7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein explicit key input is received by any combination of: 2-key explicit entry comprising two keys entered in sequence, wherein the combination of the two keys entered in sequence identifies a single unambiguous intended character; long pressing a key to display and cycle through a character sequence; long pressing on a key to enter a number/digit explicitly; changing to a numbers mode and pressing a key to enter a number/digit explicitly; changing to a multi-tap mode and pressing a key repeatedly to enter a character explicitly; interpreting ambiguous mode key presses as an explicit character, either by grouping each pair of key presses as a 2-key explicit entry, or by grouping repeated presses of the same key as a multi-tap entry; using multi-switch keys, thereby permitting ambiguous entry on a simple press and an explicit character entry on a different kind of press; chording by pressing more than one key simultaneously, with a primary key indicating an ambiguous set of characters and a secondary key indicating which character in the set to select; and using a softkey as a secondary means for offering any character assigned to a key based on analysis of most likely character associated with a preceding keystroke or based on words in a current word candidate list.
1. An apparatus for explicit character filtering of ambiguous key input sequences, said apparatus comprising: a processor; a keyboard configured to accept a plurality of key inputs including explicit key inputs and ambiguous key inputs; wherein responsive to receiving an explicit key input, a single, unambiguous intended character is received; wherein an ambiguous key input indicates an intended character of a plurality of potentially intended characters, but the intended character is not known; a memory coupled to said processor, wherein said memory comprises: an object database storing objects associated with sequences of key inputs; the processor further configured to receive a first sequence of key inputs comprising a plurality of characters some of which are entered by explicit key input and some of which are entered by ambiguous key input and generate, based on the first sequence of key inputs, a first set of search character sequences, wherein each character of each search character sequence of the first set of search character sequences corresponds to either an explicit key input or an ambiguous key input in the first sequence of key inputs and is selected from the plurality of intended or potentially intended characters associated with the corresponding respective explicit key input or ambiguous key input; the processor further configured to search said database, based on the first set of search character sequences, for objects to identify a first set of potential desired objects found in said database and receive a selection of a first desired object from the first set of potential desired objects found in said database.