Apple developing social network aggregator?

iTunes 9 rumour claims "Social" application

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11 August 2009 16:57 GMT / By Duncan Geere

On top of the Blu-ray support rumour the other day, for iTunes 9, there's more whispering that the forthcoming update for Apple's music software will feature integration with Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.

But it doesn't stop there. A tipster reckons that the move is part of a much bigger push to make Apple's software more social-network friendly. Apple apparently has plans to release a "Social" application that'll have similar functionality to Yahoo's "OneConnect", which lets you aggregate all your social networking services in one place.

It'll have features like the ability to share music, broadcast what you're listening to with people on the network, and connect with friends of your friends who have similar interests. You'll also be able to update all of your statuses at the same time.

The obvious choice for a partner for some of that would be web radio service Last.fm, whose iPhone application was an early hit in the nascent App Store. However, Apple clearly has the ability to duplicate that functionality in-house if it wants to, so we'll see what happens there.

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