First Time Smartphone User

Well I'm about to order the HTC Tilt 2 online from AT&T. This will be the first smartphone I've ever had. I have a Motorola KRZR right now & I've loved it for a long time, but I'm ready to upgrade to something with a full, physical QWERTY keyboard. I looked at all the options AT&T offered for this & it came down to deciding from 4 choices: HTC Tilt 2, LG Vu Plus, Pantech Ease, or Samsung Impression.

Well at first I liked the Ease & it has really good reviews, but then I decided I wanted WiFI capability, & off the 4 choices only the Tilt 2 & the Vu Plus offered this.... BUT there was no upgrade discount on the Vu Plus so I looked a lot more into the Tilt 2. (Also, if I'm going to get a smartphone, I don't what the iPhone because you're able to customize & install cabs/roms to the Tilt 2 & not the iPhone.)

What I found was A LOT of reviews saying they hated it because it froze a lot, but there were a few reviews here & there that said if they downloaded the patches from HTC, it fixed the freezing problem, so I felt better about & thought I would be willing to give it a try. My next hangup was that if I got the Tilt 2, I would be REQUIRED to pay additional $15/month for the minimum data play of 200mb/month... I don't like that I am forced to have a data plan just because I get a smartphone, especially when it has free WiFi capabilities.

When I asked AT&T why I had to get the data plan they responded that it was just how it was with smartphones because they were designed mainly for data usage & when I asked them if I could cancel the data plan after the 2 yr contract was up & still use the phone they just said it was impossible to cancel the data plan while having a smartphone on the phoneline & that if I didn't want a data plan they recommended a non-smartphone. I told them that I didn't want the smartphone because of the data usage, I wanted it for all the other features it had that non-smartphones can't offer me. They had nothing to say except that there was nothing they could do. So I realize that if I'm going to have a phone that only operates on a 3G network even for voice calls, I'm going to have to pay for the data plan... I guess. The last thing that's bothering me is that even though they say you can return the phone during your 30-day risk-free trial period if you don't like it, there is still a $35 restocking fee which is outrageous in my opinion! So I'm really nervous about getting the Tilt 2 because I don't want to have to pay the restocking fee if I don't like it, so I just really hope that I do & am able to customize it with roms/tweaks/cabs enough to where I'm really happy with it.

So, that all being said, I think I am going to go ahead & get it, but after going into the store to check out the Tilt 2 some more in person, I realized that (in addition to the HTC patch that fixes the freezing) there are already at least 5 things that I'm going to have to find fixes to:

- A better music player/organizer similar to the iPhone
- Format/customize the way the text messages look better
- Contacts to show names FIRST LAST (not LAST, FIRST)
- A better photo viewer/organizer (that doesn't turn them diagonally)
- Be able to click a right arrow next to the Contact's name in the list view to scroll through their multiple phone numbers

Any help with any of those would be greatly appreciated!! Also, do you know if there's a way to program speed dial where on regular phones you can just hold down a number for a few seconds & it will automatically call the phone number programed to that number key? Thanks so much!!