i know this post is old, but let me help you out.

The first thing you’ve done wrong is trusting your contacts, calendar, and other things to outlook and active sync…
not smart.
use google sync: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138636&topic=14299

just as long as you don’t try to sync tasks or txt messages, you can’t go wrong.. get a gmail if you don’t have one.

(I really would rather you make sure your contacts are backed up before you do this. granted syncing with google is way easier, i don’t know if it’ll upload or just delete whatever contacts and other information you have now and i’d rather not be responsible for that kind of damage)

You complained about google maps also, well that sucked when this device came out.. i know my touch pro did. you can get a newer version from windows marketplace (something else you complained about, no app sotre,get it here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/get-marketplace.mspx) or you might be able to get the .cab straight from google: m.google.com/maps

also, anybody trying to use PIE (pocket internet explorer) is a moron. And opera’s nice but i suggest opera mobile 10, brand new and quite a bit better than what comes on our devices
http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/

Your problem with answering calls while the phone is in your pocket, i would use a different phone canvas if i had an xperia. I did pretty much the same thing before touch pro roms had this functionality.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442154&highlight=blackstone+dialer

scroll down to attached files in the first post and grab
Touch-IT_Blackstone_dialer.zip

you’ll have t extract the .zip to get to the cab before you put it on your device, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

It will replace your current dialer but i think you’ll be glad, both devices have the same resolution so it should work flawlessly.

Now, you say your phone wakes up everytime you get a notification, well i have wm6.5 on my touch pro so i can’t really help you there because i pretty much forgot how i had my device set up back when it was stock.

For awhile i know i used the quicklist, which was accessible by holding my endkey for a couple seconds and tapping lock device.
like i said though, i have wm 6.5 on my device so now i just tap start>lock…

If you tried any of this and for any reason something went wrong, or maybe you have more questions about your device, send me an email to jhp113@gmail.com

i hope i helped you in some way.