One of the big announcements at Apple’s event today was Ping, the music social network that Apple has baked into iTunes. But it’s not just on iTunes for the computer, it’s also a part of iTunes on the iPhone and iPod touch. This will be a part of the new iOS 4.1 release which is going out to developers right now, and should be out for consumers next week.
In the demo area after the event, Apple had a bunch of iPod touches loaded with iOS 4.1, so we got to play around with it. It’s a pretty slick experience on the device because it’s so simple. Below find some pictures of how it works.
Update: It looks like Apple magically rolled out Ping on iOS iTunes without any update needed! Disregard the part about iOS 4.1 — it’s simply any iOS 4 device.
As you can see, Ping is the new middle button on the iTunes app itself. The main screen that loads when you click on it is the Activity stream, which is populated with music choice updates from the people you follow (both friends and artists).
This account happens to follow 27 people. Only artists are shown here, but again, this People tab includes both artists and your friends.
Here’s a page for an artist showing their most recent activity on Ping. Arists can upload pictures (such as from tours) and videos to this feed. Obviously, there is the nice one-click purchase of music.
You can “Like” or “Comment” on any item in this feed.
The “My Profile” tab is obviously the profile tied to this account (in this case, one Erin Steed). She has 0 followers (sad), but it’s not clear if that’s her own choice — Ping has settings so you can can be followed by anyone, have to accept followers, or be followed by no one.
Fairly standard looking comment page — almost Facebook-like (the iPhone version).
Here’s the one-click-to-buy option in the stream.
You can also stream music previews (only 30 seconds still).
Here’s a regular old album page on iTunes — but as you can see there is now the Like and Post button below the main info.
Here’s what comes up when you click on post (a place to comment if you choose).
And here’s what happens when you post — it goes right over to your profile (and in your followers’ streams).
Obviously, all of this info syncs with iTunes on the computer and vice versa.