TECH WATCH

By DANIEL EISENBERG, LISA GRANATSTEIN AND ANITA HAMILTON

NO-BRAINER

It's clunky and a tad ugly, but it may be the smartest digital camera yet. The Sony Mavica ($599; 800-342-5721) lets users transfer digital picture files on cheap floppy disks, making it vastly simpler to shuttle images between the camera and a computer. When it hits stores this summer, Mavica will boast a suite of other features: a zoom lens, a small preview and playback screen and four picture-tinting options. In a nicely anachronistic touch, the camera can sepia-tone any image at the push of a button, using 20th century technology to create an image that looks as if it's from the 1890s.

HONEY, I SHRUNK THE NOTEBOOK

Smaller, faster, better is something of a cliche in the computer business, but occasionally it yields little miracles. At PC Expo in New York City last week, Toshiba displayed a smaller, faster computer that, geeks were wagging, is actually better. With all the capabilities of a full-fledged laptop, the teensy (roughly the size of a paperback book) beige Libretto is a fully functional Windows 95 computer fueled by 75 MHz of Intel Pentium power. This mini-notebook also features one of Toshiba's finest-quality color screens (albeit a tiny 5 in. wide) with a pointing device built into its panel. The only downside is a microkeyboard that requires Horowitz-like dexterity. Despite the Libretto's $1,999 price tag (vs. $500 to $700 for Windows CE clamshell handheld devices), Toshiba expects to sell thousands to space-conscious execs and techies who know smaller, faster, better is also cooler.

READ THEIR LIPS: NO NET TAXES

Forget the Republican Revolution. In the nation's notoriously rancorous capital, it's the information revolution that's rallying pols against the taxman. The hot topic these days: how and when to tax commerce on the Internet. Next week the Clinton Administration will unroll its Framework for Global Electronic Commerce, and firms that sell everything from books to cars online are lobbying feverishly.

But clues drifting out of Washington hint that the government will stay the tax hand, at least for now. Clinton's Framework will likely suggest that cyberspace remain "a duty-free zone," and Congress is in the process of serving up the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which would prevent local governments from cashing in until Washington sets some guidelines.