Think Small. Think Cheaper. That's the way the industry seems to be heading these days. Laptops are outselling desktops in some places. Those who can afford them are buying Palm Pilots. Zip drives are nearly all but forgotten. CDs and CD writers are now as common as floppies were in a previous computing life. Now USB drives are hitting the market and showing no sign of going away. You can store so much in them now and they are getting so cheap. Nearly $100 per gigabyte of space. Wow.

But what does all this have to do with the Multi-Function Centre? Well, that should be enough. People have less room to put their toys, let alone their computers (or are they one and the same?). People are purchasing slim line computers and LCD flat screen monitors now, along with cosy desks for the space conscious, as they take up less room. Once upon a time, you had to have a desk with plenty of space. What with your big 17" CRT monitor, your massive computer tower, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and if you went on, you would have a printer, a scanner, a draw to store your paper and a pile of floppies in the corner. Well, all but one has disappeared or shrunk. Until now.

Multi-Function Centres (aka Multi-Function Devices aka All-in-One Centres) are the grand summary of desk space saving. In these gadgets you have your scanner, you have your printer, you have a rudimentary "photo copier", some even have built-in fax machines! They are good. They really are. For many reasons: less cables getting tangled, less power cables required (less power plugs about the place), less electricity being used (we hope!) and some are quite compact. You can now fit everything into a small 2-foot wide desk. Are they convenient? I think they are. Instead of stretching out to go from your scanner to printer, or vice versa, then over to your fax machine, you do it all in one go, which saves a lot of time.

For small business, they are a must. I highly recommend the ones that come with 4 separate ink cartridges (if bubble jet), as they are cheaper to run than the standard 2 ink cartridges (if you only have 2 ink tanks, if you run out of blue, but use no red or yellow, you still have to buy a new whole cartridge. If you have 4 ink tanks, if any of them run out, you just go and buy a cheap replacement cartridge and be on your way).

It's really not worth it, economically, to get them separate any more. You get a printer for about AU$70, a scanner for $90-$120, or get a cheap MFC for $90-$140 in which you get the scanner, you get the printer, you get a copier and in some cases a fax machine and/or a media card reader (for reading the memory cards used in many digital cameras), plus being able to print directly from the media card itself without even needing a computer! You'll soon have an answering machine and an LCD screen by which to control the whole thing. Oh wait, they already have those now.

I would say they are definitely living up to the hype. Plus they can only get better.

Martin Coleman is a freelance writer, computer programmer and computer geek. He runs http://www.computerhelppanel.com, your first and only stop to getting expert advice and answers to your computing questions. He can also be reached at http://www.martincoleman.com