In a move that is sure to brighten the face of every Windows Phone fan, Acer isset to releasea very inexpensive handset for the platform later this year, before Christmas, perhaps opening a new avenue for the WP7 line to finally post some worthy sales numbers. After all, nearly every reviewer finds Windows Phone to be more than palatable, making its history of weak sales all the more disquieting; for how many different smartphone platforms is there space in the market?...

If you watchedBallmer’s keynote at this past CES, you were probably surprised to see a laptop that had a second screen where its keyboard should have been. That laptop, called theAcer Iconia, has two screens and no physical buttons for user interaction. Late last week I got the chance to put one through its paces, and was surprised at how functional it was for a prototype. The laptop sports two fully multi-touch 14″ screens made of Gorilla glass (read: hard to break), forming a computer that is a touch thicker that what are we are accustomed to, and a feather heavier....

‘Gamification’ of consumer apps like Foursquare and Get Glue, through points, badges, mayorships has become a big thing over the past 18 months. Now US startupIActionablewants to bring game mechanics to the enterprise market too, with an app for leading cloud-based business platformSalesforce.com. Engageis built to integrate with Salesforce accounts, adding points, challenges, achievements and leaderboards to working culture. IActionable says that its platform can: be used to increase productivity; be used as a training tool, helping to improve Salesforce adoption amongst new staff by helping them get used to the platform and encouraging old hands to use it to its full potential; help improve performance monitoring, and spur on healthy competition between employees....

Flying Meat releasedAcorn 3.0earlier this week, and if you’re on a Mac and aren’t using this slick and simple Photoshop alternative — then you’re missing out. Big time. Acorn is perfect for someone who wants to work with images but doesn’t want to spend countless hours learning how to use Adobe’s flagship offering. Acorn has always delivered simplicity — and it has added a slew of new features in the jump from 2....

This has been a heartbreaking week for London as its rebellious youth tore across the country, rioting and looting in what many believe to be a senseless effort. There has been so much discussion around social media’s role in the London riots, such asthe need for Twitter news curators. Yesterday,we wroteabout thestatementthe UK Prime Minister David Cameron made in Parliament, that the Government is considering the role social media plays in organizing violence, and its looking at whether it would be ‘right’ to try and put stops in place to hinder communications....