More than one million iTunes users signed up to Ping in the first 48 hours after Apple launched its new social network for music.
“One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.”
Ping lets you follow favourite artists, post your thoughts and opinions and list your favorite albums and songs and the concerts you plan to attend, while sharing your profile with other users.
Unfortunately — though inevitably — that has attracted the attention of spammers, according to security firm Sophos.
The lack of filtering of comments and the ability to sign up without any form of identification means that some artists pages have been flooded with fraudulent posts.
“If half as many free iPads, iPhones and iPods were being given away as Ping comments might lead you to believe, there would be no reason to bother with going to an Apple store,” said Sophos’ Chester Wisniewski.
This is an issue Apple needs to address, as it is obviously keen to promote Ping as the most significant new element in the new look iTunes.
While much has been made of the new look and its all-grey icons and vertical traffic light buttons, two less obvious changes have now come to light. Somewhat surprisingly, it is not possible to create ringtones with iTunes 10, with all references removed, save the option to sync existing ringtones with an iPhone. Ringtones can still be created on the iPhone itself, or on a Mac using software such as iToner.
Apple has also dropped, or inadvertently broken, support for Automator. Workflows do not run and iTunes actions do not appear when creating new workflows. Doug’s AppleScript website has details of how to restore Automator support and also how to change a number of hidden preferences, including restoring horizontal traffic lights.
