IT with an American accent

They've invaded our high street with McDonald's and Starbucks. They made us watch Friends and Ally McBeal. We've been subjected to hours of George Bush and his sometimes unintelligible speeches.

Now, in US imperialism's latest invasion of these shores, we are being persuaded to talk to our computers – in American accents.

Microsoft is about to launch the "TabletPC", which it modestly describes as the "next stage in the evolution of the PC". Doing away with a keyboard, users will be able to operate the computer by speaking to it or by writing on an electronic pad.

But there's a catch. Microsoft insiders admit that when the TabletPC goes on sale in the UK in two weeks, it will have difficulty understanding the English accent.

Neil Laver, a Microsoft product marketing manager, said: "It's great if you have an American accent, but it's not yet tuned for the British one."

He admitted that the speech-recognition software still requires development. In the UK, he said, "we are really de-emphasising this technology as there are significant challenges to overcome".

Costing £1,700 and aimed mainly at business customers, the TabletPC had mixed reviews when it was unveiled to US journalists in May.

While there was no problem with their accents, many journalists complained that the computer's other main feature – its ability to read handwriting – wasn't up to scratch.

Mr Laver said that the software has since been refined. This included taking handwriting samples from 40,000 people in Edinburgh, Man- chester and Reading. However, Mr Laver conceded: "Handwriting recognition won't work for all of the people all of the time. It will take a number of years to mature."