Mike

>>I think the dirty little geek secret about handwriting recognition is that all of them are slower than pecking on the onscreen keyboard.<<

Absolutely- and that onscreen keyboard is slower than a full-size keyboard, and the full-size keyboard is slower than speech. So bring on the Star Trek Tricorder!

>>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. :-)<<

Really? Every time I try, it adds a space before the @ so it takes even longer to fix.

>>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.<<

Actually lots of doctors already have PDAs, mostly Palms. And there is some software for doctors- mainly resident doctor stuff like PatientKeeper. Some people like PatientKeeper, but I think I'd rather use a hardback paper notebook for much of what it does- the notebook is quicker and cheaper. So what we are looking for now is a "killer app" that makes docs want the PDA for the app, not for itself. Hence the massive assessment project underway to see whether devices are ready for that.

I've spent a few days now looking at the MS 3.0 tools for CE, Sybase, Oracle, visualCE... and so far the "killer app" I perceive is a development interface that automates the GUI and manages multi-tier data. IMHO there is little point implementing a hugely complex data system for these devices which can (and should) exchange local data via IR or cradle, not just WAP.

Regards

JR