BB Bold 9650 :: Putting Contacts / Calendar On Phone Via Computer?

9650 is my first BB ever. I'm generally happy with it.A few questions. Does anyone know how to get contacts, calender entries, memo's, tasks, etc into the phone through the use of a laptop? The CD-ROM that came with it wasn't recognized by my laptop for some reason so I just downloaded Desktop Manager from the BB website. I thought the manager would have the fields for this and I could just syncronize it with the laptop. To my disappointment this was not the case, apparently D.Manager is just a backup tool.I called Sprint and I was told I could use Gmail to enter contacts which is what I have been slowly doing. Oh yal, I don't have Microsoft Outlook either.Does anyone know of some software or something that can help me get ALL of the above mentioned item information into the phone thru my computer?Also, can anyone tell me why my battery runs out of a full charge rather quickly?? I have to charge it everyday and that's because I hardly make or receive calls. I think I use the phone (browser, messaging, etc) less than the average person. By the way I set my brightness to 50 and the back lighting time to 10 seconds which I think are pretty generous settings to help save battery energy. Yet the phone still needs a charge everyday. Reviews say it will last 4 to 5 days on standby. Not the case for me at all.Lastly, do any 9650 Sprint owners out there notice the end key (red) to be kinda faded?? Wondering if Igot a lemon in that respect, my red keys look faded and the white of the buttons (majority of keypad) lean towards a whitish-orangeish hue instead of what looks like the brighter whitish-blueish hue. Anyone know what I'm talking about?