this is a really good opportunity to fix what has been broken with nokia T9 style texting on other phones for years.. my suggestions here will bring the best aspects from symbian T9 and sony ericsson texting (sony's system is better than symbian in many ways)
This feedback contains reference to <NEXT> and <PREV> as the key that moves to the next guess and the previous guess respectively

here's the feedback:

Landascape spelling should be "Landscape"

If I enter a sequence of periods ........ then delete them all and enter just one period again . then the <NEXT> key doesnt change the guess.. It's stuck as a period?

The dictionaries seem to contain some junk - i try to write the english word BE and i get CF CE CD - none of these are english words. If you'd like me to prune the dictionary files for you, just pass them along

It also doesnt seem to suggest in alphabetical order (i think i remember reading that it did) words that havent been used yet?

Program should suggest words with accented characters with lower priority than non accented.. e.g. i'm using english lite dict and I want to write "he", i press 43 and I get IE ID HÉ HF.. eventually HE comes around, but I wonder why the word order is that the accented char is first. Perhaps we should grab some long texts in english (like War and Peace or the bible) and break them into words, counting each word, and provide fastsms dictionary files with words already arranged in the order of most popular to least popular?

the word priority might frustrate the user:
if I write HE, the next time, it will write HE. If I write HE ten times, then write IF once, the next time it will suggest IF first.. i.e. it seems to work in a "most recently used" mode, not a "most often used" mode
Most often used mode is better - if you have MRU mode, users will get confused because the suggestions will always be jumping around.. Suppose they write HE ten times to every one time of IF, the user gets a "memory" in his fingers that HE is 43, and IF is 43<NEXT> but if youre always switching around the word order based on MRU, this logic doesnt hold and it will slow down the texting and frustrate the user

Holding the * key should bring a list of symbols

Holding the number keys should insert the numbers

Pressing the # key should change the case. Pressing the # key while a word is highlighted should change the case of the word abc>Abc>ABC>abc...
(You'll need another key to go to the previous guess)

Holding the # key should flick between number-entry and text-entry

After a short delay when entering a word, a drop down should appear containing all the guesses in order of most-often-used so the user can either tap a dropdown item to insert the word, or get some visual feedback as to how many times <NEXT> must be pressed to get the word they want

"New word" should be on a menu and call it "Insert word" (like symbian phones)

The 5800's predictive keyboard is really nice, actually:

You could go for a layout like this, which would lead to extra functionality like:

There should be a way of writing compound words, like "Wintel" ->write WIN, press right cursor (see the 5800 keypad), write "tel"
However, UNLIKE symbian phones, you SHOULDNT add the compound word to the dictionary when the user presses space - symbian phones do that and it causes the user dictionary to fill up with so much junk you wouldnt believe

Naturally from this it follows that the cursor shouldnt "take hostage" the word it is near to immediately.. The cursor should be allowed to be at the beginning/end of a word without taking it hostage, and another press (of the relevant arrow key) takes hostage

SMS character counter (i forgot the formula for working out concatenated sms length.. it's something like 160 chars for the first text and then each concatted part is 152 chars, less another 7 chars at the end, so a 2 part sms is 160,160-7-8 and a n part is 160,160-7...,160-8 but dont quote me on that)

Additions to the user dictionary should only be made when using the "insert word" function

If i press 6 once, I get an "a" character with a circle on top.. should this not be on the 2 key?

Do you think the guesses should wrap around? this may also (like holding the key) be a faster way of entering numbers.. because numbers are always the last guess, pressing 2 <PREV> would get to the number faster than 2 <NEXT><NEXT><NEXT>...

A way to edit the custom dictionary incase some junk gets added would be most handy

A way to tell if the user has used the hardware keyboard, and just let them type using it (easy way to insert custom word, without pressing the new button)

This may be a bug with the Qt edit box in general, as the same thing happens in other apps, but hen i first open the program the vertical bar | showing where text will input is invisible. I can write an entire SMS and it is still invisible, which is a bit.. weird feeling
To get it visible, I tap somewhere in the edit box and it appears..

I just now wrote a text: NORMING GORGEOUS. Of course, I meant to say "MORNING", so I tap on it to highlight it so I can change it and pressed <NEXT> to change it to MORNING.
I wondered if it had updated the most-often-used order when i moved focus off the word, but it didnt.. I also note with interest if I tap on it again, it becomes focused, and if I press space, it stays focused (but the space is added) and if I press backspace, the end letter of the word is deleted? Expected behaviour: tap word, word highlights, press space, word unhighlights and space is added after the word.. cursor positioned after the space

It doesnt seem to handle words with apostrophes before S such as WHAT'S (contraction of WHAT IS). I also struggled to type I'LL because it kept flicking to H'LL
Perhaps making symbols on key 1 more integrated as words would help with this (i.e. they are word characters in their own right and hence the highlighting doesnt break when 1 is pressed/1 is not a word boundary)
This may also help provide things like smily faces on 1.. I'd like to be able to press 111 and insert :-) as a "word"


Gotta say tho, I've found very few bugs in the app and i'm impressed how well it handles things generally. It's looking good, and could realise all my dreams of things i've complained about with regard to symbian texting for years.. If you want any assstance with it, from a data file, gui or qt point of view (my qt isnt amazing, but I'm getting there with it - i'm a c# guy normally) then just ask - it would only be fair of me to offerto help implement my long wishlist here