Advise for dumb old man

[Cork]

I hope this is an appropriate post for this forum.

I've had the XV-6800 for a few weeks now; this is my first PPC device. I've been using Palm OS PDA's and/or Treos for six years, but I became so frustrated with the way VZW crippled the 755p (resulting in incredibly slow response time) that when the radio died I gave up. I picked the XV because of the large keyboard and full PPC implementation.

I'm not a total technical illiterate - Aerospace engineering degree, did some 8086 assembler programming in the early IBM PC days, build my own PC's.

Please provide advice on a direction to go to improve the interface of my Titan. I don't mind buying software - I have Pocket Quicken, eWallet, and ListPro loaded already to replace similar apps on my 755p, and of course the Skyfire beta (most excellent). I look forward to playing with the GPS once I load one of the sensational ROM/radio combos as well.

What I'd like is an equivalent screen to my Palm with icons for the programs I use the most, larger buttons for the dialer, etc. The stock "Today" screen is useless to me. I want to be able to do most things without needing the stylus. SPB has a couple of solutions that seem popular, there's HTC Home, etc. On the ROM's, it looks like DCD and No2Chem follow different philosophies, but both produce excellence. Should I simply pick one of the kitchens and build a ROM with the available interfaces, or load a more stripped ROM and buy one or more of the SPB apps? And if the latter, which one(s)? They seem to do many of the same things.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. This forum and XDA-Developers are filled with incredible people.