When I got home I plugged the Touch into my Mac dual 2GHz PowerPC-based G5 running OS X 10.4.11 and iTunes 9.2.1.

By the way, what will happen when Apple decides it's time to move to OS version 11? Will the OS be named OS XI? In a decade or so could we see OS XCIV? Will Apple get off the animal names ("Panther," "Tiger," "Snow Leopard," and the forthcoming "Lion") and move to something more in line with the Roman numerals such as "Caligula" (that has to be an unstable version) or "Hadrian" (which would come with a new firewall). But I digress …  

Anyway, iTunes immediately popped up a message that informed me that the iPod "cannot be used because it requires iTunes version 10.1 or later." Being a good little consumer, I immediately downloaded iTunes 10.1 and tried to set it up. The installer, with nary a second's hesitation, informed me that the installer package requires Mac OS X 10.5. But 10.5 isn't available as a free update … it would cost me $200!

Curse you !

A solution to this problem would appear to be obvious: Run up iTunes 10.1 on my Windows PC and voila! No $200 upgrade and no wasted time doing the upgrade. And so it is that Apple is driving me away from OS X and into the arms of Windows. Tell me that isn't weird.