3 week new Droid user - And lovin' it!

[Shadowman]

Hi there!

I come from WinMo (Verizon XV6800), and thought it was pretty neat. Except it was a REALLY crappy telephone! One thing it did well, was sync. I could do Contacts, notes, ToDos, encrypted datbases (handibase) for passwords, etc. Then all I had to do was plug it into my laptop and in a couple of minutes everything I'd done on both devices was the same on both devices!

So far, my Droid has been great! Good phone. Cool apps. But I"m really struggling with sync-ing.

Music, Photo, Video
I've got a Motorola Media Link sync that does music with limited success (syncing with iTunes), photos if I wanted every photo on my laptop to be on my phone, and videos, same problem. And it does it VERY SLOWLY!

Contacts
Tried CompanionLink with Oulook/Google and CompanionLink USB without Google, with REALLY mixed results. Too many contacts, then not enough, Droid merging multiple contacts into one. Contacts added on one of three sides, and deleted on another. Would give up Outlook for contacts, except neither Google, nor Droid has enough fields. And I'm not crazy about having all my contacts' information sitting out there on the web.

Calendar
Using CompanionLink has been better for this (except duplicating or deleting appointments with Contacts it has added/deleted/duplicated)

Tasks/To Dos
Have tried CompanionLink for Outlook Todos, Astrid/RememberTheMilk combo, but it added Tasks to every single day, and a few others. However, it seems, I get good Todos, or I get Synched Todos, but not both.

Notes-About the same as Tasks

Passwords-Bought SplashId-Great syncing. Great Desktop. Lousy mobile. Now using KeepassDroid. Great mobile. Great Desktop - No syncing.

And to do anything, I have to plug phone into computer go through a process to mount (sounds like sex) the memory to my computer (and disabling it for the phone), run these syncing programs, then unmount it, so the phone can use it again. Very frustrating.

Lastly. Got this lock screen that I have to get through every time I turn on my phone, with the slider way down at the bottom of the phone so I have to use 2 hands. Would like to be able to at least hit one button. Have tried other locks but they either don't stop it or use the same method. Isn't there any way to turn the blasted thing off?

Want to reiterate that using the Droid has been a kick, but I could sure use some help getting past what I consider these basic issues so I can get back to using my phone productively.

Anybody got any ideas for solving this stuff? Thanks.

PS What's with verizon selling cases, and skins that protect the phone, but fall off, block the keyboard, and have to be removed to put the Droid in the docks?

Thanks again.
Mark (Shadowman)