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A hand-held portable printer includes a number of input devices mounted in or on a printer housing including a barcode scanner, keypad, communication interface in a receive mode and an RFID read/writer in a read mode. The hand-held portable printer also includes a number of output devices including

A hand-held portable printer includes a number of input devices mounted in or on a printer housing including a barcode scanner, keypad, communication interface in a receive mode and an RFID read/writer in a read mode. The hand-held portable printer also includes a number of output devices including a printing system, the communication interface in a transmit mode and the RFID read/writer in a write mode for writing to an external RFID chip. A processor selects received data from one or more of the input devices manipulates the data and/or combines it with other data for an output device wherein the data selected for one output device may be different then the data selected for another output device. The hand-held portable printer may utilize both an internal antenna and external antenna. Applying different energy levels to the antennas may determine whether the hand-held portable printer reads from and/or writes to a single RFID chip or a plurality of RFID chips.

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We claim: 1. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a plurality of input devices on the housing for receiving data including a barcode scanner and a plurality of keys actuable by a user to provide a plurality of input sources; a communication interface; an RFID reader/writer

We claim: 1. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a plurality of input devices on the housing for receiving data including a barcode scanner and a plurality of keys actuable by a user to provide a plurality of input sources; a communication interface; an RFID reader/writer; an antenna coupled to and cooperating with the RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip external to the housing; a printing system having a printhead and a drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID record members past the printhead for printing data thereon; another antenna coupled to and cooperating with the RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip on the web of record members; and a processor on the housing, the processor being coupled to the printing system and to the RFID reader/writer and operable to select data from the plurality of input sources to print on the web and/or to write to an RFID chip on the web. 2. A hand-held portable printer as recited in claim 1, including a memory for storing an application program according to which the processor operates, the application program determining the data selected for printing and the data selected for writing by the RFID reader/writer. 3. A hand-held portable printer as recited in claim 1, including a memory for storing data received from the plurality of the input devices in association with a transaction in a transaction record; the processor sending the transaction record to a host via the communication interface. 4. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a radio transceiver on the housing for receiving and transmitting data; a barcode mounted on the housing for providing scanned barcode data; a printing system on the housing including a printhead and drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID record members past the printhead for printing data on the record members; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a first antenna coupled to the RFID reader/writer and capable of reading and/or writing to an RFID chip on the web of record members; a second antenna coupled to the RFID reader/writer and capable of reading and/or writing to an RFID chip external to the housing, the RFID reader/writer in accordance with a read operation reading data from an external RFID chip, and the RFID reader/writer in accordance with a write operation writing data to an external RFID chip; a plurality of keys on the housing to provide user inputs to the printer; a memory for storing an application program; a processor on the housing operable in accordance with an application program to take data input from one or more of the radio transceiver, the keys, and the barcode scanner to selectively couple data to the printing system for printing, the RFID reader/writer for writing to an RFID chip and/or the transceiver for transmitting the data. 5. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a plurality of input devices on the housing for receiving inputs including a bar code scanner, a plurality of keys actuable by a user and a communication interface; a first antenna; a second antenna; an RFID reader/writer on the housing and coupled to the first antenna and the second antenna, the RFID reader/writer being capable of reading and/or writing via the first antenna to an RFID chip in the web of record members, and the RFID reader/writer being capable of reading and/or writing via the second antenna to an external RFID chip; a printing system on the housing having a printhead and a drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID record members past the printhead to print data on the record members; and a processor on the housing, the processor being coupled to the printing system and to the RFID reader/writer and operable to select data from one or more of the plurality of input devices to print on the web and/or write to an RFID chip on the web. 6. A hand-held portable printer comprising: a hand-held housing; a plurality of output devices on the housing including a display, a printhead and a drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID record members past the print head for printing data thereon; antennas for reading and/or writing to RFID chips inside and outside the portable housing, an RFID read/write module on the housing; an RFID reader/writer coupled to the antennas; a memory storing an application program; and a processor for processing input data in accordance with the application program, and the processor selectively coupling processed data to one or more of the output devices and the RFID reader/writer. 7. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing having a handle; a barcode scanner on the housing; a communication interface on the housing to allow communication with a host; a printing system having a print head and a drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID record members past the print head for printing data thereon; a first antenna; a second antenna; an RFID reader/writer on the housing and coupled to the first antenna and the second antenna, the RFID reader/writer being capable of reading from and writing to via the first antenna an RFID chip on the web of record members and reading from and writing to via the second antenna an external RFID chip; a display mounted on the housing; a memory mounted in the housing storing an application program; and a processor mounted on the housing for processing data received by the barcode scanner, the communication interface and/or RFID reader/writer in a read mode and providing data to the communication interface, the RFID reader/writer and/or display in accordance with the stored application program. 8. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a print head on the housing, the print head being capable of printing on a web of RFID record members in the housing; an RFID reader/writer in the housing that generates read and/or write signals; antennas coupled to the RFID reader/writer; the antennas enabling the RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to RFID chips in the record members and enabling RFID chips external to the housing to be read and/or written to. 9. The hand-held portable printer of claim 8, wherein the antennas include an antenna outside the housing and an antenna inside the housing; wherein the antennas are electromagnetically isolated from each other. 10. The printer of claim 8, wherein the antennas include an antenna inside the housing cooperable with an RFID chip-containing web upstream of the print head. 11. The printer of claim 8, wherein the housing includes a handle; wherein the antennas include an antenna outside the housing disposed forward of the handle. 12. The hand-held portable printer of claim 8, further including a barcode scanner on the housing; and the antennas including an antenna capable to transmitting and receiving data signals to and from an RFID chip located external to the housing, the scanner being capable of producing a beam by which to aim the antenna that reads and/or writes to the external RFID chip. 13. The hand-held portable printer of claim 8, wherein the RFID reader/writer is configured to produce radio frequency signals at a plurality of energy levels. 14. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing capable of holding a supply roll of a web of RFID labels containing RFID chips; a print head disposed on the housing to print on the RFID labels; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a first RFID antenna coupled to the RFID reader/writer and disposed along a web path upstream of the print head; a second RFID antenna coupled to the RFID reader/writer and operable to read and/or write to an RFID chip external to the housing; and a controller coupled to the RFID reader/writer to read an RFID chip external to the housing and in response thereto writing to an RFID chip on the labels. 15. The hand-held portable printer of claim 14, wherein the housing includes shielding, wherein the shielding helps electromagnetically isolate the first antenna and the second antenna from each other. 16. The hand-held portable printer of claim 14, including a beam source to aim the printer at an external RFID chip. 17. A method of printing, comprising the steps of: providing a hand-held printer capable of printing on RFID labels on a label web in the printer; receiving a read command from a user, the read command indicating whether the read is for a single RFID chip or multiple RFID chips located external to the printer; when the read command is for a single RFID chip, generating an RFID read signal having a first energy level and reading data from the RFID chip external to the printer; when the read command is for multiple RFID chips, generating an RFID read signal having a second energy level that is higher than the first energy level and reading data from the RFID chips external to the printer; and printing data on the labels and writing to the RFID chips on the labels in response to the received data. 18. A hand-held portable printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a printing system on the housing and including a print head and a drive mechanism to drive a web of RFID labels past the print head for printing data on the RFID labels; an internal antenna on the housing and configured to communicate with an RFID chip on the RFID labels; an external antenna on the housing, the external antenna configured to communicate with an RFID chip located external to the housing; and an RFID reader/writer on the housing and coupled to the internal antenna and the external antenna, the RFID reader/writer in accordance with a read operation receiving data from at least one of the internal antenna and the external antenna and in accordance with a write operation providing data to at least one of the internal antenna and the external antenna. 19. The hand-held portable printer of claim 18, including: a mounting member to mount the external antenna to the housing. 20. The hand-held portable printer of claim 19, wherein the mounting member is relatively movably mounted to the housing. 