Available for preorder from Brookstone the iConvert scanner allows you to scan on the move.  Capable of scanning at 300dpi, it’s small enough to throw into your gadget bag and take with you wherever you go. For flexibility the front feeder adjusts from 2 inches to 8½ inches wide, so should be flexible enough to scan business cards, receipts, photos and up. Works with both the iPad and iPad2.

Expected to ship from February 1st for $149.99 from Brookstone.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: iPad, Scanner

Brookstone iConvert Scanner for iPad originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 23, 2012 at 9:00 am.

LG has released their LSM-100 Mouse with built in scanner. Push the scan button and swipe the page in one go and save your image in a multitude of standard formats including OCR for editable Word documents.  It will scan up to an A3 page.

To see how it works check out the preview video from CES 2011  on YouTube.

Available from LG for around $150

Filed in categories: Gear, News

Tagged: Mouse, Scanner

LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner – Save space on your desk originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 28, 2011 at 11:00 am.

The ScanSnap Color Scanner from Fujitsu is one of those products that surprised me when I first used it. It surprised me because it works so well. The scanning was surprisingly fast and the scanned images were a perfect copy.  I had to stop myself from scanning any picture and document I could get my hands on. Well, almost…

The ScanSnap from Fujitsu is their portable scanner in a line of  their larger models the S1300 and the s1500.

This model is the mobile version of the three. Without the need of a power adapter, the included USB cable is the only cable needed to power up the S1100 which makes this convenient to have in your bag, luggage or briefcase. As slim as the ScanSnap is it can probably fit into a large purse with no problem. This is perfect for the business person or traveler waiting in the airport that is sitting in one of those small round table tops in a cafe with only enough room for the sugar packets and ketchup but needs to scan a document or picture and send to a colleague, family member or whomever. It’s perfect for those tight small areas.

This feature alone makes it worthwhile to construct your mobile office anywhere.

The ScanSnap scans images to a PDF file, a searchable PDF (through ScanSnap Manager), and JPEG files.  It also has a few special features.  One of the features that ScanSnap has is the CardMinder. It can scan business cards and extract and export contact information from the scanned business card. There is also the ability to convert a document into an editable Word or Excel file. And for those cloud users, the ScanSnap allows direct scanning to Google Docs and Evernote. The CardMinder was a big plus for me since I have accumulated tons of business cards that I started filing them in a business card book. I will take the time to scan those business cards and digitize them so I can archive them and free up some room on my desk. The ScanSnap can also scan plastic cards and embossed cards up to 0.76 mm thick.

The ScanSnap has an included software that allows for different choices after scanning such as scanning to email, scan to print or scan to Word and more.

With a touch of the Scan button an average scan time takes around 7 seconds from start of page to end of page. This was pretty accurate when I tested it. The S1100 can accommodate documents as long as 34 inches and allows for Continuous Document Feeding so you can scan documents one right after the other. Documents and images are scanned at 300 dpi and can go up to 600 dpi.

The ScanSnap weighs in at around 12 ounces and its dimensions are 10.74 x 1.87 x 1.33.

The ScanSnap has two doors or trays that flip open. The front/bottom tray is where the user initially feeds the document and then exits out the back of the unit. The back/top tray is more of a convenience if you have little or no room behind the ScanSnap for the document to feed out. This tray directs the document to exit out the top of the unit. It’s very handy if you have objects or a wall directly behind the ScanSnap  that will impede the document to exit. However, if you are scanning something that is hard stock  such as a postcard, or a business card or plastic card then this is not ideal to do so. The cards will simply not accommodate the bend in the tray to exit. So you’ll have to keep the top door closed so the card can exit smoothly.

I scanned a couple of 35mm pictures and noticed that the resulting scan was a tiny bit soft but not by much. It could have been the pictures to start with anyways but it was still an impressive scan. I then scanned a colored flyer and noticed it was sharper. But that could have been the difference between a photograph picture and a flyer with blocky letters.  Naturally, it seems that a document with hard edges will appear sharper in contrast to a picture with more organic and softer lines. Either way, both provided a substantial clear and proper scan.

One thing I found helpful was the fact that you can open the ScanSnap in case of a paper jam or to clean the camera and rollers since it can accumulate dust and debris over time.

So if you are looking for  an ultra portable scanner that can fit in tight spaces, save images to a searchable PDF file, and can scan at high speeds and can than look to the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100. You’ll find that using this scanner is a pleasant delight that takes little room and scans documents with a speedy quickness.

The ScanSnap comes with a DVD (driver and softwares),  USB cable, manual, and EZ set-up guide.  It is both Mac and PC compatible.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Cloud, Copier, Evernote, Fujitsu, Mobile, PDF, portable, Scanner, USB

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Portable Color Scanner Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 23, 2011 at 10:30 am.

I have an e-book reader I’m finding that I want to put everything that I have that is on paper into the device: books, magazine articles, users/owners manuals, cheat-sheets, blah, blah and blah.  But after spending several hours scanning an out-of-print book that was falling apart using my standard Epson desktop scanner a few weeks ago, my enthusiasm faded.  It just took too long per scanned page and I had to sit in front of or very near my desk for several hours.  Plus, it required booting up my PC, logging on, waiting for boot up, firing up the scanner software, yada, yada and yada.  And yes, I DO happen to be the laziest person on the planet.

I also spent some time looking through several DIY book reader web sites (diybookscanner.org, for example) and while those devices could speed up the scanning time, building such a contraption is out of my technical skills and patience level.

I bumbled across Julie’s review of the DocuPen and I thought that would be a nifty compromise to the long scan time of the desktop scanner versus the mechanical finesse required to build a DIY book scanner.  But then I bumbled on to the price of the DocuPen (and yes I also happen to be the cheapest person on the planet).  Then the VuPoint Magic Wand hand scanner($99) started popping up here and there.  For $99 I hoped it would make the new Great Compromise.  Think it did the job?

BASIC SPECS

Here are the fru-fru specs from the VuPoint Solutions web site:

• Model PDS-ST410-VP
• Sensor     A4 Color Contact image Sensor
• Resolution     Standard Reso: 300x300dpi (default); High Reso: 600x600dpi
• External Memory     Support Micro SD card up to 32GB (Micro SD card not included)
• File Format     JPEG
• LCD     Scanning status display
• Auto Power Off     Off/ 3 minute/ 5 minute
• Scanning Speed     Approximate scanning speed (standard letter size)
  -High res. with color – 13 sec.
  -High res with mono – 6 sec.
  -Standard res. with color – 3 sec.
  -Standard res with mono – 2 sec.
• White Balance     Auto
• USB Port     USB 2.0 high speed
• Power Source     2xAA Batteries
• Battery Life     Approx. 180 color or 200 monochromatic scans
• Dimension(LxHxW)     10” x 1.2” x 1.1”
• LCD Display Size     0.787” x 0.59”
• Weight     7.5 oz (with batteries)
• Support System     Driver free to download for Windows® XP SP2/ Windows® Vista/ Windows® 7™ and
  Macintosh 10.4 or above ( direct plug-in, driverinstallation not required)
• Accessories     USB cable, 2x AA alkaline batteries, OCR software CD, Pouch, Cleaning cloth, user’s manual

HARDWARE TOUR

Next, let’s take a tour of the device.

First it is about a foot long and about an inch wide and deep.  It has an indentation on each of its sides, providing a good grip when scanning.

Both edges of the Magic Wand have a concave grip

Magic Wand scans up to A4 size, or about 8.5 x 11 inches. The little white arrows on the sides of the unit give you a visual cue for where the scanner light starts and ends. This is a nice touch; it's very helpful when scanning larger books or documents to help you position the scanning surface. A subtle, but very helpful feature.

It is powered by two AA batteries and I’ve been running the thing for three or four days now and it’s still going strong.  This is in part due, I believe, to the way that a scan is performed: you first hit the scan start button, do the scan, then hit the start button again.  Additionally, the scan light only illuminates when the little rollers on the bottom of the device are in motion (more on that in a bit).

