1. An apparatus comprising: an input device including multiple keys, where each key represents one or more symbols and multiple of the keys represent multiple symbols, where said symbols include at least letters and numbers; a display; and a processor in communication with the input device and the display; the processor being programmed to perform operations including: (a) providing a number of predetermined user-activated application programs, each program correlated with one of multiple predetermined icons, and each program additionally correlated with one or more predetermined words; (b) receiving identification of one or more user-selected keypresses entered via the input device; (c) identifying candidate words partially or completely spelled-out by the user-selected keypresses, with each keypress contributing one symbol represented by said keypress toward construction of a word in order of said keypresses; (d) for each candidate word correlated with one of the predetermined programs, causing the display to present the predetermined icon correlated with the predetermined program, and for each of the predetermined programs not correlated with any of the candidate words, causing the display to omit presentation of the predetermined icon correlated with said predetermined program; (e) concurrent with operation (d), causing the display to present one or more numerical sequences representing the keypresses, and causing the display to present contacts directory or calendar data responsive to said contacts directory or calendar containing any of the candidate words or numerical sequences, and causing the display to present any dialed or received telephone numbers partially or completely matching any of the numerical sequences; (f) responsive to receiving additional user-selected keypresses entered via the input device, repeating operations (c) and (d) and (e).