Apple

Apple missed a self-imposed deadline for launching iTunes Match, but the company apparently is inching closer to a release.

The beta of iTunes 10.5.1 was updated yesterday, and Apple wrote: "iTunes Match is also now available for testing on Apple TV." While this means that only developers are getting a chance to take Match out for a spin, the Match option was also appearing for some regular users--although they're unable to access the feature.

MacRumors was first to report this story.

Match is a service that enables iTunes users to access the songs in their music libraries from Apple's servers via Internet connected devices. Apple will scan a user's hard drive and match their songs with those in Apple's library. This way, users aren't required to upload every one of their songs into Apple's servers, an arduous process that Google and Amazon's cloud services require.

Apple will charge $25 a year for Match. The price covers 25,000 songs.

Apple said during its "Let's Talk iPhone" event on October 4 that it would bring the Match service to U.S. users "later this month." When the last day of the month came and went without any sign of Match, many people wondered what went wrong.

Apple has not given any new indication of when it hopes to make Match available to the public.