Smaller can be better

Smaller, better, faster, cheaper--it rings like a mantra describing the guiding principles in mobile electronics.

Real state practitioners who master these tools lead the pack in productive use of time and resources. But what you really want is a little more and a little less: more power, features, and performance, housed in as compact equipment as possible.

For instance, in a move that will impact the future for all wireless devices, Microsoft and Swedish cell phone innovator Ericsson announced a joint venture to develop Web browser and E-mail access from cell phones and handheld computers.

It's you, the user, who determines which applications are winners and which are technological dead ends.

Here's the latest innovation for you to put to the test. A Swedish company has come along with a product that stretches our notion of handheld computing.

The C-Pen 200 from C Technologies marks the latest advance in the evolution stretching back millennia to when man or woman first made marks on parchment. This is a writing instrument for our digital age.

This $200 "pen," available at Office Depot, incorporates a microsized digital camera (rather than a ball point), Intel 100 MHz processor, special software, and its own operating system. You can "read" or scan documents--100 characters a second--by moving the pen over print. The system will convert the data into text documents stored on the Pen's 2MB of memory. That text file can be retrieved as needed, read, or edited on the pen's two-line LCD screen, or transmitted to any Windows-compatible PC equipped with a wireless IRDA transceiver. The pen also has room for basic information on up to 250 of your contacts.

Technologies promises its operating system will ultimately outfit the pen with full PDA functionality including E-mail, fax, dictionary, and language translation.

For real estate practitioners, "This is a tool that'll allow them to scan and store information about all their listings," says Lars Sundberg, general manager of C Technologies U.S. Inc. "Instead of the need to carry a briefcase or other equipment, that information is always available in the pen."

This ultracompact solution arrives in the shadow of announcements and speculation from other suppliers that mobile voice and data communications, and Internet access, will eventually be available in packages so tiny they can be worn on the wrist.

Old timers may recall days when the only tools required when away from the office were a pen and watch.

That could be the future, as well.