Ping Could Be Apple's Social Networking Backdoor?

Ping by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 02:40 · Score: 5, Funny

ping www.apple.com
PING e3191.c.akamaiedge.net (184.84.45.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 184.84.45.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=31.528 ms

Re:Ping by cab15625 · 2010-09-02 03:18 · Score: 2, Interesting

Why was this comment labeled offtopic? "ping" is one of the most basic commands on Unix-like systems. It even works on a Mac. It's the first thing that came to mind when I read the title. It also has uses in online gaming. At the very least I could see some concern for potential trademark confusion (even if you'd have to be some sort of SCO to try an sue Apple over it.) Currently, if you plug "ping" into wikipedia search, it's the Unix command that comes up by default (though that will probably change soon).
Anyway "ping" already has some well established (and very specific) meaning in the computer world. I'm surprised Apple would choose that specific word for their newest gimmick. Especially since it is already loaded with such uncool, geeky history.
Re:Ping by polle404 · 2010-09-02 03:57 · Score: 1

I'm SO gonna make a social networking stalker app, and call it Traceroute!

--

~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
Re:Ping by Sir_Lewk · 2010-09-02 04:38 · Score: 1

uncool, geeky
Get off my lawn!

--
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Re:Ping by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:48 · Score: 0

The term "ping" existed long before computers. I'm surprised computer geeks would choose that specific word for their newest gimmick. Especially since it is already loaded with such cool, un-geeky history.
Re:Ping by C0vardeAn0nim0 · 2010-09-02 05:29 · Score: 1

make it opensource and i'll do my best to collaborate.

--
What ? Me, worry ?
Re:Ping by SnarfQuest · 2010-09-02 05:51 · Score: 1

Why do these companies always seem to pick names that are hard to do a search on? It's like they want to hide underneath a rock. Why don't they understand that they would be easier to find using a name that is less common? Someone should start a company called "the". I'll bet they would be thrilled with their near invisibility in the search results.

--
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Re:Ping by node+3 · 2010-09-02 06:37 · Score: 4, Funny

Yes, because words can have only one meaning and no more. They especially can't be used for products or company names.
Word, Tux, Oracle, Excel, Sun, Bing, Java, Gnome, Yahoo...
Wow, Apple is sure going to confuse people with this!
Re:Ping by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 06:39 · Score: 0

From the world of network engineering/administration - ping is one of the most mind-boggingly useful things ever (besides a towel). I use it at least every day, it is neither uncool, or simply remitted to history without a future.
ICMP represent.
Re:Ping by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 06:56 · Score: 0

The unix ping command was a reference to a SONAR ping, a much earlier technology.
Re:Ping by whoisisis · 2010-09-02 08:02 · Score: 1

Someone tag this !/bin/ping
Re:Ping by MichaelSmith · 2010-09-02 14:55 · Score: 1

I'm SO gonna make a social networking stalker app, and call it Traceroute!
You mean google latitude?

--
http://michaelsmith.id.au

First they laughed at me. by line-bundle · 2010-09-02 02:40 · Score: 1, Insightful

I wrote not too long ago that Ping is Facebook's killer, much like the iPod (Touch) was a backdoor to the game market.

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1773738&cid=33438624

And they laughed at me.

Please mod me insightful this time.

Re:First they laughed at me. by Mongoose+Disciple · 2010-09-02 02:44 · Score: 3, Funny

That's not quite accurate -- you said that Ping would kill Facebook. Without really knowing jack about it.
I still think that's funny and/or you're trolling, although I also think an article about Apple coming in through the backdoor is inherently funny and invites numerous lube jokes.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 02:44 · Score: 0

Why would you think Ping is going to be used by non-Apple users?
Also, I think Ping sounds very similar to Bing... Bing? That Microsoft search portal...
Re:First they laughed at me. by Yvan256 · 2010-09-02 02:48 · Score: 1

Don't burn any step yet.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Gandhi
However, Slashdot lacks a "fight" moderation choice, so you got modded "Troll" instead.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Yvan256 · 2010-09-02 02:49 · Score: 1

Ned: Phil?
Phil: Ned?
[Punches Ned in the face]
Re:First they laughed at me. by line-bundle · 2010-09-02 02:49 · Score: 1

Look at what they did with Nintendo DS. They sneaked up on it through music. People are very emotionally attached to their music, so associating something else with their music would be a good strategy. The start with this social network for music, building a core group of people. Then these people will form a critical mass such that they can bring in non-music things.
Apple has it's strategy right because they are making money from their social network (through music) and can thus outlive the non-profit social networks in existence.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 02:57 · Score: 0

Apparently somebody has a lot of mod points today and they're very crabby. Jim V? Is that you?

Don't worry, some of us understand what you're talking about and don't think you're a troll.
Re:First they laughed at me. by migla · 2010-09-02 02:57 · Score: 1

How is this "Groundhog day" reference relevant? I'm not saying it isn't, but could you explain, I'm feeling a bit under the weather and the brain doesn't perhaps make the connections it should.

--
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Mongoose+Disciple · 2010-09-02 02:58 · Score: 1

Apple has it's strategy right because they are making money from their social network (through music) and can thus outlive the non-profit social networks in existence.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Facebook's made over a billion dollars already this year.
Is that as much as Apple will make this year, no, but in no one's fevered, insane imaginings is it a non-profit social network.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Haffner · 2010-09-02 03:05 · Score: 1

Apple has it's strategy right because they are making money from their social network (through music) and can thus outlive the non-profit social networks in existence.
Right and wrong. Apple does have the right strategy, but it isn't for why you think. While yes, they will certainly make money from people buying music off others recommendations, the more important thing here is that they don't need to gain any users for this to be successful. This is an upgrade to a current service, despite being something totally new. The user base is there, and the service promises attractive results for the user, so it will likely see widespread adoption, if not widespread active use.

--
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Re:First they laughed at me. by Darkness404 · 2010-09-02 03:07 · Score: 2, Interesting

The problem is, who really -wants- to use iTunes on Windows? Out of all the commonly used software on Windows iTunes is the biggest resource hog of them all. Even on a moderately fast computer, iTunes still seems to lag like crazy and if you have a low-end computer good luck getting that to work. iTunes on OS X is a very nice program, but on Windows its a pain in the ass to use. I can get Facebook on my Linux, Windows, OS X, Android, iOS, Dumb-phone (via texting), BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, WebOS, Wii, PS3, etc. I can only get Ping through um... a single program only available for Windows and OS X (and probably later iOS)

--
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:07 · Score: 0

Hey Haffner, misattributed quote in your signature: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/babbin.asp
Re:First they laughed at me. by poetmatt · 2010-09-02 03:08 · Score: 2, Insightful

please, the worst mistake to make in a market is assuming the next big product is going to kill it off.
It'd be more accurate that saying ping is apple's attempt to compete with facebook, because the details of how ping will actually work matter a lot more than just "We made our own social platform".
Re:First they laughed at me. by MistrBlank · 2010-09-02 03:12 · Score: 1

I believe Ned (Ryerson? I think) responds to Phil with "BING!".
Re:First they laughed at me. by phoenixwade · 2010-09-02 03:14 · Score: 1

please, the worst mistake to make in a market is assuming the next big product is going to kill it off.
It'd be more accurate that saying ping is apple's attempt to compete with facebook, because the details of how ping will actually work matter a lot more than just "We made our own social platform".
I agree with you with one correction; The worse mistake in marketing in recent times has been assuming that "Apple isn't relevant to anyone except their fanbois"

--
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Darkness404 · 2010-09-02 03:25 · Score: 1

Apple has had some success in recent times, yes. But how many people actually -like- the Apple way and don't just use it because its the only thing they know thats out there? How many people actually -like- having to sync their music with iTunes, not having an easy way to back it up on a different machine without deleting your entire music library, etc. Until Android really took off this year, it was hard to get a phone that did everything that the iPhone did and even until recently it was hard to get a decent Android phone on AT&T, one of the largest cell providers.

Plus, Apple has really had its share of failures recently too. The "buttonless" iPod shuffle, Apple TV, etc.

The idea that everything that Apple touches is golden is false, historically Apple has been a company that leads and leads then when competition appears, they get so far behind that it is laughable, then they come out with a great new product and the cycle starts again.

--
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:First they laughed at me. by sexconker · 2010-09-02 03:52 · Score: 1, Informative

Look at what they did with Nintendo DS. They sneaked up on it through music. People are very emotionally attached to their music, so associating something else with their music would be a good strategy. The start with this social network for music, building a core group of people. Then these people will form a critical mass such that they can bring in non-music things.
Apple has it's strategy right because they are making money from their social network (through music) and can thus outlive the non-profit social networks in existence.
Look at what who did with the Nintendo DS?
Nintendo? They sold over 132,000,000 of them. And over 575,000,000 games (despite nearly ubiquitous piracy). At an average price of $35, that equates to over $20,000,000,000 in software revenue, and at an average price of about $150 (a low estimate of the average), you've got another $20,000,000,000 in hardware revenue (yes, they make money on the hardware - they do not sell it at a loss).
Steve Jobs can count the number of apps or downloads all day long, but nothing changes the bottom line: iPhone / iPod / iPad games are shitty, and don't amount to shit in terms of cash money when compared to the DS or even the PSP.
Where's the $ figures for iThing games? Is it at $20,000,000,000 yet?
Re:First they laughed at me. by mr100percent · 2010-09-02 03:58 · Score: 1

There are very easy ways to back your iTunes up onto different machines. I know of at least 2 methods. Clearly you haven't been reading the support pages.
Don't pooh pooh Apple's success. If you know something more simple than Apple's interfaces (and Android doesn't look like it) then let us know.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Darkness404 · 2010-09-02 04:01 · Score: 1

Compared to my phone? No. With my phone I plug it in to a computer using a standard micro-USB cable, click a dialogue box and have full read/write access to the filesystem. On the other hand, the same thing with my iPod touch requires me to essentially install 2 pieces of software, iTunes to access it and a third-party program to retrieve the songs off of it.

And simplicity != Great.

A 4 function calculator is great at simplicity, good luck getting through calculus with that though.

