comScore:

173 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (71.8 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in July, up 3 percent since April. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 42.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1 percentage point from April). Samsung ranked second with 28.4 percent market share (up 0.7 percentage points), followed by LG with 6.4 percent, Motorola with 5.7 percent and HTC with 4.7 percent.

That’s a pretty significant lead for Apple and they are outpacing Samsung in terms of growth.

Jan Dawson on iCloud:

Lastly, we as the end users are always the weak point in security. That’s not to absolve tech companies of blame: in fact, it’s a key challenge they should all be working to overcome, while managing the balance between removing the barriers to good security and maintaining strong protections for users.

I think this sums up the whole iCloud situation for me.

A good article highlighting some of the improvements you can expect to see if you upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress.

Executives at Europe’s big consumer electronics trade fair this week in Berlin readily admit to hoping that Apple can crack the missing code for everyone. Where the U.S. innovator leads, its rivals plan to follow by bringing their own improvements or by seeking out profitable niche markets that Apple ignores.

“This is what we wanted,” Sunny Lee, CEO of Samsung Electronics’ European business told Reuters when asked about Apple’s likely debut.

I bet that’s exactly what Samsung wanted. Not that they’ll copy everything that Apple does, no, not Samsung.

The “Bing Image Widget,” released on Aug. 22, gives publishers the ability to create a panel on their websites that displays digital images supplied by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, according to the lawsuit.

Rather than draw from a pool of licensed images, the lawsuit claimed, the product grants access to the billions of images that can be found online, without regard to whether the photos are copyrighted.

According to some recent comments from chief financial officer Anthony Noto, however, the company is doing a lot more than not ruling it out — it sounds like a done deal.

Sigh.

But in a statement, a spokesman for Twitter appeared to dispute Everett’s version of events, saying the company has no problem with Twitpic’s name.

“We’re sad to see Twitpic is shutting down,” the spokesman said. “We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand.”

So, Twitter would let them keep the name, but not the trademark? That’s how it seems to me.

In a note to investors on Thursday, White, of Cantor Fitzgerald, used the words “underwhelming,” “rushed,” and “half-baked” to describe Samsung’s announcements, which also included the Gear VR partnership with Oculus, a Gear S smartwatch, and the new Note Edge handset with a side-facing display. White said he believes Samsung’s announcements were a subpar attempt at garnering buzz for its products before Apple holds its own presentation next Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Analyst Brian White isn’t the only one saying this about Samsung’s announcements. As I said yesterday, things could get rough for Samsung in the coming months.

With Sonic Port™ VX, it’s finally possible to record complete songs anywhere inspiration strikes. The guitar/bass input features 120dB of dynamic range for incomparable tone and best-in-class dynamics. A stereo line input lets you record keys, drum machines, DJ mixers and other sources. Zero-latency monitoring means you can record without distraction. And with professional-level 1/4” stereo outputs, you can easily connect studio monitors and perfect your mixes. With Sonic Port VX, the world is your studio.

Sonic Port VX brings three built-in professional condenser microphones to the party. Matched stereo mics let you record live performances with remarkable clarity.

This is an impressive looking device. I haven’t heard it yet, but I have one of the original Sonic Ports and love it.

That’s a huge building for an event that’s going to last a few hours. Typical of Apple, they go all out.

If you’re worried at all about the security of your Apple ID, you should have two-step verification enabled. Allyson Kazmucha does a great job of explaining what it is and how to enable it.

We can’t share the full list of developers yet (we just cracked 100!). But we can show you nearly 20 apps that are already working on integrating 1Password’s iOS 8 App Extension for fast, one-tap logging in and even updating your passwords!

The 1Password extension is going to be one of the most important extensions on iOS 8. Security and having safe passwords are always a pain in the ass, but having easy access to 1Password through this extension will make things much easier. I’m looking forward to it.

There you have it, you can watch the event for yourself. No need for any live blogs for this one.

With Dan still out, Shawn King and Jim talk about Apple’s upcoming September 9th event, the large scale celebrity iCloud hack, how to keep your passwords safe with 1Password, Marshall amps, and more!

Sponsored by Iconic by Ridgewood Publishing (visit iconicbook.com/5by5 for 20% off select editions of this beautiful coffee table book all about Apple).

Looks like there are a lot of great changes to Wordpress 4.0. I’ll test it out before installing it on The Loop, but the video shows some nice new features.

A few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009.

Damn Twitter.

This is a great list of things to do on World Beard Day like bar-b-q, change a tire, build an all-bearded human pyramid and other fun activities us bearded men do.

Justin Perkins:

There is much more to mastering than just the sonic aspects and it varies between different release formats. It’s also gotten more complex as digital distribution evolves, CDs become the minority, and vinyl makes a comeback.

What a great resource Justin put together. A few tips you may not have known about mastering songs for all the different audio formats available.

Much respect to IKEA, they did a brilliant job on this ad.

This is more than a passing collaboration; it’s a long term project with long term goals. Marshall and Softube already have several new products under development.

Okay, this is exciting news for fans of Marshall amps. Softube is great at making software plugins, so I expect them to do a really good job at producing some Marshall sounds.

Mobile phone analysts said that, while packed full of hundreds of features and many of the latest hardware specs, there is little in the Note 4 to excite new users.

Jokes aside, this is a serious issue for Samsung, and one that couldn’t come at a better time for Apple. With disappointing sales of the Galaxy S5, the last thing Samsung needed was another failure, especially with Apple announcing new products next week. It certainly doesn’t sound like the Note 4 will be a blockbuster success.

Netflix speeds became so slow in December 2013 and January 2014 that customers grew irate, Netflix said in its petition. Calls made to Netflix’s customer support center about slow-loading videos more than quadrupled during those months.

It’s sad when people are forced to cancel their subscription to Netflix because the Comcast speeds were so slow. No wonder Netflix decided to pay Comcast; they really had no other choice.

I need one of these.

I spent an hour on Sunday speaking with Matt Dusenbury and Chris Domico about Web publishing and a few other topics.

Whereas the prior album “Apocalyptic Love” was recorded live with virtually no overdubs, “World on Fire” is a layered slab of Marshall riffs, acoustic and electric 12-strings and even a rare slide performance. On songs like the title track, “Stone Blind” and “Too Far Gone,” Slash brings down the hammer with huge guitar riffs while on “Bent to Fly” and “Battleground” he picks clean guitars over the most haunting melodies Kennedy has ever sung.

I love that Slash is willing to try anything to make a great song. He is a phenomenal guitar player, but he’s also an incredible songwriter.

There is a lot more to the new icons than just a fresh coat of paint — the visual language extends far beyond just the gradients.

Fascinating article by Nick Keppol as he takes an in-depth look at Apple’s new OS X icons.

KOMPLETE KONTROL S-Series keyboards unite the world of KOMPLETE software with a perfectly-integrated and luxurious hardware controller. Built to harness the full potential of the brand-new KOMPLETE 10 and KOMPLETE 10 ULTIMATE, these keyboards offer pure creative flow and a whole new way to play KOMPLETE. This is truly the komplete instrument – available October 1, pre-order now.

Native Instruments continues to push digital software and hardware forward.

BlackBerry’s still in business? That’s so cute.

Apple announced on Monday that Plácido Domingo will be the closing act for iTunes Festival London. Apple’s choice of Domingo to close out the festival shows the true diversity of iTunes Festival with headliners ranging from Rock, Electronic, and Opera/Classical. […]