Battery cover slides off easily. Also in this photo note the little silver button just to the left of the batteries -- this is the power on/off and scan start/stop button.

On the top of the device are two buttons that allow you to choose between color or black and white and 300 or 600 DPI.  The on/off switch and start/scan switch (one switch doing two jobs) is also on the top of the scanner.  An LCD screen gives you indication of the number of scans you’ve performed, and the mode and resolution chosen.  Two LEDs indicate when a scan is in progress and if an error during the scan was detected.

Left-hand buttons select color/BW and 300/600 DPI resolution. The LCD shows current mode, number of scans taken, right hand side SCAN LED illuminates during a scan; ERR LED illuminates when a scan error is detected.

A USB port and micro ScanDisk port are along the side. There is additionally a “Format” button that can be pressed to reformat the memory disk, though I never used it.

USB and microSD ports and Format recessed button. (Blury image courtesy of my Canon 200SX whose macro mode is "in spec". Ahem. Review on that coming soon.)

On the bottom of the unit you’ll find the meat:  the scanner and, equally important, a set of rollers.  The scanning will only take place while the rollers are in motion, a notion that is very important to remember as we go through this review.

Bottom of the unit sports a set of roller wheels and the scanning light. The scanning light only operates when the roller bar is turning (and of course, when the unit has been powered on and the scan start button has been pressed). This photo was taken by spinning the roller bar outside of the camera's view.

The wand also comes with OCR software.

OCR scanner software included with Magic Wand. By the way, this is actually a scan of the CD. Note the grain of the desk showed up in the scan too.

To perform a scan, turn the Magic Wand on with the on/off button for a few seconds until it turns on; then press the on/off button again to start a scan, do the scan thang, then turn the on/off button again to stop the scan.  Wash, rinse repeat.

Preparing for a scan. Yellow stickie note was used to help identify the resulting scan. This scan was performed horizontally (i.e. from the book binding center to the edge of the page) on a right-hand page.

By default, the scanner turns on in color mode and in the 300 DPI resolution.  Pressing one of the two option buttons allow you to easily change these modes.

Overall, the design is pretty sweet.  It’s small and narrow, has a nifty ergonomic indentation along the sides to help you with the grip during a scan, and has a limited number of buttons to futz with.  The LEDs and display offer simple and intuitive feedback.  If the ERR LED lights up, it indicates that the scan was not successful, although the scan is nonetheless saved off as a file.  That’s one of the annoying things I found during scans:  I couldn’t tell what it was that would cause a scan error and I wish that it would not save the scan when an error did occur because those extra files with errors in them would require editing out later.  Some of the scans that were reported as an error actually looked ok, so I would often times end up with near-duplicate scans of the same page when editing.   Below is a screen shot of the contents of the micro drive when connected through the USB port on a PC after several scans:

List of scanned files. Unfortunately there is no easy way (other than viewing all the files) to determine which of the files were scanned with an error.

SCANNING EXAMPLES

Scanning actually took me a while to get used to because I kept trying to scan my book excerpts from top to bottom.  Instead, due to the bending that occurs in the center of the book binding (aka a “book crack” hee hee), the scanner works best when running it from the center of the binding out to the end of the pages in a horizontal fashion.  Once I dawned (duhed) onto running the scan sideways it usually became a breeze to scan a few pages here and there.  I am a klutz so it was easy for me to foul up scans a number of times and the scanner would illuminate its ERROR light when that occurred.  There were times when I thought that I had a smooth scan but the ERROR light would still turn on and I’d have to repeat the scan.  I tried to do some research on why some scans just don’t work, but I haven’t found anything to report yet.  I’d just like to know what I’m doing wrong on those occasions and be able to prevent it.  It would also be REALLY nice if the scans that did result in an error were not saved.

My main purpose in using the Magic Wand was to scan a few out-of-print books that I have that are literally falling apart and to scan certain chapters out of technical manuals so I focused my scanning on that type of target.  But I also performed scans on what I thought others might like to see, including a magazine scan; recipes from a cook book; a regular 8×11 paper with a technical drawing; and a few other samples.  All of the resulting images were fine.  No complaints on the quality of the results.  The following examples show some of these results.

A typical book crack (heh heh). It's hard to get some books with large book cracks (heh heh) to lie flat, so the Magic Wand works best when run horizontally. Its roller wheels help to keep the scan at the same height above the page. (Blurry image courtesy of Cannon 200SX.)

Example scan of a standard sheet of paper with some technical drawing on it.

Scan of book with technical diagram, 300 DPI

Scan of same page from same book, at 600 DPI

Scan of a user's manual that had staples in the middle of its binding. While the scan lenghth worked ok, the staples tripped up the scanner so I should have split the scan into two. Note that the ending edge of the manual was clipped off.

Example recipe scanned from hard-back cook book.

Scan taken from a very small hard-back book.

Scan from a magazine. The size of the page was a little large for the scanner and it was difficult to scan vertically due to the binding of the magazine.

Magazine scan attempt 2. Error!

Magazine scan after the page was ripped out and laid flat, then scanned vertically.

Color scan, 300 DPI

Color scan, 600 DPI

The biggest problem I had during scanning trying to get all of the information of a page into the scan on certain books that have the page numbers at the very edge of the pages. The reason that it was difficult to get the page numbers included on the scan is that the scan actually occurs only when the little rollers on the bottom of the wand are in motion.  And, when page numbers are at the very edge of the page, the roller wheels roll off the page first, and the scanning turns off before it can read the page numbers.  Note: this is NOT a fault of the Magic Wand; it is just a matter of book formats.  Some books have page numbers in a nice place, others (in fact most of mine for some reason) have the page numbers way at the edge or nestled deep in the book crack (heh).  This is a little hard to grok, so the following photos attempt to demonstrate the issue.

Example of a book that has page numbers at the extreme edge.

From the bottom looking up, you can see that although the scanner is over the page number and hence would leave you to believe that the page number would appear in the resulting image, in reality the rollers have rolled OFF of the page and therefore have disabled the scanning at that point.

Typical scan of one of my manuals that has its page numbers at the far edge. While the quality of the scan is great, the page number is clipped off.

The reason that this is a problem for me is that when doing a large number of scans from a book (say, for example, that you wish to scan 100 or so pages),once the scanning is complete you then have to go back and “stich” the individual scanned pages into a complete e-book.  You normally will want to take each image, rotate as needed, despeckle (as needed) and do some overall clean up.  Having the page numbers on the scanned images helps you in this process in putting together the final ebook but also helps once the ebook is complete and you need to skip around pages; having the page number on the scan just makes that easier.  I tried several configurations with the wand to attempt to get the entire contents of a page and the page numbers, but on some books this just was not possible.  This is something to keep in mind if you plan on scanning many pages.  My final decision is that when faced with these type of books (i.e. those that push the page numbers to the far edge or binding book crack [heh heh]) is to write the page numbers by hand in the book away from the edges before beginning the scan.

OCR

The ABBYY ScreenShot software that comes with the Magic Wand has an OCR engine and has the following user interface:

The ABBYY software -- the Capture drop down contains "Screen", "Area", "Timed Screen" and "Window". The Language drop down includes "English", "German", "French", "Spanish", "Italian", and "More Languages". The Send drop down includes "Text to Clipboard", "Text To MS Word", "Text to File", "Table to Clipboard", "Table to MS Excel", "Table to File", "Image to Clipboard", "Image to File", "Image to Email".

This version of ABBYY basically takes a screen shot of an image and performs an OCR.  I used the following scanned image as the OCR candidate.  You can see in the second photo how the image is a little skewed, has some bleed-through from the page in the book beneath it, and has a few speckles.  I ran ABBYY against this image as-is when viewed inside of the Windows image viewer program.

Original scan from a cook book, rotated.