--
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:07 · Score: 0

Apple made eleventy billion dollars from i*, just ask them.
Re:First they laughed at me. by delinear · 2010-09-02 04:12 · Score: 1

But it's also reliant on people continuing to use their paid service (as an aside, I tried to install iTunes recently when I was having issues with WMP not fetching me the album art and meta data, only to learn iTunes would only give me that functionality if I first gave them my credit card details, even though I had no intention of buying music on iTunes and just wanted it to manage my collection - needless to say I uninstalled immediately). If the popularity of said service ever wanes, are people going to stick with their social networking aspects or choose the flavour of the day free replacement? Not to mention if they limit functionality here, as elsewhere, to paying customers they'll stunt their growth rate.
Re:First they laughed at me. by mr100percent · 2010-09-02 04:13 · Score: 1

Usually you just plug your iPod into another PC with iTunes, and then click "Transfer Purchases" from the menu, and it offloads the paid songs, videos, and apps to the PC.
Re:First they laughed at me. by delinear · 2010-09-02 04:15 · Score: 1

They don't need to gain subscribers. Gaining users is a different matter - if people don't find this useful or think it adds nothing to the experience, they'll just not use it and a social networking system with 160million idle users is no better off than one with no users. Having said that, unless they screw it up in a big way I think it will be reasonably successful - whether it will displace FB (without some serious changes to allow participation from people not subscribed to their music services) is another matter.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Darkness404 · 2010-09-02 04:20 · Score: 1

But those aren't all my songs though, I have a lot of songs I got from CDs, Amazon MP3, free downloads from bands, etc. On the other hand I can do the same thing through my phone and get -everything- faster, plus, on any halfway modern OS, you don't have to install anything.

--
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:First they laughed at me. by mlts · 2010-09-02 04:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

My issue with iTunes are two things:
On the Mac, iTunes works well. Mash play/pause/FF/rewind, it does so when in the background. However, on Windows, the media keys don't work unless iTunes is present in the foreground. Even the Zune player is good in this regard.
My second issue is that iTunes is so critical to the operation of iOS devices. If iTunes becomes unusable, you can't restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch if that dies. Other iPods can be used with third party utilities, or even manually dumped in disk mode.
What I'd like to see Apple do with iTunes on both Mac and Windows is have a method of repairing the program, as well as more thorough diagnostics. Not just checking file placement and Registry/NetInfo entries, but running checks on the installed drivers, checking to see if the daemons/services start up and stay up, looking for known conflicts (say the iPod driver conflicts with another utility), and then a standalone program to temporarily disable all USB drivers, allow an iDevice to be plugged in, and check to see if that works on a low level basis.
Another thing I'd like to see is a pure image dump, similar to nandroid. This way, the iDevice can be backed up and restored without having to restore the app plists, then resync everything back. Even if this backup was locked to the device with an encryption key for the whole blob, it would be extremely nice to have. iOS devices are doing a more and more things, they really need an advanced backup system, so one can restore the device with an image if something happens. Even better would be a synthetic full method of backups, where incrementals can be taken of the device, and a full image generated from the first full + the incrementals after that. This would allow a nice point in time system.
Finally, I wish iOS devices would get a filesystem that supported snapshotting. Why? This would allow syncs over the air and allowing the user to keep using the device while it is syncing, assuming the user wasn't using an application whose files were getting a change pushed to them from the remote side of course.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Dog-Cow · 2010-09-02 05:16 · Score: 2, Informative

You don't have to pay Apple a dime (or even a fraction of a cent) to use iTunes and/or the App Store. You pay for what you purchase; there are no subscriptions.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Yvan256 · 2010-09-02 05:30 · Score: 1

Ned: Phil? Hey, Phil? Phil! Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
Phil: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching.
[Starts to walk away]
Ned: Hey, hey! Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you.
Phil: Not a chance.
Ned: Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing!
Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again.
Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
Phil: Ned Ryerson?
Ned: Bing!
Phil: Bing.
Re:First they laughed at me. by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 05:47 · Score: 1

Well, I am pretty sure that is someone 'pinged' me, I'd likely die, so it's quite a reasonable assumption on the GP part.

--
You can't handle the truth.
Re:First they laughed at me. by poetmatt · 2010-09-02 05:50 · Score: 1

well, that is a matter of opinion, I wouldn't necessarily agree. The kinds of people who like apple are usually people who a: don't like Microsoft, b: don't mind DRM and/or C: want a closed source system ("they just want it to work")
It's mostly a gross oversimplification of the fact that basically, computers aren't that simple. They get easier to use, but are more complicated now than they have ever been, and that's a good thing. This doesn't apply to all of the people apple is relevant to, but a lot of people do fit one or more of the above.
Meanwhile, why ask about relevance? The whole question of "does apple matters" is asking a question that the answer wasn't even questioned in the first place. Apple is essentially "relevant" much in the way that oxygen is relevant: it's all over the place, but that doesn't state anything about specific importance.
I don't like apple. Does that mean they are any more or less relevant? answer is that it's not affected.
Re:First they laughed at me. by geminidomino · 2010-09-02 06:36 · Score: 1

There's the "Bing" connection related below, but I also find the flamewars between the "applebashers" and the "mactards" to be not unlike the general theme of the movie...
Re:First they laughed at me. by node+3 · 2010-09-02 06:43 · Score: 1

Why would you think Ping is going to be used by non-Apple users?
Um, yeah, because the number of people who use iTunes is just so inconsequentially minuscule!
Re:First they laughed at me. by Omestes · 2010-09-02 07:10 · Score: 2, Interesting

On the Mac, iTunes works well. Mash play/pause/FF/rewind, it does so when in the background. However, on Windows, the media keys don't work unless iTunes is present in the foreground. Even the Zune player is good in this regard.
Easily fixable with a quick download.
I am currently trying the get a Linux based HTPC/Media box set up. The largest PiTA has been trying to get a decent music player. They all either lack things that I consider basic features, can't handle a decent sized media library, are slow/laggy/unstable, or are so arcane that my random non-geek friends will never be able to use it at parties. Songbird was my first choice, but its dead, and for some reason completely unstable (trying to get the .deb version I found to play nicely with last.fm is impossible). If there was a way to get Rhythmbox (which is the only one I would consider remotely stable) to do the party-shuffle/itunes DJ thing I would be happy. Or if there was a way to get Banshee to stop hanging every 10 minutes. Or if Listen made the slightest bit of sense. Or if... you get the point.
iTunes is very, very bad. But, sadly, it is the best thing out there.
iTunes 10 is ridiculous... its sitting at 157mb right now, which is around 200% higher than any other process.

--
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Re:First they laughed at me. by aristotle-dude · 2010-09-02 09:57 · Score: 1

But it's also reliant on people continuing to use their paid service (as an aside, I tried to install iTunes recently when I was having issues with WMP not fetching me the album art and meta data, only to learn iTunes would only give me that functionality if I first gave them my credit card details, even though I had no intention of buying music on iTunes and just wanted it to manage my collection - needless to say I uninstalled immediately). If the popularity of said service ever wanes, are people going to stick with their social networking aspects or choose the flavour of the day free replacement? Not to mention if they limit functionality here, as elsewhere, to paying customers they'll stunt their growth rate.
That is a very interesting work of fiction. You don't need an iTunes account to fetch album art and you don't need to supply any payment method information let alone credit cards to sign up for an account and download the free songs/videos of the week along with free apps for iOS devices.

--
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Re:First they laughed at me. by mattack2 · 2010-09-02 11:41 · Score: 1

C: want a closed source system ("they just want it to work")
Umm, those are two different things.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 16:36 · Score: 0

Oh come on, we all know Ping will just be a social network with a daily use fee from apple. After all, it is only for money wasting pretentious assholes that think themselves better than everyone else because they paid money to get a shiny useless piece of shit. It will be for only those who can afford to walk on the rich side of town. Have fun talking with other pretentious assholes about how wonderful your own ass smells, and how you can't get enough of yourself.
Re:First they laughed at me. by shutdown+-p+now · 2010-09-02 20:14 · Score: 1

iTunes is very, very bad. But, sadly, it is the best thing out there.
Compared to Linux players, perhaps (though I do like Quod Libet, myself). For Windows, not so much. Have you seen J.River Media Center, for example? It does twice as much as iTunes does, and it does it all better.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-03 00:23 · Score: 0

The iPod touch might be a backdoor into the game market, but it's one that's largely failed if that's the case.
There's roughly 200 million PSPs and DS' out there, and about 40 million iPod touches at best.
If you factor in the iPhone and iPad that's fine, and does increase Apple's share to about 100 million, but then you must also factor in the Symbian, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile devices out there used for gaming. You must also factor in the point that DS' and PSPs are used almost exclusively for gaming, whilst Apple iOS devices are not, the iPod touch is used merely as a music/video player by many of it's users, and the iPhone isn't always used for gaming.
Ultimately Apple's portion of the mobile gaming market is tiny, probably not really any bigger than it's portion of the desktop gaming market.
If people laughed at you, it's because you can't even get recent history right, let alone predict the future accurately.
Re:First they laughed at me. by Omestes · 2010-09-03 05:32 · Score: 1

I'll give it a quick try, though it already has one thing going against it; a $45 price tag. It looks interesting though, like a cross between Boxee and iTunes (or Boxee that can actually handle music competently).
Currently I have around six music players installed on my Linux box. So far Guaydeque is winning, it handles ratings, doesn't take 5 minutes to load a 7000+ song library, has a decent shuffle-queue-type feature thing (even though the prefs for the latter are very opaque). Its lack of view options is a bit annoying. Gmusicplayer also isn't terrible, but its almost impossible to get set up in a usable way.
I'll give Quid Libet another look, as well.

--
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Re:First they laughed at me. by poetmatt · 2010-09-03 13:16 · Score: 1

yes, thats why I put in apostrophe's. Thank you for failing to read. It was something people perceive is the case.

Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 02:40 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10, after all. Internet Explorer & Windows, anyone?

--
Living With a Nerd

Re:Eh... by Shadis · 2010-09-02 02:49 · Score: 2, Informative

Yeah but you actually have to turn Ping on in ITunes to use it. It is not automatically active, so unless you set it up, you won't be 'counted'
Re:Eh... by Haffner · 2010-09-02 02:55 · Score: 1, Insightful

In the same way that Apple NEVER tries to force other software on iTunes users, like, say, Safari or Quicktime? You don't have to install it. But you can't get the next version of iTunes that has *shiny new feature* without installing it. It's optional for this version only, it'll be mandatory next time.

--
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Re:Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 02:55 · Score: 1

Sounds like at least someone has learned through the idiotic privacy practices of Facebook.

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Living With a Nerd
Re:Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 02:57 · Score: 1

Sorry, meant Google.
Geez...Facebook has become like Xerox at this point. ::slaps self::

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Living With a Nerd
Re:Eh... by jpmoney · 2010-09-02 02:58 · Score: 1

They need to work on having some actual selection in who to follow. I'm not too far removed from music that normal people listen to and I couldn't find a single person to follow. Sorry, I don't want to follow U2 or Lady Gaga, but I would expect some tacit groups for classics like Metallica. I'm sure its all about contracts with record companies, but its DOA right now.
I dislike info sharing as much as the next /.-er, but I really would love a place to have the bands that I like listed to get reccos and updates.

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unf.
Re:Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 03:01 · Score: 2, Interesting

I dislike info sharing as much as the next /.-er, but I really would love a place to have the bands that I like listed to get reccos and updates.
Following independent musicians, gaming personalities, etc....that's pretty much why I use Twitter. I never post on it, but following certain people can be simultaneously entertaining and informative.

