I updated my itunes and iphone 4 yesterday and wound up screwing my phone up completey for the 2nd time in as many updates. Is this normal for Windows computers? When I finally was able to restore the phone I lost 11 of my applications. They all say "not signed" and itunes refuses to load them. Anybody have any idea how to get them back?

I'm sure that the itunes must work better with an apple product. Can anybody recommend a low cost product that could do the job? From what I see the Mac Mini can't sync an iPhone.