Senuti is -- or, more accurately, was -- a useful, easy-to-use program for transferring files from my iPod to my desktop or back into iTunes. Set-up was easy. Just download it and use it.

Documentation for how to use it was hard to come by. One just had to be intuitive and poke around a bit to figure it out. But, as I wrote, it was a fairly easy-to-use program.

The problem came with the latest release (January, 2009). Without warning, the programmers decided to switch from a freeware (with a button for donations) version to a TRIAL version that expired with a certain number of downloads, or in a fixed number of days, whichever came first.

That's where the problems begin.

No reputable software developer handles things like that -- switching to a paid version without warning. So I immediately went from a happy customer to a severely dissatisfied customer. Now I don't trust them. Now, Senuti's occasional quirks (like not automatically skipping files it thinks it can't download, or not recognizing differences in file size but going solely by file name when downloading -- and refusing to download files of a similar name) become huge. Now, because I'm paying for this item, I expect it be perfect. And I expect customer service to be responsive and darn cheery.

Senuti was a great program -- when it was free. Now, at $18, it's a relic that I'll immediately seek to replace.

Beware Senuti!