The current developer beta of iTunes, 10.5.1 beta 1, just announced to me that it will expire in 52 hours. In my mad panic to remain up-to-date, I ran for the iOS Developer Portal to update, only to find that I was indeed running the latest version.
Apple’s betas have always had a built-in expiration date, and during the iTunes beta, I’ve never actually had one threaten to expire on me, having kept up on the latest version quite well. The only difference between this beta and the current production version of iTunes is the inclusion of iTunes Match. This beta was introduced when iCloud was launched alongside the iPhone 4S earlier this month, because iTunes Match presumably definitely wasn’t ready for primetime when the rest of iCloud debuted.
BUT, Apple did just delete all iCloud music libraries (for the third time, now) and has said that all iCloud libraries will be deleted before iTunes Match is released into the wild. Add that to the fact that iTunes Match, much to my chagrin, still does not function, and that 52 hours from now is midnight Tuesday morning… well, I’m not implying that Apple may release iTunes Match on Monday, but…
I think Apple might release iTunes Match into the wild on Monday.
