Ping Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

2010 in review: Rise of iOS

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Dec 31st, 2010)

Here, in no particular order, are some of the top stories we saw in 2010. The year was packed with Apple announcements, some planned and one unplanned. The real standout this year was iOS coming into its own. This year's WWDC was all about iOS, for example. The Apple TV now runs iOS. iOS 4.2 ...

Apple patent filing outlines social networking for shopping

by Steven Sande (Dec 30th, 2010)

While a lot of shopping is making the move to online stores, for many people there's no substitute for the real thing -- going to a store, browsing merchandise and picking up and trying on things. A recent patent filing by Apple, discovered by AppleInsider, demonstrates a Ping-like social networking ...

Ping allows users to share playlists

by Dave Caolo (Dec 13th, 2010)

Apple continues to improve Ping, its iTunes-based social network, by adding support for shared iTunes playlists. Customers can now create a new playlist (or import an existing one) and share it with their Ping followers. Here's how it works. To create a new playlist to share, connect to Ping and ...

Loopt app updated for persistent networking, includes texting service and rewards

by Mike Schramm (Dec 6th, 2010)

I remember Loopt being one of the first apps out on the App Store, back when the iPhone's platform was first released. A couple of years ago, location-based social networking was still pretty new (most cell phones didn't yet know exactly where they were, after all), and Loopt was one of the most ...

Ping gets exclusive posthumous Michael Jackson song

by Michael Grothaus (Dec 2nd, 2010)

While some people think Ping is a flop (including me), Apple did score one little victory with its iTunes-centric social media network: its secured the exclusive rights to stream a new Michael Jackson song for the next week. Visitors to Ping's Michael Jackson page can listen to the song, titled ...

Apple's Ping among Business Insider's tech flops of 2010

by Michael Gray (Dec 1st, 2010)

Business Insider lists Ping among the 15 biggest flops in tech for 2010. The reason for this listing is that Ping was launched with a great deal of publicity, but it still hasn't gained much of a foothold in the hearts and minds of its users. Business Insider cites the reminder mail about Ping, sent ...

Game Center terms of service updated, real names shared on invitation

by Mike Schramm (Nov 30th, 2010)

Apple has quietly tweaked the Game Center terms of service to add in the rule that whenever you first invite a friend to join your friends list in the gaming social network app, your real first and last names (as entered in your iTunes account) are shown to them. You still use a nickname as a full ...

Ping now available on iPad

by Chris Rawson (Nov 13th, 2010)

iPad users may have to wait a little longer than they'd like for features like multitasking and folder support, but at least one new feature is available right now: the iPad now supports Ping, Apple's stab at a social media component to the iTunes Store. Via an update to the iTunes Store's servers, ...

Apple could use 'iTun.es' domain as link shortener

by Michael Grothaus (Nov 11th, 2010)

Following today's Ping Twitter integration, many on Twitter started blasting the overly long Ping URLs. Now, MacRumors points out that one of their readers speculates that Apple could use its own iTun.es link shortener to help fit Ping links into Twitter's character limitation. The www.itun.es ...

Twitter adds Ping functionality to user pages

by Dave Caolo (Nov 11th, 2010)

Earlier today, Twitter announced that it has integrated Apple's Ping into users' home pages. Now, Twitter users can view each others' Ping activity, listen to song previews and link to/purchase music from iTunes directly from tweets posted to Twitter.com. Here's how it works: First, log into your ...

iTunes restores Genius sidebar

by Sam Abuelsamid (Oct 31st, 2010)

The launch of iTunes 10 in September left a lot users disappointed for several reasons. In addition to the lack of a complete rewrite that many people were hoping for, the highly underwhelming Ping social network was added, and the subsequent 10.0.1 update replaced the former Genius sidebar content ...

Does Apple want to buy Facebook?

by Michael Grothaus (Oct 19th, 2010)

Jobs and Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg met for dinner the other day. Many presumed that they were discussing Facebook Connect and Ping integration, but what if it were something more, like Apple buying Facebook? Kafka thinks that Apple acquiring Facebook makes sense because Facebook doesn't ...

Steve Jobs friends Mark Zuckerberg to talk about Ping

by Michael Grothaus (Oct 16th, 2010)

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Steve Jobs invited Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to his house for dinner a few weeks ago. The dinner is presumed to have been a meeting about Ping and Facebook integration. Despite getting over one million users in 48 hours, Ping has yet to gain much ...

Apple publishes Ping guidelines for artists

by Dave Caolo (Oct 12th, 2010)

Apple has published official Ping usage guidelines for artists which describe exactly how to create an artist profile and begin posting content. According to the guidelines [PDF], artists are encouraged to hold off on creating a profile until they have several posts ready to go, because "Fans ...

Apple's North Carolina data center nears completion

by Keith M (Oct 5th, 2010)

It seems we've been discussing Apple's upcoming, massive North Carolina datacenter for a long, long time -- since around May 2009, actually. Word is that the $1 billion facility is nearing completion, meaning we'll hopefully see the fruits of Apple's labor very soon. Here's one interesting item ...