So my pal Dave hooked me up with an early Christmas present from iTunes - the Synergy Brass Christmas album... awesome!

I tried to redeem it using the link in the e-mail iTunes generated, but it insisted I needed iTunes to run and it couldn't find the installation of iTunes on my machine (version 6.05 - came with my free iPod Nano from my 20th High School Class Reunion). I ran iTunes independently of the iTunes website's griping, and it finally figured out that I did indeed have a working copy of iTunes - finally. Now it's asking for a 'redeem code'... and I got nuthin' (the iTunes e-mail didn't provide one - apparently they just assume that when you click the 'Redeem Now' button on their website, everything will work flawlessly - silly me... I was thinking the Mac-user video was just satire).

So, I figured I should maybe set up an iTunes account and attack it using my e-mail address as my 'Apple ID,' and no luck there. I tried to sign up for a new account about 5 times, and it got stuck on the Payment screen each time. I chose PayPal, and it sent me to PayPal's site so I could establish the payment agreement (which PayPal did each time - no worries... ), but everytime I followed the directions to go back to iTunes. I went back to iTunes to 'Continue', and it shot me right back to PayPal and tried to set up another payment agreement (a whole new one from the one I had just established). I'm just glad I could cancel them so I didn't have multiple agreements and get charged several times for the same thing.

So after twenty minutes of fighting with that, I figured it was a problem with the version that came with my iPod Nano (v 6.05) - but nope. I downloaded version 8 (the latest on their site), and it did the exact same thing.

I'm totally convinced that iTunes is one of the biggest POS's I've encountered - the only redeeming quality is that it allows me to update my iPod - when it feels like allowing me to do so, that is... and if that's all it would do, I'd be satisfied. I know that's all I ever use it for, and it sometimes can't even do that very well (can't find my iPod and doesn't recognize the iPod even when Windows Explorer can pull it up as a Flash Drive after iTunes bombs out). I hope the rest of life as a Mac user doesn't roll like that.

Sadly, I think this might become one of those things that's just going to sit out there that Dave paid for and I can't get to - and that would suck. If I can't get this resolved, I'm hoping maybe there's a way for him to redeem the gift and himself and get a copy or something.

I'm stumped - and I just set up my own SMTP/POP3 e-mail server yesterday. So I don't think it's because I'm stupid or computer-illiterate or anything.