Acer’s AcerCloud

Acer just showed off its AcerCloud service, something that already sounded suspiciously like Apple’s iCloud. Even the “PicStream” element sounds a lot like Photo Stream. Still not convinced? Acer basically ripped off Apple’s slide wholesale, outside of the font, which is a simulacrum of Apple’s font of yore.

Acer’s biggest announcement at CES was (discreetly) that they’re now Samsung.

Microsoft to Auto-Update Users to IE9

Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update.

This is huge.

Source: Frugal dad

Evernote Releases Clearly, a Distraction Free Reading Experience

Clearly makes blog posts, articles and webpages clean and easy to read. Save them to Evernote to read them anywhere.

Twitter apps all over again.

Readability Goes Free, iOS App on the way

With this release, Readability is available at no cost. Sign-up and you’ll have your own profile and reading list in no time. Both Readability accounts and our companion apps will always be completely free, but we also offer a premium experience for users who want additional features and an easy way to support their favorite writers and publishers.

Readability has had a free browser plugin (no, not the old bookmark), that would let you ‘Read Now’, basically strip off all unwanted elements from the page and present the text in a beautiful form. The ‘Read Later’ and ‘Send to Kindle’ features were available only to paid customers. Starting today, you can sign up for free and use all those features — pretty much like Instapaper.

There’s an iOS app that’s been submitted to the App Store. Till then, you can use the HTML5 web app that’s also customized for mobiles and tablets. It’s pretty good.

This is the first Android phone I’m really excited about, and want to purchase more than I want to get my hands on an iPhone 4S. And if you know me, that’s really saying something.

Universal buying EMI Music for $1.9 billion

Citigroup is said to have agreed to sell EMI Music to Universal for $1.9 billion while Sony is picking up EMI Music Publishing for $2.2 billion.

Huge!

Swivl — The Motion Tracking iPhone Dock

Snap your iPhone (or other, similarly sized camera) in, slap the marker somewhere on your person (or hold it), hit record, and the Swivl will twist and turn to keep you in the shot.

The demo video looks impressive, but I can tell the movements are not as smooth as you’d want them to be.

Public Beta of Echofon for Windows Now Available

Echofon, one of the popular twitter clients on the Mac and iPhone is finally ready with a Windows version as well. Echofon has had continued and steady developmental efforts and from the screenshots, it looks no different than the already solid Mac app. The app comes with the nifty sync feature that syncs your timeline position across all the platforms you run the app on.

If you’re running Windows, you should definitely give it a try.

Adobe to Stop Development on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers

Adobe is making some big changes today, having issued an “intra-quarter update” that includes significant restructuring as the company attempts to refocus itself on “Digital Media and Digital Marketing.” Part of the restructuring also apparently includes no longer updating its Flash plugin for mobile devices, which right now primarily is used on both Android and RIM’s PlayBook platform.

Now seems like a good time to go through Steve’s Thoughts on Flash.