--
Living With a Nerd
Re:Eh... by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 03:02 · Score: 1

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10, after all. Internet Explorer & Windows, anyone?
I "subscribed" last night. You still have to go through a sign-up process. Unlike certain company out there that automatically turned every email user into an "active" member of their social network.
So, unless Apple starts noting they have exactly as many Ping users as iTunes 10 users, they will be telling the truth about how many of iTunes 10 users did subscribe.
I don't care much for the total social networking thing, but am disappointed not every artist in their catalog gets a simple Ping page. I would had liked to subscribe to some artists that don't have Ping pages yet, if only to be notified of when new songs get uploaded to iTunes.
Re:Eh... by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 03:04 · Score: 1

Sounds like at least someone has learned through the idiotic privacy practices of Facebook.
Sounds like at least someone has applied the slashdot idiotic pattern of bashing without even looking at it. The entire thing is inactive, you have no ping account even if you have an iTunes store account. You have to activate ping and create an account for it to start invading your privacy in any way.
Re:Eh... by Mongoose+Disciple · 2010-09-02 03:05 · Score: 1

I had the same thought.
Another example: that service for syncing an iPhone with your computer. iTunes won't start without that installed and running.
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:05 · Score: 0

Itunes 9 added "Genius Mixes"... still haven't been forced to turn them on.
Itunes 9 also added the iTunes "Genius Sidebar"... still haven't been forced to turn that on.
I've never installed Safari with iTunes, and have never been forced to.
Itunes store was added in version 4... still don't have to buy anything through there to load stuff on your ipod.
Your slippery slope don't look too slippery, friend.
Re:Eh... by Colonel+Korn · 2010-09-02 03:13 · Score: 1

I had the same thought.
Another example: that service for syncing an iPhone with your computer. iTunes won't start without that installed and running.
Not quite true. The only way I can get iTunes to communicate with my iPod Touch 3gs is to run it once, get an error message saying "an unknown error has occurred," close it, stop the service, restart iTunes, and click past the warning dialog telling me the useless service isn't running. Every time!

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"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Re:Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 03:28 · Score: 1

Which is exactly my point. Whereas with Facebook it's opt-out, with Ping it's opt-in. Explain to me how remarking about how a company is being smart about user's privacy is the same thing as bashing them.

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Living With a Nerd
Re:Eh... by IAmGarethAdams · 2010-09-02 03:45 · Score: 1

Wait a second, if I don't have a Facebook account I have to opt-out of it?
Re:Eh... by Pojut · 2010-09-02 03:48 · Score: 1

I meant with Facebook's privacy practices. Whenever they introduce a new service that has severe privacy implications, it's always an opt-out service...it gets activated by default.

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Living With a Nerd
Re:Eh... by mr100percent · 2010-09-02 03:49 · Score: 1

Nope, you have to go into the Ping tab and enable it, then setup your account (which is mainly 3 questions; name, music tastes, and privacy settings). iTunes doen't automatically sign you up.
Apple dug at Google for that yesterday, saying when Apple reports activation numbers for their devices, they don't count simple software updates like "our friends [at Google] do"
Re:Eh... by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 03:49 · Score: 1

Wait a second, if I don't have a Facebook account I have to opt-out of it?
I guess they finally went and OCR every telephone book ever printed and made Facebook pages for every person that ever had their phones or business listed there! Now you have to go there, find that and opt out :P
Re:Eh... by gorzek · 2010-09-02 03:50 · Score: 1

Duh, what? You are not automatically opted-in to Facebook. Or do we now force people to get FB accounts as soon as they get Internet service?

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Check out my world simulator thingy.
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:54 · Score: 0

You don't opt out of Facebook. You opt out of Google's Buzz, though.
Once you opt in, both are potentially equally intrusive.
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:57 · Score: 0

You may want to look at your own message in the same light -- maybe you started bashing without understanding what the post actually said?
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:10 · Score: 0

Don't call me friend, partner
Re:Eh... by 0100010001010011 · 2010-09-02 04:12 · Score: 1

Anything Apple on Windows sucks. Everything that is part of OS X has to be reinvented. WebKit is a huge portion of how the iTunes music store works. As is Quicktime. On OS X I can toss either into the trash and the rest will still work because WebKit and Quicktime APIs are part of the OS.
Re:Eh... by beelsebob · 2010-09-02 04:34 · Score: 1

In the same way that Apple NEVER tries to force other software on iTunes users, like, say, Safari, or Quicktime? You don't haveto install it. But you can't get the next version of iTunes that has *shiny new feature* without installing it.
Pardon? Quicktime is actually a dependancy of iTunes, so you're right there, you have always and will always need to install it to use iTunes. Safari though has never been forced upon anyone with iTunes. It appears in the apple software update dialog, unticked, in a section marked "other software you might want". Much like Thunderbird appears in Firefox's software update marked "other software you might want".
Re:Eh... by BasilBrush · 2010-09-02 05:08 · Score: 1

What do you expect? The Ping service was company confidential till yesterday. The sample musicians will have been approached individually by Apple, and asked to sign NDAs. Now it's not a secret anymore, other artists will arrive. But give it a little time!
Re:Eh... by Shoe+Puppet · 2010-09-02 05:08 · Score: 1

Much like Thunderbird appears in Firefox's software update marked "other software you might want".
Screenshot? Source? I've never seen when updating Firefox. (And I'm on Windows)

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(+1, Disagree)
Re:Eh... by C0vardeAn0nim0 · 2010-09-02 05:38 · Score: 1

don't give them ideas man. please.
it's bad enough to have facebook tracking your every move on the interwebs as it is.

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What ? Me, worry ?
Re:Eh... by maxwell+demon · 2010-09-02 06:01 · Score: 1

You don't opt out of Facebook. You opt out of Google's Buzz, though.
I never opted out of Google Buzz. Or any other personalized Google service. I don't think they just created a Google account for me.

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The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Re:Eh... by IAmGarethAdams · 2010-09-02 07:30 · Score: 1

The problem there is, Facebook's privacy settings were fine until they introduced new features. Since Ping hasn't introduced any new features yet, there's no real way to tell how they'll appear.
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 09:50 · Score: 0

Don't call me partner, gaylord!
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 10:02 · Score: 0

I ain't your partner, guy.
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 12:19 · Score: 0

I wish that 'Ping has to openess of 'LaLa' but it's not the case. The music has to be available on ITunes store and you can only listen to samples....
Re:Eh... by Reaperducer · 2010-09-04 14:02 · Score: 1

Here... have an Aspirin and a Kleenex. You'll feel better.

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-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-05 15:45 · Score: 0

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10,
iTunes 101: How to set up Ping
http://best-video-dvd-converter.blogspot.com/2010/09/itunes-101-how-to-set-up-ping.html

Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by eldavojohn · 2010-09-02 02:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

Because when I look for a portal to Ping it seems they want me to download and install iTunes. Unless they intend to eventually make it accessible through a browser, I could see this being a bit of a problem for more than a few people. Great, you've got my credit card number if I bought something through iTMS but do you really think I'm going to wake up that memory and resource hog on my Windows partition just to get to a social networking site when I can hit Facebook through Linux or (nearly) any mobile device? I might be a small minority but that's not for me.

Looks to be just more bloat on an already bloated piece of software. The least they could do is modularize iTunes so that if I click a box on install I can make it so that the application is just a way to put music onto an iPod. I am sick and tired of the video and TV stuff forcing me to put Quicktime on my machine!

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My work here is dung.

Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by bsDaemon · 2010-09-02 02:50 · Score: 1

If you're using Linux, they probably don't care about you. As for being "forced" to install QuickTime, why is Python a dependency for vim-common? Same basic principle, except it appears that the majority of Apple's image rendering is somehow tied to QuickTime libraries. Tried to view a .tiff file the other day and it it opened in QuickTime. Whatever.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by noidentity · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 5, Funny

Looks to be just more bloat on an already bloated piece of software. The least they could do is modularize iTunes so that if I click a box on install I can make it so that the application is just a way to put music onto an iPod. I am sick and tired of the video and TV stuff forcing me to put Quicktime on my machine!

Yep, leave it to Apple to make the simple ping command all bloated and require QuickTime, etc.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by morgan_greywolf · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 1

Great, you've got my credit card number if I bought something through iTMS but do you really think I'm going to wake up that memory and resource hog on my Windows partition just to get to a social networking site when I can hit Facebook through Linux or (nearly) any mobile device? I might be a small minority but that's not for me.

You're obviously not a True Believer in The Black Turtlenecked One of the Great Apple, and therefore Ping does not want you.

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My blog
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Haffner · 2010-09-02 02:58 · Score: 4, Insightful

I think Apple's major mistake is tying EVERYTHING to iTunes. Honestly, iTunes integration tends to be one of the things they do worst. I have a core i7 with 8GB RAM on a win7 machine and iTunes STILL lags, is unresponsive, and even display details get cropped (and can't be fixed). Syncing for iDevices is so bad that I only sync my iPhone (great device other than the iTunes element, imo) every 2-3 months or so, because I hate the sync process so much.

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"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by al3k · 2010-09-02 03:06 · Score: 1

Depends on the distro and package maintainer but python is typically a dependency because it has support for python scripted plugins. The Arch package maintainer actually got rid of this dependency, which I noticed when one of my plugins stopped working after an update.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by bsDaemon · 2010-09-02 03:10 · Score: 1

I'll just remember to pass WITH_PYTHON=NO next time I need to build the port on a new FreeBSD system. Few times I've needed to install it on a Linux machine, I didn't notice because CentOS/Fedora require Python by default for Yum.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 03:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Because when I look for a portal to Ping it seems they want me to download and install iTunes. Unless they intend to eventually make it accessible through a browser, I could see this being a bit of a problem for more than a few people. Great, you've got my credit card number if I bought something through iTMS but do you really think I'm going to wake up that memory and resource hog on my Windows partition just to get to a social networking site when I can hit Facebook through Linux or (nearly) any mobile device? I might be a small minority but that's not for me. Looks to be just more bloat on an already bloated piece of software. The least they could do is modularize iTunes so that if I click a box on install I can make it so that the application is just a way to put music onto an iPod. I am sick and tired of the video and TV stuff forcing me to put Quicktime on my machine!
You miss the point of this, well the entire article did. Ping is not there primarily to become a Facebook competitor or alternative. It's there to help highlight music sales. It's there to tell you what music your friends like, and what music your favorite artists like. Artists may treat it as a social page only to advertise their products, just as they do now in Facebook.
As far as Apple's goals are concerned, they don't care you using the tool if you are not going to be buying music. Note it does not only require you to have iTunes installed, it also requires you to have an iTunes Store account (even if it has no credit card attached.) It's all about selling.
In a way i sort of wish they extended it's functionality for app developers and book authors too.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Darkness404 · 2010-09-02 03:12 · Score: 1

Exactly. Apple thinks that they must halfway recreate OS X on Windows to get iTunes to run.