Zoomed in view of the file text image; note that there is some bleed-through from the other side of the page and some noise that could use a little clean up. It could also be oriented a little better too. Each of these clean up tasks can be performed in a variety of tools including Scan Tailor, a SourceForge project available for free download.

ABBYY literally uses the screen as a way to capture its text, so if you run it against a full size image, as shown below, you’ll see the less-than-captivating results…

ABBY software works by having you position a grid around the screen image to be OCR'ed. Here, the entire scanned image is shown in a viewer so ABBY will attempt to OCR the entire page . . .

y vup_hardback_text.JPG - Windows Photo Viewer | cd S3
twMM evitrtr 4M
• Irnpuin uflroo thread*, crudied
2 tahie<p>-*m »«m - ir. .
1 (ablnpoon lemon jiuie
• trMpoon tall, it dewed
2 lablnpoora vir.ttah* oil. divided
\'i i       t. ii-, «nn hrmn m
I lat|K lUnr gaclic. baeli mimed (I icnpooo)
I large union, i narieli chopped 11 cup)
2*1 io 34 (apt <(talked broth
* icaapooo ire*hli ground black pepper
•* trii|"in paprika
I       ¦-!"( ean tomaioci miih I heir |u«e
1 dried thili prppct. iruihrd. »r h>H red pepper
Hj«tv lo Uilc   i pi i. ml
2 tahtnpiun mined frrih parelci at 2
KupmiiH dried pariley flake*
I 10-ounie package Iraien pea*
4 tup diied black oli»e»
M <up (hopped p.mierao
1 Plate ihr .h* ken panel inaboaiL In a tup, prepfe a ananaaiie by to—tun
in* the turmrtH and nil*, wuh ihe warn ereaer. ¦ 1 ¦ ¦ • to daaanhr (he
aaaTrun Add the lemon mate. aafc. and I ufclcapooa at ual Pour the nan
raadr ihr ihaihra towing ihr paexe* to wet mem  K.11.4.1.1. thr
thntkrn (or 30 an mi of loaajrr.
2 Ilea* the remaaaing iabte*pooai of oal ¦ ¦ wawmtk tatdart Irf yow bw .mh;
a mmI pan tkaa n nmtort. aac "t. dean* dm tarp in hatthr* and uung pan
tafraarodhwea^banch) Remove ft* chaifcra tr*»nihie minnaik.n- ¦ 1..
rhe wianna.tr Hnxm rhe chicken parte** ¦ ihr oil, and rteaam them from
the pan
S Add the rue to the pan. and "fry" it tor about 1 to ^ rnauttrv wirm* 11
mituantlv to 1 oat 11 »nh and i.uti the grain* Sail ir the garlii and imai.
and fry them (or I i<> 2 minuie-i. Mil inrring Trantfcr the rue vegetable
m unite 10a I>ut.h men. and then add 2Vi .uptbrixh. thc<«egan» peppvr.
and paprika the ¦ngredimn 10 tumhanr (hem. bring the mmurr hi a
boil, redutc the heaa ao loo. com oar pot nghih. and took the nee tor 30
minuan
•». Sorai the rruroed marinade (afaan; Lasnuai^aod chor >a*e. chdi pepper,
and pankn. arrange the (take* partn oa aunt** (he rxr. nmt the pi*,
and ma rhe 1 h« «*"» He niiture c»*r in* krat k« V> mavarl or anal the
chidM m eamrh; done Chart once or r**ce. and add more baodt at ae-rded
V Spnake- the- pern, olran, and paaaaraan over *W anp of *U chatkea. add
¦tore broth of »aacr d neiruari, com the pea. and took ake mature tor
antmSer lOao |] mi mm-* or until the chKfcm 11 arndcr, the ncc farl*.-dry.
and the pcaa hot

Results of ABBYY OCR of entire scanned image.  This took about 40 seconds.

So I zoomed in on the page to increase the text size on the screen and re-ran the OCR with the following results . . .

Zooming in on the scanned text produced a better OCR result . . .

1 28-ounce can tomatoes with their juice
1 dried chili pepper, crushed, or hot red pepper
flakes, to taste (optional)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or 2
teaspoons dried parsley flakes
I 10-ounce package frozen peas
Vi cup sliced black olives
xk cup chopped pimiento
1. Place the chicken pieces in a bowl. In a cup, prepare a marinade by combin-
ing the turmeric and saffron with the warm water, stirring to dissolve the
saffron. Add the lemon juice, salt, and 1 tablespoon of oil. Pour the mari-
nade over the chicken, tossing the pieces to wet them. Refrigerate the
chicken for 30 minutes or longer.
2. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet (if you have only
a small pan that is nonstick, use it, doing this step in batches and using part
of the oil for each batch). Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving
the marinade. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil, and remove them from
the pan.

Results of ABBYY scan after zooming in on the image.

So after zooming in, the scan went much better.  But imagine trying to do this for multiple (maybe even hundreds) of pages.  And you’d still have to go back and do a post-clean up of the text where the OCR was incorrect.  On the plus side, ABBYY has quite a number of supported languages which I found pretty impressive.

For batch processing, you might want to look at a combination of Scan Tailor (to rotate, clean up the images, and convert them to TIFF format) and then FreeOCR .  These two tools could help a little with batch processing many pages.  Following are a few screen shots of running just FreeOCR and its results.

FreeOCR program converts image files to text without the need to zoom in. On the left is the (rotated) scanned image. On the right is the resulting OCR'ed text.

ENTREESY FOUL TRY   I

Vu teaspoon saffron threads, crushed

2 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

IA teaspoon salt, if desired

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

1% cups long-grain brown rice

1 large clove garlic, hnely minced (1 teaspoon)

l large onion, coarsely chopped (1 cup)

2*/2 to 3*/2 cups chicken broth

% teaspoon oregano

IA teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Vs teaspoon paprika

l 28-ounce can tomatoes with their juice

1 dried chili pepper, crushed, ar hot red pepper

Hakes, to taste (optional)

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or 2

teaspoons dried parsley flakes

l 10-ounce package frozen peas

lb cup sliced black olives

IA cup chopped pimiento

1. Place the chicken pieces in a bowl. In a cup, prepare a marinade by combin-

ing the turmeric and saffron with the warm water, stirring to dissolve the

saffron. Add the lemon juice, salt, and 1 tablespoon of oil. Pour the mari-

nade over the chicken, tossing the pieces to wet them. Refrigerate the

chicken for 30 minutes or longer.

2. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet (if you have only

a small pan that is nonstick, use it, doing this step in batches and using part

of the oil for each batch). Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving

the marinade. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil, and remove them from

the pan.

3. Add the rice to the pan, and "fry" it for about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring it

constantly to coat it with oil and toast the grains. Stir in the garlic and onion,

and fry them for 1 to 2 minutes, still stirring. Transfer the rice-vegetable

mixture to a Dutch oven, and then add 21/2 cups broth, the oregano, pepper,

and paprika. Stir the ingredients to combine them, bring the mixture to a

boil, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot tightly, and cook the rice for 30

minutes.

4. Stir in the reserved marinade (if any), tomatoes and their juice, chili pepper,

and parsley, arrange the chicken pieces on top of the rice, cover the pot,

and cook the chicken-rice mixture over low heat for 30 minutes or until the

chicken is nearly done. Check once or twice, and add more broth if needed.

5. Sprinkle the peas, olives, and pimiento over the top of the chicken, add

more broth or water, if necessary, cover the pot, and cook the mixture for

another 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender, the rice fairly dry,

and the peas hot.

Results of FreeORC conversion, not bad but note all the extra line feeds

Finally, below is an example of clean up and conversion to TIFF through Scan Tailor followed by processing by FreeOCR.

Scan Tailor program -- this is used to clean up images and create TIFF output files. Although this screen shot shows just a single file/page, you can add multiple files and perform actions in bulk. You can easily rotate, "deskew", set margins, de-speckle, and convert your images to TIFF files.

