Has Apple Killed off Ping on the iPhone and iPod touch?
For some reason, I went to look at Ping on my iPod touch. I was using it as a remote, playing music on my stereo, and I thought I’d see if there was any activity among my friends. Imagine my surprise to find the Ping button was no longer there in the iTunes app.
Here’s a screen shot of the Configure screen, which shows all the available buttons that you can drag to the bottom of the window. As you can see, there’s no Ping.
The way they added the Ping button without updating the iTunes app, and now the way they removed it, suggests that even the buttons in the iTunes app load dynamically, so Apple can make changes any time they want.
It’s entirely possible that it has been removed for some kind of maintenance, or for performance issues. I can’t imagine that they’d be killing of Ping this quickly. It’s odd, though, that it’s just disappeared. It’s still there in iTunes, though.
Follow-up: several people have confirmed that they, too, are missing ping on their iOS devices. Others still have it. Curiouser and curiouser…
Posted: 9/18/2010 by kirk | Filed under: iPod & iTunes | Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Ping, social media | 10 Comments »
Maybe you should check more sources first before you jump to wild conclusions? Ping is still on my iPhone 4. I’m upgraded to 4.1 and it works just fine and I can see everything. This would suggest to me that something is up with your phone. In my experience, the iTunes app when it comes to configuring is a bit buggy, I have to reconfigure it every couple of weeks because it loses my configuration constantly.
Maybe you should think more carefully before _you_ jump to wild conclusions. A number of people, via Twitter, have confirmed that Ping is missing on their iPhones/iPod touches.
Mine still has Ping. iPhone 3gs.
No Ping on mine, the latest iPod touch. Thanks for mentioning that some people still have it and some don’t. That is very curious. It does make me think, though, that it’s some kind of bug, since it’s not consistently present.
Oh, noes! The sky is falling and my Ping is missing. Wicked master plan of Steve Jobs to confound iOS users whenever his little heart desires. He got out of the wrong side of bed the other day and flipped the Ping/No Ping switch on his desk. Why? Just because he can. Good lord! What’s this world coming to. Conspiracies abound about everything Apple. Most likely some simple bug. Certainly not anything to be excited about, especially not the permanent removal of Ping from iOS.
In the absence of perfect information the Law of Parsimony requires us to believe the simplest explanation.
Good thinking Kirk. The simplest and best explanation is that Apple has killed off Ping, refused to tell anyone, liquidated all their assets, joined a band and moved to Chicago.
My suggestion was obviously meant to be somewhat provocative. Nevertheless, Ping has disappeared for a number of people, with no clue as to why this is the case.
Kinda like the National Eqquirer is meant to be somewhat provocative why it claims that An\gelina Jolie is really a space alien sent to earth is a disquise to enslave all mankind?
Still have it on m’y iPhone4.
Ping is on my iPhone 4… OS 4.1