Coincidence?

Okay - so I have an iPod.  And like most people with iPods I use iTunes to synchronize my music between my pc and my device.  Not because it's a great piece of software - it's not - it's ugly, it's dog-slow at starting and closing, it's a memory hog, it frequently looses podcasts and other files that I've downloaded, it doesn't want to support a variety of other audio codecs like .ogg - you get the picture?  There are other alternatives out there that I could use.  I simply use it because it's the path of least resistance.  Sometimes you don't want to stuff around.  Sometimes you just want to use something that simply works (most of the time).  Anyhow...

Anyone who's paid any attention to technology news in the last week or so would be aware that Apple has just released the Jesusphone - you know - that $US500 flash music player that doesn't event support mms.  As part of this new release, they've updated iTunes to a new version to add phone support.  I don't need support for a phone that's not even available in Australia - do I?

Apparently I do...

For some strange reason, my version of iTunes decided to start crashing on me every time I attempted to start it.  It gave no reason in the error box other that it just decided to stop working.  My first thought was that is was one of those mysterious errors that Windows sometimes has with a program and rebooting would fix it.

But it didn't.  It just kept crashing.  So I figure - when in doubt - reinstall the program.  If it's somehow become corrupted, that should sort it out.

It didn't.  It still kept crashing.

I can't even start iTunes for it to tell me that a new version is available.  However I did remember a web site stating they're updated it with a new version.  Might as well give that a try - nothing else seems to be working.

So I went ahead and downloaded the new version of iTunes, installed it, and miracle of miracles - iTunes started working again without the instantaneous crashes.

Now I'm no conspiracy theorist (I leave that to Grant), but it seems awfully coincidental that at the same time that a new version of iTunes is released, my old one refuses to work, forcing me to upgrade.  The timing is just so.... convenient....

Now I'm drawing a pretty long bow here with scant evidence to support myself.  But then again - I've seen crazier theories thrown Redmond way with even less evidence...