512 Pixels

Not too surprising.

Dante D’Orazio at The Verge:

Motorola has just updated its large chart with its Android 4.0 upgrade plans, including specifics on what part of the upgrade process each phone is at and rough availability dates by region. Unfortunately, it looks like there’s going to be quite a wait ahead, as most of the company’s phones still have a long way to go before they get updated: only the Xoom Family Edition, Atrix 2, Atrix 4G, Photon 4G, Xoom 2, Xoom 2 Media Edition, and the international variants of the RAZR, Xyboard 8.2 and Xyboard 10.1 have estimated release dates, and all of the updates are slated for Q3 of this year (other than the Xoom Family Edition and the RAZR, which are given a Q2 estimate).

Sounds like Motorola really cares about its customers.

Oh, wait.

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This morning, I said goodbye to Flickr.

It’s sad, really. For years, I spent tons of time on Flickr. I added photos, wrote comments, joined groups and made friends.

No one I used to interact with is there anymore. I don’t upload large photo sets anymore. I don’t visit groups anymore, or read comments or favorite things.

I’m not sure why any of this happened. Sure, things like Instagram helped drive the stake deeper into Flickr’s heart, but Yahoo’s lack of concern with what is its best product is unsettling at best.

Farewell, friend. You’ll be missed. Sorta.

I use Google Analytics to track traffic to (and on) this site. I — like most cool indie hipster bloggers — dislike it, but understand that it is the tracking platform of choice for advertisers, etc., so I stick with it.

I used to use an app called Ego to keep an eye on traffic throughout the day. Ego on the iPhone just shows simple stats — page views, uniques and the like — which is perfect when you just want to monitor things.

Ego, however, feels a little forgotten. While it also supports things like Mint and FeedBurner, the app hasn’t been updated in some time. That always makes me nervous.

The other day, I heard about Audience, an app similar to Ego, but much better looking. It feels like a Windows Phone 7 app, in all of the good ways, like nice typography and fluid transitions. Setting up Google Analytics is quick and painless, as is flipping between different views. It’s simple and fun to use.

It’s now living on my second home screen. Thankfully, the developer says he’s working on a revised icon. I don’t cringe when people ask me why I have an app named “Ego” on my iPhone now.

But Audience and Ego are simple. What if you want more power?

Enter Analytics Pro. At $5.99, it’s a little pricey for an iOS app by some standards, but I don’t have an issue with that, considering the all brings almost all Analytics’ power to iOS. It has graphs, tables and more. It lists referrals, location, browser information and just about everything else Google has on its site. It’s almost too much information.

So, for me, I’ll be bouncing in and out of Audience from now on, with Analytics Pro stashed in a folder, in case I need more information in a big traffic spike. Or if I get bored waiting on someone.

Happy stat checking, nerds.

John Gruber, opening his article about the Steve Jobs bio:

What is Apple at heart: a software company, or hardware company?

This is a perennial question. The truth, of course, is that Apple is neither. Apple is an experience company. That they create both hardware and software is part of creating the entire product experience.

Bingo.

Matthew Panzarino:

Today at a Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a keynote presentation in which he addressed working conditions at Apple’s factories in China, as well as the product philosophy of Apple.

He also announced that its syncing service iCloud now has over 100M users. Just last month, Cook said that the service had 85M users, making this a growth of 15M users in 21 days.

In his talk, Cook reiterated that iCloud is a “strategy for the next decade.” While this growth is impressive, Apple is looking at blowing the roof off with iCloud.

My favorite iPhone apps are usually the ones that are very limited in scope, but not limited in depth.

Today’s app recommendation falls in to that category.

HelvetiCount is a counter app for the iPhone. Fire it up, and your iPhone becomes one of those old-school thumb counter device thingie. You know, the kind you see old ladies using to count people entering a theatre before a play.

It is kind of hard to explain how this app works better than the developer did on the the website:

HelvetiCount is designed with the touch screen in mind. Tap to increment and swipe down to decrement the counter. Swipe left and right to switch between counters (up to 10 simultaneous counters). And, of course, you get audio feedback on everything–up/down counts, counter switch and overflow–so that you never have to look down at the screen and miss counting anything.

It’s great — easy to use, nice looking and full-featured.

It’s $1.99 in the App Store.

If you want to add an Ethernet card to your Apple ][, you better hurry — only a dozen or so of these cards are left.

I can’t decide if Sean Hollister’s voice is amazing or super creepy.

That said, the Droid 4 looks disappointing.

Sexy.

Holy moly.

Anyone else super sad they sold their stock?