Re: Slider -- Place your finger at the top of the slide-bar, and you'll be able to flip it left or right.
Re: Battery -- I think it's important to think of smartphones as computers instead of phones. A laptop may barely run 3 hours off of its battery for example (depending on the brand, the battery, etc).. and as such, I often wonder why it surprises people that smartphones don't have a huge battery life. They are small computers, running off relatively small batteries. I was impressed to get 4 or 5 hours out of it last night doing constant 'net surfing. I couldn't have asked much else out of it (I get more time out of it just callinging/texting and doing more casual surfing)
Install a program called Juice Defender -- I find it has helped me a bit since receiving my phone. I've done a fair bit of research into task killers and I'm not impressed by what I've read -- so I'm strictly using Juice Defender and staying away from task killer. But in the end, use what you find works best.
Go into your settings and find the Brightness settings, turn off Auto Brightness and lower the brightness down to minimum (it will still be plenty bright), this will help. TURN OFF WIFI, I can't stress this enough. I used Wifi for the first time the other day and the rate at which it was draining my battery was just scary. I stick to my 3g plan for 'net usage as a result, unless I have ready access to a charger. If your battery is draining rapidly (As in 2 hours and the whole thing is dead), wifi may be the culprit.
Charge the battery right up, and then drain it until it is entirely dead -- Then charge it back up again to full for a good LONG time. Rinse and repeat this process a few times over. It's been known to break in the battery and get it to its full potential. I don't know the science behind it, only that it seems to work.
There are other suggestions out there, you can search for them, I'm not sure of all the suggestions yet myself -- these are just what has helped me in the week since obtaining the phone.
Over all, I think the best thing you can do is lower your expectations. We're all used to phones lasting two or three days, but this isn't just an ordinary phone. It's a little computer. I think if people start thinking of the device as a computer more than a phone, we'll start adjusting our perception of battery life to fit.