First Galaxy S flash - things to consider ?

[Guest CraigBruce]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and new to Android (6 days in with my Galaxy S), following a stint with WinMo and an HD2 (which I flashed). It's early days, but I'm frustrated by the battery life and occassional lag/freezes on the Galaxy so I'm thinking about flashing to a newer firmware and though I've read a few 'How to' guides, these all seem to focus on the flashing process itself...it's aspects round this I am interested in advice on.

From the reading I have done so far I have a number of things to consider:

• I have downloaded free as well as paid apps from the market. Using a backup tool and the restoring after the flash will (I understand) mean I no longer get advised of updates for the free apps ?
  
• Some of the apps on my phone (ThinkFree Office) don't show up on an AppBrain scan (results below) - is Office added as part of a carrier/country specific ROM (i.e. will I lose it/anything else with a flash)
  
• Any way to backup application settings, e.g. for K9 mail ?
  
• Do standard tools backup system settings ? e.g. setting HandcentSMS and K9mail to be default for SMS and mail
  
• I'm after any speedup I can get (as long as not at expense of battery life!) and I'm considering the ext4 SD card partition lag fix...is it likely to matter if I do this before or after the flash ?
  
• Which firmware ? JG5, R3, JM1 .... ??? Battery life is the main driver for me at present
  

My current setup is

Firmware version: 2.1-update1

Baseband version: I9000XXJF3

Kernel version: 2.6.29 umts_scm@S1-BUILD05 #2

Build number: ECLAIR

http://www.appbrain.com/user/CraigBruce/apps-on-the-gt-i9000

External SD is 32Gb Class 2 Sandisk

Using the phone on Vodafone UK, phone bought as unlocked and new off ebay. Currently getting a max of 8-10hrs battery life with JuiceDefender running and email polling every 30mins, average 1x5min call per day (still 'new toy' so getting some use and abuse!)

TIA

Craig