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Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by CohibaVancouver · 2010-09-02 03:13 · Score: 1, Troll

A few months back my wife and kid were in Scotland on holidays. I was flying out to join them a few days later. While in Scotland my wife dropped me an email saying that she's trying to read email overseas but doesn't seem to have any emails in her webmail interface. So I open up her Outlook 2000 / Win XP pop 3 client and see that her emails are downloading locally to our home computer, even when Outlook isn't running....

What the...? I think, and I noodle around a bit and discover that even when I close outlook, the outlook process continues to run, which is why the emails are downloading locally instead of living in the cloud.

Why? Turns put it's due to FRIKKING iTunes. iIunes has added some kind of plugin to outlook that keeps the process running. What the frik? Why? Why does iTunes need to hook into outlook? It's just for copying files to and from an iPod!!!! Why does it need a FRIKKING Outlook hook that messes people up?! I FRIKKING HATE iTunes.

I then decide to noodle around some more and see what else this bloatware parasite application has done, so I open up my services. And surprise, surprise, there's that sucker BONJOUR running as a service helping me "discover printers"." F*ck off, my printer's right there - I can see it. Discover my ass, Bonjour. I kill that sucker...

Then what do I find? Yet ANOTHER FRIKKING service running that allows iPhones to talk to Apple TV. What the hell? I don't have an iPhone and I sure as hell don't have an Apple TV. I have a FRIKKING WINDOWS media extender that works great!

I hate that parasitic bloatware piece of crap iTunes.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 03:20 · Score: 1

I have another question: what's facebook and itunes? Am I the only one left not using those?

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Shadis · 2010-09-02 03:21 · Score: 1

Well I think it seems to be certainly hit or miss. I have, personally, never had a problem with ITunes. I have it running on my three year old laptop, which I use to Sync my IPod and IPhone with and it works just fine. I think if anything the problem they probably face with ITunes is that they are used to programming for 'one platform'(Mac). And in the PC world that just does not always cut it. The diversity of hardware is quite large in the realm O' PCs.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:24 · Score: 0

You post as if the opinion of someone who still uses POP matters at all.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by RivenAleem · 2010-09-02 03:25 · Score: 5, Funny

"It's Turtlenecks all the way down"
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:26 · Score: 1

Yes, the problem is totally iTunes's fault. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that you're running decade-old software that has a KNOWN BUG (fixed in the 2007 version) or anything. For a followup, maybe you can try being butthurt about the fact that IE 4 doesn't render modern web sites correctly, which is obviously *their* fault.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by riegel · 2010-09-02 03:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

Mostly agreed, except on the bonjour point. You really ought to learn about what it is and what it does.

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http://p8ste.com - Web based Clipboard
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by zmollusc · 2010-09-02 03:31 · Score: 1

No, there are at least two of us. Also myspace and twitter.

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They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Duradin · 2010-09-02 03:39 · Score: 1

You're one hepcat man.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Servaas · 2010-09-02 03:43 · Score: 1

Did the great Steve post a memo POP is for suckers?
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by kevinmenzel · 2010-09-02 03:45 · Score: 1

How big is your media collection, I'm curious? I know that my collection of near 40,000 songs and podcasts makes iTunes cry like a kid that just got punched in the face, but iTunes does seem to run OK when indexing the 30 or so tunes I purchase at a time. Well, it seems to run OK except when purchasing the tunes themselves at which point it gets to "processing file" or whatever, and maxes out both of my cores... but who knows, that could be some odd codec problem or something. But like, most people I know who say that iTunes works fine on Windows have probably averagely small collections. Not a problem per se for iTunes if they handle "most people" "good enough", though if there is some general limit at which their database engine fails miserably, then it seems like it might be hard to make money from the iTunes store past that point...
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by lxs · 2010-09-02 03:52 · Score: 1

Yes, I understand why you have to install the Quicktime framework with iTunes. There is however no compelling reason beyond territorium building to sneak Quicktime player and Safari in there as well.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 03:58 · Score: 1

hm, I am just not excited by these wonderful things to care to find what they are in the first place

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by MrHanky · 2010-09-02 04:02 · Score: 1

It's not a mistake, it's what they base their business on. The iPhone's connected to you music files, your music connected to the iTunes app, the iTunes connected to the iTunes store, now hear the word of the Jobs. It's there to make it difficult for you to, you know, switch. It's not a mistake, but they do treat the Windows platform worse than Adobe treats OS X. iTunes is to Windows what Flash is to OS X: nearly ubiquitous, but entirely shit. Perhaps so that iPod addicts will buy Macs?
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:05 · Score: 0

I think the same way google things the web browser is the new "OS", apple thinkgs iTunes is the new "OS", or at least the leader to becoming the new face of the net. To me, the comical part of the whole iTunes 10 things is that AOL did this 15 years ago and it sucked.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Shadis · 2010-09-02 04:05 · Score: 1

Not quite 40k worth of songs to be sure. As to the number..not 100% sure off the top of my head. My wife has a lot of stuff on there that I don't even look at! But I would have to say probably in the neighborhood of 10k with podcasts. Beyond that there is a ton of photos & videos as well. And probably around 8 gigs worth of apps in there, though I'm not sure how those would impact the system. And with that I don't think I have ever seen ITunes max out the single core that I have on that laptop. I would have to say I doubt the Apple markets/aims for the 40k+ song users. They are more looking toward the mainstream. That seems to be their general aim most times with their 'home media' stuff. So it may be a matter of 'why tweak something that works for most of our users, and not for that small percentage of folks'. or I could be completely wrong!
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:06 · Score: 0

Nope. It is just the normal order of things.
sky = blue
POP = sucks
you = douche
See how that works?
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Duradin · 2010-09-02 04:19 · Score: 1

Too cool to care!
Feigned ignorance is definitely where it's at.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:26 · Score: 0

Eh... You'd need QuickTime anyway. How do you think iTunes does plain old *music* playback? It's a front-end to QuickTime, with some syncing and playlist management thrown on top. That's why if you want to add ogg vorbis, for example, the codec goes in /Library/QuickTime not /Library/iTunes.
Besides... Unless you're trying to run it on a machine that's older than dirt (like an old ppc g4 or something) QuickTime is actually a very nice software kit. It has it's issues (missing codecs require me to use perian) but it's nowhere near bad like you people try to claim.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by BobMcD · 2010-09-02 04:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

...do you really think I'm going to wake up that memory and resource hog on my Windows partition just to get to a social networking site when I can hit Facebook through Linux or (nearly) any mobile device? I might be a small minority but that's not for me.
I came to say this as well... The author touches on it, but stops short:

Still, Ping suffers from being locked inside iTunes, although Apple was smart enough to create an access application and put it in the App Store for iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone users.
In my opinion, Ping suffers from being locked to Apple. It will never have a life outside of making them more money, which means it is genuinely no threat to Facebook. My dad is on Facebook, for example, and will likely never, ever, ever wear a Steve Jobs turtleneck. There are many more like him as well.
I see no threat here, except to Ping towards irrelevance. And with mp3 and streaming still reigning as kings, Facebook going with, say Amazon or Netflix, rather than Apple, could easily turn the tables and start to threaten iTunes itself.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 04:33 · Score: 1

it's easy to explain, I don't watch movies or listen to music, so facebook and itunes is of no interest

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by beelsebob · 2010-09-02 04:37 · Score: 1

You mean, in much the same way as Quicktime is typically a dependency because it has support for actually playing the music in iTunes. The point your parent was making was that Quicktime is required for iTunes to play music, it actually uses the Quicktime library. It's not a case of forcing software on you for the sake of it, it's a dependancy.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by gorzek · 2010-09-02 04:38 · Score: 0, Troll

So, what's the point in announcing something like that? "Ha-HA! I'm too cool for social networking!" Good for you, bro!

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Check out my world simulator thingy.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 04:43 · Score: 1

obviously you care to respond to my comment.

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 05:04 · Score: 0

Too busy reading Sartre while wearing an ironic John Deere hat, hmm?
I heard that was cool in Nebraska.
Last week.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Americano · 2010-09-02 05:06 · Score: 0, Troll

Hint: they're making fun of you. They "care" because they are enjoying poking fun at you. Not because you made an interesting comment.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 05:12 · Score: 1

While that may be true, what I have on my side of the equation is also fun watching them twitch in response, like your comment, it just delivered a small percentage of the overall fun generated by this thread, you could measure it in milliFun units, mFs. You have just delivered .02mF of the total.

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by rwven · 2010-09-02 05:15 · Score: 3, Insightful

Yeah if they shove any more crap into iTunes, they're going to have to rebrand it as iTunesOS...
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 05:31 · Score: 0

Nope I am right here with you.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by future+assassin · 2010-09-02 05:35 · Score: 1

>"It's Turtlenecks all the way down"
Are you taking about uncircumcised penises getting a Steve Jobs?

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by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 05:40 · Score: 0

No movies or music? Why even have an internet connection?
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 05:44 · Score: 1

it's my job and it's the best way to get the news.

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Idiomatick · 2010-09-02 05:56 · Score: 1

That was funny. I feel like linux deserves a prize for orchestrating it.

A)Oh yeah, apple sucks but linux does the same thing!
B) Nah, they have a good reason and you can get around it now.
A) My bad.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Idiomatick · 2010-09-02 05:58 · Score: 1

Winamp lags my computer then crashes whenever I'm indexing more than 70,000 songs. No idea what to do to fix it. (I'm a bit worried that winamp doesn't allow more than INT songs indexed at once.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by bsDaemon · 2010-09-02 06:08 · Score: 1

I just feel like Python support should not be the default option. Maybe that's just because I have no reason to use Python and don't rely on anything built with it. iTunes straight doesn't work without QuickTime. It'd be nice if you could have the media libraries without having the have the player, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by chenjeru · 2010-09-02 06:32 · Score: 1

Quicktime Alternative could be a viable option. It works for me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickTime_Alternative
It's part of the K-Lite codec pack, or you can download it as an individual codec here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm

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Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by StuartHankins · 2010-09-02 06:35 · Score: 3, Interesting

Not sure if it's intentionally borked on Windows or not. I'm using a Core 2 Duo 2.4 with 4GB RAM under Snow Leopard (recently upgraded from Tiger) and iTunes loads instantly -- quicker than Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, etc. It's snappy for my uses (9000+ song library with videos stored on a NAS, lots of rule-based playlists, some of which are based on other playlists, etc).

