I know that blackberry is really hoping to hit it big with their app store. Talking to my rep he said they are hoping for it to be opening up some times in march. I know they opened it up to developers a couple months ago. Im really hoping they are able to compete with the apple app store but only time will tell.
And as for what was said earlier, its gonna be a whole new game when telus launches their 4G LTE network which is slated for 2010. Once that comes up they will be using a global standard and it will really open the doors for different phones.
Yup, Vodafone Greece has indeed released .100 for the 9500, but no other carrier has upgraded just yet. FYI, .100 will not work for our phones as its technically a different model (no CDMA on the 9500).
Telus is supposedly (very much rumors at this point) testing .106 for release in early-mid March, but we'll see. From my experiences with .103, they're getting pretty close to the next official release (supposedly .106 is getting really good - a couple of minor issues, but everything is much faster). Verizon (in the US, same model as Telus and Bell) is supposedly behind... their next release is expected in April at this point in time.
I can't wait for more info to come available! 
Here's a few answers to help.
1. Check to see if your SIM card is installed. If so, try taking it out. That might help with the dropped calls. If it isn't installed and you're still dropping calls, you might have a hardware issue. Take it to your carrier (I've only ever had one dropped call on my Storm thus far).
2. Poor battery life. The SIM card is another potential solution here. Beyond that, there are things to do to improves battery life, including not letting it fully drain, as well as charging it for the full night. I've also noticed that some of the leaked OSes have really helped, especially the last two (.103 and .109). When you say bad battery life, does it atleast make it for the day? If not, there might be a problem with the unit.
3. To close applications, press the (competitor) Menu button while you're in the application, scroll to the bottom of the list and select Close. That's the only way unfortunately. If you like though, you can actually change the options for the browser by clicking the (competitor) Menu button in the browser, select Options > Browser Configuration. That might help.
If you like, I'd suggest checking out the BlackBerry Support Community Forums... there are a lot of helpful posts on these exact issues there... just do a search and you'll find suggestions! 
I was hearing March, but there seem to be conflicting reports as to what's currently happening with the OSes. I heard from one person that they're working on a new OS from the ground up, while I saw on another location that they're introducing some new features (better finger selection method for copying and pasting). While I don't want to be recommending that anyone try the leaked OSes (they are unsupported and if installed incorrectly can brick your phone), I've tried the last few and the most recent two, .103 and .109 are much much better. A lot more stable, faster, smoother, better battery life and more. On .109, the camera is actually as fast as it should be. Unless they are indeed doing a total rework, from what I've experienced with these two seems to indicate that they're getting fairly close to having things down.
