Ping

Is iTunes Ping, the latest in music-based social media, nothing more than an excuse by Apple to get students to spend more? In September, Apple announced iTunes Ping -- a new social media network for people who like music. It's an experiment similar to Lala.com, the music store website that was...

The centerpiece of Apple's recent product announcements was its new music social network Ping. The core technology from Ping appears to be have been built by the team from Lala.com, the music streaming startup that Apple acquired in January 2009. But without the streaming music model, Ping is half the service Lala used to be. It's not a bad product, it's just not terribly transformative.

Facebook may block Apple iTunes users from using the new Ping network, which is built on Facebook. Seems Apple is using some of Facebook's freely available programming, rather than entering into a contractual relationship with the social network giant.