Up until now the latest innovation in portable document scanning was the single USB cable, powered by and transmitted through just one cable. Wowee. Visioneer now takes us further along to a world without wires – and hopefully paper too –  with their $200 compact scanning package.  Visioneer released the first truly portable wireless scanning solution, the Visioneer Mobility. What makes this so portable is the built-in 3.7V 1700mAh lithium-ion battery tucked inside and its ability to scan documents and images directly to an SD card, USB flash drive or mobile phone with no computer near by.

Hardware
The design is pleasing, a glossy white finish with just two buttons; power, and one to select between photographs, black and white or color document scanning. The power light gives you indication of your battery status, blue is good red is dead. On the back side you will find a mini-usb port, standard USB for USB flash drives, and the SD card slot. Much like typical scanners the Visioneer Mobility is adequately sized at about 1.75-inches high and 2.5-inches deep. You cannot open this up to remove a paper jam as most scanners allow you to, but there is a release switch on the back corner that will lift up the rollers incase a page does get jammed up.

You can scan items as small as 2 x 2 inches and as large as 8.5 x 11.7 inches. The downside is that there is no document feeder, so its a single page at a time with the Mobility. Just one small sacrifice for ultra-mobility I guess. This also leaves you with single sided scanning, duplex was not offered on this unit.

Battery life is excellent. I never needed to charge it once since I got for my tests. Visioneer rates the life to 300 full page scans per charge.

Specifications

Software
The software is for PC-only, but if you do use a PC you will get NewSoft BizCard SE to manage scanned business cards, Nuance OmniPage to convert your scanned documents into editable PDFs, and Nuance’s PaperPort to organize and share the scanned documents. I’m not a big fan of these software utilities, but I could see how they would benefit PC users for managing their workflow. With this type of scenario I would find myself just inserting an SD card or USB flash drive that contains the scanned images and copying them directly to my Mac, but that’s just me.

Performance
Pages come through easily, I never ran into serious problems with alignment unless I obviously fed the page in on an angle. In my tests it took roughly 7.5 seconds to scan a full page document and 9 seconds to scan a full page color photograph. Business cards are quicker at about 5 seconds. This is right in line with not-so-portable single USB-powered Fujtsu ScanSnap S1100 we looked at earlier this year. Image quality on photographs is a bit off, but nothing too serious. Text is crisp and easy to OCR afterwards.

Bottom Line
For the first truly portable scanner to hit the market, Visioneer did a fantastic job. Speed and accuracy are what you would expect from a portable scanner. The only downfall is its single-sidedness and lack of document feed. Other than that, you can scan directly to your mobile phone, SD Card and USB port with accuracy and speed. The included carry case and 2GB SD Card is a nice touch too.

If this isn’t portable enough, stay tuned for Visioneer’s CONNECT service where you can scan directly to cloud based services like Google Docs, Evernote, FilesAnywhere, OfficeDrop and DropBox.

[Visioneer Mobility]

The post Visioneer Mobility Wireless Scanner Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 scanner might just be the ultimate portable scanner. Ultra-mobile, high-quality, easy to use and surprisingly fast; the hardware’s solid, the software is versatile and the bundle is very affordable. In fact, it seems to have achieved all of the benchmarks with little to no sacrifice in any area.

Features and Design

First off, the hardware. At only 10.74” x 1.33” x 1.87” (273 x 47.5 x 34 mm) and about 12 ounces (350 g), it seems to almost blink out of existence when slipped into your bag. It needs no power cord and has no battery to recharge, as all of the power it needs is pulled from the USB. One cord and it’s ready to go whenever you are.

And not just one cord. The ScanSnap only has one button, too: A big, blue, illuminated “Scan/Stop” button.

Before you get to push this button, the drivers and software need to be installed. For this hands-on, I’ve installed all of the Mac software options from the included disc.

The first thing you’ll notice when you put in that disc is that it needs 1.3GB of space on your hard drive. That seems like a lot at first, until you realize it’s 1.3GB of OCR glory and a long list of programs, formats and connectivity options.

