Minutes after Apple released iTunes 10.5 to the paying (well, it’s free, but you get the idea) public, they have now gone out and released a completely new beta to developers. That’s right, iTunes 10.5.1 Beta 1 is in the wild folks, and it’s all iCloud-tastic.
Released as part of the ongoing iTunes Match beta (US Only unfortunately) and available to download right now from the iOS Developer Portal, iTunes 10.5.1 offers an impressively long list of changes, considering it’s an x.x.1 release as well as rundown of iTunes Match itself.
iTunes 10.5.1 beta 1 includes several performance enhancements and bug fixes, and is a
required update for all subscribers to iTunes Match beta. iTunes Match is not included in the
iTunes 10.5 GM release.• iTunes Match beta is available as an automatically renewing subscription for $24.99 per
year. You may cancel at any time from your Account settings.
• You can subscribe to iTunes Match using iTunes 10.5.1 beta 1 on your Mac. iTunes Match
is not available with iTunes for Windows at this time. You cannot subscribe to iTunes
Match from your iOS device.
• You can access your iCloud library on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch with iOS 5, or your
other computers with iTunes 10.5.1 beta 1.
• Once subscribed, you can add up to 25,000 songs to iCloud, and iTunes purchases do
not count against this limit. iTunes Match will not add your apps, books, movies, TV
shows, ringtones, and audiobooks to your iCloud library. These items can continue to be
synced to your iOS device with iTunes. iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras are also
unsupported.
• iTunes Match includes limits to how you may access your iCloud library:
– You can use iTunes Match on up to 10 computers and iOS devices, up to five of
which can be computers authorized with your Apple ID.
– You can only associate computers and devices with a different Apple ID once every
90 days.
That’s not a bad list, we’re sure you’ll agree.
iTunes Match will offer users a way of taking their old, badly ripped copies of CDs and have iTunes replace them with shiny new high-quality tracks, just as if they had been bought from iTunes. Many in the industry have called this a way of legalizing piracy, but with a yearly fee of $25 attached to the service, the music industry clearly sees it as a way of getting at least some money for their songs.
iTunes 10.5.1 Beta for both Windows and Mac can be downloaded from the iOS Dev Center here.
You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.