Scan Tailor converts a scanned file to a TIFF file.

E:x¤TREss.— PO ut TR Y 43 1
% teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
2 tablespoons warm water
l tablespoon lemon juice
*/1 teaspoon salt, if desired
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1*/2 cups long·grain brown rice
l large clove garlic, finely minced (1 teaspoon)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
2*/2 to 3*/2 cups chicken broth
*/2 teaspoon oregano
*/s teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
*/s teaspoon paprika
1 28·ounce can tomatoes with their juice
l dried chili pepper, crushed, or hot red pepper
Hakes, to taste (optional)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or 2
teaspoons dried parsley flakes
l l0-ounce package frozen peas
*/2 cup sliced black olives
*/1 cup chopped pimiento
1. Place the chicken pieces in a bowl. In a cup, prepare a marinade by combin-
ing the turmeric and saffron with the warm water, stirring to dissolve the
saffron. Add the lemon juice, salt, and l tablespoon of oil. Pour the mari-
nade over the chicken, tossing the pieces to wet them. Refrigerate the
chicken for 30 minutes or longer.
2. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet (if you have only
a small pan that is nonstick, use it, doing this step in batches and using part
ofthe oil for each batch). Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving
the marinade. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil, and remove them from
the pan.
3. Add the rice to the pan, and "fry" it for about 3 to S minutes, stirring it
constantly to coat it with oil and toast the grains. Stir in the garlic and onion,
and fry them for 1 to 2 minutes, still stirring. Transfer the rice-vegetable
mixture to a Dutch oven, and then add 2*/2 cups broth, the oregano, pepper,
and paprika. Stir the ingredients to combine them, bring the mixture to a
boil, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot tightly, and cook the rice for 30
minutes.
4. Stir in the reserved marinade (if any), tomatoes and their juice, chili pepper,
and parsley, arrange the chicken pieces on top of the rice, cover the pot,
and cook the chicken-rice mixture over low heat for 30 minutes or until the
chicken is nearly done. Check once or twice, and add more broth if needed.
5. Sprinkle the peas, olives, and pimiento over the top of the chicken, add
more broth or water, if necessary, cover the pot, and cook the mixture for
another 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender, the rice fairly dry,
and the peas hot.

Results of FreeORC conversion after Scan Tailor clean up

Once you have your text, you can then convert it to PDF format.  Of course you can also just convert the raw JPG files to PDF but then you can’t do any searching on the results.

SUMMARY

This is a nice scanner, well thought-out and at a nice price.  (You can even get it at Bed Bath & Beyond, by the way).  For batch scanning it could work out but you want to watch out for books with text near the edges of the page.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Scanner

VuPoint Magic Wand Scanner Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 19, 2010 at 12:19 pm.

DIY scanners can be pretty complex

If you’ve decided that your e-book reader is your new body part, you may have stumbled upon some of the DIY book-scanner forums or sites such as diybookscanner.org.  While the designs presented on the internet are intriguing, they are not always practical for klutzes.  Ahem.

So I was equally intrigued by this, the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner.

Other portable scanners (such as the DocuPen) have been discussed on the The-Gadgeteer, but this one is affordable and looks large enough for a decent sized scan.  It can be found on Amazon.com for $97.   Note as Julie mentioned in the DocuPen review, performing a scan sideways may render a better result with some hand-helds.

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

Tagged: ebook, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

What a Difference 300 Years Make originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 8, 2010 at 8:00 am.

The Wizcom ReadingPen/TS is marketed as “a portable learning tool” aimed at people trying to learn English, how to read, or with reading challenges. The device is basically a text scanner with a text-to-speech capability.

I was able to let an experienced teacher and a speech therapist try it out, as well as playing with it myself.

How’d it do?

The tech specs on this one are a bit more than I would like to include in the article, so click here for a link to them. When you open the box, you find the pen in a rigid plastic, almost presentation-style case (that cannot hold many of the other items). There is an earphone, computer cable (mini-USB to USB), batteries, a CD, a ‘training tip’, and the manual.

Everything that comes in the box

Wizcom Reading Pen/TS

Physically, the large pen-like tool has a reading tip, a small joystick control with power button, and a touch screen. On the back end, there is a headphone jack, mini-USB jack, and the stylus slot. You can use your finger, but the targets on the screen are very small. The headphone jack is useful as the on-board speaker is quiet.

The manual walks you through the set-up and a tutorial quickly. The TS series features a Touch Screen and stylus that allows you to use the tool. The screen menu is largely icon driven, and the icons are not intuitively obvious so the manual helps at first.

Scanning is not bad. The training tip helps you line things up to get you started. Other functions, like connecting the the computer and playing some of the built-in games, etc. are all pretty straightforward.

Scanning quality is… about what you would expect. There are training sentences in the manual that scan and read perfectly, but if you scan other passages, things can get… funny. It does not like icons, borders, unusual punctuation, etc. The word ‘icon’ occasionally gets read as ‘jon’, etc. It sometimes takes a couple passes to get a good scan. The scan head has little wheels to help guide your scan, but if you are not tracking straight it will garble the words as well, especially if it picks up another line of text.

Also note- it does one line at a time. If you pick it up to scan another line, it processes the first line first. This limits it for reading blocks of text and chapter books, or using as a pen scanner.

The speaking voice is synthesized. It is not bad and the pronunciation is usually clear, but it offers an odd ‘accent’ on some words, like ‘of’. You can adjust the volume, pitch, and reading speed to make it better for the user. The built-in speaker is pretty quiet- headphones are recommended, but then it makes it difficult for anyone else to help the user.

It takes some practice to scan properly- you need a straight track, smooth and slow movement, and the right angle at the tip. The ‘training tip’ helps, but it comes pretty quickly with practice. The unit recognizes a wide range of fonts and sizes, although it does have trouble with some ink and paper colors.

Doing an actual scan

In use, you scan a word or a line, then let it process. It will speak the scanned info and then let you choose between various options- Spanish translations, synonyms, syllables, or definitions. It takes a moment to think after each scan- which gets tedious if you are trying to make it read a longer passage, but is not so much a problem with single words. In fact, most of the features work better with individual words than entire lines.

The results of a scan

It has several built-in dictionaries and references- it is hard to trip it up and find words it does not recognize… although sometimes it takes a couple tries to get it to read something correctly.

It features several games for helping with vocabulary, the ability to work with an XP/Vista computer for saving scans and words, and a few other helpful features. These are nice features, but neither of my guest testers used them much. The games have a familiar feel to anyone who has used a game with a black and grey screen with big pixels.

Game screen

According to my guest testers (a teacher and a speech therapist), the unit works well enough after you get used to it, although both found they needed to use the manual quite often at first to remember what all the icons meant. Both commented that the computerized voice does not always have the best pronunciation or accenting, and both made the comment that ‘it would be helpful for some students, but is not for everyone’.

Both felt that its main strength was in helping with individual words. The teacher felt that using a dictionary correctly might be a more useful skill, while the speech therapist liked that it helped with pronunciation and broke it into syllables when asked, although she was sometimes concerned that the quirks in the computerized voice might interfere with learning proper pronunciation.

One of the strengths of the pen is its portability- it does not need a computer or anything, you can just carry it wherever you need it, and it can even be used on things like signs, posters, menus, etc. as long as the font is the right size and color.

Which leads me to something both testers mentioned. Neither was interested in purchasing the $200 pen to use with their students or clients since many of the things it does can be handled by a cheap dictionary, any of dozens of free on-line sites, or the teacher/therapist themselves.

So who would this tool help? The website states it nicely, describing it as “A portable learning tool designed for students of a second-language as well as for children and adults with reading difficulties (such as dyslexia).” Emphasis on the word ‘portable‘- it would be most helpful (in our opinion) for someone who does not have ready access to other forms of assistance.

