This Week's Sponsor:

Kolide

Ensure that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta.


iTunes 10.0.1 Goes Live with Ping Sidebar

Apple released a minor update to iTunes last night, which reaches version 10.0.1 and introduces a new feature for Ping users: the Ping sidebar. The Ping sidebar allows you to always have the updates from the people you follow under control: the “Recent Activity” is a smaller version of the Ping dashboard you’re used to and it displays new purchases, preorders and likes. You can like, comment, preorder and buy from the sidebar itself.

The most important feature introduced in this new version of iTunes isn’t the sidebar, though: you can now like and post songs / albums directly from your Music library. Finally! This is something we’ve all been asking since the first version of Ping, and Apple’s implementation is really simple: you get a dropdown next to each song from where you can like, post (this opens an additional popup), show artists profile and find the related album / artist in the iTunes Store.

Clearly Ping is a way for Apple to get more people in the iTunes Store and get more data to deploy better recommendation systems in the future. It’s still far from being a “social network”, but at least you can integrate Ping with your local music library now.

Unlock More with Club MacStories

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for over six years.

In that time, members have enjoyed nearly 400 weekly and monthly newsletters packed with more of your favorite MacStories writing as well as Club-only podcasts, eBooks, discounts on apps, icons, and services. Join today, and you’ll get everything new that we publish every week, plus access to our entire archive of back issues and downloadable perks.

The Club expanded in 2021 with Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Club MacStories+ members enjoy even more exclusive stories, a vibrant Discord community, a rotating roster of app discounts, and more. And, with Club Premier, you get everything we offer at every Club level plus an extended, ad-free version of our podcast AppStories that is delivered early each week in high-bitrate audio.

Choose the Club plan that’s right for you:

  • Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with app collections, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, a Club-only podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
  • Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus exclusive content like Federico’s Automation Academy and John’s Macintosh Desktop Experience, a powerful web app for searching and exploring over 6 years of content and creating custom RSS feeds of Club content, an active Discord community, and a rotating collection of discounts, and more;
  • Club Premier: Everything in from our other plans and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.