I just recently returned from vacation (a ski trip to Whistler, Brittish Columbia, Canada) and Microsof't's TechReady conference in Seattle.  Of course there are lots of great innovations that are starting to come to market and I could blog on and on about these things for hours.  However, one technology has made an impression on me because I used it daily during this trip:  My PocketPC phone.  While skiing, I used it on the ski lifts as an added measure of security after I heard a story of two skiiers who died after being left on the lifts.  Not wanting to suffer a similar fate, I tucked my PocketPC phone in my ski jacket.  My reasoning was that if stuck then I could easily phone for help, surf the web for the nearest pizza joint and order sustenance, or journal my last thoughts using MS Word.   I also used it for entertainment, playing hours of mp3 songs from my 1GB SD drive and also stored some Tivo to go shows I like to watch. 

When I arrived in Seattle for TechReady it was raining (surprise).  With my device tucked neatly in my pocket I could easily make phone calls without getting my phone wet using my Blueooth headset.  Even more impressive was my ability to view my calendar, search contacts, and open files using nothing more than my voice using MS Voice Command .  I attended multiple sessions and transcribed notes in Digital Ink that I later transferred to my OneNote.  If it sounds like a bad infomercial by now, you must realize that I can never go back to any simple phone device.  It is a smartphone, or better yet a PocketPC phone, or nothing at all.  Yes, I have also used a BlackBerry device in my past, so my head is not in the sand.  The great thing about our mobile computing devices is that they are getting better and better and delivering more value to workers in scenarios where people cannot be connected with a traditional RJ-45 tether.

At TechReady, on of the best demonstrations of this mobile computing world was highlighting the use of Speech Server in an Exchange "12" Beta unified messaging environment.  This was very cool, but also a very real and compelling use of technology.  Think of all of those workers who are on their feet, day after day.  To tie them to a desktop or a laptop would be foreign to their work rythym (think doctors/nurses, stockbrokers, construction workers).  If you are developing applications, it really is no big stretch to develop a VUI (voice user interface) to accompany your traditional GUI interface.  At the link above you can order a 180 day free eval of this technology and see for yourself.  There is also no complex telco switch access needed to get this to work.  I truly think this is a technology ahead of its time that will only become richer as it is integrated in new ways within companies over the next few years.  Try it, you might become an addict like me.