(Thumbnail Image: Apple)

BY MATTHEW HIBBARD

“People are always asking what are my friends listening to, what are my favorite artists up to, what concerts are my friends going to? If I want to see something really great I want to tell my friends all about it and there’s really not a great way to do that, e-mail, there must be a better way. So in iTunes 10 we are announcing something really cool and we call it Ping.” (BBC)

Apple has unveiled a new version of its popular iTunes program that allows its 160 million customers to share and "follow" favorite artists with friends. Like Facebook, users can create their own profiles and comment on other people’s pages. (Video: CNET)

CNET’s Kara Swisher reports, Steve Jobs says he tried to have talks with Facebook in the beginning, but obstacles got in the way.

“...When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions had gone nowhere. The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted 'onerous terms that we could not agree to'."

The new version of iTunes was released THIS morning, but people like PC World’s Ian Paul are already finding flaws.

“Ping lacks an easy way to find out who among your friends is already using the service. You can't integrate with Facebook Connect, Twitter or an address book to find people you know.”

The privacy settings for Ping are still unclear, but according to a The New York Times blog, Ping will function on a “opt-in” style, meaning users must choose to use the service and create a profile.  With upgrades to its iPods, iTunes and Apple TV products, CNN’s Ali Velshi says Apple is missing one last addition.

“I’ve got an inside track on the next thing that’s going to happen, the next interaction of all these 'i' things from Apple is going to come with somebody to massage your feet, cause that’s all it doesn’t do at this point."