BB Bold 9650 :: What Cool Apps Should Install

I am new to the BlackBerry world, since I just bought my first BlackBerry ever, a Sprint-branded Bold 9650 and, so far, I really like it, although, to be honest, the platform seems quite dated (it reminds me of Symbian S60 and, specifically, my Nokia E61i a lot!). I can't wait for BlackBerry 6 to be out! I plan to either upgrade my 9650 or get the upcoming 9800, which I have been salivating about since the early leaks.

I come from webOS (Palm Pre), iOS (2G, 3G & 3GS) and Android (G1, myTouch 3G, EVO 4G) and have had tonds of cell phones (29 in 14 years, to be exact LOL), but never a BlackBerry, for some reason, even though they have always intrigued me. Therefore, I have a bunch of questions, even after playing with the phone for many hours (I just got it last night and have been on it all day). Here are some of those questions and I'd appreciate it if you guys took the time to answer any of them. I numbered them for easier reference. Just please try not to quote my entire text, cause I know it's a lot and it would just clutter the thread.I considered posting in the Bold forum, but realized these questions apply to all of the latest BlackBerry devices, so I decided to post here instead. I will most likely have more questions soon, but here it goes.

APPS:

(1) What cool apps should I install? I do favor free apps (hardly ever use paid apps) and I'm big on almost anything that's "connected", like social networking (no need to mention the usual suspects like the Facebook and Twitter apps, of course), care little or nothing for PIM apps on my phone (calendars, tasks, etc.) and multimedia apps aren't my strong suit either (especially on such a small screen). However, almost anything that involves other people will catch my attention. Plus useful tools, alternative launchers, setting tweaking apps and the like. And photography and photo processing apps.

(2) Are my apps installing to the SD card? You aren't prompted and I haven't found a setting for this, so I assume they are, but wanted to confirm.
UPDATE: Already answered fully.

(3) Are there any [good] third party task managers? Specifically, any that allows you kill/close apps from the actual manager as opposed to having to switch to the app and close it from its menu?

(4) Other that BlackBerry App World, are there any other good sources of good third-party apps, themes, wallpapers?

E-MAIL:
(5) When I set up my Gmail e-mail account, the wizard asked me if I wanted to keep my Google contacts and calendar synced. I did, so I accepted. However, I figured Google Sync would do this, so I downloaded it (m.google.com/sync) and it says it's doing the same syncronization. Is this overkill? Are they both doing the same thing? What is it most Gmail users do in this case? What makes the most sense, is more reliable, less resource consuming, etc.?

UPDATE: Already answered fully.
(6) One of my biggest complaints with Android is within the Gmail app. When you reply to a message, you can choose to include or exclude the original text. Fine. But what I really like to do is EDIT this text. Why I do is irrelevant, but here goes. I hate huge e-mail threads, so what I like to do is edit this original text and only leave the message I'm replying to and delete everything under it. Both iOS and webOS let you do this. Android doesn't, but I figured the king of e-mail would have this flexibility. I haven't found a way. :
UPDATE: Already answered fully.

SYSTEM:
(7) Is there a way to rename the system folders in the app launcher (or whatever this is called), for example "Social Networking" and "Instant Messaging"? Hiding these and creating new ones with the name I want would be a workaround, but I couldn't pick the same icons, since those aren't available.

(8) Are the hybrid ROMs I see in different forums frowned upon by RIM? Palm, for example, has been extremely friendly with the webOS homebrew community, incorporate many of the homebrew apps in the official App Catalog and even some homebrew patches in more recent O/S updates. Are these ROMs stable for the most part? Relatively safe, meaning you can usually "undo" them if something goes wrong? I miss the xda ROMs for Android devices and the hundreds of extremlly useful patches on webOS, which really modify the entire behavior of the O/S.

(9) I feel RIM will make a BB6 upgrade available for the the Bold 9650, since the device was recently released. Would you agree? I saw they recently teased on Twitter about a list of upgradeable devices, but I don't think they have released this yet.
UPDATE: Already answered, plus this is speculation.

(10) Is there a way (keyboard shortcut, third party app) to take a screenshot? From my searches, it seems there's nothing native, but applications like ZonaSnap, CaptureIt and QuickLaunch should do the trick. Is there concensus as in which one is the best? UPDATE: I gave ZonaSnap a try and like it, but could use the feedback. All phones should come with a native keyboard shortcut for screenshots. iOS does, webOS does, Android doesn't.

(11) I assume both voice and data would work on an unlocked 9650 with either a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM card. Now, will data be 3G on AT&T or would it be only EDGE? The 9650 has only one WCDMA band (2100), whereas the AT&T Bold 9000 uses 850, 1900 and 2100.