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous, Reviews

Tagged: Educational, Reading, Scanner

WizCom ReadingPen/TS Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 15, 2010 at 9:47 am.

The Photolink One-Touch from Pandigital might be an easy way for people to quickly archive old family snapshots without needing a computer. It’s a 600 DPI scanner that can handle up to 5 x 7 inch images and saves the files to a memory card using its built-in 5-in-1 card reader. The price is nice at less than $90.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, News

Tagged: Photography, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Pandigital Photolink One-Touch Scans Your Snapshots originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 7, 2010 at 10:08 am.

Listen up, true believers!  Do you (like me) find yourself at the nexus of interests in gadgetry, collecting, and the artistic medium of comic books?  Intrigued?  If so, the IntelliScanner Comic Edition by Apparent may be your perfect storm.

Inside the Box

The packing was done very securely, with the contents encased in multiple layers of bubble-wrap.  And what exactly were the contents?  Well…an old-school-style metal lunchbox, of course.  Holy retro lunch containers, Batman!  Could there be a better presentation and storage container for a comic book inventory system?

Opening the lunch box, I was greeted by a tangle of red, spaghetti-like, funky, wavy, packaging…things.  Once I’d removed the crinkly packing material and another layer of bubble wrap, the actual contents of the lunch box were surprisingly simple.

The contents consisted of a small ziplock bag with two sets bar code labels (examples and blank samples), a catalog booklet of Apparent products, a card with software activation codes and instructions on how to use them, an instruction booklet, a cable and of course the scanner itself.

Is it a bird?  A plane?  No, it’s a closer look at the scanner:

Knowing a bit about hand-held product design myself, I found the physical design of the scanner to be acceptable, if not just a tad cumbersome.  I suppose the handle itself could have been a bit more contoured to fit my palm and the activation button could be in a bit better position.  Perhaps the whole assembly could have more of a “gun” shape, with a pistol-grip and trigger button (rather than having a “flat” cross-sectional shape in my palm), which might make a prolonged scanning session through an entire comic collection a bit more comfortable.

FYI, after I took the two pictures above, I plugged the cable into the bottom of the handle.  The cable had an ethernet-type jack at one end (which plugged into the scanner handle) and standard USB on the other end (which plugged into my computer).  Once installed, the ethernet-type jack stayed put securely and could not be removed.

The Software – Setup

While not particularly straightforward to get set up and running, I actually consider the software to be the true value of this product.  I began by skimming the instruction booklet, which directed me to first plug the scanner into the computer.  The instruction booklet also noted that for Mac users (which I am),  “If your computer prompts you to set up a new keyboard, just close the window.  This unnecessary dialog shouldn’t return.“  I did indeed see such a prompt, and was able to cancel past it, but I was left wondering why this would happen with a Mac, rather than with a PC.  In all the peripherals I have installed on my iMac, I’ve never even been prompted about drivers, much less seen a message of this sort.  Next I set about installing the software, which turned out to be a multi-step process.  Per the instruction booklet, I directed my browser to the specified URL, which brought me to a page on the IntelliScanner web site to find the Mac OS X-compatible software, which I downloaded to my desktop.  Launching the file opened a folder which contained a “Read Me First!” file and another folder called “IntelliScanner Software.”  The ‘Read Me’ file instructed me to  copy the entire ‘Intelliscanner Software’ folder to my Applications folder.  I then launched a file called “IntelliScanner Dashboard,” which is the actual starting point for the IntelliScanner software.  [FYI sidenote: Launching the Intelliscanner Desktop after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard required me to install 'Rosetta' first.]   I selected the Comics application and launched it.

Launching the Comics application for the first time brought up a dialog box that prompted me to enter the software activation code found on the small orange card mentioned above, which I did with no issues.

The Software – Use

With all of the above completed, it was time to start actually using the software.  Once the activation code had been accepted, up popped the Comics application itself.  It consisted of a toolbar with icons at the top and a spreadsheet-like workspace below.

I then clicked on the Add Series icon on the toolbar, which brought up a dialog box in which I could search for the title of a particular comic series.  I entered “star wars legacy” into the Series Title Search field and clicked on the Search button and viola!  It brought up the entire series of Star Wars: Legacy comics published to date, including the publisher, title, year the series originate, number of issues currently in the series and a thumbnail of the cover of the first issue!  Impressive.  The IntelliScanner website claims to use a database of more than 250,000 comics to pull this info in just a few seconds, and access to the database is free, with no renewal fees.  Most impressive.

After successfully finding the series, I then clicked on the “Add” button and it reverted back to the Comics application, but with the Star Wars: Legacy series now added to my list.  At this point, I could click either the Get Info or Edit Series icons on the toolbar and edit any of the series information that I choose from a separate window.

The next step was to click on the Add Issues icon to add the issue numbers of the comics in my collection from the Star Wars: Legacy series.  For this example, I only own two issues, so entry was quick.  Here was the result:

Similar to editing the series, I was able to click on the Edit icon and edit the issue information.

Next, on to the scanner, which is used to read the bar code on the front cover of a comic book.  The software can then associate that bar code with the record of that issue in your list.  Some comic books do not have a bar code printed on the front, and for those situations, the software can still assign a unique bar code to identify that issue (more on this later).  I began by clicking on the Associate Bar Codes icon and then began scanning each issue.  The scanner worked well, illuminating the target scanning area with a red light for a moment before emitting an audible beep to indicate that the bar code had been read.  The bar code for each comic book was then associated with each respective record.

Next I clicked on the Comic Tags icon on the toolbar.  This feature allows you to print a sheet that contains information such as the title, issue number and date the and the bar code.

The Comic Tag sheet is printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper and then folded in half and placed in the front of the issue’s storage bag, so that the bar code can be scanned through the bag whenever desired.  For issues which do not have a bar code printed on the front (and some comic books do not, depending on where they are intended to be sold, etc), the software can still issue a unique bar code identifier.

Clicking on the Publish button brings up a window that allows you to publish your collection to a your own specific web page provided by IntelliScanner.  You create an account and are assigned your own URL, which allows you to access your collection from any computer’s browser.  It is also searchable, and of course you can give this URL to other collectors or anyone else.

Is there an app for that? you may ask.  Of course there is.  A related feature to the your own web page is the iPhone app.  You simply punch in your unique collection URL into your iPhone’s Safari browser and it pulls up the page below, formatted for the iPhone.  You can then bookmark it for quick access.

The next button on the toolbar–Statistics–gives you an overall summary of your entire collection by the numbers, which can be saved into various formats.  This could be useful for dumping into a spreadsheet, if you were that kind of collector.  And you know who you are.  (Yes, this includes me).

Next up on the toolbar are the closely related Inventory and Location icons, which allow you to check your comic books in and out of your collection and keep track of their physical location by scanning them in and out.  This is useful if you loan out, trade or sell issues.  Finally is the Search icon, which is fairly self-explanatory.

There are several more features that I haven’t even touched on, like the ComicSaver, which saves cover art to your hard drive to use as the image source for a screen saver.  Also, I’ve been focusing on physical comic books, because they make up my entire collection.  However, another area that I didn’t even touch on is web comics, with another full suite of features to allow you to regularly pull in, track and read your favorite web comic subscriptions.

Conclusion

As I mentioned above, I think the real value in this product not in the scanner itself, but in the usefulness and number of features of the software.  For me, the only negative worth mentioning was with respect to the scanner.  I had expected that by just scanning the bar code of a comic book it would simply pull in all the relevant info for that issue, but as can be seen from above, the user must actually add the series first, then the issues and then associate the barcode to the issue.  I suppose that it had to be set up this way due to comics that do not have a bar code printed on the front, but I still found it a bit disappointing.  Still and all, I think this is a great product.  One other notable: As can be seen from the initial IntelliScanner dashboard, there are several other applications besides Comics that allow you to keep track of many other types of items–movies, wine, inventory and so forth (some with their own types of scanners)–and the Comic Edition also includes the access code to IntelliScanner’s Media application.   IntelliScanner Comic Edition fights a never-ending battle for fun, collecting and organization!