But I’ll start from the beginning.

In Theory

Bring a piece of A4-length paper, envelope, photograph, receipt, credit card, business card or anything in between up to the scanner’s feed slot and it’ll grab the end of the sheet. Hit the big blue button and whatever you’re scanning slides through, taking only 7.5 seconds to scan in a full letter-sized paper using its single Contact Image Sensor.

It only does one side at a time, but if you need both, simply flip the sheet over and insert again. No buttons to push, no settings to change, it just pulls in and keeps scanning. Multi-page document? No problem. It’ll keep scanning whatever you throw in there until you tell it you’re done. Different sizes? Still no problem. It automatically recognizes the sizes of each individual sheet.

Once you’re finished, the ScanSnap Manager program takes a moment to convert the image to a PDF and give it a once-over with its Optical Character Recognition software. Depending on the OCR settings and languages you have on and how many sheets you’ve put through, this can take anywhere from a couple seconds to a few minutes.

Once it’s finished, you’ll get this screen:

A quick run-down of these options:

• Scan to Folder: Sends a searchable PDF version of your scan to any folder on your computer or network
• •• Scan to Email: Turns your ScanSnap into a digital fax, converting documents to a searchable PDF and pushing directly through to your email client
• •• Cardiris: Sends to the included Cardiris program, which automatically extracts information from your scanned business cards and helps create a digital archive of your rolodex
• •• Scan to Print: Uses the ScanSnap in conjunction with your printer as a photocopier
• •• Scan to Word (.doc): Scans directly to an editable Word file using ABBYY OCR (opens in Pages or other word processing programs if Microsoft Office isn’t installed on your computer)
• •• Scan to Excel (.xls): Scans directly to an editable Excel file using ABBYY OCR (opens in Numbers or other spreadsheet programs if Microsoft Office isn’t installed on your computer)
• •• Scan to Evernote: Sends your scan as either a PDF or Jpeg to your Evernote account
• •• Scan to Google Docs: Converts the scan into an editable text document using ABBYY OCR and sends to your Docs account
• •• Scan to iPhoto: Converts the file to a Jpeg image and imports into iPhoto

The Manager program allows you to choose your resolution – anywhere from the 150 colour/300 B&W minimum dpi to the 600 colour/1200 B&W maximum dpi – and compression rate, plus extra options for OCR language and which pages to look for text in.

In Practice

So how long does it take to turn your life paperless with this scanner? Using the “Automatic” settings for paper size, colour detection and image quality, I managed to push through eight years worth of notes, legal documents, artwork, photographs, tax receipts – everything I’ve gathered in that much time – in a paltry seven hours.

All of my photos and artwork are now together on iPhoto, all of my notes are searchable (findable, really) and readily available from anywhere on Evernote; papers of all sizes and levels of importance are neatly filed and old notebooks have been completely converted to PDF e-books. I’ve cut easily two hours and 40 lbs off of my next move. Through all this, the ScanSnap didn’t even break a sweat.

The paper shredder I borrowed, on the other hand, overheated six times from the exact same stack of papers and took nearly twice as much time.

The Bottom Line

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 is everything a portable scanner should be: Portable, and a scanner. Fujitsu has demonstrated perfectly that these two traits aren’t mutually exclusive by any means. There’s been no sacrifice to quality whatsoever in bringing down the size or power usage.

There are a small handful of drawbacks I noticed. Over the course of those seven hours, it sometimes jammed up when a paper wasn’t aligned just right with the feed slot and the edge folded over on itself a bit. But even this only happened three times, and I’m assuming the same thing would have happened to any other scanner in the same situation.

It only loads one sheet at a time, and only reads one side at a time, but that’s still pretty standard and is more than enough for the average user.

The other thing is that it isn’t compatible with TWAIN or ISIS drivers and can’t be selected as a WIA source, so programs that use these drivers won’t be able to manipulate the ScanSnap directly. But I think the included software gives enough other options that this shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

And at about $200, neither should the price.

