iTunes - Why The Sad Face?

After much faffing about - with a lot of help from Jon Price - I've finally got the damned iPhone working with iTunes. But what a pain in the arse. How this is the SAVIOUR OF THE MOBILE PHONE INDUSTRY is quite beyond me.

First up, yet another EULA.

I think that's the third one that I've had to agree with. For one piece of software. If I were to actually read each of them, it would take a full seventeen years. Probably.

So, on to registration. Here's the form.

Is there anything on here that I couldn't do on my phone? I appreciate that on a crappy T9 keypad it would be a pain to type out all the information - but on the iPhone, it should be a joy. Right?

Then payment. I want to make it very clear that I don't want to buy anything from Apple. There's plenty of free apps, music and podcasts. But, no, Apple knows best and will safely store all my credit card details just in case I ever get drunk and have an insatiable urge to download Mungo Gerry's Greatest Hits.


This gets me to the crux of my frustrations with Apple - it's their way or the highway. You must follow Apple's proscribed path. Any deviation results in instant death.

All of which wouldn't be so bad, if its path was any good. Can anyone give me an explanation why I need to tether my mobile device to my computer? All the registration could be done by phone. It's not even as if I can break my bank balance by downloading GB OTA - Apple cripples the device so that large downloads have to go through WiFi. Utterly absurd when I have an unlimited HSDPA connection.

Are there any Apple defends out there who can say why the need for a computer?

(Of course, the real answer is that Apple makes more money on iMacs and iBooks than it does on iPhones - so it hopes to trap you in its purchase cycle.)