Quote:
... it bugs me slightly that period and comma are both in the symbols mode only ...

If you press and hold on the symbol button, a menu should appear allowing you to select the symbol of your choice without loading the full symbol keyboard.

Same with the keyboard, if you press and hold, slide your finger around the animation follows your finger around, when you release it will select the key that was highlighted.

These two shortcuts helped me a bit when I was playing with my Dads iPhone...
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Oliver mk1 30gb: 129 | mk2a 30gb: 040104126