What the heck is going on over at Apple lately? They seem to be having a spate of either bad luck, or they're getting sloppy with their products. This news, so soon after lawsuits over iPod batteries and nanos with busted and fragile screens, can't be good for them.

I think it's time for Apple to take a step back and reexamine their products to see what the heck is up. I hope someone there has the sense to take some inventory of the overall situation, because they need to own up to these issues and figure out a way to get them taken care of, once and for all. I'd hate to see their recent upswing in popularity and marketshare be ruined by them continuing to ignore some real problems.

Funny, but my 512MB iPod shuffle (firmware 1.1.2) works just fine with iTunes 6.0.1. I wonder what the common link is for those that are having problems, because some of us definitely aren't.

I've had at least 3 customers come in complaining about this problem. Now I know what to tell them. Downgrade!

Got 2 shuffles, both updated to the latest software, as well as 6.0.1, and both shuffles are running fine.

The other day I was on my way to an Apple meeting and put my Shuffle into the machine to copy a file to it—iTunes said that there wasn't room on it so I dumped some files, copied the project to it without a problem, ejected and went on my merry way.

When I got to the client, the shuffle was dead. It would only do the blinky-light-dance. Brought it back to my machine at work and it was still dead.

Took it to the Apple Store and they replaced it without question.