I understand Apple concentrating talent on making it run faster in OS X but they're pissing off Windows users with a poor experience. That's not smart.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by coredog64 · 2010-09-02 06:50 · Score: 1

You mean my friends will be able to find out I bought Starland Vocal Band's Greatest Hits, a Billy Squire's "The Stroke", and Taco's cover of "Putting on the Ritz"? Fuck that noise!
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 07:14 · Score: 1

You mean my friends will be able to find out I bought Starland Vocal Band's Greatest Hits, a Billy Squire's "The Stroke", and Taco's cover of "Putting on the Ritz"?
Fuck that noise!
They will also know you got those Lady Gaga and Katy Parry CDs :P
Seriously though, you can set it to not show what you like/buy.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Spaham · 2010-09-02 07:21 · Score: 1

oh god, Turtleleggings
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 08:35 · Score: 0

With all its bloat and "integration" iTunes resembles Winword and Internet Explorer at the same time. Yech! Those guys at Apple must be really, really determined to become Teh New Microsoft (tm) and hey - they're almost there! Even that turtleneck guy now acts as pathetic as Gates always did.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by yabos · 2010-09-02 08:54 · Score: 1

iTunes will sync your calendars so no doubt it needs some sort of Outlook plugin to do that.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Joe+Jay+Bee · 2010-09-02 09:38 · Score: 1

Trust me, iTunes is no better on OSX than it is on Windows. Possibly worse.
Put bluntly iTunes is an appalling piece of shit. It's slow, bloated, looks like crap, works like crap, takes an age to do absolutely anything and fills your startup sequence with all kinds of shit. Having recently switched to Windows from Mac I can just marvel at how Windows Media Player takes less than a second to open whereas iTunes took a good minute or so for no good reason.

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I write bullshit
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 10:09 · Score: 0

Yes, but his contribution was counterbalanced by your carefully feigned indifference to social media, which clocked in at a whopping -5 Fun units.
Yes, that's right: that's 5 big F-U's for you!
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by roman_mir · 2010-09-02 12:03 · Score: 1

Don't forget, any response from Anonymous Coward to my thread, automatically grants me +10^6mF, while the AC himself get's a thick, long one up his ass from a syphilitic goat herder.

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You can't handle the truth.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 12:43 · Score: 0

Use IMAP. POP blows. If you were using IMAP, even if Outlook were still running, you could still access your email anywhere.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 15:02 · Score: 0

Or emacs.
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 22:01 · Score: 0

No movies or music? Why even have an Internet connection?
it's my job and it's the best way to get the news.
Your job is to have an Internet connection?!? Where do I sign up?
Re:Is It Only Through iTMS Application? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-03 04:13 · Score: 0

Hipsta please. Thick long ones up the ass from syphilitic goat herders is SO last year.
Spastic eagle is the new hotness. But then I'm sure you've never heard of it. Turn in your trucker hat and ironic t-shirts.

I'm social enough..... by eNygma-x · 2010-09-02 02:45 · Score: 1

Ping.... like I would want to talk to other Mac users.... =P

--
As in most religions, it's the followers that turn people off to the religion. And Mac users are the worst.

Re:I'm social enough..... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 20:22 · Score: 0

Ping.... like I would want to talk to other Mac users.... =P
Why do you hate gays?

social shopping yes - social network no by theonlyholle · 2010-09-02 02:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

The problem is that all it is is a social shopping network. And of course it's a "social shopping at the iTunes store" network, so it's very, very limited. I personally think that Apple narrowed the scope of their network too much (you can't even post a link to a live video on YouTube of a song you just bought - or rather, you can but it will show up as text only with no way to click or copy&paste it) and most users will be bored by it very quickly and just ignore it. Even if Apple expands it later, a reputation once ruined is hard to improve...

Re:social shopping yes - social network no by e065c8515d206cb0e190 · 2010-09-02 02:49 · Score: 1

you can't even post a link to a live video on YouTube of a song you just bought
If you bought it, it's likely that you needed to. Sending a link to copyrighted material is probably not what Apple wants.
Re:social shopping yes - social network no by theonlyholle · 2010-09-02 02:52 · Score: 1

who says that the artist or record company didn't put the live video up himself? Legally? And if my friends saw the video, maybe they would notice they like the music and *would* by the track...
Re:social shopping yes - social network no by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 0

Do you think many artists/companies actually do that? Sure, it /could/ happen. Just like Steve Jobs could release iOS 4.1 with flash support.
Re:social shopping yes - social network no by theonlyholle · 2010-09-02 02:58 · Score: 1

have you ever been on YouTube?
Re:social shopping yes - social network no by Steauengeglase · 2010-09-02 03:24 · Score: 1

Yes, they have entire channels on YouTube.
Re:social shopping yes - social network no by IndustrialComplex · 2010-09-02 03:47 · Score: 1

You mean like this?
http://www.youtube.com/user/muse
You know, the official pages for actual bands where they put up videos of their own concerts and songs?

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Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj

Backdoor my foot by srussia · 2010-09-02 02:48 · Score: 2, Funny

It's the bloody Arc de Triomphe!

--
Set your phasers on "funky"!

The KILLER OF EVERYTHING...or not. by broKenfoLd · 2010-09-02 02:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

I thought we had learned our lessons in declaring X the Y Killer. Sure, its happened every now and then(see Myspace/Facebook, HDDVD/Bluray), but as everyone here knows (and many lament about), Microsoft is still alive and well despite a resurgence by Apple, iPhones are still selling despite the allegedly-killer swarm of Android devices, websites still get hits despite content being routed more and more into apps, etc.

Re:The KILLER OF EVERYTHING...or not. by Steauengeglase · 2010-09-02 03:28 · Score: 1

I can't say it would kill Facebook, but I could see it hurting whats left of MySpace. Who goes there for anything other than music these days? Still, I wouldn't be too worried. Apple wants you to buy those songs, not listen to them.
Re:The KILLER OF EVERYTHING...or not. by Machtyn · 2010-09-02 03:30 · Score: 1

Hmm, do I want to stay with the highly restrictive, proprietary software on my mostly open hardware? Or do I go with the highly restrictive, proprietary software AND hardware platform (with an inflated price point, albeit decent software and support)? Tough choice, there, I'll go with the open hardware.

Ping? iTunes? by morari · 2010-09-02 02:52 · Score: 0, Troll

I feel sorry for people that use iTunes. It was already bloated enough, now it's going to have all kinds of social network functionality layered on top of it.

--
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune

Re:Ping? iTunes? by MikeFM · 2010-09-02 03:01 · Score: 1

I agree. I was hoping they'd announce a total rewrite of iTunes, or maybe an iPlay, that was lightweight and cloud based and instead they announce that they are layering in more useless crap.. bummer. iTunes is the worst part of the iDevice experience.

--
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Re:Ping? iTunes? by thestudio_bob · 2010-09-02 03:19 · Score: 1

iTunes works great on my Mac. It's fast, never crashes and basically just works.
I've not used iTunes on Windows, so perhaps you meant to say:

"I feel sorry for people that use iTunes on Windows".

--
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains /.
Re:Ping? iTunes? by kevinmenzel · 2010-09-02 03:48 · Score: 1

Don't people have as much right to complain that iTunes is a slow piece of crap on Windows as Apple does to complain that Flash sucks on MacOS?
Re:Ping? iTunes? by mr100percent · 2010-09-02 03:52 · Score: 1

Steve Jobs doesn't agree with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AXaFlIFQA
Re:Ping? iTunes? by morari · 2010-09-02 04:38 · Score: 1

I never realized it before, but Jobs sure is one creepy looking, beady eyed fellow.

--
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Re:Ping? iTunes? by MattSaki · 2010-09-02 08:39 · Score: 1

No. Because Adobe is a third party to every operating system equally.

no worry for facebook by fermion · 2010-09-02 02:52 · Score: 2, Interesting

It is likely that most of the social networking stuff with apple will be tied to me.com or iTunes. Both of these are fee based services. Facebook, and myspace, succeed because they are free. They can only be bothered by other free services that figure out a way monetize the user without pissing the user off, something that neither of these services have done.

So Apple will may have a competing service, and many may be happy because their data is more private, but free is more important than private. Look at home many people let google read their emails rather than paying Apple $100 a year.

Apple looks like it is going to use it's iTunes database to monetize users in an effort to offer otherwise free services to users. However, this is no different from the other free services, so that should provide no competitive advantage to either company, except for the fact that people expect to act better than facebook, even though most people whine when they have to pay to be treated better. Everyone wants a free lunch.

--
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black

Re:no worry for facebook by smegmatic · 2010-09-02 03:43 · Score: 1

Look at home many people let google read their emails rather than paying Apple $100 a year.
Or... Look at home many people let google read their emails rather than paying Apple $100 a year to let Apple read their emails. Seems like an easy decision.
Re:no worry for facebook by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:17 · Score: 0

I'm sure 90% of the customers already use a social network and will continue to use whatever social network that they use.
It doesn't matter.
Apple if anyone knows that you can charge steep fees for products and services that complement or replace existing products or services that the customer already has.
Having a huge market share is only necessary if you have and advertisement based business model. If you have a fee-based or purchase based business model you only need a hundred thousand users, tops, to make money.
Re:no worry for facebook by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:21 · Score: 0

side topic... mobile me/.Mac licenses are on Amazon for usually $70. They work for annual renewals. I've been told you can actually used previous versions' serial numbers as well ( even cheaper! ) but of course only if they haven't been used before.

Ping & Decide! by XxtraLarGe · 2010-09-02 02:53 · Score: 1

Ping probably would have been a better name for Microsoft's search engine site than a social networking site, I'm surprised they didn't think of that.

--
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.

Re:Ping & Decide! by Mongoose+Disciple · 2010-09-02 03:25 · Score: 1

If Microsoft had called something that isn't ping Ping, it would have been blasphemy. A ton of people would be ranting about it.
Apple gets a pass on that because... I'm not exactly sure why.
Re:Ping & Decide! by arth1 · 2010-09-02 03:25 · Score: 1

No. A Ping is by nature real-time and direct. A search engine is pretty much the opposite, serving cached data.
Not that Bing is much better; anyone older than generation Y will associate Bing with Bing Crosby. They might have been slightly closer to the truth if they had named it Bogart...

Last.fm anyone? by MareLooke · 2010-09-02 02:53 · Score: 4, Insightful

Why would I want to use this over Last.fm which doesn't lock me into an application, is accessible from my webbrowser and has plugins for about every media player around?

It arguably doesn't provide competition to Facebook aiming at a different audience altogether, but to me, judging from the article, it seems to be swimming in much the same waters as Apple's Ping.

Re:Last.fm anyone? by theonlyholle · 2010-09-02 02:56 · Score: 2, Insightful

for the same reason that people use Internet Explorer - because it comes bundled and you don't have to deal with downloading extra software, setting up an account etc. Not because it's better, more secure or offers anything new - ease of use seems to be a lot more important than all of that.
Re:Last.fm anyone? by Imazalil · 2010-09-02 06:05 · Score: 1

Yes! someone vote up please. Glad to see that I wasn't the only one thinking that it's not Facebook they're after but Last.fm and/or what's left of MySpace. It looks like an extension of the Genius service that came in the last version, but I guess now the recomendations/aggregation won't be anonymous anymore.
Re:Last.fm anyone? by chochos · 2010-09-02 09:25 · Score: 1

Plus, I can say I like The Beatles in last.fm, as well as a lot of bands that don't have their music available in iTunes. Apple brags a lot about the millions of songs they sell in iTunes but if you're not into pop music, there are a lot of bands that just don't show up in the iTMS and so they don't exist in the Ping network.

