[Droid X General] Dictator Bob:
Hey everyone,

first off, I've tried searching (this forum and google) for a lot of stuff, but I still have some questions ( I started out with a ton haha).

I just bought a droid x, and I switched from the original storm (blackberry's first touchscreen phone)

1. gmail- I have my school account (which is a business gmail account) as my primary google/email account, and I don't like that when I check my email on my phone, it automatically marks my actual inbox (that I would check on my computer) as read messages. On my blackberry I would get all my email, but the messages would still be new when I went on my computer. That was very helpful for keeping organized. Can I still do this?

2. computer syncing- blackberry had a nice program that automatically synced everything on the phone with the computer. I realize that google does this over the air, but I'd like to have my contacts/calendar/life in sync with outlook. The blackberry program synced: contacts, calendar, photos, (videos and music if I wanted too, but I didn't bother with that), notes, and tasks (and more?). I found a google calendar sync that I am using to keep my outlook up to date with the android/google calendar, and I found a media manager from motorola that I can use for getting pictures off the phone in an orderly manner. I'm worried about other media. What about contacts and notes and stuff? Google doesn't have a sync option like for the calendar. Is there a program I can use to do all of this? or at least the contact stuff? I'd rather not have to export a .csv every time i get a new contact.

3. Rooting/roms--When I bought this phone, all the reviews basically said that the X was possibly the best hardware available and the worst software. I've gotten confused when I looked around at roms. Is there a standard pure google Froyo build that I can put on this phone? Is there a version of HTC sense that will port over? Has gingerbread been ported yet? Is there a sense or motoblur version of gingerbread yet?

4. speaking of gingerbread- how good is moto about updating there phones with new android builds? Any chance of us getting this in my lifetime?

5. apps. I remember reading a review a long time ago about a really really cool program that would let you do basically anything in your imagination with your phone- it was basically a if-then app that had access to every part of your phone and you could get your phone to do whatever you want when something happened (even as stupid/ crazy as opening the camera app if you received an email and stuff like that).

6. how do you determine which apps are best? is there a trust worthy site that rates them?

7. speaking of apps, are there any ones that I really need? I have Ti backup (im still trying to root this thing, no luck so far), google goggles, and a flashlight app. Any other essentials?

8. Media. I've heard that android has a really bad media player compared to zune/wp7 or ios. Is there an app that mimics either of these media players? or what is a really good media player?

9. what is the difference between a rom and a theme?

10. I've heard that this phone starts out laggy and gets faster over time (according to engadget)- my phone is really laggy only a day in (im not running bunches of apps (yet), I haven't even downloaded that many. Is this par for the course?

I'll have more questions, but that's a bunch to start off. Thanks a bunch everyone, I'm really excited to tear this phone apart and see what it can do!

Edit- I got it rooted, I used z4root instead of the PC based one I was trying earlier