All in all, whether it’s for everyday use or solely for the road warrior, the ScanSnap S1100 is getting a well-deserved 9/10.

[Fujitsu S1100 product page]

The post Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Portable Scanner Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Why this hasn’t been done sooner is beyond me, but Visioneer has just changed the face of mobile document scanning with their “Visioneer Mobility” scanner. On the outside it looks like your plain old mobile USB scanner, but no, Mobility really means mobility. You don’t even need a computer to use this scanner. Just pop in an SD card, (1GB included) and begin to feed it reams of documents you’d like digitized. The Department of Homeland Security will fear this, WikiLeaks style extraction of confidential documents can be made without a computer. You’ll have to wait until March to get your hands on one, priced at $200 a full page can be had in 10 seconds flat.

[Visioneer]

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Fujitsu makes an assortment of different scanners for various purposes, and their ScanSnap line has now gone ultra-portable with news of the one-inch think S1100. It will cost you just $225, weighing a mere 12.3 ounces, and takes a single USB to power and OCR your paper mess until your Google Docs account is full.

The S1100 is a single sided scanner; unlike the S1300 I reviewed back in May which supports duplex scanning but comes in at more than 3x the size and weight (0.77lb/350g) that the S1100 does. Software appears to be the fantasticlly functional Fujitsu ScanSnap software I’ve grown to love. Stay tuned for a full review coming soon. If you’re at CES check out the Fujitsu booth for your own hands-on action.

[Fujitsu]

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Three mobile scanners tested and reviewed Photo: Mobile Magazine

As we move slowly but surely toward a more paper-free existence, we still rely on some physical forms for certain things. In order to best accommodate this transition, you’ll want to have a reliable document scanner, but you probably want to save some space. That’s where the professional mobile scanner market comes into play.

We had the opportunity to look at three of the top offerings in the niche and they each had their respective pros and cons. The Canon Imageformula P-150 is perfectly happy with duplex scanning and offers fast speeds, but the software leaves much to be desired. Similarly, thePlustek MobileOffice AD450 has a 20-sheet capacity and it can even accept plastic cards for scanning. However, it’s boxy shape makes for a challenging fit in most laptop bags.

In the end, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 weighed in with the best rating. Fujitsu is well known for its great build quality and the sub-$300 price point is in line with the competition. On the plus side, it scans quickly and comes with plenty of applications. It’s easy to use and supports Macs to boot. The 10-sheet capacity isn’t the best, but it should be good enough for most professionals on the go.

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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 mobile scanner Photo: Mobile Magazine

The S1300 is silver and gray.  It folds down nicely in to a compact 11.18 x 3.90 x 3.03 inches and weighs in at 3.08 lbs.  It’s a little bit thick at 3.03-inches, but will fit in to larger laptop bags, perhaps even a large briefcase. I think it could have been a bit thinner, but Fujitsu did a good job of keeping it looking sleek.    Power is via USB, either a single connection to your computer with the included power adapter.  Or go ultra-mobile by using two USB ports.  The interface is simple and clean, with one-button scanning initiated at the touch of a finger.

Scanning times are a fast on the S1300.  Software processing after the document passes through your scanner is very efficient.  Results were sharp and crisp, contrast was better than average without any adjustments.  The ADF (automatic document feeder) only holds 10 sheets, but its alignment is bang on, no issues of pages shifting were encountered in my tests.   The Fujitsu S1300 really shines in the software department.  

Software prompt for you to manage the most recent scan.

ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap (Mac and PC): ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap allows users to be productive by quickly transforming their paperwork into editable Word and Excel files at the push of a button.

ScanSnap Organizer 4.1 (PC): Offers PC users a convenient way to store, manage and view PDF and JPEG files as well as perform post-scan editing, keyword entry and searchable PDF conversion.