--
Go hug some trees.

I don't give a crap... by BUL2294 · 2010-09-02 02:53 · Score: 1

Unfortunately for Apple, there are enough users like me that are interested in the technology (e.g. iPad) who don't want to be told how to use that technology (e.g. iPad). Facebook's major advantage is that it doesn't require a specific type of hardware (e.g. iPad) with only minimal requirements for software (e.g. free browser) to take advantage of their services--or require a certain level of disposable income to take advantage of. Hell, I know people who don't have a PC who go to the library to login to Facebook... Can't do that with Ping...

Sure, this will be popular with iPxxxxxxx users, but it will help create a digital divide with those who can't afford (or don't want) such devices...

--
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00

Re:I don't give a crap... by Hijacked+Public · 2010-09-02 04:03 · Score: 2, Insightful

I don't think that is unfortunate for Apple, and I doubt Apple does either. It always happens with new Apple products that Slashdot lists out the people who won't or can't buy them.
Apple clearly does not care about certain parts of the market.
Someone above called Ping a social shopping network. That is what it is. It is the logical extension of the product 'reviews' already in itunes, half of which are reviews of previous reviews and people trying to engage in arguments. Move all that crap into a social network format so people can have product recommendations delivered to them in some sort of wall format.
So people who don't own computers and go to the library to use the internet probably aren't people Apple cares about. Apple has no desire to operate in the long tail. They want comfortable margins and the economies that come along with having a narrow range of physical products that can act as portals to their digital store. No doubt they'd love their products in the hands of every person on the planet, but they aren't going to sacrifice their margins to make that happen.

--
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Re:I don't give a crap... by BUL2294 · 2010-09-02 05:10 · Score: 1

Therein lies the problem... Facebook tries to be "everything to everyone" (well, at least those with access to a computer), and does reasonably well in attempting to do that. Ping is going for a subset of that market, attempting to fracture out a niche that owns a specific brand. Nobody else will care about that market, so I don't place much faith in it...

New Apple = Old IBM

--
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Re:I don't give a crap... by rwven · 2010-09-02 05:16 · Score: 1

I just look at it and I see the rousing lack of success of google buzz...

I suspect that ping is going to be by crovira · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

strictly about music discovery and band discovery.

Steve Jobs is amazingly (obsessively? :-) focused on making up for what the record companies gave up on in the nineties, promotion.

Now that he's in a great position of power in the music industry, look for him to use "ping" to make an end-run around those same record companies which are run by accountants who treat artists and performers worse than livestock.

In return he gets to listen to great bands. (Remember, Apple in the seventies used to host music events.)

--
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.

Re:I suspect that ping is going to be by hex0D · 2010-09-02 04:32 · Score: 1

Remember in the sixties Apple used to be a record label?
They had that band that was pretty big. Bigger than Jesus, someone said..
Re:I suspect that ping is going to be by perpenso · 2010-09-02 05:09 · Score: 1

Remember, Apple in the seventies used to host music events.
I believe that was the eighties and it was Steve Wozniak's person project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_festival

Facebook might want to be concerned by dimethylxanthine · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 1

Facebook might want to be concerned.

Why - competition is a good thing, right?

lala by tscheez · 2010-09-02 02:54 · Score: 1

Isn't this what lala.com was?

--
Supplies!

Not enough artists yet... by RafaelAngel · 2010-09-02 02:55 · Score: 1

I went on there this morning and they only have a very small number of artists(Lady Gaga, Linkin Park, U2, Katy Perry, Yo-Yo Ma, Jack Johnson, Shakira, Coldplay, Mark Ronson, Taylor Swift, Dave Matthews Band, and Diddy.) I don't think this will make a dent into Facebook, but if there are a ton of artists who migrate to this then I see that this will certainly hurt myspace music.

Re:Not enough artists yet... by Tharsman · 2010-09-02 03:24 · Score: 1

Noted this in another point above but yea, that disappointed me. I was expecting them to opt-in all artists and at minimum automatically post new releases.
As it stands Apple may require the artist, manager or studios to handle the artist page completely. If they get lazy or give up on the artist, we stop getting updates.

I use facebook a lot... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:00 · Score: 0

And maybe I'd get in on this if iTunes wasn't a horrendous piece of software that I no longer allow on any of my machines.

CmdrTaco at it again by alexhs · 2010-09-02 03:00 · Score: 1

Ron Miller: Could Apple's announcement about Ping [...] be Apple's social networking trojan horse?
CmdrTaco: Of course it is.

Ah, the great and definitive insights of CmdrTaco ;)

CmdrTaco: No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

By the way, it's not. Ping maybe, but Apple's annoucement about Ping, definitely not.

--
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.

Only in iTunes Store by forand · 2010-09-02 03:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

Ping is only available in the iTunes Store proper, so you cannot 'like' a song, artist or album unless you are browsing the store. I don't have loads of time in the day to browse the store to build up likes for all the things I currently own, so whatever they get is only going to be based on newly purchased items. That may be good for their marketing team but it is lame as a social space.

Re:Only in iTunes Store by czmax · 2010-09-02 03:09 · Score: 2, Insightful

Not to worry ... I'm sure iTunes will automatically 'like' songs based on what you listen to on your home machine. You needn't lift a finger to be an active member of ping. Oddly they could be creating a fully automated social networking site - no direct user involvement needed.
Re:Only in iTunes Store by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:58 · Score: 0

When I activated Ping in my iTunes last night, it scanned through my music collection and posted the most LISTENED to albums in my "like" space - regardless of origin - purchased, ripped, downloaded, whatever. True, you cannot manually "like" something in your own collection, but I imagine that over time, the automated "like" space will change according to your listening habits.
Re:Only in iTunes Store by sootman · 2010-09-02 06:47 · Score: 1

Even so, if it's empty today, imagine how full it will be in a year, even if people only every use it when they're buying stuff. The first match I found on a basic search ( http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/06/itunes-sells-6-billion-songs-and-other-fun-stats-from-the-philnote/ ) says Apple sold a billion songs from June 2008 to January 2009. A billion songs in six months, a year and a half ago. They're probably doing a billion songs every 4 months, maybe a billion per quarter by now.* Also I've heard reports, and wouldn't be surprised, if it can build a list of what you have--same way it can download album art, even for stuff your ripped or downloaded.
I'm at the age where I, too, "don't have time" for all these things kids are doing, but somehow Facebook and the rest get along fine without people like us.
* I just remembered Apple's PR library. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/02/25itunes.html So they sold 4 billion songs in the 13 months from 1/2009 to 2/1010. Assuming they're growing, even at a small rate, they're above a billion songs per quarter by now. Let's pretend a quarter is 100 days--that's TEN MILLION SONGS PER DAY. It won't take very long for Ping to fill with data. Even if one user in a thousand uses it, that's 10,000 entries per day.
That said, I agree with your conclusion. This won't set the social world on fire--twitter and FB have nothing to worry about here--but it'll be gangbusters for marketing.

--
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.

the 275 million people who do by crovira · 2010-09-02 03:01 · Score: 1

have iTunes installed don't give a fuck about you or your pity.

These people have probably bought Office for Christ's sake. They obviously don't care about bloatware of wasted CPU cycles.

Now can we stop sticking our noses up Steve Job's butt and get back to real news?

--
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.

Re:the 275 million people who do by meloneg · 2010-09-02 03:52 · Score: 1

These people have probably bought Office for Christ's sake. They obviously don't care about bloatware of wasted CPU cycles.
Hmm. In my experience, MS Office is considerably less bloated than OpenOffice. Interesting choice of straw man.
Re:the 275 million people who do by Mongoose+Disciple · 2010-09-02 03:59 · Score: 1

These people have probably bought Office for Christ's sake. They obviously don't care about bloatware of wasted CPU cycles.
Hey now. Office doesn't consume nearly the memory or CPU on my machine that iTunes does. Only Eclipse with a handful of plug-ins or older versions of Firefox are even really competitive with iTunes in that respect.
Which gets sadder the more I think about it.
Re:the 275 million people who do by arth1 · 2010-09-02 04:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

And 275 billion flies can't be wrong either: eat shit.
Argumentum ad populum should never be taken as a serious argument; the chance of someone being a victim of hype and groupthink is proportional to how strongly he defends his choices.

160 million users on day one? by Posting=!Working · 2010-09-02 03:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

iTunes might have 160 million users, but that doesn't mean they are ever going to use Ping. According to this logic, Google kicked facebook's ass with Buzz. There's a facebook app on all the iProducts. Every computer that can run iTunes has a browser that can access facebook. I open iTunes to rip a CD or listen to music, not connect with the rest of the world. I use my web browser for that. There's no compelling reason to switch. They'll get a bunch to sign up for Ping to see the "exclusive photos" and never use any other part of it.

"Jack Johnson had displayed from his latest tour and an exclusive video Lady Gaga made for her fans. This kind of direct access to artists is more powerful than Facebook Fan pages" ....unless the artist just posts the pictures and video to facebook. Comparing it to a facebook page run by a fan is just stupid. Bands are free to post whatever they want on facebook under their own page. Apple isn't offering anything new here, "exclusive content" is the AOL path to success.

Many people went to facebook because their friends are on facebook. There is not going to be a mass exodus from facebook to Ping, there isn't any reason to switch.

--
This sentence no verb.

Microsoft Lawsuit by psergiu · 2010-09-02 03:06 · Score: 2, Interesting

I think Microsoft will sue Apple because of the name.

As they sued Mike Rowe Software for it's name being too similar to theirs.

--
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.

Re:Microsoft Lawsuit by StuartHankins · 2010-09-02 06:40 · Score: 1

One thing more powerful than Microsoft's lawyers is Apple's lawyers. I think the only thing more powerful than that is IBM's lawyers, the dreaded Nazgul.

The days of Apple cowering in fear of Microsoft are over... such a strange time to be alive.

I wonder.... by h2okies · 2010-09-02 03:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

c:\>ping www.apple.com

Pinging www.apple.com [96.16.93.15] with 32 bytes
Request timed out. No Linux client
Request timed out. No mobile client
Request timed out. No universal browser access
Request timed out. Forced use of 80MB client software

Ping statistics for 96.16.93.15:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% fail)

yeah thats what i thought...

--
Beware the Lollipop of Mediocrity, Lick it once and you suck forever.

Re:I wonder.... by mldi · 2010-09-02 03:26 · Score: 1

Is there a +1 "creative" mod?

