Apple’s latest version of iTunes is now available to download for both Mac and Windows. 10.5 is notable in that it allows users to utilize the upcoming iCloud and iOS 5 features, both of which are dropping on Wednesday, October 12th.
iTunes 10.5 brings you iTunes in the Cloud. The big draw about this is that once you download a song on one of your Apple devices, they automatically appear on your other Apple devices. So if you download a track at home, you’ll automatically have it available to jam to on your drive to work.
iCloud will allow users a complete download history. Not only is this simply good information to have, but this will let you re-download all of your past purchases to any of your Apple devices.
iTunes 10.5 will make use of the upcoming iOS 5 as well as allow effortless synching via Wi-Fi.
10.5 paves the way for a feature that will launch soon, the previously announced iTunes Match. It will run you $24.99 a year, but here’s what you’ll get in return, according to Apple –
Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 19 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.
Will you pay for the iTunes Match feature? Let us know in the comments.
