I have an N800 running OS2008. In the control panel, I select "Text input settings", then "Languages", then under my 1st language "Settings". If I turn on any of the 4 choices (Auto-capitalization, Word completion, Next word prediction, Insert space after word) they stay on *until* I reboot then they are turned off.

Any way to retain my choices over a reboot?

In my experience, they are retained over a reboot. So I'm not at all sure what's wrong in your case.

I think I understand a bit more of what is going on, and it is related to the language you select in the Text Input screen. English (USA) defaults to not selecting any of the 4 choices (Auto-capitalization, Word completion, Next word prediction, Insert space after word). All of the other languages I checked turn the first 3 on, but not the last. This is true for the English (UK) selection as well.

Whatever options you change from the default will get set back to the default when you reboot the N800. So, if you have selected English (USA), when you reboot all the options get turned off. For all the other languages you will get the first 3 turned back on (and the last one turned off) when you reboot even if you have changed them.

Seems like a bug to me, but at least the behavior is consistent. If one knew where the default parameters are set for a language, you could probably "adjust" the defaults to match your preferred choices.