Features list (per the Intelliscanner website):

1. ‘Smart’ barcode reader
2. Comic management software (with access to database of 250,000+ comic books)
3. Web comic reader
4. Post collection online to free web service
5. iPhone app
6. Metal retro-style lunchbox storage container
7. Comic cover art screen saver
8. Bonus free Media management software
9. PC or Mac compatible

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous, Reviews

Tagged: Scanner

IntelliScanner Comic Edition Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 24, 2009 at 9:40 am.

The Scanning Digital Picture Frame from Hammacher Schlemmer offers a wealth of options for $199.95  It has an 8″ TFT LCD screen with 800 X 600 resolution, and it has 1 GB of internal storage to store up to 3000 images.  It has a 300 dpi scanner built-in to make adding pictures easy.  You can display pictures, play MPEG videos, and even play mp3 files.  It can also display a picture calendar and a clock.  You can transfer your files to MS/SD/xD/MMC/CF cards or to a USB drive to save them on your computer (Windows or Mac).  There is also a Pict-Bridge connector for easy transfer from your camera.  All this, and a remote control, too.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: Digital Photo Frame, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Scanning Digital Picture Frame from Hammacher Schlemmer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 14, 2009 at 5:53 pm.

Planon has updated their DocuPen scanners with the new X-Series line, which improves upon the DocuPen RC800 scanner that I reviewed 2 years ago. They are now able to support image resolutions of up to 600 dpi (up to 1,200 dpi for the X50) and feature a 200 MHz internal processor and 64MB Fast SDRAM onboard memory. They have Bluetooth connectivity, that allows them to connect wirelessly to smartphones, laptops, netbooks and PCs for editing, storage and/or email attachment. The DocuPen Xtreme X-Series scanning pens are currently available for purchase and are priced from $369.99. Full press release after the jump.

PLANON SYSTEM SOLUTIONS REWRITES SCANNING PEN SPECS VIA DEBUT OF INCREDIBLE DOCUPEN XTREME X-SERIES LINE

Full Page, Ultra-High (600/1,200 dpi) Resolution Scanners Provide an “Office in Your Pocket” Solution; Now Bluetooth Included for Instantly Sending Scans to Smartphones or Laptops

MISSISSAUGA, ON — (November 4, 2009) — The pen may be mightier than the sword, but today, Planon Systems Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of scanning hardware and software, proved that one class of pen can definitely be mightier than all the rest, by introducing its new DocuPen Xtreme X-Series line of scanning pens.

The remarkable DocuPen Xtreme X-Series line, encompassing the X05, X10 and X50, takes portable scanning power to a whole new level of efficiency.  Able to support image resolutions of up to 600 dpi (up to 1,200 dpi for the X50), the three models each feature a 200 MHz internal processor—when compared to previous scanning pen processors that max out at 60 MHz, the processors in the DocuPen X-Series make it by far the fastest line of pocket-sized scanners on the market today.

“There is a group of users for whom speed, storage capacity and image quality are paramount.  The Planon X-Series line meets these users’ needs like nothing they’ve ever seen,” said Doug Verkaik, CEO and President of Planon System Solutions.  “Whether you’re a professional, lawyer, artist, researcher or other power user, a DocuPen X-Series scanning pen is like having an office in your pocket.  It will exponentially increase the speed and quality of your scans, enabling you to do more while away from the office or studio.”

Adding further convenience and usability to the DocuPen X-Series are its other breakthroughs:

• 64MB Fast SDRAM onboard memory is a full eight times greater than Planon System Solutions’ current best model, the RC850.  Working in conjunction with a 200MHZ processor, the X-Series’ 64MB memory provides superior speed and functionality.
• Bluetooth Connectivity enables all three DocuPen X-Series scanners to connect wirelessly to smartphones, laptops, netbooks and PCs for editing, storage and/or email attachment.
• A brighter OLED Screen Display that makes it easier to navigate the pens’ functions.
• The DocuPen X-Series’ Lithium-Polymer battery is both lighter, and may last longer, than previous Lithium-Ion scanner batteries.

Featuring Planon’s Crystal Line Contact technology that provides extremely accurate imaging, Xtreme X-Series scanning pens far exceed cameras and other portable scanners for professional reproductions of contracts, receipts, invoices, color pictures and more.  What’s more, the pens’ wireless connection takes advantage of smartphones and laptops that are allowing people to complete their office work from anywhere.

The X-Series X05 and X10 models can scan in monochrome and 24-bit color modes; the X50 has extra features including higher resolution and grey scale modes.  All three models offer USB 2.0 support for battery recharging and data transfer, as well as a USB Mass Storage Device function and a MicroSD expansion memory option to hold thousands of scans.

To provide maximum flexibility for scanning quality and output, users can select a range of image compression levels.  With the units’ Copy Function, users can also directly scan images to any Planon Printstik portable printer for instant hard copy output.

Other features in the DocuPen X-Series line include a time and date display, and indicators for memory and battery level.  Bundled software adds editing/organizing/email capability along with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) support for text-based editing in applications like Microsoft Word and Excel.

“A DocuPen Xtreme X-Series scanning pen lets you take the convenience of your office desktop scanner with you,” noted Verkaik.  “It’s the ideal efficiency tool for professionals and enterprises alike.”

DocuPen Xtreme X-Series scanning pens are priced from $369.99.  The products are currently available for purchase, to order a DocuPen X-Series scanning pen or for more information including a list of DocuPen etailers, log on to www.planon.com.

About Planon System Solutions, Inc.

Planon System Solutions, Inc., is a leading provider of innovative scanning and printing solutions for the mobile professional. The company is based in Mississauga, ON, and can be reached at (905) 507-3926 or www.planon.com.

Filed in categories: Gear, News

Tagged: Bluetooth Gear, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Planon introduces DocuPen Xtreme X-Series line of scanning pens originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 4, 2009 at 10:30 am.

We’re a three laptop/one printer household.  Our printer/scanner/copier is several years old now, and it still works well – except for one thing.  It’s not wireless, and it’s stored in a cabinet with no desk space around it.  Printing requires connecting the laptop to the usb cable, balancing the laptop in one arm while getting the print job started, and then hoping your print job isn’t a long one.  I had given up on scanning – who wants to hold a laptop long enough to scan an image, much less a document?  I had been thinking about replacing the printer with one with WiFi capabilities, and  I had decided I wanted to get a different brand than the one I’ve used for years.  I just wasn’t satisfied with the depth and richness of colors that I got from my current brand of printer.  But what to choose?

I had read Julie’s review of the Epson Artisan 800 earlier this year.  It sounded like a great printer, but it was a bit more than I wanted to spend at $300.  I was happy when Julie chose me to review the Epson WorkForce 610 printer.  At $199.99, it was more in my price range, and it had all the features I wanted.  So how does it work?

First of all, the WorkForce is big and heavy.   It’s bigger than my current printer.  It’s very black with a shiny black top and a silver band.  The printer looks great, but that glossy black makes it a bit hard to photograph.  It has a card reader for xD, SD, MMC, Memory Stick, and about 10 more, and a Pict-bridge input on the front.  It has a large control panel that tilts through a full 90-degree range for comfortable viewing.

