ITunes 11.1.4 totally snarfed my iTunes and ability to properly sync the associated iPhone. Any advice?

Question

Computer in question is a 13" mid 2007 White MacBook running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). I do not have core specs in front of me but I can look them up later if needed. Phone in question is an iPhone 4s iOS is most current viable version for this generation, 7.0.4 (or so I though, but we will get to that)
Background on how this started:
This morning my daughter wanted to sync her iPhone to add new songs to it. When she logged into iTunes a pop-up appeared saying 11.1.4 was available to install. Performed the install and then plugged the phone in and things went belly up. A warning box popped up saying that the phone needed to be reset to factor default and... I could not read the rest because the pop-up then disappeared. The computer then force "ejected" the phone. I pulled the USB out and then plugged it back in. More trouble.
Here are the issues I had in the half hour I was dealing with it.
-iTunes starts acting like it is synching with the phone but the button on the upper right that usually contains the name of the phone now reads: "You need to turn on synchronization in iSync before you can sync contacts and calendars."
Okkkkkaaaaay... And where is iSync so I can do this?? Quick Google search tells me that iSync is an app that is used for phones that are not iPhones to sync them to iTunes. Question: Why do I need iSync if this is an iPhone we are synching??
Next, clicking on the 'name' button we get our standard 'Summary' screen, except it is not so standard anymore... I have screen shots that I can post up if that would make things easier but for now:
     -Next to the blue 'Done' button it reads "The iPhone "^FILENAME" cannot be synced because it cannot be read from or written to" Question 1: Why is iTunes no longer recognizing this iPhone for read from and write to? Question 2: iTunes recognizes the phone's name in the iPhone 4s pane, why is it calling it unrecognizable up here?
     -In the iPhone 4s pane it says the iOS is 7.0.4 but below that it says "A newer version of the iPhone software is available (version 2/25/14). To update your iPhone with the latest software, click Update."  The 'Check for Update' button also runs out the right side of this pane. Questioin: Why is iTunes seeing a future update and telling me to get it?
     -In the Backups pane where you can select either 'iCloud' or 'This computer' the phone is listed as being called "%1$S"; e.g., 'Photos synced to "%1$S" from other photo libraries will be...'
After six attempts I was able to get the new songs on to her phone. I ejected it and sent my daughter on her way.
Then I looked at the iTunes window itself now that the phone was ejected and see that it has been altered as well. If you have 'Music' selected from the drop down then across the top you have various sort options. After the 11.1.4 update these options are:
                                                                           Artist   Genre   Videos   Playlist   Radio   List 
Except when you click on each of these the options are obviously not what they say they are.
     -Clicking Artist brings up a list that is (was) Songs
     -Clicking Genre brings up a list that is (was) Albums
     -Clicking Videos brings up a list that is (was) Artists
     -Clicking Playlists brings up a list that is (was) I think Genius
     -Clicking List brings up a list that is (was) Playlists
The only thing that does not seem to be screwed up is the Radio option as that brings up the Radio option.
At this point we had to leave for school so I was not able to search for any further issues but I will not be surprised if there are more.
I have tried a number of searches over the course of the day and cannot find anyone describing what I am seeing here. Can anyone offer some advice or assistance on how I can fix this?
Thanks

Answer 1

Following up.
After messing around with the computer for a couple hours last night I discovered that the issue extended to iTunes having difficulty recognizing any iPod as well when I tried plugging in 3rd and 4th generation Nanos and a 3rd generation Touch that I had laying around.
This morning I discovered, by viewing the 'About iTunes' option, that iTunes was under the impression that it was still version 11.1.3(8). When I ran a Software Update the computer said everything was up to date however, which would imply that somehow the computer was communicating that iTunes was version 11.1.4
Working under the assumption that perhaps the issues I was seeing were the result of a botched installation of the update I downloaded the update of the web and then ran the update from the .dmg
This solved the problem and now iTunes recognizes iPods and iPhone in a proper manner and all conflicting labeling has been restored to normal. I have no clue what caused the botched install but at least it is fixed