Only about 7 percent of physicians, physicians’ assistants, and nurse practitioners reported having full EHRs (electronic health records), but this group was 60 percent more likely to have complete information. Doctors’ offices in rural areas, which tend to rely on a smaller number of vendors for laboratory results, were 48 percent more likely to have complete information.

The global handheld market continued to slide in 2004, with shipments slipping to below 10 million for the first time since 1999, according to a new IDC report. For the fourth successive quarter in 2004, sales declined on a year-over-year basis to 2.8 million units. For the full year, the figure was 9.2 million units, compared with 10.6 million units in 2003. This is the third successive year of decline since the market’s peak in 2001.

Scientists have made them walk and talk. There are even robots that can run. But a South Korean professor is poised to take their development several steps further, and give cybersex new meaning. Kim Jong-Hwan, the director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Center, has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing. He says the software, which will be installed in a robot within the next three months, will give the machines the ability to feel, reason and desire.

PalmSource, provider of Palm OS, announced it will hold its annual Developers Conference May 23-26, 2005 in San Jose, California. This year the company has added a Mobile Summit. The Mobile Summit has been designed to identify and explore new worldwide business opportunities for developers, licensees, operators and industry partners, showcase state-of-the-art wireless applications for smartphones, and provide valuable training and instruction on developing for the Palm OS platform. Registration for the conference is now open.

PalmSource, provider of Palm OS, announced the completion of its acquisition of China MobileSoft (CMS). CMS is a leading Chinese mobile phone software company with business operations headquartered with its wholly owned subsidiary, MobileSoft Technology in China. CMS provides mobile device manufacturers and original design manufacturers (ODM) complete, integrated software platforms and user-friendly applications for the Chinese market.

Motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding 0.08, according to research conducted in 2003. And it doesn’t matter whether the phone is hand-held or handsfree. Any activity requiring a driver to “actively be part of a conversation” likely will impair driving abilities.

Mobile phone software maker Symbian, part-owned by Psion, unveiled a new version of its operating system that supports high resolution cameras and three-dimensional games graphics. The software can process pictures of two million pixels and more, send stereo music to a wirelessly connected headset, and can import MP3 songs from a desktop computer without the need for additional synchronization software.

In four fruity flavors just for kids, the Berry from Sakar is a palm-sized personal planner with space for storing dozens of phone numbers, email addresses, and important dates from school events to sleepovers, along with a password protection feature that keeps the information from prying eyes. The Berry is also a functional land line phone that plugs into any phone jack and comes with a hands-free earpiece enabling kids to IM their friends, download music or perform other manual tasks while they’re talking.

More than three-quarters of Americans do not own a home computing network and have no plans to get one in the near future, according to a new study. A nationwide survey conducted by Harris Interactive indicated that 88 percent of those who do not have a home network right now don’t see a need for it. A home network connects multiple computing devices, which enables computers to swap files and to send videos to a television or digital music to a stereo. Most people’s home networks pretty much just link a laptop and a desktop PC, or print wirelessly.

Employees who surf the Net at work could receive a bill each month for the cost of borrowed bandwidth and wasted time if Australia-based Exinda Networks’ URL- and bandwidth-monitoring system takes off. Exinda Networks says it’s developed a system that allows a company to monitor exactly which Web sites are visited by each employee and how much bandwidth has been used–in terms of a cash loss to the employer.