Malcolm, after much searching I came across this nice little atricle that should answer your hotsyncing questions for the palm pre.
http://forums.palm.com/palm/board/messa ... ead.id=323
It seems like the first option using echo works very nicely.
As for cases for the Pre,
http://store.everythingpre.com/seidio-s ... 4A5674.htm
I think this is one that might suit you quite well. The plastic looks fairly rugged. The polycarbonate plastic is the same stuff those unbreakable Nalgene water bottles are made of so you should have a harder time breaking this one