Techmeme: Acer takes to the cloud with AcerCloud service, to launch in Q2 2012 (Chris Welch/The Verge)

6:20 PM ET, January 8, 2012

Top Items:

Nick Wingfield / New York Times:

Microsoft, Defying Image, Has a Design Gem in Windows Phone — “GORGEOUS,” raves The Huffington Post. — “Best-looking smartphone operating system in the industry,” gushes Slate. — “Far superior to most if not all the Android smartphones,” says TechCrunch. — Sounds like the usual adulation for a gadget from Apple.

Dan Seifert / MobileBurn.com:

“Sleek, metallic” Nokia Lumia 900 to debut for AT&T next week — The New York Times is reporting that the long-awaited flagship Nokia Windows Phone smartphone for the U.S. will debut next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Citing unnamed sources, the Times describes the phone as …

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Acer takes to the cloud with AcerCloud service, to launch in Q2 2012 — Acer has today announced its entrance into the cloud computing space with its AcerCloud service. The company says the software — which will come bundled with Acer's consumer PCs beginning in the second quarter of this year …

Discussion: Forbes, LAPTOP Magazine, TechCrunch, Acer, Engadget, ces.cnet.com, SlashGear and Electronista

Paul Miller / The Verge:

Acer's AcerCloud unveil is a blatant iCloud ripoff — Which is which? 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?

Discussion: Business Insider

Jason Hiner / Tech Sanity Check Blog:

Why Android tablets failed: A postmortem — Takeaway: Android tablets were expected to give the Apple iPad fierce competition in 2011. It never happened. Here's why Android tablets flopped. — As I gear up for CES 2012 next week, I can't help but think back to CES 2011 where the big story was all about Android tablets.

Discussion: SlashGear, Hardware 2.0 Blog and CNET, Thanks:abraham_pareja

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Acer's next-gen, quad-core Iconia Tab introduced at CES 2012 with a 1080p display — Acer's finishing up its CES 2012 presser with a teaser to end all teasers: there's a next-generation, quad-core Iconia Tab on the way. The Android-based slate will be powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and will boast …

Discussion: The Verge, 9to5Google, The Verge, CNET, Gizmodo and Electronista

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft: It's business as usual with Windows Phone updates — Summary: ‘Nothing has changed in regard to how we work with carriers to deliver Windows Phone updates to our customers,’ maintained a Microsoft official following a change in Microsoft's update disclosure policy.

David Pierce / The Verge:

Acer announces Aspire S5, 'world's thinnest ultrabook' with Thunderbolt port — Ahead of its press conference at CES, Acer has just announced the new Aspire S5 ultrabook, which the company says is the world's thinnest — it's only 15mm at its thickest point.

Discussion: Engadget, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Acer, DailyTech, ces.cnet.com, Gizmodo UK, Pocket-lint, Neowin.net and SlashGear

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers — Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld.

Discussion: HubSpot's Inbound … and Marketplace …

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

NinjaVideo “queen” gets 22 months in jail, owes $200,000 to Hollywood — NinjaVideo.net's “queen” is going to jail—and paying the MPAA over $200,000. — A federal judge today sentenced Hana Amal “Queen Phara” Beshara to 22 months in a West Virginia prison and enrolled her (at her request) in a drug rehab program there.

Discussion: Deadline.com/hollywood, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, Broadcasting & Cable and Company Town

Joanna Stern / The Verge:

OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children (update: pictures!) — It was over four years ago that OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte showed off images of an XO tablet, and promised it would ship to kids of the developing world in 2010 for $100 each.

Discussion: The Verge, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Examiner, TeleRead, Digits, FT Tech Hub, Liliputing, Daring Fireball, netbooknews.com, Gizmodo UK, Techie Buzz, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Liliputing, Electronista, LAPTOP Magazine, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Computerworld and Engadget

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Netflix expected to launch streaming service in the UK this week, says report — U.S online video streaming service Netflix is expected to launch in the UK this week, finalising a number of deals with movie and television studios and debuting a new marketing campaign in the coming days, The Guardian reports.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Engadget, Guardian, SlashGear, Connected Consoles, TechRadar.com and VG247

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