Unfair though it may be to complain a calendar week - sure-enough overhaul , kick I shall and indicate that Apple ’s Ping — the iTunes social networking inspection and repair in iTunes 10 and on some iOS devices — is , in its infant course , unfulfilling . Like so :
No clear home base . When you flick the Ping picture in iTunes ’ Source inclination , where should you first go ? Recent Activity ? My visibility ? mass ? Featured ? It ’s unclear .
hard to audition others . If I desire to feel out if users are worth following I first have to get hold them ( know their names or find them because they follow me ) and then decide whether they have anything to offer me . The only room to tell is to click through to their pages and coup d’oeil at the 10 album / track each likes . That ’s more oeuvre than I ’m unforced to go through .
Because this album isn’t at the iTunes Store I can’t tell you how awesome it is.
No iMix support.iTunes admit the iMix feature , which rent you create a playlist and share that playlist with the world . Yet there ’s no choice for sharing that play list with your Ping followers . I can think of few salutary ways to learn about someone ’s melodious tastes than to front at a list of his or her 25 favorite tracks .
No comment alarm . I have no agency of knowing if someone ’s posted a scuttlebutt on my Ping page unless I launch iTunes and go to that Sir Frederick Handley Page . Even then , it ’s perchance buried in a place that can be unwrap only when I snap a Show Details link .
Because this album is n’t at the iTunes Store I ca n’t tell you how awesome it is .
Provide me with artists I might be interested in rather than those who are simply popular.
Tethered to iTunes . Much as I ’d like to recommendKing Crimson’sRed , I ca n’t , because King Crimson ’s work is n’t available on the iTunes Store . I sympathise that the chief charge of Ping is to encourage you to purchase more music from the Store , but limiting recommendations to the iTunes Store undercuts some of the idea behind a social meshwork . I do n’t want Apple to circumscribe the ways in which I can be musically societal .
“ Easy enough for you to criticize , big boy , ” I hear you say . “ What would you do other than ? ”
I ’m happy you asked . As follow :
Incorporate Genius . Thanks to the Genius feature , Apple know a destiny about the medicine in my depository library . It could know even more by tracking those albums and path I roleplay a destiny . Using this information — with my permission — it could make reasonable creative person and people passport rather than throwing a clump of artists at me that I manage nothing about . It could even give me a compatibility military rank for multitude I ’m thinking of following by comparing our genius issue .
Provide me with artists I might be concerned in rather than those who are simply popular .
supporting playlists . As I mentioned earlier , you’re able to create playlist and upload them via the iMix feature . I ’d impart those playlists into Ping and countenance citizenry to preview a snippet of each track in the playlist , just as you could choose Preview All when visiting an record album page . ( Curiously , you do n’t have this option when regard a recommended album on a Ping Thomas Nelson Page . )
Implement the “ Nuh Uh ” filter . If you ’ve spent any time first - dating you have a go at it that you often involve your partner about the music , movies , and books he or she like in edict to gauge your compatibility . You ’re also cognisant that there are certain lines you will not cross — ifBattlefield Earthcomes up as a best-loved film , chances are there will be no second date . I ’d provide just such “ Nuh Uh ” filter in Ping . go in a fistful of artists you loathe . When you ’re pay for to be someone and they enjoy one of your abominate artists , up pops an “ Are you certain ? ” word of advice .
furnish groups and room . At eachMacworld ExpoI play with theMacworld All - Star Band — a group of musical Mac geek . During our one rehearsal we often talk about bands , albums , and songs we care . It would be heavy if I could create a Ping group for the band member and have a little private corner where we can hang out and talk music .
open up it up . Real socializing is a set more fun when an authority figure has n’t first coif down a lot of rules about how you could and ca n’t socialise . In its current execution , Ping does n’t feel especially sociable .
Again , it ’s very former day for Ping and I ’m certain Apple ’s working firmly to better the service . My sincere hope is that , over fourth dimension , Ping will truly become a way to socialise about medicine rather than be just another way to betray iTunes music .
But that ’s just me . What would you do to ameliorate Ping ?
