By the way, you can still find trials of 3DS Max 7 and 8 on the internet. Both work for plugin purposes.
When you export something (say in an .obj file, which is the best for single-asset exporting) from 3DS Max, it should include the UV map by default. You could also export a .3ds file or a .FBX file and Blender will probably be able to import happily.
Of course, when Cyan releases the plugin source it would probably take less than a month to get versions of their plugin out, either for Max 6 or Max 2011. But we just need that source, and that is going to take quite a while if all things remain constant. Bear in mind it's been over six months since we got the binaries. We're all in for the long haul.