CardMinder 4.1 (PC): Provides PC users a fast way to capture both sides of a business card, extract the information automatically and export it to Outlook, Excel, Act! and other contact management software.

Scan to Functions (PC): Offers PC users an easy way to scan to a folder, attach scans to an email, send scans to a printer, or scan to Microsoft SharePoint for ad-hoc efficiency.

ScanSnap Manager (Mac and PC): Provides Mac and PC users one button searchable PDF creation, access to intelligent features and custom scan settings (profiles) for simple operation with sophisticated results.

Scan to Functions (Mac): Offers Mac users a flexible way to manage their PDF, searchable PDF and JPEG files. Users can save content to a folder, a network folder, iPhoto, and even directly to their iDisk account.

Cardiris 3.6 (Mac): Provides Mac users a convenient way to scan their business cards and export the contact information directly to Address Book or Entourage.

If you are interested in Rack2-Filer software, Fujitsu sells the S1300 deluxe model that gives you this software for an additional $50.  It provides the look and feel of paper to your scanned documents.

Here are the scanning times encountered:

8.5×11 single sided 14 seconds 300dpi 24bit
8.5×11 double sided 48 seconds 600dpi 24bit
8.5×11 double sided 16 seconds 300dpi 24bit
8.5×11 single sided 47 seconds 600dpi 24bit
8.5×11 single sided 9 seconds 150dpi greyscale
10 page stack single side 150dpi greyscale 59 seconds
100% Crop Magazine Ad Scan (2.53 MB)

Bottom Line
Fujitsu packs a nice suite of applications with the S1300 scanner, for both Mac and PC users.  The ScanSnap manager is simple and easy to use, letting you select what you want to do with the document after it’s scanned. Default settings can be modified and saved, letting you adjust what it should do. For example: save as PDF 150dpi to folder /scans.  AbbyFineReader lets you scan automatically to Excel, searchable PDF, or Word.  Mac support is a huge plus, but this one lacks a carrying case of its own.

The post Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 mobile scanner appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Plustek MobileOffice AD450 Scanner Photo: Mobile Magazine

Plustek has been manufacturing digital imaging products since the mid-80s. Their latest group of scanners are part of the Mobile Office line, the one we are looking at today: the Plustek MobileOffice AD450. An automatic document feeder (ADF) scanner capable of 600 DPI resolution and 20 sheet capacity.

The AD 450’s design stays true to Plustek’s typical styling of two-toned silver and charcoal gray. The finish is matte, so it doesn’t get gummed up with fingerprints. First impressions are that it’s quite large for a mobile scanner, being almost 4-inches tall giving it a boxy look. It won’t easily slip into your laptop bag, but it does have it’s own carrying case and could be thrown in a backpack or small carry-on luggage.

Three buttons are present on the front of the AD 450. One for scanning directly to a searchable PDF file. BCR, is for scanning business cards through the dedicated business card feed, giving you the ability scan up to 0.76 mm thick plastic cards. The third button is just to scan various other image formats, including TIF, PCX, BMP, TGA, JPG, PCD, WMF, and PNG.

The ability to scan plastic cards will appeal to mobile business professionals, thick bank and credit cards, ID cards, or other types of travel cards pass through with ease. Plustek did this by creating a small channel on the scanning bed area to pass thicker items through.

In the software front you are getting quite a nice selection from Plustek. AbbyFinereader is one of the best OCR software’s on the market. You get the light (sprint plus) version, but it still does the basic essentials. NewSoft Presto! Is used for scanning and managing the files, it’s quick and very straight forward. TWAIN drivers also let you tap into thousands of scanning applications already on the market.

You get the following:
NewSoft Presto! ImageFolio 4.5
NewSoft Presto! PageManager 7.10
Hotcard BizCard Finder 3.0
ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Sprint Plus
Plustek DI Capture
Plustek DocAction
Plustek TWAIN Driver

Plustek AD450 Mobile Scanner Photo: Mobile Magazine

Plustek’s AD450 has a maximum resolution of 600 dpi. Sufficient for most applications, here is a 300dpi sample scan 100% cropped from a magazine print ad. Power can run off two USB 2.0 ports, or a single USB 2.0 port with a power adapter. Scanning with dual USB will be slower according to Plustek, so if speed is your need then having it plugged in to the wall is your best bet.

