First Droid, some questions

[jayisforjuicebox]

So this is my first Droid and thus I have no experience with past generations of the software or phones. I am however, rather technically savvy and will understand most things rather quickly. I just had a few questions that I was hoping to find the answers to.

Firstly : I am coming from my Blackberry Tour and was easily able to make the phone both vibrate and make any sort of notification tone at the same tone should I desire. I prefer to have the phone both vibrate and make a noise. However whether the new Droid Bionic is on silent or not, it refuses to vibrate when I receive any sort of notification. Vibrate is set to : Always

Secondly : Could anyone suggest some apps that should be auto-include on any phone? I am trying to get used to 8-pen as my keyboard because it seemed interesting, and I have google music loaded. That is about as exciting as it gets so far.

Thirdly : I'd like to get a hard case for the phone, but don't know what makes the difference between all the options out there. Could anyone recommend one and give a reason? I don't want to shell out forty bucks for some super-clunker of a case that probably costs the company about fifty cents to make and that about half an hour was spent on the R&D developing it. (Looking at you otterbox)

Finally : Would I want to root the phone, and why?

 

[tdizzel]

Welcome to the wonderful world of android. Enjoy your stay. You picked a great site to get really good info from.
For your first question, Yes you can have a tone along with your vibrating. Its usually in the settings for whatever app. ie if you go into email, hit the menu button, and go to settings, you will see settings for notifications where you can set that up.
Second question-Check out this thread http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-bionic/119704-top-5-bionic-apps.html
I don't have a case, but I'm thinking aboutgetting this one Incipio Motorola DROID BIONIC feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case, Motorola DROID Bionic Hard Shell Case, Motorola Droid Bionic Soft Shell Case, Motorola Droid Bionic Protective Case, Motorola Droid Bionic Slim Case
Can't help you with the rooting since I've never done it on this phone or my prior droid. Plenty of people have and will give you lots of advice. there is a subforum on rooting where you can get tons of good info.

 

[csimme01]

Your phone should ring and vibrate at the same time Mine does no problem. The settings for calls and settings are separate and it sounds like you found them. There are others who have had this problem and fixed it by doing a factory reset. Look through the other threads and you can it.

As far as apps I would recommend handcent for messages and dolphin browser.
I have never rooted so I have no opinion.