a gaming platform, Google's Android mobile platform is looking to follow suit. Google's recent announcement that they will be accepting paid applications has attracted major game developers such as Electronic Arts. Currently Google offers about 800 applications compared to Apple's 20,000. [Source: Business Insider]

Twitter gets more funding -- The micro-blogging site Twitter has secured a third round of financing of $35 million. The latest round of financing comes on the heels of an attempted acquisition by Facebook, and amidst the company's search for a viable business model. The company was not seeking funding however Twitter is said to have received extremely favorable terms from the venture capitalists. [Source: TechCrunch]