Well Apple think you do, and like a giant hypnotoad they will make you want to by introducing Ping into iTunes 10. In essence Ping adds all this social interactivity to your iTunes / iPod / iPhone/iPad, making it a kind of Twitter for music that Apple hope will help you “discover” (i.e. buy) more music.

It works by updating when you do something in iTunes (or a player on an iOS device), be it buying a track, reviewing an album or simply listening to something. People can then comment or like this action – very Facebook.

You can also be ‘followed’, much like in the Twitter sense, so people who feel you have an impeccable taste in music when you follow Slayer with Vera Lynn can track your Ping movements and “discover” (yes, Apple still means buy) tracks you listen to.

You can post tracks as suggestions for others – a kind of “what do you think of this?” noticeboard – and you can also follow artists with a certain degree of social interactivity coming from them in return, including posts and pictures.

There’s a lot of scope here and to be fair to Apple, it’s a decently implemented social networking system, albeit one piggybacking on iTunes and iOS players. It’s success, though, will depend on how easy it is to use and, crucially, maintain.

There’s no mention of any integration with the established social networks like Facebook and Twitter and certainly we won’t be seeing it outside of Apple circles but it’s a brave move to enter the social arena. Even the giants fall (MySpace) but Apple certainly has the audience and financial clout to make this work.

Want to get in on Ping? You’ll need iTunes 10 from Apple, and on the move you’ll need an iOS 4 device, so that’s at least an iPhone 3G, an iPod touch second generation, or the iPad.

Top of the rumour tree is a new iPod Touch, and this fourth generation is whispered to be the most social of iPods yet.

Apple iPod Touch Rumours

The recent leaks of a supposed case and the digitiser for the new device all show it to have a hole in the top that’s roughly tiny camera sized. Given that Apple somewhat oddly stuck a camera on the iPod Nano (maybe Del Boy Jobs got a job lot) it would make sense for them to incorporate one into their premier PMP.

This would no doubt introduce Apple’s FaceTime video calling to those without an iPhone 4 and will allow iOS apps designed for the front camera to run on cheaper hardware. So will we see Skype video calling on the iPod Touch? You never know.

Apple TV Rumours

The other big rumour in Appleland is a(nother) revamp of the ailing Apple TV device. Currently only popular with a few consumers and techheads willing to hack it, Jobs is still backing the device long after the general public and are not.

The word is that Apple TV will return to its original moniker of iTV (um, may not happen here Steve) and will run iOS instead of a cut-down and skinned OSX, allowing access to the all-important App Store.

Certainly this would appeal to the iCrowd and if it can out-Google the forthcoming Google TV system with plenty of social interaction and syncing with iPods and iPhones, it may well find itself a niche in the living room, especially at the rumoured price of $99

[Source: Techwhack, Appleinsider]

So the combination of Stephen Fry opining about Apple, Barack Obama, the Internet in general, and social media, in a forum that was live blogged around the Web, was surely a turning point in any geek’s life! It was certainly a milestone in the seemingly unstoppable steamroller that is twitter, which seems to have found the most unlikely champion in Stephen Fry.

Perhaps the most ironic part of Stephen’s talk, though, was after the event itself – when he got stuck in a lift leaving the building, and entertained his fellow liftees by twittering his exploits. He even posted a picture of them all via twitpic!

If ever there was an Oscar Wilde for the social media generation, it’s Stephen Fry. You can follow him on Twitter as @stephenfry, read his live-blogged Apple talk at ElectronicPig, and see his lift exploits over at TwitPic.

You are out and about with your laptop and want to access the internet, maybe to write a blog entry or you have some other work to do. Slight problem, there are no WiFi hotspots anywhere near you! You could do the stuff on your iPhone but it lacks a decent text editor and it is not the best solution for prolonged web surfing. So what can you do, is there a way to tether your iPhone? Tethering refers to a method that enables your laptop to use your mobile phone’s wireless data connection, i.e. your mobile phone becomes a wireless modem for your laptop.

The Apple iPhone doesn’t support tethering, it was deliberately left out and this is a big letdown for most. Luckily there are lots of clever people out there who were not happy with this situation so they did something about it. Carry on reading to find out how you can tether your iPhone…

Nullriver are some of the smart people who came up with NetShare app that is basically just a SOCKS proxy that will enable you to link an ad-hock WiFi network to the iPhone’s 3G so you can browse the Web on your laptop using your iPhone’s data connection. NetShare even made it onto Apple’s App Store before the censors realised what it did and yanked the software.

There are not many instructions on how to get it up and running but engadget has put together a video for you:

Nullriver is not the only option though, iPhone 3G Blog has a step by step guide that involves you first needing to jailbreak your iPhone and then installing a couple of pieces of software on your iPhone. It seems quite straight forward to do and the author of the post claims it only took about 3 minutes to set up.

Kyle over at Dragon Forged has yet another option for you to try; he has even put together a nice 11-step guide to help you along the way.

Using any of these methods it would seem you need to Jailbreak your iPhone and so you do run a risk of bricking your lovely shiny Apple iPhone but there are always risks in life so you may believe the benefits are worth it. These methods get the job done but don’t expect them to be blazingly quick.

