What are the "must have's" for the Diamond?

[NeedAnewPhone]

Hello all, I am patiently waiting for my new Diamond which sprint was so kind to sell me for $100.00 with no activation, and/or shipping charges, woo hoo!

I am very excited to finally be replacing my beat up LG LX350. I have been reading this message board for about 3 months, and it along with other resources was very usefull in my phone selection, so thank all of you.

Since there is literally tons of information on here, and I am a newb to doing anything to a cell phone I would like to pose a question to all of you. First off here is what I plan to use my phone for besides obviously talking and messaging:

1) watching avi's, and listening to mp3's

2) GPS navigation

3) wi-fi web browsing, and email

4) planning

5) taking pic's

Now, I have read all through the "How to activate the gps" thread, and I have read about the Juicy, telux, and mighty ROM's etc. and I would like to know which ROM is currently the best, and most usefull. I would also like to now what steps I need to take to make my Diamond not be a battery draining, lagging pig. I understand that this is related to the ROM, and that a new ROM should clear that up, but which ROM is "the" ROM to get?

Do I need to unlock the phone to change the ROM? I am with sprint, and don't plan on switching as I am on the super cheap family power pack.

Will the diamond play avi's or do I need to install codecs?

Any information or directions to which threads are current, and proven to be working well would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!