The iphone is perfect, but the Mac is not

So far my experience with my iPhone has been almost perfect - that is when it is not connected to a laptop/desktop. Here's why....

I buy the iPhone, convinced that it will be the perfect device and accepting the possibility that it might be the trigger to get me to move over to a Mac.

We have a mac at home with all our music and photos on it, but I use my IBM work laptop for everything else (all work, all the time, basically)...
The iPhone will not do anything (sans emergency call) without activation - and that can only be done via iTunes.... so
- I plug my phone into the Mac... nuthin. Check connections, surf, search, read, AHA! Simple... I have to upgrade to iTunes 7.3!... so
- I do. Online download - it's a snap... this mac is great....
- Plug the iPhone back in... nuthin. Check connections... surf, search, surf, read.... ahA! I missed this the last time! I need to upgrade my OS to 10.4 !! Darn! Oh well... I can accept that.. I've had this Mac for over 2 years... so...
- It was too late the day I bought the iPhone to go back to the Apple store... and there was no chance that I could wait to try my iPhone... so... since I already got iTunes for my PC a while back as part of a Quicktime upgrade...
- I plugged my iPhone into the PC... and VOILA! Activation begins and ends within 5-10 minutes and my AT&T transfer of my phone number is done within 20 minutes... wow. That WAS easy.... so
- No music... and just a few photos (misc ones I had handy on my PC... but I can live with that... a couple of days later........
- Went to the Apple Store... bought OSX 10.4!
- Got home and installed OSX 10.4... not a simple proces, since I got what's known to Mac lovers as "Kernel Panic" - sort of the same thing as when you microwave your popcorn too long and you get that burning buttery-chemical smell - only without the smell - just the panicked kernels... anyway...
- Turns out to be my external hard drive and i surf, read, surf and never find anything... just figure it out myself.
- Got it! 10.4 runs! ... so,
- Plug in the iPhone! .... "sorry... this device requires OSX 10.4.10"...
- Wait! I have 10.4. uh...(click 'about this mac'... )... 10.4.6. great.
- Go to apple.com... download 10.4.10 - 170 Mb... ugh... 30 minutes later, it's still installing... ugh... finally! installed!
- plug in phone.... again... "Sorry... iTunes cannot start - you need to download the latest version...". UGH!!!
- Go to Apple.com... look for updates... download... install...
- plug in phone.... (yawn)... nuthin.... kick the Mac.... nuthin...
- Surf, read, surf... "try restarting the machine" says one help entry... so
- I do.
- plug in phone..... (yawn)... itunes comes up.... phone is recognized... wow... (yawn)...
- Remember I Synced the iphone with my PC earlier - and got all my contacts on my phone now... this is relevant to the next step...
- try to drag some music on the iPhone... no go... right, it's the sync thing... i pick an itunes directory to sync some music... "Are you sure you want to erase everything off this iPhone to begin syncing to this computer? You can only sync to one computer."... ARGH!!!
- gave up.

Like i said... my iPhone is incredible - but so far, it's living in sin with my PC.
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