21. The hand-held portable printer of claim 19, wherein the mounting member is pivotal between a first position and a second position, and wherein the second position is a position away from the housing. 22. The hand-held portable printer of claim 21, wherein the external antenna when pivoted to the second position facilitates threading of a carrier web for the labels. 23. The hand-held portable printer of claim 19, further including a laser-emitting device that generates a laser beam in the direction of an electromagnetic field produced by the external antenna. 24. A method of printing labels, comprising the steps of: providing a hand-held label printer including a hand-held housing, a print head, a barcode scanner and an RFID reader/writer on the housing; reading barcode data from a barcoded label and/or from an RFID chip external to the housing; transmitting to a remote host computer at least a portion of the data; associating data received from the computer and the bar code scanner or the RFID reader/writer; writing to an RFID chip on a label in the hand-held label printer; and printing on the label in the hand-held printer. 25. A method of printing labels, comprising the steps of: providing a hand-held portable printer including a hand-held housing, a print head on the housing to print on a web of RFID record members, and an RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip on the record members on the hand-held printer; providing a remote printer located remotely from the hand-held portable printer, the remote printer having a print head to print on a web of RFID record members and an RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip on record members in the remote printer; reading data from a barcoded label and/or from an RFID chip external to the hand-held portable printer; transmitting wirelessly to a host computer at least a portion of the data; associating data received wirelessly from the host computer and the bar code scanner and/or the RFID reader/writer at the hand-held portable printer; and selectively writing to an RFID chip in one or both of the hand-held printer and the remote printer. 26. A hand-held label printer, comprising: a hand-held housing having space for an RFID label web containing RFID chips; a print head on the housing capable of printing bar codes on RFID labels on the web; a barcode scanner on the housing; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a first antenna on the housing coupled to the RFID reader/writer to write to an RFID chip on the label web; a second RFID antenna on the housing coupled to the RFID reader/writer, the housing being manually movable to enable the second antenna to capture RFID data from an RFID chip external to the housing; a controller coupled to the printing system and the RFID reader/writer and capable of either one or both of the following sequences: controlling data acquired via the second antenna to print a barcode and to write to and/or read from the RFID chip on the web via the first antenna; and controlling data acquired via the bar code scanner and/or wirelessly from a host computer to print a bar code and to write to and/or read from an RFID chip on the label web via the first antenna. 27. A method of encoding labels comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a read command at a hand-held portable printer including a housing, a barcode, scanner, and an RFID reader/writer on the housing that generates read and/or write signals; (b) in response to (a) reading RFID chip external data from at least one RFID chip located outside of the housing; (c) transmitting to a remote host computer system at least a portion of the read RFID chip external data; (d) associating additional data received from the host computer system with the read RFID chip external data to form updated data; and (e) writing the updated data to an internal RFID chip. 28. A hand-held label printer, comprising: a hand-held housing; a print head on the hand-held housing capable of printing RFID labels; a barcode scanner on the hand-held housing; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a radio; and a controller coupled to the RFID reader/writer and capable of performing the steps of: (a) reading data from an RFID chip external to the hand-held housing; (b) transmitting to a remote host computer at least a portion of the read data; (c) associating data received from the host computer; and (d) writing to an external RFID chip. 29. A hand-held label printer comprising: a hand-held housing; a print head on the hand-held housing capable of printing on a web of RFID record members; a barcode scanner on the hand-held housing; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a radio; and a controller coupled to the RFID reader/writer and capable of performing the steps of: (a) reading data from a barcoded label and/or from an RFID chip external to the hand-held printer; (b) transmitting wirelessly to a host computer at least a portion of the data; (c) receiving from the host computer associated data; and (d) selectively writing to an RFID chip. 30. A hand-held label printer comprising: a hand-held housing; a print head on the hand-held housing capable of printing on a web of RFID record members; a barcode scanner on the hand-held housing; an RFID reader/writer on the housing; a radio; and a controller coupled to the RFID reader/writer and capable of performing the steps of: (a) receiving a read command; (b) in response to (a) reading RFID chip external data from at least one RFID chip located outside of the hand-held housing; (c) transmitting to a remote host computer system at least a portion of the read RFID chip external data; (d) associating additional data received from the host computer system with the read RFID chip external data to form updated data; and (e) writing the updated data to an internal RFID chip. 31. A method of encoding labels, comprising: (a) receiving a read command at a hand-held portable printer including a housing, a print head to print on RFID labels, a bar code scanner, and an RFID reader/writer on the housing that generates read and/or write signals to read and/or write to RFID labels; (b) in response to (a) reading RFID chip data from at least one RFID chip located external to the housing; (c) associating additional data with the read RFID chip external data to form updated data; and (d) encoding one or more labels by printing on the label(s) with the print head and writing to the label(s) with the RFID reader/writer. 