Samsung Note 2

These are my "must have" apps:

SwiftKey Keyboard (with the swype option) - I've tried many keyboards, this seems to be the best. Will remember entire paragrpahs word for word if you need to retype it in another app.
Soundhound - good for identifying songs
Quickmark QR reader - I havent used any other QR reader but this is basic and works

I also like HD Widgets, as you can make your own switches. Handy for Do Not Disturb and a Flashlight switch. You can chose from 30 different functions and also modify a clock.weather widget.

Update all of the Google stuff like maps and the Navigation will work perfect.

Easiest way to transfer files to it? MTP is not working on wibdows xp… kies isnt loading the device

The phone should show up as a mass storage device, which you can copy files to.

If you have an expansion memory card, you should see a the internal memory and the expansion memory as separate drives.

Samsung Kies does not work with their Nexus line of phones, all others should work.

I forgot to add an app:

DW Dialer and Contacts - one of the best for organizing your contacts, can easily search by organization and title etc.

I dont think I've ever found kies useful. I just drag and drop from the file manager like any other mass storage device.

One of the cooler tweaks for android lately is pie launchers. All of the big multi platform custom firmwares come with it now it seems and if you're rooted you can add one version to stock.

had to reinstall WMP 11. lol

Kies is crap.

Other app recommendations would be

Bacon reader - best reddit app and free
Swapps - cool way to get at your apps fast
Waze - bit different than Google navigation, let's you see police / accidents / debris on your route and mark stuff you see for others
Comic reader - just grabs up to date comics for whichever ones you like to follow.
aCalendar
Mint
Smartwifi - toggles your WiFi for when you're home/atwork using cell tower triangulation
Remote for vlc
Zedge for wallpapers/ringtones/sounds

Anyways that's most of what I use now. Hopefully you might find one or two of them worthwhile for yourself. As for cases try searching online.

What are some must have apps or tweaks or anything for android? Should I keep the samsung firmware. Need a decent case too…so plastic

I ordered this case, its pretty awesome:

http://www.spigen.com/galaxy-s4-case-neo-hybrid.html