The following scan times were achieved in the test:
8.5×11 double sided 300dpi 24bit – 11 seconds
8.5×11 single sided 600dpi 24bit – 43 seconds
8.5×11 single sided 150dpi greyscale – 9 seconds
10 page stack single sided 150dpi greyscale – 41 seconds
100% Crop Magazine Ad Scan (2.97 MB)

Bottom Line
The Plustek AD450 priced at $239.99 ($299 MSRP) is an efficient, reliable and fast scanner. Being part of Plustek’s MobileOffice line I would have liked it to be a bit more compact. Performance was satisfactory, and with 48-bit color depth you can get good reproductions even from photographs. Default settings did give a more contrast result, it can be adjusted in the software. The ADF did struggle at times, paper needs to be precisely aligned or it may grab a sheet and feed on an angle depending on weight. A single thin sheet of magazine paper had trouble keeping aligned, larger stacks and thicker stock paper are the way to go. Lack of Mac support is disappointing, only Windows XP, Vista, 7 supported here but the software that does come bundled is the best you will find out there.

The post Review: Plustek MobileOffice AD450 scanner appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Canon Imageformula P-150 Mobile Scanner - Photo: Mobile Magazine

The Canon Imageformula P-150 is the latest mobile scanner from Canon.  It sells for under $300 online, and can scan at duplex up to 20 sheets per sitting.  A perfect portable scanning companion for your mobile office.   Definitely compact in size, light-weight and measuring only 11 x 3.7 x 1.6-inches, the P-150 is thin enough to slip in your laptop bag or rucksack.  The shiny piano black finish gives off a “high-end” expensive look, but marks up and requires the white glove treatment.   The expandable paper tray alignment hopper folds out like a Transformer and can be adjusted to the exact size you need it to be.   Document feeding alignment was excellent, it stayed on course all throughout the process.

Power and connectivity are supplied by dual usb-ports.  It can run off a single port – just slower – two ports are ideal.  An AC adapter can also remove your dependence on the dual port situation, but the adapter costs extra.   The P-150 will scan documents in width from as little as 2-inches (business cards) to 8.5-inches, and 2.7-inches up to 14-inches in length.  This means legal paper size is supported.

Maximum scanning resolutions are 24-bit color at 600dpi.  The following scan times were achieved in the test:

8.5×11 double sided 15 seconds 300dpi 24bit
8.5×11 single sided 73 seconds 600dpi 24bit
8.5×11 single sided 11 seconds 150dpi greyscale
10 page stack single side 150dpi greyscale 34 seconds
100% Crop Magazine Ad Scan (3.09MB)

At only 2.1 pounds and measuring 11-inches wide, the compactness of Canon’s P-150 is what will appeal to many users.  Scan times are quick, resolution is sharp and the ADF (automatic document feeder) had very little trouble in alignment with various paper stocks.  This is important, especially in a professional environment, when speed is critical and you don’t want the signatory page of your contract feeding on an angle and getting mangled by the rollers.

Canon P-150 mobile scanner

I found software was its major downfall. Canon has recently added Mac OS X drivers to the product family, however Windows was only available at the time of the test.  The CaptureOnTouch  software lacked the ability to customize multiple scanning presets for later use.  Canon could have invested a little more time in this department.  Twain and Isis drivers however do let you use other supported scanning applications, but it’s nice to have a more versatile package straight out of the box.

Bottom Line
Windows, Mac and Linux support is a bonus.  The size and design are very appealing and matches the traditional IBM Thinkpad look that many mobile business users have grown accustomed to.  Software, if not using third-party applications could be a deal breaker for many.  No wall power adapter included, USB or nothing – which is fine for most mobile users.

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