It looks like some of the rumors regarding iTunes that came out close to the event on Wednesday were true.  Apple has turned it’s attention to social networking, and has built it right into iTunes, making it almost impossible for many to avoid.

The new social network is called Ping, and it seeks to draw you together with your friends, favorite musicians and strangers through music.  To do this, Apple added Ping as a tab in the iTunes app for desktops as well as iOS devices.  The design of the service takes a few cues from Facebook, but also works in the realm of iTunes.  You can comment on any items in your news feed, as well as “Like” anything on the feed and albums on iTunes.  On your profile you can choose three genres that you enjoy (though unfortunately it follows the iTunes store model, so there’s no choices for techno, metal or indie, just to name a few), and it can show a collection of eight tops songs.  Those top songs don’t have to be there, Ping can choose them for you, or you can choose them.  If Ping chooses the songs for you, it only selects them based on songs you bought from iTunes. {Apple}

Therein lies the biggest fault of Ping: it doesn’t really take into account people who buy music from other services.  You might want to share your music with friends, but if you buy music off Amazon MP3, BeatPort, or even (gasp!) physical media, you need to go through extra steps to share it on Ping.

Ping does seem to address a problem that exists: sharing music with your friends.  It doesn’t always work through other social networks like Facebook or Twitter, nor in person.  Ping helps bring your music social network right next to where (Apple hopes) you buy your music.  At least it brings it to where you probably store your music, even if you pirate all of it.

More recently, rumors are that there could be a new nano or shuffle with a small touchscreen.  The rumors stem from a photo showing what are supposed to be cases for the new iPod nano and iPod touch.  The cases show a back camera for the iPod touch similar to that of the iPhone, but with the same curved back of the current touches.  The “nano 6G” case, however, is completely different.  It’s a small square with a rectangle cut out of the back, and placements for a 30-pin dock connector, and volume control buttons.  If the case proves to be true, it could explain the 1.7-inch touchscreen that was supposedly heading for Apple a few months back {iLounge}.  It could possibly be a touchscreen that simply has access to music, as it wouldn’t make sense to further fragment iOS apps with a small screen.  Or, it could be completely bunk.  We saw cases for iPod touches last year that featured a camera that was obviously not included in the final product.  Apple is so fiercely protective of pre-launch products that they didn’t release the design of the iPhone 4 to case makers before  launch, and it could be doing the same now, with makers just going based on rumors.

Another, seemingly more safe rumor is that Apple will be making iTunes more social in the Wednesday announcement.  While previous rumors said Apple is working on an iTunes cloud solution, the new rumors say that the company could, instead, be working on making it easier to recommend media to friends {The Unofficial Apple Weblog}.  The idea is likely that people are often influenced by their friends when it comes to any sort of media, and iTunes would be able to show you what your friends are listening to, playing, using and watching without having to go to another social network or (gasp!) asking them in person.  Seems like a logical step, even if iTunes cloud-streaming would be a nicer feature to have.

"Lalalalala, not listening"

Prince, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, proclaimed that his new album “20Ten” will not be sold online.  The reason Prince won’t sell his music online?  “The Internet is completely over.”  The pop star also pointed out that online distributors “won’t pay me in advance for it, and they complain when they don’t get it.” {Mashable}

Rather than distribute the album online, Prince will release the album to readers of the Mirror and other print publications in Europe.  Surely that’ll work, because we all know how well print publications are doing at the moment. Or perhaps it could help increase sales of the publications that have Prince’s album packed in.  In the US, the album will be sold more traditionally through Warner Bros., presumably in physical form only.

In 2007, Prince banned the use of his music on sites like YouTube, Pirate Bay and eBay, going so far as to levy lawsuits against the sites.  It wouldn’t be all that surprising if his new album shows up on the Pirate Bay or other sites shortly after release, just to spite the artist.  Not that we would ever condone pirating music.

Perhaps Prince’s next album will be released on 8-track and Betamax (for you retro video lovers) only so nobody can easily get it online.  With the way the world is moving, saying the Internet is over is just silly. He’s still a legend, but the internet is a big, flashing sign of the times.

Some of these things do not belong

The immediate assumption would be that someone’s convinced a lot of people to buy a bunch of $4.99 books with “Dragon Ball” and “Case Closed” artwork on them.  In a way, that would be correct.  However, rather than take the time to sell people on the merits of manga, someone actually hacked into users accounts and bought the apps that way.  With that, 42 of Thuat Nguyen’s apps occupied the top 50 apps in the category.  Some have said that their accounts have been charged hundreds of dollars for apps that they never purchased. {Engadget}

The apparently Vietnamese apps have since disappeared from the App Store, restoring order to the Top Selling Books app list.  Well, as much order as there can be with “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” now at number 10 rather than number 34 as it was during the problem. Not even the pros can overshadow the demand from Twihards.  Apple isn’t saying anything about the issue publicly, so it’s uncertain what will end up happening to the app developer, the hacker (assuming they are two different people), and those whose accounts were hacked.  In the meantime, if you use to iTunes Store, go to you account and check your Purchase History to make sure you weren’t affected.

Spotify, the European music streaming service is adding some new plans, as it launches into a new country.  Unfortunately for Americans, that country is the Netherlands.  The plans, however, might be another indication that the service is looking into the US market.

The new plans are called Spotify Unlimited and Spotify Open.  Spotify Unlimited will cost users £5, or the equivalent thereof, for unlimited, ad-free streaming to a single computer, not unlike how MOG works for US customers.  Spotify Open doesn’t need any payment or even credit card information.  It includes 20 hours of listening per month to anyone that lives within a country that supports Spotify {Spotify}.

The problem with Spotify, for would-be American users is that despite constant promises from Spotify and it’s purchase of US servers in March, there is still no planned launch date.  We’ve already gone through a few this year alone ranging from “early 2010” to “Spring,” “Q3” and the latest “before the end of the year” {Wired}.  As Wired points out the new plans are similar to the sort of deals that the RIAA approves for other services such as MOG.  Meanwhile, MOG is working on a mobile app that could possibly be similar to Spotify, Rhapsody continues it’s service, and rumors are flying of Apple announcing an iTunes streaming service sometime soon {Gizmodo}.

If Spotify fails to get in the US market soon and either MOG or Apple come out with high-quality mobile apps that do the same thing, the chance could be easily lost.  Despite it’s social features, Spotify likely can’t win unless it has a presence before Apple expands their iTunes offerings.