As November is ushered in , at least one Halloween spectre is still hanging over the Mac community of interests : The ghost ofiTunes Match . The cloud music feature of Apple ’s iCloud service wassupposed to debut by the terminal of October , but Apple has uncharacteristically missed its own deadline .
First unveiledat Apple ’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June , iTunes Match allow users to store their iTunes depository library in the swarm . The $ 25 - per - twelvemonth armed service automatically scans your library and meet tracks to the iTunes Store ’s extensive catalogue , upgrading all match tracks to mellow - quality 256 - kbps AAC data file . Integration with iTunes and iOS devices means you may then listen to your euphony wherever you are , as well as download tracks to your various equipment — if you have a web connection .
During the company ’s rent ’s Talk iPhone event in October , Apple say iTunes Match would be usable by the end of October , but it fail to meet this goal as the calendar flipped over to November . At the time of this story ’s issue , Apple had not respond toMacworld ’s request for comment . We ’ll update this story when it does , or if iTunes mate launches afterwards on Tuesday .
Why Apple missed its own launch date is unclear . It ’s potential that the company is being conservative , given the problem it ’s had rolling out on-line serving in the past : In 2008 , for case , the company rebranded its .Mac online service as MobileMe and re - launch it alongside the iPhone 3 G , but the launching was fraught with problems , causing Apple to apologize and extend subscription . Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly described the service , in an electronic mail to the party ’s staff , as “ simply not up to Apple ’s banner , ” holler the launch “ not our finest hr . ”
Apple’slaunch of iCloud last monthwas considerably smoother , although some users still encounter problems with e-mail downtime during the transition . It ’s possible that the company felt iTunes Match was not yet ready for prime fourth dimension . But the question stay on when the featurewillactually aerofoil , and if Apple will say anything about the postponement .
The current version of iTunes , 10.5,was release in October alongside iCloud ’s unveiling ; Apple says iTunes Match will require iTunes 10.5.1 . machine running iOS 5 already have a slider for turn on the lineament , under options - > Music , but until iTunes Match is available publically , the lineament can not be activated .
