iTuned out by Apple

I've been using iTunes to keep my iPhone up to date - loading new GPX files onto it. Today, when I tried to do what I've done so many times before, iTunes said that it couldn't run., "iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to close", offered to send a report to Apple, and gracefully exited. Huh. It's never done that before. I tried it a few times, same result (and Apple have several bug reports from me now). I tried de-installing and reinstalling, same result. And ... there seems to be no other way to get my files onto my iPhone.  There's a method that involves using Dropbox, but I tried that and it didn't work. Maybe the files did get to the iPhone, but Memory Map wuldn't open them. Why? How do I know? Apple work so hard to hide the technical details from you, it's almost impossible to fix it when it goes wrong. There's supposed to be a method that involves me emailing myself, but I can't believe that, can you?

So I decided that the XP box I use for this is probably  past its sell-by date anyway. I always tell people that with Windows, the buildup of cruft is such that you have to wipe the disk and reinstall Windows and everything else every year or so. But I decided that, instead of doing that, I'll use the Wondows 7 box that I got for playing Civilization on. And after I wrestled iShop into giving me the 64 bit version (it kept giving me the 32 bit version, which won't work on the new system) I eventually got it to work.

Roll on iTunes for Linux, I say.