So we're getting Panther in a couple of weeks, mysterious missing feature notwithstanding. Now what about the other "before the end of this year" goody that Steve promised? We speak, of course, of an iTunes Music Store accessible by those poor saps still using Windows. Well, it's getting tougher and tougher to suppress a giddy rush of optimism and a feeling that a release is imminent. But what's that? You say you're game to try?

Okay, Beavis: we'll start you off nice and slow. Just a couple of days ago, rumors claimed that the iTMS for Windows was technically ready to roll, and merely awaiting an opportune occasion for launch-- say, just in time to distract the press and pump up Apple's stock price after the company posts what might turn out to be disappointing quarterly results next Wednesday. But heck, you say, who believes those seedy rumors sites, anyway?

Pessimism firmly engaged, hmmm? Well, okay, try this one on for size: no less a paragon of journalistic excellence than the Wall Street Journal recently dropped yet another hint that the iTMS for Windows is mere days from wearing the frilly white dress at its debutante ball. A "Heard on the Street" column suggests that Apple's stock price is poised for another big boost (like the one it got when the iTMS first launched last April) "as the company introduces the product to a wider audience next week." Of course, the WSJ gives no source for that "next week" assertion, so we suppose you could probably persuade yourselves to ignore that clue, too.

But if you're such a big fan of uncertainty, venture no further, because this is where the story loses any and all semblance of mystery. Faithful viewer Raffi Saltman noticed that the other shoe has finally dropped: CNET reports having received an invitation from Apple to a shindig "next Thursday at San Francisco's Moscone West convention hall." And before you go thinking that, hey, that could be about anything, we should probably point out that the invite features one of those iPod silhouette dancers and proclaims that "the year's biggest music story is about to get even bigger." Gee, what on earth could they possibly be planning?

So there you have it: in less than a week's time, Apple will finally toss the Real Deal™ into the pool with all those copycat music download services, and may the best store win-- by which we mean to say, may BuyMusic.com get its hinder kicked so hard that neither Scott Blum nor Tommy Lee can sit down for a week without yelping and tasting shoe leather. Why, the only uncertainty left is this: will Windows users actually be able to recognize the iTMS as the superior service? And more to the point, being Windows users, will they care?