It's October 1, which doesn't just mean that we're gearing up for another round of rumors about an alleged iPad mini—it also means Apple's attempt at creating its own social network has now been laid to rest. Ping, first introduced in September of 2010 as part of iTunes, has been officially shut down as of Monday, though parts of it will live on when Apple releases the next major version of iTunes later this month.
Clicking on Ping from iTunes today brings up an error, and then redirects you to the main iTunes Store landing page. Indeed, for the time being, it appears as if Apple has erased all traces of Ping. That is, until a made-over version of iTunes is released in late October, which will include some similar features, like artist pages with photos and concert dates, and the ability to share music purchases on Facebook.
The closure is hardly shocking—especially after Apple CEO Tim Cook's comments at the D10 conference in May. At that time, Cook admitted on stage that Apple's customers weren't as enthused about Ping as Apple had hoped, adding that "Apple doesn’t have to own a social network, but does Apple have to be social? Yes." Instead, the company has focused its recent efforts on Twitter and Facebook integration into both iOS and OS X, while whatever was left of Ping's useful features ended up being absorbed back into iTunes.
Now that Ping is officially dead, we thought we'd let you in on one of our favorite activities here at the Ars Orbiting HQ: headline riffs. (Did you know that the whole staff often hacks through headline after headline for important stories before an editor makes an executive decision? Now you do.) Usually it ends up that most of them are bad, but some of them are good—and what fun are headline riffs if Ars readers can't participate every once in a while?
Come up with your own Ping-related headlines in the comments and we'll promote the best ones into this post. (Sorry, none of these will be used in an actual post, but they'll be highlighted here for all to see.) Here are the ones we have so far:
- Ping shutters, no one notices
- If a Ping falls on a server and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
- Can't find Ping? Don't blame iOS 6 Maps
- Apple buries Ping in the backyard next to iCards and the Pippin
- Apple sends Ping gently into that good night
We're sure you can come up with something better, so have at it.
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