Apple unveil Ping social network, but no cloud service

02 September 2010

Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday unveiled Ping, a new “social network for music” integrated with iTunes 10, at a San Francisco conference yesterday.

Described as “Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes” with an emphasis on discovery and recommendation, the new network allows artists and users to follow friends and post comments/songs/ photos/videos on their profile. It also formulates custom albums and singles charts based on what you and your friends like. iTunes 10 is available globally today.

Coldplay’s Chris Martin joined Jobs on stage to perform a solo version of their global hit Viva La Vida, which was used in an Apple commercial, and a new song called Wedding Bells.

"This is a new song, I've been working on it. It's called "Coldplay 2.6," Martin told the crowd, as reported by Rolling Stone. "It has a lot of new features. It features seven different kinds of chords. Even a new one that our closest rivals have no idea about."

Indicative of where’s the industry’s going, Jobs also announced Apple would remove the compact disc image from its iTunes logo and switch to a blue circle.

What the conference didn’t reveal was long-awaited, highly-anticipated news on iTunes’ ‘cloud-based’ streaming technology. That’s the big one.