iTunes 10: New Icon & Ping Music Social Network [Update]

Product News

Jeff Gamet

1:43 PM, Sep. 1st ET, 2010

Articles by Author Jeff Gamet on Twitter Contact Author Bio

Comments (13)

iTunes 10

Apple announced iTunes 10 Wednesday during its annual Fall media event. The new version of the company’s media management and playback software (and online music, video, and application store) gets an updated icon for the first time, and the company added a new social networking platform called Ping, as well.

During the media event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Ping was, “like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” and the company is pitching it as music social networking platform. “With Ping you can follow your favorite artists and friends and join a worldwide conversation with music’s most passionate fans,” Mr. Jobs added in statement.

Ping offers features designed to help users discover new music and share their favorite music with fans, as well as to follow their favorite musicians. Ping users can set up a profile (bands automatically have a profile) and follow each other or follow their favorite bands. Users can then post comments on the pages of those they follow. Band profiles show concert dates, at least for those bands handled by Live Nation Entertainment.

Apple also allows users to decide whether or not they can be followed in the first place, with different levels of following permissions (open following, approved following, and a concept the company is calling “Circle of Friends” for small groups who want to participate in Ping without outsiders being able to follow them.

In his keynote presentation, Mr. Jobs said that privacy in Ping “is super simple.”

Ping is accessible through iTunes on Mac and Windows, as well as through iTunes on iPhone and iPod touch. It requires iOS 4 or later, which means iPad won’t get Ping until iOS 4.2 gets released for that device in November.

Another new feature in iTunes 10 is the way the software displays album cover art in your Music library. If you have five or more songs from a single album in your library, instead of repeating the album name for each song, iTunes will display the album cover art.

iTunes 10 is free and will be available today, and Ping accounts will open today as well. As of this writing, iTunes 10 downloads have not begun on Apple’s site.

[Update: The article was updated with additional information.]

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13 Observer Comments

DrShakagee

said on September 1st, 2010 at 5:07 PM:

What do you mean “gets an updated icon for the first time”? They’ve never updated the iTunes icon before?

Spider said on September 1st, 2010 at 5:43 PM:

What do you mean “gets an updated icon for the first time”? They’ve never updated the iTunes icon before?

I think what Jeff means is that the icon is getting a whole new refresh, instead of just playing upon the CD icon it has had through 9+ iterations.

/side note: hey man, long time no talk. How you been?

itbubba said on September 1st, 2010 at 6:06 PM:

The burning question is this:
Is iTunes now 64bit and have they improved the speed with large libraries.

computerbandgeek

said on September 1st, 2010 at 6:57 PM:

Is iTunes now 64bit and have they improved the speed with large libraries.

I bet a $50 iTunes gift certificate that it’s still a Carbon app

jsk said on September 1st, 2010 at 7:20 PM:

64 bit? I hope not. It would be silly to restrict iTunes only to Snow Leopard users with intel rigs and Windoze 7 users (especially with such a large group of people out there still using XP - shudder).

Lee Dronick

said on September 1st, 2010 at 9:36 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

I was wondering if iTunes 10 was available for download so I went to Apple.com and saw the new icon with a “Download Now!. Alas it is still iTunes 9

dlstarr7

said on September 1st, 2010 at 10:20 PM:

What do you mean “gets an updated icon for the first time”? They’ve never updated the iTunes icon before?

iTunes 1 had three single notes, all different colors, with a cd in the background. iTunes 2 changed those notes to one single note, and up until now the only change has been the notes color.

It’s available to download now via the website and not through Software Update.

Lee Dronick

said on September 1st, 2010 at 10:32 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

It’s available to download now via the website and not through Software Update.

Thanks. I checked a bit ago and it wasn’t ready for downloading. Getting it now and will report back soon.

Lee Dronick

said on September 1st, 2010 at 10:55 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

First thing I notice in iTunes 10 is the “traffic light” in the upper left corner. The Red, Yellow and Green window buttons are now vertical, looks like a traffic light. There is also an overall new look, the grayscale will take getting used to.

I enabled Ping and set my profile, but haven’t done anything with it yet. I got to get to bed, 4:00 AM comes early in this time zone

Bob said on September 2nd, 2010 at 4:57 AM:

Thats great but will it cause a security problem? Social network is great wouldn’t it leave the back door open.

Lee Dronick

said on September 2nd, 2010 at 7:25 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

Last night I installed iTunes 10 on my MacBook Pro. When I was setting up my Ping profile it automatically suggested the photo from the Address Book “My Card.” This morning I installed it on my iMac, but I had to manually choose that photo from from a file. However, the other settings such genres I like that I entered from the MacBook Pro were already chosen. How much I will use this feature remains to be seen, but I have come to using Facebook more than I ever thought that I would.

DrShakagee

said on September 2nd, 2010 at 11:07 AM:

Now that I see the new icon I understand what he meant.

/side note: hey man, long time no talk. How you been?

I’m great, how’s the family and stuff? Good to see you still around. Drop me an email or whatever, would be good to catch up.

Lee Dronick

said on September 2nd, 2010 at 11:55 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

Have any of the regulars here set up a Ping account? If so and you want follow and be followed send me a private message.

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