Has iPhone 2.2 created a new class of application update problems? Remote is broken now.

At first we thought 2.2 had fixed an old problem ...

Gordon's Tech: iPhone 2.1 - unknown application 0xE800002E - A FIX!

...Update 11/22/08: The Nov iTunes and iPhone releases may have squashed this one. I can't speak from personal experience since I long ago fixed my problem, but I'm seeing positive reports....

Now I've had to manually remove and reinstall 2 applications, MPR and Remote, to get them to work - partly.

Just like the old days, except now there's no application error.

Remote is no longer showing me controls for my remote airport express speakers. That's a slight improvement, before the forced restore it was just giving me an "unknown error" message when I tried to use it. I think that's tied to the airport express problem.

This is not looking so good.

If it is a return of the old horrible bug with application updates, I suspect the return may have root in Apple's broken identity management system. It broke with the .mac to .me transition for those who had been original .mac users but were not users at the time of the .me transition ...

Update: I remain suspicious that there's a new bug, or a twist on an old bug, with propagating app updates to the iPhone. On the other hand, the loss of remote speakers was due to my Airport Express going offline. When I power cycled it I again saw the remote speaker option.

Why did the AE go offline for the first time in a year or so? That's another question, maybe related to an update to my Airport Extreme, maybe coincidental.

Update: Yep, I can't sync my iPod now...

Update: Deauthorizing and reauthorizing my Mac had no effect. I found a slightly relevant discussion group thread. I rebooted the iPod to no effect, but then restarted my Mac and was able to sync all my devices.

Update 11/24/08: Rebooting the Mac solved the problem. Alas, that was too easy a solution for this to be entirely an Apple error. I have a bad feeling that the error was intracranial, that is, my user error.

For reasons too complex to bother explaining it's just barely possible that I was running a user account that points to a shared multi-user Tunes library.

I've also verified that at least one iPhone App Store update worked as expected and functioned without my having to remove and restore the app.