Apple is close to announcing an acquisition of the social network Path, according to a report from PandoDaily, in an attempt to bolster its social offerings. According to a lone-source said to be placed within Apple's engineering team: “It’s almost done, if not signed already, but it’s essentially a done deal.”
With much fanfare, Apple launched Ping alongside iTunes 10 as a social network for music on September 1, 2010. Steve Jobs hailed it as being "sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes". Despite signing up over a million users within the first 48 hours from launch, the experiment quickly went wrong.
The promised Facebook integration was pulled shortly after Ping was released, reportedly because Facebook wanted "onerous terms" that Apple could not agree to. Making good on Tim Cook's promise, earlier this month Ping began alerting users it was no longer accepting new sign ups and would shut down Sunday, September 30.
Are you sad that Apple sent Ping to the technology graveyard?
Alongside a slew of other announcements, Apple has posted an official kill-date for its Ping social network. It appears that the service will be going offline at the end of the month.
We've known for a while now that Apple's iTunes-based social network was on the way out. After a quiet release in late 2010, the service has failed to gain much traction with users...
Contrary to popular belief (in certain circles), Apple isn't perfect. Among its many hit products like the iPhone or the iPad, and popular software releases like iOS, there has been a few failures.
Ping, the company's music-focused social networking service, certainly falls into that category. It's just never really gained much user-traction. And rumor has it, it's on its way out...
During his opening-night talk at the D10: All Things Digital conference, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook acknowledged the need for Apple to get more social going forward. He also advised folks to "stay tuned" for Apple and Facebook, subtly hinting that deep Facebook integration could be a go-go for iOS 6.
He also addressed Ping, Apple's beleaguered social network for music that he labeled as a product he didn't "want to put a lot of energy into" because "the customer voted". So, is Apple really going to ditch Ping?
Apple hasn't had much success with social networking in the past. Remember Ping, Apple's ill-fated attempt at bringing music fans and the artists they love closer together? No, probably not. It's still sitting there though, kinda hidden inside iTunes just waiting for someone to stumble upon it.
If a new patent filing by Apple is to be believed, it seems the smartphone, computer, and now tablet giant may be looking into the whole 'bringing people together' idea once more; this time by using your phone as a way to find like-minded people...
The new features found in the latest beta version of iOS 4.3 keep trickling out as expected, and it's looking more and more like Apple wants to further establish itself in the social media circle.
For instance, the often mocked 'Ping' -- Apple's music and social networking mashup -- is now reported to send users push notifications when they receive news and alerts. But that's not all of the goodies that Apple has tucked away in their latest firmware version...
More and more shopping is happening online these days, but plenty of people still prefer brick and mortar stores to buy their jeggings in. On December 30th, 2010, Apple's latest patent was published. This patent hints at a native social networking app that Apple may implement in a future version of iOS. Such an app would merge social networking into a shopping experience.
This Ping-like, social-shopping network would allow users to have an enhanced shopping experience with participating merchants. Apple's patent is titled "Social Networking in Shopping Environments."
CNN just published a list of the 10 biggest tech fails of 2010. At the top of the list, somewhat of a surprise, is the iPhone 4 antenna, also known as the antennagate, which we widely covered a few months ago.
I guess the fail in this case is not the antenna problem itself, but rather the way Apple handled the whole situation by pretty much saying there was no issue, then saying there was an issue that would be fixed with a software update, then saying there was actually no issue, but since there was no issue, they were going to give free cases to everyone. Confused?
Apple just released the first update to iTunes 10 with this version 10.0.1. This is a just a minor update that fixes the usual bugs but also brings Ping to the sidebar. The Ping Sidebar basically gives you a quick glance at your Ping activity. Nothing earth shattering here.
It's worth noting that iTunes 10.0.1 is safe for jailbroken iPhones. More info about the update below...