--
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
Re:I wonder.... by mr100percent · 2010-09-02 03:54 · Score: 1

There is a very good mobile client, it just runs on iOS devices.
If you want to complain so much, go use Amazon's store. Apple doesn't want your business and is still #1
Re:I wonder.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:09 · Score: 0

80Mb? You are being optimistic. The full iTunes 10 install is edging towards 194Mb of HD space.
Re:I wonder.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:45 · Score: 0

worked for me
$ ping www.apple.com
PING www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net (96.6.237.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 96.6.237.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=4.393 ms
64 bytes from 96.6.237.15: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=4.392 ms
64 bytes from 96.6.237.15: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=4.655 ms
^C
--- www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 4.392/4.480/4.655/0.124 ms
Re:I wonder.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:54 · Score: 0

Oh, come on - that's not a real Apple address. Apple owns the 17 block.
OT, but a cool tidbit I found out when I interviewed there: Apple doesn't believe in NAT, at least not for it's internal network. Since they own a class A, they just give every machine a routable address. Simplifies things quite a bit.
Re:I wonder.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 07:20 · Score: 0

Shoulda' been modded +1 Ironic

c:\> ping www.apple.com
Pinging www.apple.com [96.16.93.15] with 32 bytes
Request timed out. No Linux client
Re:I wonder.... by PintoPiman · 2010-09-02 08:16 · Score: 1

No Linux client, no mobile, no browser, more than 80MB? Lame.
Re:I wonder.... by konohitowa · 2010-09-02 10:43 · Score: 1

Awesome. Thanks. I was hoping someone would make that connection.

Its already a name for a common util by Viol8 · 2010-09-02 03:13 · Score: 1

which has been around since the 70s and allows you to check if a remote host is alive. Why apple couldn't have picked a different name god knows.

Re:Its already a name for a common util by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:13 · Score: 0

So how long before Apple sends the authors a C&D letter?
Re:Its already a name for a common util by arth1 · 2010-09-02 04:19 · Score: 1

Since December 1983, to be more precise.
Re:Its already a name for a common util by arth1 · 2010-09-02 04:25 · Score: 1

Unless Apple's technology can now penetrate the veil of death, that won't do much good.
His web site is still up, though, and is an interesting read:
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/

And this is why people should hope it succeeds by Crash+Culligan · 2010-09-02 03:22 · Score: 3, Informative

Disclaimer: I'm using iTunes 10 right now. Make of that what you will.

There's a lot to hate about Ping, mostly that it's what I like to call a "Potempkin Shopping Village of the Damned." It's there for little more than to allow people to show off their musical tastes and share with their friends. The fact that once you've shared a favorite song with your friends they can listen to a snippet and buy it on the spot <sarcasm class="eyeroll pshaw">is purely coincidental, I'm sure.</sarcasm> It's using the concept of "social networking" in a way that's so utterly cynical it's shocking, and we've got some primo cynics around here.

So yeah, evil evil evil. Insert as many "fanbois" as you think are necessary after that. (If you stick in two or more "gay"s, though, you're projecting.)

But then, as crovira points out, there's that bit where Mr. Jobs mentioned "discovery." That's the tilt. It's also where Ping could redeem itself if the users are judicious in its application. Yes, Lady Gaga and U2 and Yo Yo Ma and Katy Perry and Linkin Park and U2 (apparently, Apple really likes U2) are featured on the front page in their own box. Think of that as the sponsored advetising. The really important box is on every user's profile page, in the top right corner. This is where each user gets to recommend ten songs that exemplify their own musical tastes. Click one of those, a pop-up comes up allowing you to sample the tunes on that album, go to that album's page, buy it, review it, etc. In that space, artists like Voltaire, Abney Park, and Lemon Demon can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Roger Waters and Madonna, and could even win.

--
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.

Re:And this is why people should hope it succeeds by cgomezr · 2010-09-02 04:02 · Score: 1

The really important box is on every user's profile page, in the top right corner. This is where each user gets to recommend ten songs that exemplify their own musical tastes. Click one of those, a pop-up comes up allowing you to sample the tunes on that album, go to that album's page, buy it, review it, etc. In that space, artists like Voltaire, Abney Park, and Lemon Demon can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Roger Waters and Madonna, and could even win.
Spotify does that. It's even on the top right corner, too.
Re:And this is why people should hope it succeeds by mmaniaci · 2010-09-02 04:54 · Score: 1

First of all, I love your use of the sarcasm tag.

Secondly, I hate to say that your outlook is probably optimistic at best. Sharing music tastes is great and all, but you can already do that on MySpace and Facebook. If that is all Ping really is, then absolutely nobody will be using it.

P.S. All those bands you mentioned suck. I would never use Ping just because I'd have to see Bono and those absolute doushe-fucks from Linkin Park every time I loaded it up. Ewwww...
Re:And this is why people should hope it succeeds by mmaniaci · 2010-09-02 04:55 · Score: 1

I forgot the tag on the post script. Its class was "anecdotal flaimbait."
Re:And this is why people should hope it succeeds by Piata · 2010-09-02 05:27 · Score: 1

To me it sounds like a shitty Last.FM clone that's harder to use and has a smaller user base. The fact that you need to access it through iTunes 10 makes it all the worse.
Re:And this is why people should hope it succeeds by eXFeLoN · 2010-09-02 10:18 · Score: 0

Last.FM. Sorry Voltaire, Abney Park and Lemon Demon riding in the latest Gundam suits couldn't defeat Roger Waters. And I don't even care for Roger Waters that much, but I can see it's true. And have you seen Madonna in person? She's got albino leather skin at least 2 inches thick. I doubt she'd notice a direct attack by Lemon Demon unless they happened to push a latino love boy out of her field of vision...

--
My other sig is a knife wound.

Was iFacebook already taken? by stenus · 2010-09-02 03:30 · Score: 1

Ping??? Really??? How will they sue all the companies already trademarking that name?

protocol mismatch by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:30 · Score: 0

To the person who labeled this post with !tcpping, a ping is sent over ICMP, not TCP. Just saying.

ping pongs? by oliverthered · 2010-09-02 03:31 · Score: 0, Troll

apple
a-pull
a-poll
a-p-holl
a-p-hole

pee in you a-hole.

steve jobs

steven jobs
stephan jobs
stephand jobs
steph hand jobs
stiff hand jobs pees in your a-hole.

stiff hand jabs pee in your a-hole.

i-phone
i-phoney

I, phoney stiff hand, jabs pee in your a-hole.

i-fad
i-prod

can you flash-a mac?

Mac OsX

Mac Osex
Mac 0 Sex

Mac = zero sex.

--
thank God the internet isn't a human right.

Failure? Think twice. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:35 · Score: 0

And yet again Slashdoters show a complete lack of understanding the general market. To all those saying that this will fail because it is tied to iTunes and Facebook has nothing to worry about, just note that iTunes *already* has 120 million accounts, which is about 1/5 that of Facebook. Now these can all be connected together - overnight. Not bad, even if only a portion of them subscribes to Ping. Moreover, almost all of these accounts have a valid credit card number associated with them and a proven ability to pay for goods, whereas most Facebook accounts have nothing like this.

It doesn't mean the success is guaranteed, but it's a very real long-term threat to Facebook.

not ot or flamebate or troll. by oliverthered · 2010-09-02 03:36 · Score: 1

article title clearly mentions backdoor.

ping is clearly intended to be a backdoor beauty.

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thank God the internet isn't a human right.

Re:speaking of backdoors by clang_jangle · 2010-09-02 03:37 · Score: 0, Troll

Yeah um, don't be informed by my sig or anything. Dumbass.

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Caveat Utilitor

Off by default by fotbr · 2010-09-02 03:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

At least apple has this part right, for now.

Ping - prior art. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:45 · Score: 0

A better name would be iPong.

adoption: 180 million by goombah99 · 2010-09-02 03:51 · Score: 1

Ping can claim 180 million user IDs. Sure most of them are not active. One can say the same about facebook as well. At least the apple one's are unique and probably actually represent more than one person (families usually have just one) where as facebook has multiple ids per person sometimes.

That does not indicate usage but it does indicate that the inertial barrier to entry and required critical mass is already overcome for this to be considered ubiquitously available. Social networks are useless if your freinds are not likely to bother joing that service. But if they are already joined and then you invite them to your circle, its easy.

But as for being a backdoor, this is an odd question. Backdoor to what. THe objective of facebook is more facebook. But apple sells computrs and a computer ecosystem based on ease of use. Ping is only valuable to apple if it sells more apples. Okay maybe they make a few bucks on the music too. But it's a step away from their bussiness model to suppose that getting into the social network bussiness is their objective. It only makes sense I think as a me too. THey dont' want to be caught with iTV and Itunes that lacks a social network and discover that android or windows 7 has one.

the other thing is the timing is great for this for markeing the ipod touch. namely that video conferencing capability. Everyone who uses it reports the same thing. It's not that you can't do video conferecing with skyp[e or something, it's that it's so easy--provided you belong to club cupertino. With the ipod this is going to be something kids use all the time I think. video calls from your room. what a great time to layer on what kids love: social networks and making sure they listen to the same trendy pop music. It's a dynamite combo.

thus the point is to sell more ipods. and this nails the demogrpahic.

--
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.

Re:speaking of backdoors by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 03:51 · Score: 0

Aren't you supposed to be swilling beer and fapping to pr0n, cretin?

Your Ping is broken by SuperKendall · 2010-09-02 03:54 · Score: 1

Request timed out. No mobile client

If you had been paying attention you would know ping also works on iOS devices too.

But what's a hundred million mobile devices more or less?

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"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley

Re:Your Ping is broken by h2okies · 2010-09-02 05:54 · Score: 1

only that between the itouch(if that counts as a mobile client kinda hard to access internet without wifi) and iphone only since those are the only itunes enable mobile clients im aware of of a smart phone market of what? 700MM to 1BB? and total cell phone market of what 3BB+? yeah the no mobile client statement holds...so wake me when the BB, android and symbian all have Ping client....and the other 90% of the market can play along...

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Beware the Lollipop of Mediocrity, Lick it once and you suck forever.
Re:Your Ping is broken by Guy+Harris · 2010-09-04 18:54 · Score: 1

If you had been paying attention you would know ping also works on iOS devices too.
If you mean the command-line ping, it only works on jailbroken iOS devices.

If you hype it, they will come by countertrolling · 2010-09-02 03:55 · Score: 1, Insightful

The "privacy" options are there to protect you from your friends, not the company or advertisers

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For justice, we must go to Don Corleone

Why do people use facebook? by HockeyPuck · 2010-09-02 03:59 · Score: 1

Because all of their friends/family use it, since all of my friends/family are already on Facebook, what is the incentive for me to switch to a system that none of my friends/family are using. How many people are on multiple social networks? Most early adopters of social networks switched from myspace to facebook due to a multitude of reasons, but the number one was that in their opinion FB was a better product.

