Ping, RIP

GOOD RIDDANCE: Some welcome Apple news that didn’t get much play yesterday was imminent the mercy killing of Ping, the tech giant’s misbegotten attempt at creating a music-sharing platform. That means the end of those annoying, space-hogging Ping buttons popping up whenever you click on a song in your iTunes library, as well as the nagging prompts that accompany searches in the iTunes Store. "We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said this isn't something that I want to put a lot of energy into," Tim Cook conceded. (9/13a)