If I'm entering the arguments for a function that phpED knows about, a little pop-up appears above the current line giving me real-time help with the arguments. This is cool. If I hit the ESC key, it goes away, but then re-appears next argument. I'd like it so that if I hit that ESC key, that little pop-up stays away unless I RE-ENTER the argument section of the function call (ergo, if my cursor doesn't leave the argument section of the function call, the pop-up does not return). The pop-up is helpful at first, but becomes annoying when I am trying to refer to the line(s) of code just above what I am currently writing and the pop-up keeps appearing and I have to keep batting the ESC key.

Thanks. Otherwise, no complaints. Very nice product.

If your think the auto-popup is too annoying you may want to turn it OFF and call it only when you need it, by pressing Ctrl-Space. The same for arguments hint which can be invoked by Ctrl-Shift-Space.
To turn the autopopups off open tools->settings->code insight -> a) uncheck Code Completion->Enabled b) uncheck Tooltips->Function arguments.

Same here. It would be great if popups could be shown either [user-selectable] above or below cursor.