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Apple's Ping Social Network Officially Closes

Monday October 1, 2012 12:22 pm PDT by Arnold Kim
PingApple has officially shut down its failed social network Ping. Reports in June signaled that Apple's social iTunes network would be removed from the next version of iTunes. Apple has since been advertising the fact that the service would shut down as of last night, September 30th. The Ping menu item no longer appears in the current version of iTunes.

Ping was launched in late 2010 and described as a social network for music, allowing iTunes users to share favorite artists and music. Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged in June that "the customer voted and said 'this isn't something that I want to put a lot of energy into'."

The next major version of iTunes is due in October and will have a major overhaul of its interface. From our earlier coverage:
The updated media application will show albums in a grid interface with song listings unfolding below the album cover art when clicked. Searching is improved, showing inline results as you type and the MiniPlayer has been redesigned to show a miniature version of the album cover art and album and song information and playback controls.

The updated iTunes will also get iCloud integration to show all your media content saved in Apple's cloud storage service and save your position in movies or TV shows automatically so that you can pick up where you left off on another device.


[ 129 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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fel10
82 months ago
"Ping is going to be missed" Said no one ever.
Rating: 44 Votes
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Foxer
82 months ago
The next time someone criticizes Apple Maps (or something else) by invoking, "Steve Jobs would have never allowed this to be released," you can point out the failed logic of that statement with the simple word "Ping."
Rating: 27 Votes
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blizaine
82 months ago
Ping just shows that Apple can't do anything right!!!! What a bunch of losers!

oh crap, I thought I was on engadget. Nevermind.
Rating: 23 Votes
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cRuNcHiE
82 months ago
At least iTunes will be slightly less bloated now!
Rating: 18 Votes
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darkslide29
82 months ago
As much as I hate facebook integration everywhere, in this case failing to agree to terms with Facebook probably doomed Ping from the start.
Rating: 12 Votes
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Roessnakhan
82 months ago
Rating: 12 Votes
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ThE.MeSsEnGeR
82 months ago
Rest In Pieces, Ping... you will NOT be missed. AT. ALL.
Rating: 9 Votes
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ChazUK
82 months ago
Steve would have allowed this. ;)

Bye bye Ping.
Rating: 7 Votes
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MacFather
82 months ago
from Apple's music 2010 event


"So here's what we talked about today. New iPods. New Shuffle. New Nano... so small and compact that it's wearable. New iPod touch. The strongest iPod lineup we've ever had. And a new iTunes, with iTunes Ping. WE THINK THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY POPULAR, VERY FAST. And, it's on your iPhone and iPod touch."
Rating: 7 Votes
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samcraig
82 months ago

Wish I could say the same thing...


tkermit wins the internet for today. With the notation that he went after an easy target.
Rating: 6 Votes

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