It's also worth noting that the CDMA iPhone (i.e. the Verizon iPhone in the U.S.) is .

Apple's forays into social networking perhaps haven't caught on as intensely as Cupertino would like, but that doesn't mean they'll be consigned to the dust heaps of history just yet. Despite , the iTunes-based social network that lets you see what music your friends are listening to and buying, Apple has already added support into your iOS device's iTunes app--now, the company has gone a step further and baked integration with Ping right into your music player.

If you've got a Ping account (and like it or not, if you have an iTunes account, you probably have a Ping account unless you've gone out of your way to disable it) then when you fire up the iPod app or Music app on your iOS device and start playing a track, the Now Playing screen now features both a thumbs up button that lets you "like" a song and a word bubble button that allows you to post your thoughts on the currently playing track to Ping.

Should you not be a fan of Ping, but don't want to turn off your account entirely, I did stumble upon one way to hide those icons: go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions and flip the slider for Ping to Off. Voilà, the icons will vanish from the bar as if they had never been there.