Despite being plagued by spammers and other would-be fraudsters, Apple said before the start of this weekend that its Ping social network is off to rock-star kind of start. Within 48-hours of launch, Ping has already generated better than one million initial users. Not bad for something a lot of folks were skeptical about only 72-hours ago.
Apple was beyond enthused to announce the gangbusters success on Friday. “One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,” said an Apple rep in a press release, hinting that further exponential growth is anticipated in the weeks ahead as iTunes 10 becomes the “norm.”
Many analysts, however, agree that for Ping to take full advantage of the 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries, Apple will have to do something about the runaway spammers, con-artists, fake celebrity profiles, and other less-than-savory characters who are now populating Ping at an alarmingly accelerated pace. For the time being, Ping is “drowning in scams and spams,” as Sophos security researcher Chester Wisniewski commented late in the week.
Apple
Apple has rewritten the iTunes Movie Trailers page to take advantage of the HTML5 standard that it has been promoting for some time. HTML5 is Apples answer to Adobes Flash. The two companies continue to do battle over which is the superior standard.
By updating its movie trailer page, Apple has once again asserted the benefits of HTML5 in a simple and effective way. Apple has chosen to use HTML5 over Flash because it is an open standard, and Flash makes portable devices slow and almost unusable. Flash was designed for desktop computers, unfortunately, portable device manufacturers are having problems getting it to run smoothly on their products.
The slick new design of the iTunes Movie Trailer page makes it easy to watch movie trailers, then choose local theaters and showtimes, using Google Maps. All content on the page is accessible to every iOS device, as well as every web browser that supports HTML5. From the homepage, you are presented with a grid of different upcoming movies. Most movies get a custom-themed page that captures their tone quite nicely. You can then Get Tickets and the site links you to Fandango.com. If tickets are not available, you will see Ticket Info and be taken to the theaters website instead.
Earlier today, I was in a waiting room and decided to watch a few movie previews. I was only getting two bars of 3G signal on my iPhone 4, but was still able to access the iTunes Movie Trailers site without any glitches. The resolution of the previews was scaled down, but I was pleasantly surprised given the poor reception. I look forward to more websites adopting HTML5 so iPhone owners can stop seeing web pages that ask you to install Flash.
Many Apple users worldwide have spent some time scratching their heads over the new iTunes feature called Ping. Apple’s so-called “social network for music” is supposed to let users follow artists and bands, as well as find out what their friends are listening to. However, there’s no way to connect with friends, other than spamming them with email, because despite the fact that Facebook interconnectivity is still – up to this moment - advertised on Apple’s site, Ping still doesn’t have it. Steve Jobs blames Facebook, claiming they wanted too much.
In an interview by Kara Swisher at All Things D, Jobs says Apple was in talks with Facebook over Ping, but the two companies were unable to come to an agreement. He was quoted as saying Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.” When Swisher asked what the hangup was, Jobs declined to elaborate. She pressed him on whether iTunes could support Facebook Connect to allow sharing between the two platforms. The Apple CEO was noncommittal. ‘We could, I guess,’ he shrugged.
It seems pretty clear that the hooks were in for Facebook support, and that they were only pulled at the very last minute when negotiations broke down, as Facebook connectivity was touted on slides during Steve Jobs’s presentation yesterday. The tutorial video on Ping promises that “once you get set up, you can find your Facebook friends who have Ping profiles,” and the Ping page on Apple’s website says you can “find even more music fans with a quick search, by sending email invites, or by connecting to your Facebook account.” And according to several Cult of Mac readers, the Facebook Connect button appeared on Ping yesterday, though it didn’t allow them to find any friends.
Steve Jobs bragged about the “160 million credit cards” Apple has on file through iTunes, so maybe he’s trying to make sure he doesn’t have to share too much of the booty with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Whatever the cause, it’d be surprising if Apple remains aloof much longer. Having a Ping page right now is like having a fax machine in the early 70s: useless unless you can find someone else who has one. Whether Jobs likes it or not, Facebook and other social media platforms like Twitter are how people find each other these days.
Apple has released iTunes 10 as promised, and is now available for download to the public for Mac and Windows.
iTunes 10 includes Ping, a brand new “social music discovery tool” creates a new experience for iTunes where users can follow their friends and share their favorite music.
It appears that iTunes 10 is Jailbreak safe for now, that is to say that a new Jailbreak tool might not work with iTunes 10, but seeing as there are none out right now that require iTunes, your JailbreakMe.com exploit should be just fine. Musclenerd also informed us that we should be safe as far as DFU Mode, syncing, and custom IPSW’s go, just stay away from iOS 4.1 next week.
If you experience anything out of the norm, let us know.
Download iTunes 10 Now.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces new iPods, iTunes, Apple TV, iPhone update
SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Inc. announced a smaller, cheaper version of its Apple TV device for streaming movies and television shows over the Internet and into the living room. It also unveiled a new line of iPods, including a touch-screen Nano model.