After two years of stellar service, my beloved iPod suddenly started giving me gip last week -- crashing three times in an afternoon. Although I managed to restart it each time, I couldn't understand why it should suddenly start malfunctioning now -- after all, I've only had it for two years, and I've been careful to look after it. My partner, however, was not remotely surprised. My problems, she said, were yet further evidence in support of her conspiracy theory that Apple deliberately tries to destroy its older iPod models, by designing software updates that make them malfunction.