1) There is no manual APN config.
Yes. There is.
Try Apple's ICU utility.
2) There is no way to stop auto powerdown when the Iphone is in the docking base (the one which connects to the PC via a USB cable). Why does it power-down (go into screen save mode) when it has external power?
Is this such a big deal ? It doesn't affect usability, you can still use the phone as normal.
In some contexts (which I haven't worked out) one can end up with a photo, taken with the built-in camera, which cannot be deleted.
Never seen this. But if you're convinced its a bug, figure out a way to reproduce it and file a bug report.
The excellent LCD of the Iphone is largely wasted with such a stupidly limited browser.
Stupid comment. I doubt you'll find any smartphone that does a better job .... simple.... with limited screen real estate, you have to make compromises. Apple have done quite a good job of making the browser usable in 99% of use-cases.
There are some issues with having multiple Itunes installations e.g. one at home and one at work. It is easy for a secondary Itunes installation to simply wipe out a lot of stuff off the phone.
Go read up on the Apple website onto how to backup and restore your iphone and itunes settings. Its all there, including the locations of directories. Use that to make multiple installations work. You can probably try to be clever about it and sync the relevant folders using rsync or something similar for Windows (at your own risk of course).
You should also be maintaining adequate backups so that it doesn't matter if you loose/wipe/destroy your phone.... this applies to any device, Apple or otherwise.
The restrictions are to do with Apple's licensing agreements with music and app providers in order to combat piracy. Its not Apple's fault, blame the freetards.
7) A question: if the VPN is active, will every internet app use the VPN only?
Go read the documentation. Apple support split-tunneling if so configured.
8) While the Iphone itself provides an excellent clear interface for searching the Apple app shop, the equivalent facility in Itunes doesn't seem to work well. The search function on it is particularly useless.
How are you trying to search ? What doesn't work well ?
9) Is there some way to bulk delete emails?
I filed an enhancement request for that a couple months back. So its somewhere on their to-do list as the request was not rejected. In the grand scheme of things, its a minor point.
No wonder people jailbreak these things. Then you see the whole file system.
The people who "jailbreak these things" are morons who have no background in IT.
You'll find nobody with a decent IT background, and particularly nobody with an IT security background will ever jailbreak their phone. What you gain in apparent flexibility is very much lost in terms of security (and also potential bugs and stability issues).