> She finds it slower than the onscreen keyboard

I think the dirty little geek secret about handwriting recognition is that all of them are slower than pecking on the onscreen keyboard. Time yourself sometime and see what your results are compared to any HR software of your choosing. I only use the HR software because I find it easier to use than the keyboard. Not that HR is any slower than writing on paper, but a peck is a lot quicker than a stroke or two (assuming one knows how to type, and knows where the keys are).

>She also observes "weaknesses" like the difficulty getting email addresses to >be accepted cleanly- try Transcriber with jryan@platocis.com and you will see >for yourself.

Hmm, odd. I do it all the time. Just make an @ sign like you would normally write it. Or maybe the solution is to write it like I would normally write it. :-)

>We've had the Casio in its various incarnations for over a year. Whether a PDA is something one uses to play MPEGs on the way to and from work depends on a lot of factors, I guess, and is not something the doctors are likely to focus on.

This is where I think I missed your original point. Your users are looking for a more or less single-purpose machine, and not a geek gadget. Sure, a PPC has a lot of features that would make for a good single-purpose machine, but a lot of the machine would be wasted.

> The Casio was and is too big.

Agreed; it's about the only thing I miss about my Palm: easily fits in a shirt pocket.