File under ‘well it would say that’ you might think, but nevertheless the fact remains that Apple has issued a statement on its support website warning iTunes users not to upgrade to Vista. This due to a number of known compatibility issues with iTunes 7.0.2 and earlier versions, although you might not realise that were you to just read some of the news headlines reporting the story:
InfoWorld has ‘Wait on Vista upgrade, Apple says’ and Digital Lifestyles runs with ‘Apple Tells Vista Upgraders To Wait’ and a similar headline features at CIO Today with ‘Apple: Don't Upgrade to Vista Just Yet.’ PC Advisor is more sensationalist with ‘Windows Vista may corrupt your iPod’ while mad.co.uk has ‘Apple: Vista may corrupt iPods.’
The common thread running through all of this being that it sounds more like a Microsoft problem than an Apple one, when nothing could be further from the truth. Of all the reasons not to upgrade to a new operating system, the fact that an audio library application doesn’t work properly is pretty low on the list it would seem to me.
And Microsoft for that matter, although the ‘well it would say that’ argument applies here as well. In a statement Microsoft has said that “Customers should not feel they need to wait to adopt Vista for these reasons” and “We're committed to ensuring that all partners, including Apple, get all of the resources they need to ensure that their applications work with Windows Vista.”
Although not in the case of Apple iTunes, because despite the many months of development and testing time, despite the iTunes Repair Tool for Vista 1.0 patch posted over the weekend, despite all that it still isn’t working properly on some Vista installations. Problems highlighted by Apple include:
- iTunes Store purchases may not play when upgrading to Windows Vista from Windows 2000 or XP.
- iPod models with the "Enable Disk Use" option turned off may be unable to update or restore iPod software, and make changes to iPod settings.
- iPod models configured to Auto Sync and have the "Enable Disk Use" option turned off may require being ejected and reconnected to resync.
- Ejecting an iPod from the Windows System Tray using the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature may corrupt your iPod. To always safely eject an iPod, choose Eject iPod from the Controls menu within iTunes.
- Cover Flow animation may be slower than expected.
- Contacts and calendars will not sync with iPod.
According to Apple a new version of iTunes for Vista should be finished within the next few weeks.