32. Method of encoding labels as defined in claim 31, wherein the chip data is on a carton; there is a plurality of items inside the carton; a plurality of labels are encoded; and applying the encoded labels to the items. 33. Methods of encoding labels as defined in claim 31, wherein the chip data is on an item or a carton, and applying an encoded labels to a shelf. 34. Method of encoding labels, comprising: (a) providing a hand-held portable printer including a housing, a bar code scanner on the housing, a print head to print on RFID labels in the housing and an RFID reader/writer on the housing that generates read and/or write signals to read and in write to the RFID labels; (b) reading RFID chip data from at least one RFID chip located external to the housing; (c) associating additional data with the read RFID chip external data to form updated data; (d) disabling the external RFID chip; and (e) encoding one or more labels by printing on the label(s) with the print head and writing to the labels with the RFID reader/writer. 35. The method of claim 34, wherein the chip in (b) is disposed on a carton, and the encoded label(s) is applied to the carton and/or its contents. 36. A system for printing labels, the system comprising: a hand-held portable printer including a hand-held housing, a print head on the housing to print on a web of RFID record members, and an RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip on the record members on the hand-held printer, the RFID reader/writer of the hand-held portable printer being capable of reading data from an RFID chip external to the printer; a host computer in communication with the hand-held portable printer, the host computer receiving at least a portion of the data read from the external RFID chip, the host computer having additional information relating to the received data; and a remote printer located remotely from the hand-held portable printer and the host computer, the remote printer having a print head to print on a web of RFID record members and an RFID reader/writer to read and/or write to an RFID chip on record members in the remote printer, the remote printer selectively writing to an RFID chip. 37. A method of printing, the method comprising: (a) displaying a selection menu on a hand-held portable printer capable of printing on labels; (b) receiving a selection, the selection including a read command; (c) receiving a trigger indication; (d) determining based on the received read command whether the read is for a single RFID chip or a plurality of RFID chips located outside of the hand-held portable printer; (e) when the read command is for the single RFID chip, (i) determining whether to print a bar code label; (ii) determining whether to encode an internal label; (iii) generating an RFID read signal having a first energy level; and (iv) printing data on the internal label; (f) when the read command is for said plurality of RFID chips, (i) determining whether to print a bar code label; (ii) determining whether to encode an internal label; (iii) determining whether to print a new carton label; (iv) generating an RFID read signal having a second energy level that is greater than the first energy level; and (v) printing data on internal labels. 38. The method of claim 37, wherein step (i) further comprises setting a BCode flag if it is determined to print a bar code label. 39. The method of claim 37, wherein step (ii) further comprises setting an ILabel flag if it is determined to encode an internal RFID label. 40. The method of claim 37, wherein, step (f) (iii) further comprises setting an ELabel flag if it is determined to print the new carton label. 41. A method of printing labels, the method comprising: (a) displaying a selection menu; (b) receiving a selection based on the displayed menu; the selection including a write command; (c) receiving a trigger indication; (d) determining whether the received write command is for a single write of an RFID chip or for multiple writes of RFID chips; (e) when the write command is for a single RFID chip; generating at an external antenna an RFID write signal having a low power level; (f) when the write command is for multiple RFID chips; generating at an external antenna an RFID write signal having a high power level; and (g) printing data on the labels and writing from an internal antenna to the RFID chips on the labels in response to the received data. 42. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for causing a hand-held portable RFID printer to perform the steps comprising: (a) receiving a read command from a user, the read command indicating whether the read is for a single RFID chip or a plurality of RFID chips located outside of the hand-held portable RFID printer; (b) when the read command is for said single RFID chip, generating an RFID read signal having a first energy level; (c) when the read command is for said plurality of RFID chips, generating an RFID read signal having a second energy level that is greater than the first energy level; and (d) printing data on a label in the printer and reading from and/or writing to an RFID chip on the label.