[Source: Engadget, iPhone 3G Blog, Macenstein]

The new iPhone 3G is out of the way, but technology is continually moving forwards so it is not much of a surprise that just as Apple get iPhone out the way, the rumours about new iPods has started.

Both the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch are due for an upgrade, whilst there aren’t any firm details yet the rumours started when reference to “iPod2,1″ were discovered in the code of Apple’s beta 2.1 firmware for the iPhone.

What can we expect? The best change in my opinion will be a reduction in the RRPs, which will make the iPod Touch and iPod Nano a much more appealing. Other than that you can hope for a 64GB version and strangely enough Apple may even include GPS support.

For the Nano, rumours suggest that is it going to get taller and thinner as well as getting a much larger screen with an iPhone/iPod Touch widescreen aspect ratio.

Apple should officially announce something in September. Not that excited about the changes to the iPod Touch are nothing to get excited about but the iPod Nano with its larger screen is certainly a step in the right direction.

[Source: TrustedReviews]

Not all the versions of iPod/iPhone come with their own stand as standard so the industrious users at instructables have come up with several homemade solutions. You could go out and buy a stand from the shops relatively cheaply, but you could make your own for less money and have more fun doing it. There are several options for making your own stand; you could make one that fits in your wallet or you could make a car stand for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Read on to find out more.

iPhone/iPod stand from a business card

This is a very neat idea, all you need is a business card (or simply some card), scissors and a ruler. Cut the two lines marked, and then fold the card where the other lines are and you have a stand for your iPod of iPhone. This little stand will fit back in your wallet when you are done so it is very portable. It may be slightly gimmicky but you could use it as your business card and pass out iPhone stand cards to all the people you meet so they will always have your number to hand.

iPhone/iPod stand from document clips

This one doesn’t come with any instructions except the image above. It is quite straight forward, you will need 2 large bulldog clips, 2 small bulldog clips and 3 thingies to clip the two small bulldog clips together.

Not quite small enough to fit in a wallet but will easily fit in a pocket, you could even dismantle it to make it easier.

iPhone/ iPod Touch car stand doc

This stand for an iPhone or iPod Touch is made from items you can find in your home, except for maybe Velcro which you might have to buy. The person on instructables cleverly uses the plastic base which came in the box with your iPhone/iPod, as the main stand.

I am getting a little tired of all the hype and talk around the iPhone at the moment, so I was going to keep clear of all stories relating to it but I just couldn’t resist this one. I have been a long time fan of Will It Blend?, which demonstrates its awesome blender by showing videos of it in action. They have a “try this at home” section and a “don’t try this at home”. The latest video in the “don’t try this at home” section is them blending a new iPhone 3G. Check out after the cut for more videos.

The people at Will It Blend? take great pleasure in blending the latest gadgets so it will come as no great surprise that in the past they have also blended an iPod and the original iPhone (see video below). I highly recommend checking out their site for some more videos, the one when he blends some lighters is good fun. The guy presenting and blending always looks so pleased with himself.

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Our sister-site MobileMentalism.com, recently reported a twist in the use of the Google Media Server which meant you could effectively turn your mobile phone into a remote control. Apple (slightly behind the times) has release a freebie which they are calling Remote… nice to see they thought long and hard about the name. Read on for more details.

Once installed this freebie from Apple will turn you iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for your Apple TV and iTunes. Apple have reported you can also control iTunes on your PC and Mac, so they have not completely stopped you from using other company’s software. Remote works by using the WiFi capabilities of the two devices to access you media store. Once connected you can access playlists, search your library, and even control your AirTunes speakers.

There is certainly something lacking for me, in a world which is opening up the possibilities, allowing you to access information and applications like never before. Apple is still there saying, you can’t do this, it is ours, we will let you use our software but you will only be able to access the media in your iTunes. This is a mentality which worked once in a while but when you have things like, Google Media Server or Orb, why should you settle for only accessing media in your iTunes when you can access all the media on your PC, Mac or Apple TV.

If all you want to do is access your iTunes then give it a go but keep in mind there are other options out there. If you want to find out some other options open to you check out lifehacker.

[Source: Engadget]

Here’s a bit of fun for the end of the day. Who said Microsoft Paint was pointless?

Orb is familiar to us for its music, video and TV-streaming abilities, it can even turn your Wii into a media center (update: new article Wii media centers), but now the folks at Orb have moved on to the iPhone and iPod touch with a new application called OrbLive. Everything you could do before can now be done on your iPod touch or iPhone, including streaming live television.

Orb works by indexing the media on your PC and publishing it to a web site which you can then login to from any device that can access the internet. OrbLive goes one step further, rather than having to go to a web page you actually get access to all the media from an application installed on your iPhone or iPod touch. This means you have a nicer interface to search and view your media on and the whole feel and look fits better with your device. One downside is to install OrbLive you will need a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, but if you don’t want to do that you can still use Orb’s original tried and tested method and just go to the website.

The sweet point is you can get any media to your device, movie, music, picture or live TV without having to worry about the limited size of you devices hard drive space. Now we have overcome one of the great hurdles with mobile devices, namely hard drive space, we just need to solve battery life, anyone know a web site you can stream power from…?

[Source: OrbLive]