I hope they'll have a good look at the keyboard with 8.1. There's definitely a few improvements that can be made, most importantly that you can access numbers on the main keyboard. It's silly that you can't, makes it really slow to use. A few more special characters wouldn't be the worst idea either. All on the long press, of course.
I'd love to have Swype back, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed. Microsoft doesn't care about 3rd party keyboards.
IE is due a good upgrade too. The usual improvements (speed etc.) aside, it's time to upgrade the UI significantly. Quicker access to tabs and bookmarks are essential. The address bar can be hidden too, it's not like it adds anything to the proceedings. Gestures would be nice too - I love the forward and back swipe in W8.1, it makes browsing so much nicer, though I'm not sure it would translate all that well to the phone.
All of the main apps are due serious upgrades - curious what they'll do. Also, Music. Need I say more.
Surely it's time for some leaks soon. They can't possibly keep things under wraps until the end of February.