HP provides technology to reduce malaria in Botswana

Hewlett-Packard is collaborating with a health monitoring service in Botswana to use technology to detect malaria outbreaks and stop them before they spread too far.

HP is providing webOS-based Pre 2 smartphones and cloud computing technology to nonprofit group Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING) to monitor disease outbreaks in the African country. The program is part of HP’s new strategy to deal with charitable donations; it now gives in-kind technology and expertise where … Continue Reading

Twitter's union with Apple's Ping turns all of us into mindless iTunes ads

In a bid to simplify music discovery for Twitter users, Twitter today announced a partnership with Apple’s beleaguered Ping social network.

The union will let Ping users publish their activity to their Twitter streams, and it will also let users listen to iTunes song previews and purchase music directly from Twitter’s website. The news seems harmless enough, but I have a sinking feeling that the union isn’t so much about music discovery as it is … Continue Reading

Apple's Ping tops 1M users in two days, but it's no Google Buzz

Apple announced just a few hours ago that its new music-centered social network Ping has surpassed 1 million users in a mere two days.

While the announcement may seem impressive, if you consider that iTunes has over 160 million accounts tied to credit cards (and certainly a lot more if you include accounts without cards), I’m honestly surprised Apple didn’t hit the 1 million line in 24 hours.

According to Apple, one-third of people who … Continue Reading

Big surprise: Spammers find their way into Apple's Ping social network

Now that we’re little more than a day from the launch of Apple’s social network, Ping, reports are coming in that spammers are beginning to target the service — surprising no one.

The biggest scam right now appears to be an offer for free iPhones that is popping up on many high-profile Ping accounts, reports MacRumors. Even though Apple has said that it has 160 million iTunes accounts tied to credit cards, you can also … Continue Reading

What's keeping you from importing Facebook friends into Apple's Ping social network

Facebook friend importing was a key feature of Apple’s new Ping social network, until discussions between the companies fell through, Facebook blocked Ping’s access to its data, and Apple removed the feature from Ping entirely — according to All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off Ping at its media event yesterday, Facebook integration was clearly visible in his presentation. But when users finally got their hands on iTunes 10 and … Continue Reading

Steve Wozniak gives thumbs up to Steve Jobs' new Ping social network (video)

Steve Jobs has rarely acknowledged Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak in public in recent years. So it was a surprise when Jobs called out his “partner in crime” Tuesday at the launch of Apple’s latest music products. Wozniak, commonly known as Woz, stood up and took the applause. Afterward, reporters grabbed him for his reaction. Here’s a short video of Woz’s take on the announcements such as Apple’s Ping social networking service.

He’s a big fan … Continue Reading

Apple visual feast: from cool Apple Stores to Coldplay's lead singer (photo gallery and video)

Apple press events are always a visual feast. We’ve captured the imagery of the Apple event today, from cool new Apple store in Shanghai above to the surprise appearance of Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay. Check out the images and the video of Martin, whose perfect voice occasionally cracks while singing Viva la Vida.

This facade of the Apple store in Paris is another example of how the company’s stores are architectural wonders.

Steve … Continue Reading

Apple roundup: Steve's big media push

So Apple made some news today. Specifically, chief executive Steve Jobs took the stage in San Francisco, where he showed off major upgrades to the company’s music and TV services.

As happens on anytime Apple holds a press event, there was a flood of coverage, both on VentureBeat and elsewhere. To help you sort through it all, here’s a roundup of all the Apple-related stories we published today. The list starts with the big product … Continue Reading

Why Apple's Ping is about cutting out the social middleman

This morning at a press conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Ping, a social network for music that will be bundled into the next version of iTunes, its music software.

After ten iterations of iTunes, Ping marks Apple’s first step into the social realm. Jobs played it off as a simple way to discover music by following friends and artists. But he also called it a “Facebook plus Twitter for music.” With … Continue Reading

Apple's iTunes-only Ping socializes your music with elements of Facebook (video demo)

As part of version 10 of iTunes, Apple announced its Ping social network for music fans. The new social network lets you publicly announce the music that you like. You can share it with your friends and make Twitter-like comments on it in real-time. You can follow your friends and your favorite artists as well. And those celebrity artists can create their own Ping fan pages where they can communicate and hold conversations with fans.… Continue Reading

Mobile developer Smule: Ping sounds great — what about app suggestions?

It’s no surprise that Ge Wang, cofounder and chief technology officer of music app-maker Smule, sounds excited about Apple’s just-announced a social network for music, called Ping. But Wang said he sees greater potential in what Apple might do with Ping in the future.

For one thing, Wang said Apple should connect Ping with outside applications by offering something similar to Facebook Connect. Take Smule’s last big launch, the Glee iPhone app. Wang suggested that … Continue Reading

Apple launches Ping, a social network for music

Apple today announced a number of upgrades to its music and media service, iTunes. Most notably, it’s giving iTunes a social layer. Chief executive Steve Jobs showed off a service called Ping, which he described as Facebook or Twitter for music.

Jobs described this as Apple’s attempt to solve the problem of “discovery” — how to find the content you want among everything in iTunes. Basically, users can follow other users or musicians, seeing what … Continue Reading