Hardware Specifications

Printing Technology – 4-color CMYK drop-on-demand MicroPiezo® ink jet technology
Ink Palette – 4 individual ink cartridges with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks
Ink Type – DURABrite® Ultra pigment ink (smudge, fade, water resistant, and highlighter friendly)
Light Resistance / Print Longevity – DURABrite® Ultra pigment ink (smudge, fade, water resistant, and highlighter friendly)
Minimum Ink Droplet Size – 3 droplet sizes, as small as 2 picoliters
Maximum Resolution – 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi
Black Text – Black text up to 38 ppm;  laser quality up to 15 ppm
Color Text – Color text up to 38 ppm;   laser quality up to 9.3 ppm
Scanner Resolution – 2400 dpi (9600 x 9600 dpi interpolated)
Standalone Color Copier – Color: Black/White, Draft: Normal
Maximum Copy Size – 8.5″ x 11″ (pc free)
Compatible Memory Cards – SD(various types), xD (various types), Memory Stick (various types), CF, MultiMediaCard
Fax Speed – Modem: 33.6 Kbps – as fast as 3 seconds per page
Fax Memory (pages) – Up to 180 pages
Weight and Dimensions – 18.3 lb, 18.1″ x 22.1″ x 12″ (open for printing)
Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, compatible with 802.11 n, Ethernet – 10/100, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, PictBridge, Bluetooth with optional Photo Print Adaptor from Epson
Eco Features  -  Uses up to 70% less power than a laser printer, ENERGY STAR®  qualified , RoHS compliant ,designed to be recycled

Included in the Box

Printer
Phone cable
Power cable
High-capacity cyan, magenta, and yellow print cartridges
Ultra high-capacity black cartridge
Installation / software cd
Start Here guide, Network Installation Guide, and Quick Guide

First step is to power up the printer and make setup selections.  Next, install the ink cartridges, open up the paper holder and catcher, and add paper.  After the cartridges are installed, there is an “ink charging” step.  Documentation says charging takes about three minutes and it does consume some ink.  “Your product ships with full cartridges and part of the ink from the first cartridges is used for priming the product.”  The Start Here guide walked me easily through these steps.  Now we’re ready for setting the connectivity.  The WorkForce 610 can be connected with a usb cable, or with wired or wireless networking.  I’ll be using WiFi connectivity.

There is a setup wizard that helps you quickly establish your wireless connection if your router broadcasts its name.  Because our router doesn’t broadcast its name, I had to use the advanced setup option in the Network Installation guide.  The printer setup option walks you through the connection.  Basically it entailed entering the SSID (the router name), choosing the security type, and entering the security key.  All this is entered using the  numeric keypad, much like texting on an old cell phone.  The WorkForce connected to our router almost instantaneously on the first attempt.

Now that the WorkForce 610 is connected to our network, I installed the drivers to our laptops.  Drivers are included for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X.  I successfully installed the drivers to two pcs running Windows Vista Home Premium (one 32-bit and one 64-bit) and one running Windows XP.  Each connected with no problems.  I’m liking this printer already!

Printing works effortlessly.  After submitting the job, there is a brief delay while the job is transmitted to the WorkForce.  Pages print FAST!  I tried various papers and modes for printing a text document.  I used some of the premium bright white paper included with the printer with both draft and “text” mode.  With draft mode, the printout was very light. Close inspection of the printout shows that the text is very “stripe-y”, with bars of black, gray, and white.  This paper/mode combination is unacceptable in my opinion for anything other than editing for grammar, spelling, or layout.  I wouldn’t use draft at all on premium paper.  Trying the text setting with the premium paper gave me a beautiful printout.  The text is sharp and clear and it looks great on the heavy, white, thick paper.  Close inspection of this document shows a solid heavy ink line.  There’s no ink savings in this mode, but it’s worth it for the quality of the printing.  This mode/paper combination is perfect for submitting even the most important report.

Next, I tried printing on cheap copier paper from my local office supply store.  With the draft mode, the printout was still very light with the stripe-y appearance.  Again, I wouldn’t use this mode for anything other than editing.  I tried the higher-quality text mode with the cheap copier paper, and I got a beautiful document with sharp, clean printing.  I don’t think draft mode is even suitable for my daughter’s homework printouts.  But that’s no problem, because even the higher-quality mode prints the pages much faster than my old printer.  I’m not worried about the higher ink-consumption with the higher print quality.  I’ve done quite a bit of printing for this review and Rachel has printed out homework several times, and I still can’t see a drop in the ink levels when I check the status of the WorkForce.

Printed on premium bright white paper

Then I tried some color printing using a photograph.  I printed the same picture, uncorrected, on the premium paper and on a piece of Epson premium glossy photo paper.  With the premium bright white paper, the photo prints clearly and sharply enough, but the colors are muted and drab.  Printing on the photo paper is a different story.  The photo prints sharp and clear, and the colors are bright and rich.

Printed on premium photo paper

I printed photos from my computer, but you can also print pictures from memory cards in the card readers or from a camera connected directly to the printer with a Pict-Bridge connection.  Use the controller panel to select the pictures you want to print.  You can even choose to correct your picture or allow the printer to do automatic corrections as it prints.  You can fix red-eye or filter your pictures to print in black-and-white or sepia.

The WorkForce 610 can also be used as a stand-alone copier.  I tried copying a color image (the back of an SD card package).  Again, it’s sharp and clear with good color and readability.  I also photocopied text and got a copy that’s almost identical to the original.

Color copy

One nice feature that I’ve never had on a printer at home is an automatic document feeder.  The feeder can hold up to 30 letter-sized pages and up to 10 legal-sized pages.   It can be used with the copier, scanner, and fax modes.  I tried it with the scanner mode so I could get images of all the print outs for this review.  The feeder worked easily and quietly.  I gave it a randomly arranged stack of copier and premium pages, and it had no problems feeding them in.

Automatic document feeder

Speaking of quiet paper feeding…  I found that the WorkForce is not quiet when it is pulling in the paper it’s going to print on.  The printer clanks and clicks as it pulls in the paper, and I even noticed the paper bounces around a bit in the input support.  Despite the noise, it’s never had a mis-feed using either premium paper or cheap copier paper.  It’s not so noisy that it’s a deal-breaker for me, but it is quite startling if you are near the printer and someone starts a print job from another room.  Epson says the noise level from the printer is 40 dB.  The printer seems noiseless while not printing.  I haven’t noticed any fan noise at all.

As I said earlier, I scanned in several documents to include in this review.  I used 300 dpi for these documents because I was going to put them on the internet.  Despite using the lower scan resolution, the images are still sharp and clear when I examine them with a photo viewer and zoom in close for inspection.  I used the Epson Scan program that was installed at the same time as the printer driver.  It worked effortlessly with the WorkForce to get my documents scanned in and saved on my computer.  The Scan program works in three modes – home, office, and professional.  The “home” mode makes a lot of decisions for you about setup, but it will not work with the document feeder for some reason.  I don’t understand this.  Sometimes I may want a basic scan of a stack of papers, and I don’t want to stand there and feed them in by hand.  The “office” mode leaves more of the setup options to you, and you can use the document feeder.  The “professional” opens up all setup options to you, and you can use the document feeder.  If you select the Epson WorkForce 610 as your source, you can use other programs to acquire images.  You can also start a scan from the control panel and store the image to a memory card you have inserted in the card readers.

The printer has a feature I’ve never seen before, but I do remember Julie mentioned in her review of the Epson Artisan 800.  You can print special papers directly from the controller panel.  Choose from wide-ruled or college-ruled notebook paper, graph paper (quad-ruled), and stationery with a background photo (selected from a memory card).  I tried printing out the quad paper, and it’s a really nice piece of graph paper.  No more mad dashes to the store late at night when my daughter realizes she’s out of graph paper and needs some for homework.

I didn’t try out the fax for this review.  I don’t have a landline at home.

Something of great discussion in the comments for Julie’s Artisan review was the huge amounts of ink the 800 used.  It turns out that the printer setup defaulted to doing a head cleaning each time you did a print.  Epson apparently heard and listened to the complaints about this ink-wasting step.  There is still a head-cleaning process, but you have to choose to run it when you notice your print quality is degrading.

