And hey, what about imminent service launches, too? If you're stateside like we are, you've had the luxury of being able to drain your bank account straight into the iTunes Music Store for almost two full years, now, so it's easy to take that privilege for granted as the bank is repossessing your car. Many of our friends overseas, however, aren't so lucky; take, for example, oh, we don't know-- let's say the Swiss, the Danes, the Swedes, the Norwegians, and the Aussies. Sure, between them they may have great banks, big dogs, excellent candy fish, fjords to end all fjords, and more marsupials than anyone can shake a stick at-- but what good is all that if they can't download cheap, legal, iPod-compatible songs by cheesy '80s hair bands whenever the mood strikes them? Seriously, it's like the Dark Ages or something.

But all is not lost! According to Music.ch (by way of the ever-entertaining BabelFish auto-translation service), iTunes Switzerland is slated for a launch in just two more days, on the 28th-- and it's "to go together with the likewise still missing nordischen Shops for Sweden, Denmark, and Norway" on the same day. The cited source is an "internal memorandum," although internal to whom the site doesn't clarify; a spokesperson for Apple Switzerland, however, when asked for comment by Music.ch, replied "'you prepare belly pain' already for us." Which is either a confirmation that the info is legit, or a request for a minty chewable antacid, or both. In any case, we don't see any reason to doubt the info. Or, at least, we don't understand any reason to doubt it, which is pretty much the same thing.

But hey, what about them Aussies? Well, rumors of imminent iTMSness have been swirling down under for ages, now, but we finally have some solid confirmation from an unimpeachable source: according to The Courier-Mail, no less an Apple authority than "actor and sometime-musician Russell Crowe" (we think he played "Mad Max" or something) has let slip on an Australian radio show that "the local iTunes Music Store would become available on April 28," and that its catalog would include "the first of his post-30 Odd Foot of Grunts songs." Per-song pricing is reportedly set at $1.80 Australian, which comes out to roughly $1.40 in what we Yanks commonly refer to as "real money." (No offense, but their fifty-cent piece is a dodecagon with a kangaroo and an emu on it. What is that?)

The good news is that there's at least some decent hard evidence that Music.ch and Mr. Crowe are both right about the April 28th launch date: Mac Rumors reports that flag buttons for the five new countries in question are all already available from Apple's servers. So Tune in Thursday, when we'll tell you whether or not any or all of these overseas iTMSeseses came to be. And tune in tomorrow, when we'll tell you just how many email messages we got from irony-deficient people informing us that it was in fact Mel Gibson who played "Mad Max" because they didn't get the joke and didn't bother reading this far before firing off a correction. Will it be more or fewer than the number of email messages we get from irate Aussies who think we seriously impugned the majestic beauty of their national coinage? We'll sell you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!