Apple's Ping, the music-based social network that has struggled to find any sort of dedicated fanbase, is set to be killed off with the next iTunes update and the public release of iOS 6, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to the publication:

Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3 and the iOS 6 beta - where it doesn't work, will be gone with the software's next major release, likely scheduled for this fall. And at that point Apple's social networking offerings will shift to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely.

We don't know too many people who'll miss it. Ping has been a far too barren wasteland for far too long. If its something you enjoy, though, then start saying your goodbyes.

Read More | WSJ

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Amazon has just announced a new partnership with MGM Studios that's set to bring hundreds of additional TV and movie classics to Amazon Prime Instant Video. This includes such hits as The Silence of the Lambs, Species, Rain Man, Stargate, and The Terminator. This brings the total of Amazon's offerings to over 18,000 movies and television episodes that you can stream to your Xbox 360 and other devices, all included in the price of your Amazon Prime membership.

Read More | Amazon

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We give you a look at the new Monster Diesel VEKTR on-ear headphones, jointly designed by Monster Products and Diesel. The on-ear headphones are a fashion statement that also aims to bring superior sound through the earcups thanks to titanium-coated drivers. We show them off, and also tell you how you can win this pair of headphones from Gear Live simply by subscribing to our email newsletter! These sell for $279 (or $249 on Amazon!), so free is a pretty good deal, good luck to all the entrants!

Big thank you to GoToMeeting for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! GoToMeeting with HDFaces provides rich, super-simple collaborative virtual meetings.

Here's how to get the show:
[Download] - iPod-formatted H.264
[Download] - 720p HD
[Download] - 1080p MP4

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Apple has introduced a new unified photo library that is compatible with both iPhoto 9.3 and Aperture 3.3 or later. This means that users can now open, view, and edit the same images using either iPhoto or Aperture, and can freely go back and forth between the two apps, something we had been wishing would happen for quite a while. Apple has listed a number of advantages that the new unified photo library provides:

• There’s no need to import, export, or reprocess photos as you move from one app to the other.
• If you use Faces, Places, have created albums, Smart Albums, or shared photos to Facebook or Flickr, these automatically work across both apps.
• Slideshows created in one app can be played back in the other.
• Because iPhoto and Aperture now share a common imaging system, when you adjust images using any tools in Aperture, you’ll see the changes when you open the same library in iPhoto and vice versa.
• If you’re new to the tools available in Aperture, you can maintain your photo library in iPhoto and open Aperture only when you want to try your hand at retouching, for example, making selective corrections with brushes. All edits are non-destructive, so you can remove them at any time.
• If you’ve collected more than one iPhoto library over the years, you can now open your iPhoto libraries in Aperture and merge them into a consolidated master library. You can then access your merged library in iPhoto.

iPhoto 9.3 was released yesterday.

Read More | Apple

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At first glance, when Apple introduced its new MacBook Pro with Retina display during its WWDC 2012 keynote, we thought it looked amazing, but that the price would make it a difficult choice for consumers. It looks like we were wrong. Lines have formed at multiple Apple Store locations around the country, and the Apple Store online is now showing a 2-3 week backorder on new Retina display MacBook Pro orders. Obviously, this product is in high demand, and your best bet is likely a trip to your local Apple Store. Anyone manage to snag one?

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One cool new feature you can expect in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is Power Nap. Similar to Intel Smart Connect for Windows, Power Nap allows your Mac to keep itself updated and backed up while it sleeps. Your Mac email and calendars will stay updated, your Time Capsule backup will be performed, and even your system updates and Mac App Store updates will It syncs your computer's email, keeps track of calendars, syncs to Time Capsule, and downloads App Store and system software updates—all while your computer's asleep. One odd tidbit about this feature is that Power Nap only works with Macs that use flash SSD storage. So if you are rocking an HDD, you're out of luck on this one. Power Nap is one of many new features you can expect from Mountain Lion which will launch in July for $19.99.

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Today during the WWDC 2012 keynote, Apple revealed the major features that Safari 6.0 will bring with it in Mountain Lion. First, it was revealed that Safari 6 processes Javascript faster than any other browser. As for features, Apple is bringing a unified search URL bar to the browser, which is a very welcome addition. Reading List picks up an offline mode as we uncovered a few weeks ago. There's iCloud tab syncing, a feature that collects all the open tabs across all your devices, allowing for easy access from any of them. You pick up right where you left off. I've been playing with the feature for a few minutes, and it's actually way more convenient than I thought it would be. Lastly, you now have live tab view. On any page, you pinch the page and it zooms out, showing you an iOS-like view of all your open tabs. Swipe through them for a preview of the content, and click (or tap) to go to that tab. Safari 6.0 will ship as part of Mountain Lion in July.

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While many are wondering where Siri integration is as it pertains to OS X Mountain Lion, today Apple revealed that its next operating system will incorporate the Dictation feature that iOS enjoys into the desktop software during its WWDC 2012 keynote. Above is a screenshot of the OS X settings where you enable Dictation and choose how you want to invoke the feature. By default, you double-tap the Function key. We'll be testing the feature in the coming days, and we'll report back with our thoughts. Mountain Lion ships in July for $19.99.

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If you draw anything like we do, attempting to put the pencil to paper to form a circle usually turns out in some sort of watermelon-shaped disaster. Until now. The video below offers a piece of advice that should allow anyone with at least two fingers to draw a perfect circle. It's actually pretty ingenius, really. You simply use one finger as the center point, and place the pencil on the paper similar to a compass. From there, you just rotate the page itself, rather than having to move your hand. Check the video to see how it's done.

[Photo: BigStockPhoto]

Click to continue reading How to draw a perfect circle without any tools

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Alongisde the iOS 6 beta, Apple has also seeded OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 4, making it available in its Dev Center. This is a near-final version of Mountain Lion, and as such, there aren't many areas of concern listed in the seed note. It makes sense, since Mountain Lion will be released next month. If you're a Mac developer, you can grab build 12A239 now, as promised in the WWDC 2012 keynote.

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