I hope someone can help me here, or point me to a 3rd party app, but it seems I cannot prevent accidental key-presses (dialing, etc.) *AND* password protect the device at the same time.

Is it really one or the other? If the phone rolls around in purse or pocket with password protection on, it thinks passwords are being entered incorrectly (10 tries and the device wipes its memory) Come on, RIM - there has to be a better solution? Can I key-lock my blackberry AND have a password? (such as a specific customized key-combination to unlock the key-board????)

I don't have the holster and would sometimes like to store the device without putting it in one.

Not possible to occur.
The OS safeguards against this exact scenario by requiring the user to type the word 'blackberry' after several incorrect password attempts.

I agree that this would be usefull but as yet I haven't managed to type blackberry in serveral times with random key presses in my pocket!