1 - The only three I'm aware of are the mod for the browser (it still sucks with it anyways), the N64 emulator (which works just fine without it, just having slightly longer loading times), and the video site viewer (don't know the drawback here, haven't tested it).
2 - A 5.x firmware. This means M33-6 or Gen D-3, with Prome-4 ontop.
Yes there's 6'x firmwares, but they do less (for now).