In the September 1st Apple convention, Steve Jobs introduced a lot of new exciting products and features. One of those was the new iTunes 10 software which was launched in the convention. iTunes 10 is special because of its new social networking feature called Ping that allows you to comment on music, mark it “like” or even rate it. Lets have a brief look at what Ping is all about.
Ping is quite similar to Twitter where you can “follow” people and even music stars. All the stuff you do in your iTunes application is reflected on your iPhone or the iPod. This is one way Apple separates itself from other social networks which are purely web based.
To get to Ping you need to download the latest iTunes 10. To get it on your iPhone or the iPod, they need to be updated as well. Once the download on the computer is complete you can see a “Get Started” link in the top right of that page. Ping is offered as a ‘feature’ which you need to turn on in order to use it. Once you agree to Apple’s terms and conditions, you move right ahead to create a profile.
Once the setup is done you can invite others to follow you or you can follow others just like in Twitter. Music stars like Lady Gaga and U2 are already using Ping. You do all this inside of iTunes either on your computer or on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Is Apple setting new terms where it wants its social network to run only on its platforms or its software? Seems so. You, as of today, cannot use Ping as a standalone website based product. You need to have an iPhone or iPod that has Ping enabled or a PC or a MAC with iTunes 10. Its only a matter of time to see the market’s reaction over Ping.
It is clear that you are tied to iTunes to access Ping. Apple has made it clear it is in no mood to work on platform independent software.
You can download iTunes 10 here.