Need some new ringtones? Games? A mapping tool? Feed your need for Blackberry coolness here...

Is your email inbox a mess? Are you overloaded with messages and can't keep up? Try these quick ideas to restore sanity to your email - and your life!

The starting-point to fix a market is at the smallest level. In real estate, that means fixing listings. By changing the standard of listing practices, brokers can address two other broken areas of the business: agent performance and days-on-market. Everything starts (and ends) with the listing. Market downturns have always been overcome through improved use of technology. It’s time to apply that to listing inventory fast.

No other tech tool has been more widely adopted by real estate professionals than the digital cameras. While the recent NAR survey of its members showed a paltry percentage had adopted wireless email devices, the digital camera ranked near ubiquitous with agents. And while some sales professionals still only see the camera as route to bankruptcy (ie., printing flyers and postcards) the fact remains that today’s digital cameras make it possible to market properties better, faster and cheaper than ever before.

Well, now isnt' that ironic? After months of rumors, online chat and pontification by Steve Jobs, turns out the iPhone is a very expensive bundle of i-HYPE. What do I mean? Well, let's compare the $500 iPhone unit from AT&T with a Blackberry (running half price) or even a Treo:

What does iPhone do well: a few very neat things:

No other tech tool has been more widely adopted by real estate professionals than the digital camera. While the recent NAR survey of its members showed a paltry percentage had adopted wireless email devices, the digital camera ranked near ubiquitous with agents. And while some sales professionals still only see the camera as a route to bankruptcy (i.e., printing flyers and postcards) the fact remains that todays digital cameras make it possible to market properties better, faster and cheaper than ever before.

By now it's no secret: Microsoft's new operating system Vista is shipping somewhat to beta testers and early adopters (a.k.a. geeks) in a few select corners of the world. After a number of substantial delays and critical decisions to drop a few components, Microsoft is preparing to change your view of computing with its latest OS. How real estate professionals will benefit should they even decide to upgrade is yet to be seen.

By all accounts, 2006 was a fairly good year. Some agents would have called it a down year but if the only evidence for that is that some of us did a few less exuberant deals than the year before, we should always be so lucky in down years.Not every real estate professional had a down year, though; and of those that didnt, one important trend stands out. Successful agents in any market have mastered the tech tools of the trade.

Recently, as we were taking a 15 minute break from one of my technology programs, a very excited student ran up to me to tell me what she had just done with her TREO 650. She had received a call from a buyer prospect wanting more information on a home. She started up the web browser on her TREO, accessed her website, copied the website link and sent it to her client. The client text messaged her within minutes to confirm the date and time of the showing. All this while she was on a break from class!