Puppy Power Day Sixteen

The Death of an iPod, or "My Software Wants To Kill Your Hardware" - apologies to FZ

Periodically I get software update notifications from Apple when I boot-up my iMac. I usually go ahead and let the machine do it's thing and download the updates. I am always weary of the updates made to iTunes. Because I've been burned in the past, I typically do a little research on the web to see if I actually care to update my version of this essential software. For some unknown reason I blindly let Apple update all the software it recommended. Big mistake! I do not like the latest version of Safari, too intrusive for my browsing needs. The new version of Safari was the least of my troubles.

Nothing could have prepared me for the heart-ache I was about inflict upon myself. Initially, the new version of iTunes was not playing nice with my iPod, it wanted me to "restore" the iPod. I did and everything was hunky-dory, or so I thought. Later in the day, I added an album or two to my iTunes catalog and wished to add these happening tunes to my iPod. Here is where the sweet turns to sour! When I reconnected the iPod to the iMac it gets caught in this nasty "restore" loop! Every time I try to get the two machines to talk to each other, iTunes is telling the iPod to restore itself to factory settings! Not good, at all.

I took my iPod to the Apple store and one of the geniuses on staff tells me rather matter-of-factly, after listening to my iPod boot-up while holding it up to his ear, "oh yeah, iTunes version 8.2.1 sometimes, in very rare cases, fries iPod hard-drives. It sounds like this is what has happened to yours!" Oh. Great. So, guess who has an appointment with another genius Monday afternoon to discus his fried-pod? Meanwhile I'm thinking, "why do I have to make an appointment with these assholes? Why not just swap-out the fried-pod for a new one? Furthermore, if Apple's code-churning creeps in Cupertino know the software has a tendency to kill hardware, why are they not scrambling to write a "patch" to keep this from happening in the future? Why do I still love my Apple Computer products? Am I a glutton for misery?"

Click the image, it took longer to write the explanation than it did to draw. Amazing!