question on synchronization for Intel Developer Services article

I'm a freelance tech writer working on an article for Intel Developer
Services, Intel's site for sw developers. The article is on writing
applications for use in occasionally connected environments. Intel really
thinks that asynchronous, OC apps make more sense for a slew of mobile
applications.
Here is my question (I'm sorry if it's naive... I'm not a developer): As I
understand it, it's only in SQL for Windows CE that the database can live
locally on the client device, synchronizing to a back end when a connection
becomes available. So building OC solutions across multiple devices is
difficult, because there's little support for the same functionality on PCs
laptops. Is this correct? What are are some tips for developers looking to
build apps that work asynchronously on laptops?
Thanks very much for any help you can provide. I'm looking for comments I
might quote from in my article, but if you prefer not to be quoted, that's
fine, too. I'm also looking just to get smart on this.
Geoff Koch (gkoch AT stanfordalumni DOT org)
Science/Tech Writer
Lansing, MichiganIf you are talking about replication then any of the SQL Server editions can
do some form of replication, not just CE. What edition will run on your
mobile device depends on what OS it is running. ADO.net has a lot of
features based around offline datasets and make it relatively easy to build
applications that can work off line and update later. I would suggest you
have a look at www.microsoft.com/sql and browse around in the different
areas that may be of interest to you.
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP
"Geoff" <Geoff@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9E776F8F-AA13-432F-B40C-78C3A2AA5DD1@.microsoft.com...
> I'm a freelance tech writer working on an article for Intel Developer
> Services, Intel's site for sw developers. The article is on writing
> applications for use in occasionally connected environments. Intel really
> thinks that asynchronous, OC apps make more sense for a slew of mobile
> applications.
> Here is my question (I'm sorry if it's naive... I'm not a developer): As
> I
> understand it, it's only in SQL for Windows CE that the database can live
> locally on the client device, synchronizing to a back end when a
> connection
> becomes available. So building OC solutions across multiple devices is
> difficult, because there's little support for the same functionality on
> PCs
> laptops. Is this correct? What are are some tips for developers looking to
> build apps that work asynchronously on laptops?
> Thanks very much for any help you can provide. I'm looking for comments I
> might quote from in my article, but if you prefer not to be quoted, that's
> fine, too. I'm also looking just to get smart on this.
> --
> Geoff Koch (gkoch AT stanfordalumni DOT org)
> Science/Tech Writer
> Lansing, Michigansql