Apple’s Pandora-like competitor, iTunes Radio, is gearing up for a fall launch, but before Apple can stream songs to iOS devices across the U.S. for free, it’s got to find someone to help pay for it all, so it’s recruited some of the biggest brands in the world to supply it with ads.

The list of brand partners participating in the iTunes Radio launch will include McDonalds, Nissan, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble — all of which get exclusivity within their industries until the end of 2013.

iTunes Radio won’t just be available on your iOS devices, but also on your Apple TV, according to a new beta release now available to registered developers. The update also adds some other minor features, and makes improvements to Home Sharing to make it more reliable.

The rumors were right. Apple has unveiled iTunes Radio (previously dubbed ‘iRadio” by the rumor mill) in the iOS 7 Music app. The service works a lot like Pandora. You can create stations based on artists you like and share what you’re listening to over social networks.

There are featured stations as well as the collection you create based on your own tastes. iTunes Radio is built into iOS 7, the Apple TV, and an upcoming version of iTunes.

The service is free with ads, and if you have an iTunes Match subscription, there are no ads.

iCloud is a pretty neat system, working in the background across a ton of different apps without much input needed from us users, except our login name and password. It lets you sync Notes, Reminders, save documents, keep game saved-states, and even manage your music collection

iTunes Match lets you access your music library from any Mac and any iOS device, as long as you are authenticated to each one. It uses the power of iCloud to see what music tracks you own, so you don’t have to sync each individual track to each device like the olden days. With iTunes Match enabled, you can play and download tracks to up to ten different iOS, Mac or Apple TV devices you log in to. Here’s how to manage your subscription.

We don’t often think of Apple as a cloud services company because so much emphasis is placed on hardware, but for many consumers, Apple’s iCloud is their first experience using cloud storage.

Over this past fall, Strategy Analytics conducted a study on which cloud services are the most popular in the U.S. right now, and iCloud grabbed the top spot with 27% usage.

iTunes Match has expanded its reach in Europe today as Apple brings the music matching service to Hungary and Poland more than 18 months after it made its debut in the United States. The Cupertino company is yet to add these countries to its iTunes Match availability page, but users report that the service is now appearing in iTunes.

On Monday, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired cloud-based game streaming company Gaikai for around $380 million in a move that is sure to excite fans of the company’s PlayStation devices. If the Japanese company uses its purchase to create a compelling alternative to OnLive, it has the potential to gain a huge advantage over rivals like Microsoft and Nintendo.

The same service could provide an even bigger advantage to Apple. In fact, there are a number of reasons why the Cupertino company should use its ever-increasing cash pile to make Mac and iOS gaming even greater.