By Ina Fried, 21 December 2004 10:20
NEWS
Some users of Apple's iTunes for Windows say a glitch is causing the program to crash whenever they try to purchase songs.
Beginning late last week, some Apple users noticed that the Windows version of iTunes would abruptly quit just as they were in the process of purchasing music from the online store.
By Monday, more than three dozen users were complaining about the problem in Apple's online forum. An Apple representative declined to comment.
In an email interview, iTunes customer Sherman Hall said he experienced the glitch on Thursday.
"The program stopped with a memory exception after downloading two songs," Hall said. "Attempts to restart the download, access my account information or any other one-click activity were also met with the same memory error."
Some in the discussion forum said the problems followed shortly after they installed an update to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Hall said his computer installed the Windows update on Wednesday evening.
A Microsoft representative declined to comment on the issue.
Apple has sold more than 200 million songs from its site, and the store has had few hiccups amid its rapid growth. The company has continued to dominate the category despite growing competition from rivals such as Sony, Napster and Wal-Mart.
Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Hmm how long will it take for apple to blame M$ and vice versa.
No doubt apple charged for the failed downloads.
This seems like shoddy software from someone - let me guess all apple boffins are screaming M$ as they read this, M$ boffins like me will understand that somewhere there may be a problem - but won't care who's shoddy software it is then they will clear all tmp files. UNIX/Linux boffins will be thinking what a buNch oF loOSerS(note the deliberate use of various capitals).
It will be interesting to see who issues the update.
2. Snarky
you sir are a genuine idiot. Unix users are some of the most literate people I have ever met, whereas most M$ admins make uninformed comments like your self. congratulations - you've confirmed my stereotype.
3. anonymous
This wouldn't be the first time M$ \'s software intentionaly "broke" thier competiers installation.
4. anonymous
Well it does seem a coincidence the XP service pack 2 has been installed on some machines, maybe the firewall settings need tweaking...
5. anonymous
No, I don't think it's a conspiracy by Microsoft, or a case of shoddy programming by Apple. A number of programs are known to cease functioning correctly when service pack 2 is installed (I enjoy a game or two on Visual Pinball, a freeware pinball simulator/construction kit, which now crashes when closing a rendered table since installing SP2). The effects of an update on third-party software cannot always be predicted.
6. Timothy James
Always a Microsoft problem! Us Apple users never have any problems with our excellent Operating System. iTunes amy be available for Windows, excellently designed and created by Apple, but at the end of the day it always runs into problems with the general buggy incompatibiltiy of Windows.
My suggestion? Ditch Windows like a hot potato and go and buy a lovely new Mac, plus you'll be able to download music without any problems whatsoever:-)
7. Jo
I decided not to buy music from itunes anymore. I have two computers. One is a dummy computer for downloading stuff from the Internet. The other one is a work computer. I used the dummy computer to buy songs from itunes. However, it won't allow me to authorize on my work computer. I know it's the firewall thing. I sent an e-mail to itunes twice asking for help. I waited for more than a month for them to reply. Nobody replies my e-mail. I went to a MAC computer store. They helped me nothing and just asked me to keep trying to e-mail. Duh! If nobody returns my e-mail, what's the point of writing them e-mails to ask for authorization. itunes customer service is suck!