Vista - iPod Killer?

JMB wrote us with a dire warning, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Apple is cautioning its Windows-using iTunes customers to steer clear of Vista until the next iTunes update. The reason for this is a bit puzzling. Apparently, if you try to 'safely remove' your iPod from a Vista-installed PC, there's a chance you may corrupt the little music player. They also claim that songs may not play, and contacts may not sync with the device. Apple went so far as to release a detailed support document on the subject, which assures users that a new Vista-compatible version of the software will be available in a few weeks. Is this just some very creative FUD? If it is not who do you think is 'at fault' here, Microsoft or Apple?

Comments

If only...

[dioscaido]

... Microsoft gave some sort of preview of the OS for 3rd parties to test and update their applications. Maybe then Apple could have done something about it. I blame Microsoft.

Re:That "fairly stable api" didn't help Microsoft

[ronanbear]

Vista breaks iPod support. That's Microsoft's fault not Apples. Either Microsoft deliberately broke iPod support or Vista's hardware support is so bad that it was never tested with some of the most popular hardware out there. The second is more likely.

Apple will update iTunes but they have every right to let their customers know that Microsoft are responsible. This is another reason not to get Vista (I don't have enough RAM either). I don't like having to rely on manufacturers to update their legacy software if I want to be able to hook up my printers, scanner, wireless adapter etc.

Yes I've had similar problems on Apple too where manufacturers didn't update software but that was the intel switch combined with a mess of a driver not an OS update.

Recent iPods are more complex from a driver point of view because they use a HFS filesystem and then use a driver so that Windows can read iPods as FAT drives - that doesn't explain why the Zune wasn't initially compatible though.