Now if Apple can convince the majority of users that they have a better product (in that FB was much much better than myspace) then you might be able to swing enough people to achieve critical mass.

Ping is nothing like Facebook by SuperKendall · 2010-09-02 04:03 · Score: 1

Facebook doesn't need to worry, because Ping is not a general purpose social network. It's not Twitter or FoursSquare or Facebook or Brightkite.

Instead it's a social network focused solely on media, mostly music. It's at the same time more casual but more focused. Someone who really cares about music a lot might find it more useful than most social networking sites, while at the same time still keeping up on Facebook.

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"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley

it was 1999 by AnAdventurer · 2010-09-02 04:04 · Score: 1

I remember EVERYONE said Apple was domed, DOMED to fail (then in 2001 they launched the ibluggghaPOD). I glanced at TFA but the term TROJAN seems out of place....As in it's not a Trojan if they see it coming, it's just a funny car full of clowns.

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6.8SPC TR of 550, l xwind at 6, drift rt at 26" drops 77". AT has 503 ft-lbs at 1403 fps. FT 0.86

Re:it was 1999 by blair1q · 2010-09-02 06:15 · Score: 1

Actually they were doomed to fail until Microsoft invested something like $135 million in them to foster development of the Mac version of MS Office.
Since then, they've been doom-free.
Re:it was 1999 by AnAdventurer · 2010-09-02 07:41 · Score: 1

Wasn't that 98 or 99? I guess they used the money from MS to build that first round of iPods.

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6.8SPC TR of 550, l xwind at 6, drift rt at 26" drops 77". AT has 503 ft-lbs at 1403 fps. FT 0.86
Re:it was 1999 by Stupendoussteve · 2010-09-02 11:04 · Score: 1

Microsoft, among other things, was paying for Apple to end a lawsuit over stolen Quicktime code that Intel/MS used to speed up video on Windows. They paid a lot more than 150million, that was just the bit made public.
Sauce

Jobs is a jerk, Apple is evil, Ping is stupid by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:07 · Score: 0

Dumb name for a stupid idea. Another lame attempt to steal from the people. IMHO, Apple is completely evil and now exists solely due to greed and elitism.

Steve Jobs, how many people are suffering because of your greed?

Not really by tthomas48 · 2010-09-02 04:07 · Score: 1

Any social network that doesn't have ALL the users is not going to be a threat to Facebook. If Ping doesn't run on non-Apple mobile devices, Linux machines, or older hardware then I don't see the threat.

iTunes fee based? by hellfire · 2010-09-02 04:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

It is likely that most of the social networking stuff with apple will be tied to me.com or iTunes. Both of these are fee based services

iTunes is not fee based. Everything, including Ping is free until you download something, like a song or a game. Facebook has something to be worried about. Facebook's revenue stream is eyeballs on ads and if people spend more time in Ping, Facebook is losing.

Since Ping is free, the rest of your discussion doesn't make any sense. What Apple is doing is basically creating a social network, for free, to encourage sales of music through the iTunes store. Apple's vision for the longest time has been to continue to come up with more tools that encourage you to buy content. We used to think of the iTunes music store as a vehicle to drive hardware sales. It once was, but it's so big now in terms of volume I don't believe that any more. They are trying to get people to buy content so that they make money, pure and simple.

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"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

tried it by ascari · 2010-09-02 04:18 · Score: 1

fritz:~$ ping apple.com

PING apple.com (17.112.152.57) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from eg-apple.apple.com (17.112.152.57): icmp_seq=1 ttl=236 time=95.2 ms

64 bytes from eg-apple.apple.com (17.112.152.57): icmp_seq=2 ttl=236 time=95.8 ms

Not quite like facebook, but almost as exciting!

Apple's Jobs says 'onerous terms' kept Facebook ti by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 04:32 · Score: 0

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/02/apples_jobs_says_onerous_terms_kept_facebook_ties_out_of_ping.html

Last.fm by Iburnaga · 2010-09-02 04:35 · Score: 1

Next thing you know they'll be buying out last.fm.

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iburnaga.blogspot.com

With a name like "Ping" by thewils · 2010-09-02 04:58 · Score: 1

I can't believe they won't get sued by the manufacturer of golf equipment with the same name.

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Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.

Re:With a name like "Ping" by maxwell+demon · 2010-09-02 06:04 · Score: 1

I'm sure Apple will have no problem to sign a contract to never produce any golf equipment.

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The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Re:With a name like "Ping" by BBTaeKwonDo · 2010-09-02 10:46 · Score: 1

I did a search for "Ping" on the USPTO.gov site (linked from http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/index.jsp) and got 353 hits, so there's plenty more than golf equipment. Apple's lawyers almost certainly did the same search, though, and they're not worried. Trademarks are generally limited to a particular type of good, and golf equipment and music software are not the same market.

Re:speaking of backdoors by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 05:00 · Score: 0

Oh sorry, didn't see the FreeBSD stuff. In that case, shouldn't you be blowing your 2 boyfriends now?

Ping command largely unknown ... by perpenso · 2010-09-02 05:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

Anyway "ping" already has some well established (and very specific) meaning in the computer world. I'm surprised Apple would choose that specific word for their newest gimmick. Especially since it is already loaded with such uncool, geeky history.

"Ping" has an established meaning among a very small segment of computer users. A group that is quite capable of recognizing social networking use versus networking diagnostic use. Trademarks are assigned in specific product/service classes and social networking and computer system administration are probably sufficiently distant. For example "facebook" had to be trademarked in multiple service classes: entertainment services, technological services, social services, ... FWIW "ping" is trademarked in various computer networking and service contexts and these marks are unrelated to the unix command.

Among the general population "ping" may be understood to mean getting someone's attention but if asked where the word came from you are probably more likely to get a reference to submarines and sonar than the unix utility. Wiki is merely an example of written by techies for techies, a convenient place to look up technical details. Non-technical use of "ping" does not need a reference page hence the wiki bias. Given the widely accepted definition of getting someone's attention Apple did a pretty good job at naming this feature.

Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by maxwell+demon · 2010-09-02 05:45 · Score: 1

But how should the general public know that it's an Apple product if they don't put an "i" at the beginning? :-)

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The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by geminidomino · 2010-09-02 06:12 · Score: 1

"Ping" has an established meaning among a very small segment of computer users.
That was true before online gaming went mainstream. Now even the most ungeeky (even female!) computer users tend to connect "ping" with "latency" (even if the word "latency" still makes their eyes glaze over).
Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by perpenso · 2010-09-02 06:58 · Score: 1

"Ping" has an established meaning among a very small segment of computer users.
That was true before online gaming went mainstream. Now even the most ungeeky (even female!) computer users tend to connect "ping" with "latency" (even if the word "latency" still makes their eyes glaze over).
While the percentage of online gamers who are aware of the networking definition of ping may be greater than that of computer users in general I think it would still be a small segment of the total online gamers population. Its more likely the average online gamer just knows how to interpret a game's onscreen latency indicator like they know how to interpret cell phone bars.

However if we go with your "ping" associated with "latency" argument the name still works for Apple. When you get pinged by someone else regarding a song you are late in hearing about it, just like you are late in getting those gaming packets.
Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by sarysa · 2010-09-02 06:58 · Score: 1

"Ping" has an established meaning among a very small segment of computer users. [...]
Don't forget the large segment of PC gamers. Console games typically do not show ping but virtually all PC games do.
I can only imagine the annoying trademark battles to come starting ~3 years from now...

--
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by perpenso · 2010-09-02 07:48 · Score: 1

"Ping" has an established meaning among a very small segment of computer users. [...]
Don't forget the large segment of PC gamers. Console games typically do not show ping but virtually all PC games do. I can only imagine the annoying trademark battles to come starting ~3 years from now...
The general definition of ping is about getting attention. To most gamers a ping time, if it even goes by that term in the game, indicates how long it takes to get another machine's attention. They rarely know about a ping command even *when* a game has a built-in console offering one.
Re:Ping command largely unknown ... by riT-k0MA · 2010-09-02 19:31 · Score: 1

PiNg

Bing? by blair1q · 2010-09-02 06:13 · Score: 1

Didn't Microsoft just... OHHhhhhhhhh... I see what Steve Jobs did, there.

It's Funtastic!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 07:18 · Score: 0

Bing! without the beer gut!

Re:speaking of backdoors by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 07:38 · Score: 0

It's always amused me how homophobic most trolls are. You guys do know that homophobia is a classic sign of a closeted gay right?

more like: by Funk_dat69 · 2010-09-02 08:00 · Score: 1

ping www.apple.com
PING e3191.c.akamaiedge.net (184.84.45.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 184.84.45.15: CEASE AND DESIST. PING IS A TRADEMARKED NAME OWNED BY APPLE, INC.

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FUNK!

Goodbye Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 08:10 · Score: 0

As a software developer and a multi-product Apple device owner I can say that their software has slid downhill so much in the past year that my iPhone 3G runs like crap and iTunes has become a serious hassle. Apple is rapidly losing my desire to use their products and I will likely not be purchasing another in the future.

Apple, stop trying to one-up and stick to making solid products or you will lose me forever.

Re:speaking of backdoors by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-02 18:17 · Score: 0

although its always best to avoid the trolls, you're post was decent. I dont think anyone who chose to use product X would mind if you mocked the crappy ads and CEO peculiarities right? Can we not all talk of "the creep Palm chick" without THAT being bashing too?

Ping might finally kill MySpace by dwightk · 2010-09-03 00:18 · Score: 1

that's the good news

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Like anyone can even know that

Re:speaking of backdoors by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-03 02:11 · Score: 0

Many of us who use Apple are looking forward to this period of "kewl image" marketing to run its course. We're not all hipsters, we don't all buy a Mac because of image. OS X is an extremely powerful OS. The mistake a lot of geeks make when first using a Mac is not investigating the CLI. That's where all the real power is. The GUI apps tend to be simplified and streamlined so non-geeks can admin their own machines without help, but a lot of geeks see that and think "oh, it's very limited and toy-like". In fact all the options and abilities are there just as in any UNIX-like system. You just have to open a terminal and read some reference materials -- the "Missing Manual" series is really good.

But we always have these trolls and bashers, no matter what you use. These are the same people that in high school were all like, "what you lookin' at, *FAG*?!". Mindless idiots just looking for excuses to spew hostility.

Want to cross any more lines by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-03 05:49 · Score: 0

Sounds like Apple is heading in the M$ realm of antitrust behavior... shock horror ;)

can see the suits now
- Bing vs. Ping
- Myspace vs. Apple
amongst others...

iTunes 101: How to set up Ping by zholy · 2010-09-05 15:52 · Score: 1

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10, iTunes 101: How to set up Ping http://best-video-dvd-converter.blogspot.com/2010/09/itunes-101-how-to-set-up-ping.html

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Ping Could Be Apple's Social Networking Backdoor?

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