As soon as an iPod or iPhone is plugged into the PC, Windows Vista crashes and shows the “blue screen of death” (BSOD), the critical error screen on a blue background that requires a reboot to recover, users said. The errors began showing up immediately after customers updated iTunes to Version 8.0, which Apple released Tuesday as part of its iPod refresh.

The vast majority of people in Australia experiencing the iPhone 3G problems are Optus customers. Many have reported their experiences on the Fairfax MashUp blog, as well as local Apple community MacTalk.

The Swedish report said the most likely cause of the 3G problems is defective adjustments between the antenna and an amplifier that captures very weak signals from the antenna. This could lead to poor 3G connectivity and slower data speeds.

Irate VMware customers were left unable to power up their virtual servers this morning because of a bug that killed their systems when the clock clicked round to 12 August. The bug was sent out to customers in ESX 3.5 update 2, VMware’s latest hypervisor, which went out on 27 July.