Problems with Galaxy Nexus II, soon to be III but problems with Ice Cream Sandwich or phone?

After 12+ years with Sprint and a couple years with the HTC EVO, prompted by the June '12 issue of PCworld that compared 3G/4G speeds in 12 cities across the US and seeing Sprint come in dead last in almost every category, I switched to the Galaxy Nexus II and Verizon last week, and since Verizon won't have the III for another week, worked a deal to do an even exchange with my II to the III when it comes in. But having some issues, and not sure if it's the phone itself and/or issues with Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

In email (either Earthlink POP email or gmail), the number of messages unread does not appear in the desktop icon as it used to on my EVO. Was that functionality taken away in ICS?

With text messages, there is no indication on the display (like in the icon) when I have unread text messages?

There does not seem to be a COMMA in the built in keyword when composing a text or email?

When dialing, I am used to starting to dial, for example, 206 and then have the phone display a list of contacts where "206" is part of their phone number, like the previous version of Android on my EVO used to do. Am I missing something or is Android functionality going DOWN?

There are other irritating quirks but I'm still trying to figure it out. And no, the phone did NOT come with any kind of manual, other than a 2 page sheet that says here's the power button, here's the volume button, no hints at all as to setting this up. Inputs, suggestions, pointers appreciated.

Jon

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Some of the functionality you describe sounds like things that are specific to HTC sense.