Thanks, Sean. Looking at the reviews on Amazon.com, it looks like I'm going with the Commuter series case rather than the normally heavier-duty Defender line. Sounds like they didn't try so hard on the HTC Desire Defender.

Now to figure out what apps to use....

My sister suggested Evernote and Yelp, and they do seem like they'll be helpful. I'll have to actually use Evernote to take notes for stories.