From comScore market research firm:

133.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (57 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in February, up 8 percent since November. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 38.9 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 3.9 percentage points from November). Samsung ranked second with 21.3 percent market share (up 1 percentage point), followed by HTC with 9.3 percent share, Motorola with 8.4 percent and LG with 6.8 percent.

And Apple is making ground on Google:

Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 51.7 percent market share, while Apple’s share increased 3.9 percentage points to 38.9 percent. BlackBerry ranked third with 5.4 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3.2 percent) and Symbian (0.5 percent).

So, let me get this straight. Apple is widening the gap on Samsung, but analysts think Apple should be more like Samsung. Not only that, it’s closing the gap between iOS and Android, even though it’s competing with hundreds of Android devices.

And Apple is losing how?

Christina Bonnington gives us a rundown on all the new terms you’ll need to know in order to understand Facebook Home. My favorite is “Chat Heads.” And by “favorite” I mean I don’t really give a shit.

And there you have it — Google and Facebook just want to serve us ads. I still believe it could work out for Facebook.

Jordan Golson for MacRumors:

Facebook claims users turn on their phone 100 times per day, and, among other things, is redoing the lock screen on the Android phone to give users a slideshow of photos and updates from their Facebook News Feeds.

This isn’t a bad idea for Facebook and its users. Facebook is making itself the center of the user experience and that could work very well for them.

I love these types of stories and insights into how things get done.

Netflix has announced that the new “anthology” season of Arrested Development will arrive — all 15 episodes at once — on May 26. The show, which ran on Fox from 2003 to 2006 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, will bring back its entire cast, including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Cera, David Cross, and many, many more.

Fox killed the show before its time, but Netflix has resurrected it and is releasing it the same way as it did House of Cards: all at once.

An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices” even with a court order approved by a federal judge.

It has been six weeks since we launched the first preview of Edge Reflow. I want to thank all of you who have downloaded Reflow, given it a try and told us what you are looking for in a next generation web design tool. The team has been hard at work on our next preview release, and today I’m excited to announce that it is available to download from Creative Cloud.

Edge Reflow is an app for Adobe Creative Cloud users who are creating content for the Web and are interested in creating responsive designs. Changes to the new version include better styling and layout tools, improved performance and better stability.

The company is partnering with Best Buy and will open 1,400 Samsung Experience shops within the retailer’s existing stores.

And who pioneered the store-within-a-store concept back in the 1990s, first with Comp USA and then later with Best Buy and other retailers?

Samsung, have you ever had an original idea?

1 Why is Chrome spawning a new browser engine?

The WebKit maintainers wouldn’t let us attack Apple directly, by changing WebKit in ways that would make it perform badly on OS X and iOS.

Because they share a rendering engine, developer effort to ensure Chrome compatibility currently benefits Apple platforms for free. To prevent this, we must make Chrome and WebKit behave differently.

Hilarious.

Some classics here.

Safari for iOS was responsible for 61.79% of total mobile internet traffic during the month of March, an increase from 55.41% in February. Safari’s closest competitor for mobile browser dominance was Google’s Android browser, which had a 21.86% share of Web traffic in March.

Once again this brings up the obvious question — what are all the Android people doing with their phones?

Very clever idea.

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

Very, very sad, and the end of an era in video games. While the LucasArts brand didn’t get started until 1990, George Lucas’ movie production company Lucasfilm produced games under the Lucasfilm Games label in the 1980s, for 8-bit computers of the era include Apple II. In addition to Star Wars games, LucasArts created popular adventure games like the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle and Sam & Max; military sims based on World War II scenarios and others.

LucasArts was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in October of 2012 when Disney acquired Lucasfilm.

Often, you’re not buying the song so much as the license that lets you hear the song.

I believe that if I pay for it, I should own and that should include the ability to resell it if I want.

Note: I linked to the print version because Businessweek was using popups and multiple pages to show the story.

Dan and Jim discuss Apple and China, the Pebble Smartwatch, a fantastic 6-year-old drummer, and more.

Sponsored by Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), Mailchimp, and Smile.

I want one.

Google is just crazy, but they’ll get away with it and it will look better for Jelly Bean adoption.

I just noticed the dates for the Mac Developer get together have been announced for October 2013. You can sign-up on the Web site to be kept up-to-date.

Visual.ly:

An easy-to-use guide to cuts of beef. The chart shows where each cut of meat comes from on the cow, how much it costs and how to best cook it.

Mmmm. Ribs. Skirt steak. Sirloin. Pot roast. Ever wonder where on a cow all those cuts of meat come from? Visual.ly has a really interesting infographic about one of our most useful (and delicious!) animals.

J.C. Penney shares have plunged nearly 60% over the past year as Johnson — a former Apple executive who spearheaded the tech giant’s retail strategy — has struggled to lead a turnaround effort. He took over at J.C. Penney in November of 2011 and has since announced a series of new initiatives including overhauled prices, redesigned store layouts, and even free haircuts for kids.

So far, the results have been dismal.

Selling iPhones wasn’t so bad after all.

Kevin C. Tofel:

There’s little doubt that Facebook will unveil a new phone on Thursday, but the star of the show will be software, not hardware, in this battle between Facebook and Google for user engagement.

A new type of tarantula about the size of your face has been found in northern Sri Lanka. Scientists found the spiders — with a leg span up to 8 inches across — living in trees and the old doctor’s quarters of a hospital in Mankulam.

THE SIZE OF YOUR FACE.

Creatorverse is the product of Linden Lab, makers of the online virtual world known as Second Life. Creatorverse made its debut last November for $5, but now the company is giving it away.

Creatorverse provides you with tools and frameworks to build virtual creations – simple physics experiments, complex games, animations and all sorts of stuff. Plus you can share your creations with other users. It’s really cool.

Hell, I’d settle for getting a signal in major cities.

It’s been years since I’ve used Ableton’s Live, but this looks like a really great feature to have at your disposal.

With its rare apology, Apple Inc went from pariah to praiseworthy in the eyes of China’s state-controlled media, a lesson for other foreign firms not to underestimate the speed and power of the government press.

Just a couple of days ago Apple was under a coordinated media assault by state-run media in China over warranty issues.