I'll tackle a few of them...
6. I find it abysmal. I believe that I have done "training" it requires and still I get nothing but gibberish when I try to get the handwriting to be recognized. I must be doing something wrong (it can't be this bad) but I haven't bothered to try to figure out what yet. The virtual keyboard is OK (I am used to it from another PDA) and I am playing with an entirely different input method called Quikwriting (
http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/) that I am happy with so far.
7. It is great for scrolling when reading. I use it when reading my daily newspaper via AvantGo and Pocket IE and when reading ebooks with Reader. Beyond that, I haven't found any use.
8. MS has an SDK that you can download. I have downloaded it but haven't had a chance to play yet.
11. It is internal. The device comes with no external cards.
12. It has a very short range so it cannot be used (very well at least) as a remote control. You can beam stuff to other PDAs and I think you can beam to your laptop though I have wireless so I don't worry about it. The main purpose for me is that I have the Micro Innovations/PocketOP wireless keyboard that utilizes the IR port.
13. I wouldn't count on the handwriting recognition that much (though others may differ). Using an external keyboard however I think it would be great for that purpose. I used a laptop for notes and I would have much preferred to have had this instead of lugging a laptop around.
14. I use the PocketOp wireless and I like it. I haven't worked with it much yet, but my initial tests show that I can type at a pretty good clip with it (50+ wpm versus 70-90 on a standard keyboard)
15. Who the heck knows. At a minimum, if you have any problems in the first year Dell will replace it and then you will wind up having two years worth out of it. At that point, the Axim will be obsolete and you will be able to get 4X the power for 1/2 the price.