Is iTunes the iPhones uNdoing?

I know what you're thinking when you read the title of this entry. "Here we have another nerdy iPhone blogger". Well... you're right... except... I'm not nerdy enough to get myself out of this hassle that Apple have me in. I have two big issues with Apple at the moment that no amount of trouble shooting has solved.

3rd Party Apps

I have been trial software freak since getting onto a PC way back in 97... even further back if you count Amiga 500. So for me downloading, trialling and uninstalling shareware or demos is no big whoop. Yeah I know after a few months it clutters up your PC with all kinds of junk such as undeleted files, registry items but the upside  it all is that you get to find out about really cool software way before most people... and the shit ones too. But iPhone Apps don't work so well.

After approximately a month of happily using the iPhone relatively problem free I have encountered a massive headache that has forced me to try all sorts of trouble shooting methods that have led to me ultimately resetting the phone to Factory settings. But even this hasn't solved my hassles. None of the 3rd party apps now work without hassle. I have managed to get some to work now (such as the cool Sydney Traffic app) but the Facebook app... is now a no show. That was one of the things I liked the most about the iPhone. Instant access to Facebook. All I get now is the program loading up... followed by it dissapearing and showing me the homepage again without as much as a crumby error message at least giving me some hope of solving the problem.

I went to the forums and the boards are littered with folks with the same problem. Some get their problems solved and some don't. I tried all the steps that the happy folks tried but they didn't work for little ol' me.

iTunes

I ordered music now where is it? I don't give the guy in the CD shop and walk out empty handed so why should this be different?  I might stick with CD shops, eBay and borrowing CD's. At least it's tangible and in your little grubby hands! I ordered three albums (If you must know they were: Superunknown SOUNDGARDEN, Secrets of the Ancients Revealed - EP THE MEANIES and Six Suitable Tracks - EP THE MEANIES) but that was on my iPhone. My iPhone timed out the download. It said that the songs will go to my computer instead. Yet they're nowhere to be found. I have clicked all sorts of buttons from within the iTunes program, followed a heap of online help pages and they are amount to crap. Give me my $30 back! LOL

I have reported the problem but have learnt not to bother with iTunes except to use it to sync with the iPhone. If given a choice I'd rather use a third party client as iTunes is a decent software but let down by buggy programming and mediocre performance.

Quote from iTunes help page:

Apple - Support - iTunes Store
I paid for music that didn't download completely.Most times, your download will restart the next time you open iTunes, even after a power outage. To see if you have any pending downloads, select "Check for Purchases" under the Store menu. If your download doesn't resume, please report the problem through your Purchase History. To report a problem with your download:Locate the item in your Purchase History Click the "Report a Problem" link Select "I didn't receive this item" Enter a description of the issue that you're experiencing in the comments field and hit Submit Our support agents will review your request and get back to you as quickly as possible.