The Best Little Gadgets for Small Businesses

LAS VEGAS -- This little gadget thing of ours is in a lull.

Sure, there's been lots of hype about supposedly new technologies like organic light-emitting diode TVs from majors like Sony(SNE Quote - Cramer on SNE - Stock Picks) and Samsung. But they won't be on the market for years.

Rather, the smaller companies providing niche products are the ones making news so far this year.

Yes, 2008 may be the year small business gets into gadgets.

Considering how flat out nasty the coming year may be for planet small biz, these new technologies may mean the difference between remaining a player and having to chuck it all and take a job with The Man.

Here are my picks of nifty new technologies for smaller businesses, unearthed at this month's gadget fest in the high desert -- at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Better Point of Sale

Infinite Peripherals PP55 -- $400.

One thing that makes our small business blood boil is the credit card transaction shakedown ... excuse me, "point of sale process."

Not only do credit card companies rip out a couple of points on every deal; they make us use what has got to be the stupidest device in our shop: The credit card scanner.

Besides being ugly, credit card scanners tend to run on closed networks, don't interface easily with existing systems and are almost never portable.

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