HTC Droid Eris :: Phone App Gripes / Are There Solutions?

I've had my Droid Eris for a week now and have reserved any comments/complaints about it until now. While i have other issues with other parts of the phone (Battery Life, Mail App, etc), the Phone App is one i need to sort out first... Please let me know how you "get around" these isues or if there are actual settings to help me. The thing i find most annoying about the phone app is the following:

1. When hitting the call button or "Phone" touch button on the home screen you get the dial pad overlay on top of the call history..fine. But if you try to drag the dialer out of the way to see the rest of the history, and accidentally touch and not drag it, you get the "Smart Dialer Tip screen", to which you have to hit "Back Arrow" soft key to get rid of.. UGH! What ever happened to "Do not show me this tip Again" option? please make it stop.

2. When looking through my call history i can't see the times in which the tims were placed. WHAT!? I have to hit "Menu" and then hit "Call History" to get a separate Call History screen that has this information. Come on, that's not OK. The Call History screen from the Menu option is GREAT! That's EXACTLY what i want and exactly what's on every other cell phone i've used...Only better, cuz you can hit the icon next to the person to see a history of just that caller (again, same on BBerry). From THERE, you can see messages you've received from them, or view their contact card. Why can't THIS screen be the one that is under the dial pad.. SOOO much more useful.

3. Particularly annoying for me, when using Smart Dial and typing out a company name it does not show up. Often times i only remember the company name to the person i'm calling and not the particular representative for which i'm calling... for Example if i have a contact called "Name: Hugh Hefner - Company: Playboy". I want to call that guy at Playboy but can't remember his name, so i type in the company name..."Playboy", it does not show up. If i type in "Hugh Hefner", voila, but i didnt remember that so i had to go to People to start typing the company name to get this information... Not efficient. Again to compare to BB (only because this is the ideal setup) When typing in ANYTHING, it will attempt to find the text you're entering in any of the Contact NAME or COMPANY Name... THIS is how it should be. PLEASE FIX!

4. On the same token, whwen i've then placed a call to a company that does not have a persons name in the name field, the call history just shows a number. Not to mention, when the call is incoming, i do not see their company name on the incoming call screen. The only way i know that someone called that i KNOW is because the listing in the call history has a contact card and not "+" Sign. Bad.

So, when i start to type "Pizza Hut" i get nothin, have to go to People and click search and enter again, then i call, no answer. They call back but i dont know who it is cuz it doesnt come up. I go to look at my call history afterwards and the number is there, but i dont know who it is, until i hit the contact card...then i can click a few more buttons to call thenAnd i just wanted a damn pepperoni pie!

and 5. I would LOVE the option to switch the dialer from 123 to ABC so that it will begin to spell out the name you're entering (like BBerry). Right now, when using Smart Dial, and you're typing Pizza Hut. You get "7499...". Now, what if i misdialed the number/letter and i'm on the wrong path? How am i to know which letter i dialed incorrectly? All i see is a bunch of numbers. All I can do is hit the backspace key to the point at which my narrowed down Smart Dial list is beginning to return results. If I dialed PITZ (7489).. instead of the intended PIZZ..(7499), then i'm screwed and end up starting all over. (More accurately i panic and end up hitting the end key or clear and have to get back into the phone app again)....

Basically, we just need more options.Is there help on the way with Android 2.0/2.1?Is there settings that can help me for now?Is there a 3rd party Phone App that is better