A new month, and a new salvo of Apple rumours to wade through - this time concerning iTunes, with the web salivating over the prospect of an iTunes/Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm partnership.
Thing is, it ain't gonna happen.
It certainly looks like Apple is planning some sort of social networking integration with iTunes, and soon, but don't expect Twitter or Last.fm to be involved.
Those in the know have probably seen a couple of screengrabs from the purported iTunes 9, which curiously followed rumours that the newest version of Apple's music player would integrated with Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm.
The photos have since been debunked as a hasty Photoshop job, by someone with far too much time on their hands.
But even with photographic evidence, a rumour such as this just doesn't make sense.
The idea is that iTunes would broadcast what songs its users are listening too, to Twitter and Facebook profiles, which would be simply, annoying - especially those among us to keep music playing several hours of the day.
Furthermore, Apple has never been a company to jump on a bandwagon, especially concerning a faddish little microblogging website with major operational issues.
A partnership with Last.fm makes less sense. The two companies work in a similar vein, and Last.fm (as much as I love it) is far from an established brand, Apple would have nothing to gain. Many of the features that makes Last.fm shine, such as it's 'similar artists' tab, are available on iTunes anyways (iLike).
But Facebook. Maybe, just maybe. The two companies established a partnership a while back, by allowing iPhoto users to publish their pictures to their Facebook profiles.
Looking at the big picture, the rumours generally deduce that Apple is planning to push a social networking strategy through its iTunes platform, even though the details might have been mixed up.
Digging deeper into the rumour pile, it appears Apple is preparing to launch some sort of social media app, whether for iTunes, its OS desktop, or the iPhone, that would consolidate various streams into one juicy platform.
Sound suspiciously like FriendFeed - rather a FriendFeed killer, which gives this rumour (some) legs and puts some more weight behind the companies surprise sell-out to Facebook this week.
Better late than never, it looks like Apple is ready to embrace social networking, but likely on its own terms - a sort of "social media browser", which would allow users to search and share content with their friends.
Perhaps this will be part of Apple's plans to 'reinvent' the digital album, by including loads of additional content with iTunes purchases.
Apple rumours, as per usual, are common and vague, but this one is keeping an eye on. Speaking of which, where's my iTablet?
I really like Last.FM, but it has been really overshadowed since Spotify arrived on the scene. Hoping to see some resurgence from the Last.FM team. I love the Last.FM radio feature particularly. It is a great way to discover new music.
Likewise i can not see Apple working with others. It so rarely does. It likes to play with all of its own toys.
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Dan Leahul
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