Palm Reading Still thinking laptop when you think portable? Now palmtops are the tool of choice when you're on the go and need to stay in touch.

Go to the Buyers Guide List to see prices and descriptions.

Is smaller smarter? Not always. In some instances, technologycompanies run ahead of themselves and forget the human element whendeveloping new products. The keyboards and buttons on pocketorganizers were initially so tiny, for example, that users had touse a pen or pencil to depress the keys. Frustrated, many buyersdeclined to invest in them. But customer complaints finally gotthrough, and manufacturers wised up. Today, with palm PCs, we canbuy small and smart.

Hot products for the mobile professional, these incrediblyshrinking communication centers can sit in their own dockingcradles or in the palm of your hand. Several manufacturers havejumped into the market, offering everything from stripped-down,entry-level models to ultra-slick, high-end products. For example,Palm Computing's base model is the $299 Palm III, while itstop-of-the-line version is the $499 Palm V, which offers e-mailconnectivity.