I think the Epson WorkForce 610 is a great printer.  It produces great printouts, copies, scans, and photos.  It prints quickly, and is very quiet except for that moment when it starts to feed the paper in.  It’s also eco-friendly.  It’s Energy Star rated, and it helps you save money on ink if you choose to use the draft mode.  You can save paper by using the manual double-sized printing option.  The individual color cartridges saves money and waste because you can replace only the color you need.  I’m very happy with this printer, and I think Epson is going to be my printer of choice for the future.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Copier, Fax, Printer, Scanner

Epson WorkForce 610 Printer Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 27, 2009 at 9:02 am.

I have a drawer in my office that is dedicated to receipts. When I get a new receipt, I just open it and shove it in. I don’t organize them at all. Then when tax time rolls around, I kick myself for being so lazy. I think I found a cool solution to my problem though. It’s the NeatDesk desktop scanner. It has scanning slots for full sized 8×10 sized receipts (even if they are double sided), down to business card sized receipts like the ones you get from cab drivers. Special software on your computer helps you file the scanned info. There’s even a Mac version. The only down side is the price – $399.95.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, News

Tagged: Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Tame the paper monster – NeatDesk Receipt Scanner originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 16, 2009 at 12:41 pm.

The KeyScan KS810-Plus Imaging Keyboard is a desktop keyboard with a built in scanner that can scan a full A4 size page in 5 seconds for grey scale or 15 seconds for color. It’s capable of scanning documents in sizes of 2×3” to 8.5×30”, including plastic cards and drivers licenses that are 3.5×2.5” up to 1mm thick. It’s available now for $139.99. Full press release after the jump.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Keyboard, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Keyboard + Scanner = KeyScan originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 9, 2009 at 5:01 pm.

Do you have shoe boxes full of 35mm slides and or negatives that you don’t know what to do with?  Would you like to share memories with your kids or grandkids?  Do you want to remember what you looked like 20,30 or 40 years ago?  If so, the ImageLab Slide and Negative Scanner might be for you…

Before we begin, let me set expectations.  If you’re a photographer for National Geographic and need to scan your photos for an upcoming edition of the magazine, this device is not for you.  If you’re looking for an easy way to archive those hundreds of slide and negatives, then read on.

Specifications:

What’s in the box:

2 trays for scanning slidesThe front of the unit has an LCD display.

On top you find 3 buttons and a slide switch.

On the back you have connections for the USB cable and AC power.

On this side you have the SD card slot.  The other side has nothing of interest.

The scanning process on the ImageLab is very simple.  You have trays that accept either slides or negative strips.  The tray for the 35mm slides worked perfectly, but the negative trays seemed to be a little narrow and my 35mm negatives, from several different years of picture taking, did not fit within the grooves nor over the centering sprockets.

It may be a little hard to see the problem in the photo, but I was able to carefully position the negative so it would align correctly.

After loading up the tray, turn on the unit and slide the tray through the slot and watch in the LCD display for the image.  When the image is centered, press either the slide or negative button and your photo will be scanned and saved in the on board memory or the SD card if you have one inserted.  Push the tray until it “clicks” for the next image and repeat the process.

Here’s my setup for scanning.  You’ll notice that the tray has arrows so you don’t insert it the wrong way.  It’s pretty much fool proof.

I grabbed several hundred 35mm slides and the same number a negatives and had a scanning marathon.  Here’s some things I learned.

• Using it on battery power is an asset.  I could scan while doing something else or moving around the house with the scanner.  I wasn’t tied to an electrical outlet.
• The LCD screen is only good for telling if your slide/negative is inserted correctly.  It’s too small to see any features and the review function is essentially useless because of the limited resolution.
• If you don’t remove the dust from your media, it WILL be apparent on the scan.  I used canned air, but it wasn’t enough.  I’ll have to look into some other way to clean them.
• The scanned images have too much contrast and the colors are over-saturated.  Remember, this device doesn’t come with any software and at first I was very discouraged with the results.  Running the images through a photo editor and auto correcting them, made a big difference
• The trays are only for cardboard mount 35mm slides.  I have hundreds of glass mounts and large format slides that cannot be scanned by this unit.
• The USB cord seemed redundant.  It’s used to connect the scanner to a computer to download the images.  The device shows up on the system as a removable drive.  I found it easier to remove the SD card and transfer  my images using a PC card reader.

This slide is from 1982.  The contrast is way too high and the colors are off.  You can also see what I mean about dust.

This is a scan of a negative from 1974, before I ran it through the photo editor.

Here it is after and although not great, it is good enough for snapshots and family photo albums.

I’ve been looking for a way to archive the hundreds of slides I’ve accumulated over the years.  At one point I thought about sending them off to a scanning service, but found the costs somewhat steep, especially since many of the photos are not worth saving and most scanning services charge whether you want the image or not.  Using the ImageLab scanner allows me to scan all my slides and negatives.  Those that are worth preserving I attempt to fix using my limited skills with photo editing software.  For those really important photos, I can send them off to a professional service and let them remove the dust, scratches and dirt and adjust the colors and contrast.

There are similar devices out there.  Two others I am familiar with require a connection to a computer to operate the device, but they do come with software for image enhancement.  The prices are about the same, so the trade-off is portability versus a software package.  I’ve decided I like being able to take the Imagelab with me and when I have some free time, I scan some slides.  Later in the day I upload the images to my PC and batch enhance them using Microsoft Digital Image Suite.  I can then view them on my flat screen and keep the interesting ones and toss the rest.  All in all, it’s a pretty handy device.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Digital Cameras and Gear

Tagged: Photography, Scanner

Imagelab Slide & Negative Scanner Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 28, 2009 at 2:30 am.

I don’t have very many 35mm negatives, but I know that my Dad has a lot of them. I’d love to get copies of all the old family snapshots from my childhood. The ImageLab FS-5T12 12 MegaPixel slide and negative scanner looks like a great solution. It can scan up to 2575 x 1932 pixels and has a built in LCD to preview images before it saves to an SD card. Can be used with or with out a computer.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear

Tagged: Photos, Scanner, Spotlight Gadgets

Scan your old 35mm photo negatives to an SD card originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 22, 2009 at 6:59 am.

I’ve been using a Canon Pixma IP6000D color ink jet printer for quite a few years now. I haven’t had any real complaints about it except for the fact that I’ve not been able to find ink locally for the past year or so. That’s why I was happy to say yes when Epson asked if I would like to test drive their All-in-One Artisan 800 printer. It’s a printer, a copier, a scanner and a fax machine all in one package. This printer even includes some fun little bonus features that I’ve not seen on other printers.

Hardware Specifications

Printing Technology – Ultra Hi-Definition Printing Advanced MicroPiezo® 6-color ink jet printing with DX5™ technology
Ink Palette – 6 individual ink cartridges (Black, Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta and Yellow)
Ink Type – Claria Hi-Definition Ink (smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant photos)
Light Resistance / Print Longevity – Up to 200-year album storage. Lasts up to 4x longer than photo lab prints
Minimum Ink Droplet Size – 5 ink droplet sizes, as small as 1.5 picoliters
Maximum Resolution – 5760 x 1440 dpi
Black Text – Black text up to 38 ppm
Color Text – Color text up to 38 ppm
Scanner Resolution – 4800 dpi (9600 x 9600 dpi interpolated)
Standalone Color Copier – Copy Modes Color, Black/White, Text, Graphics, Photo
Maximum Copy Size – 8.5″ x 14″ (Legal) with Auto Document Feeder
Compatible Memory Cards – SD, xD, Memory Stick, CF
Fax Speed – Modem: 33.6 Kbps
Fax Memory (pages) – Up to 180 pages
Weight and Dimensions (W x D x H) 23.8 lb, 18.4″ x 23.0″ x 7.8″
Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, compatible with 802.11 n, Ethernet – 10/100, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, PictBridge, Bluetooth (optional)

Package Contents

Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One printer
Ethernet cable
Phone cord
Power cord
6 ink cartridges
Driver / software CD
Start guide
Basics guide
Network install guide

The Artisan 800 is not a small printer. It’s pretty heavy and has a larger foot print than the Canon printer that I’ve been using for years.

It’s made of Black plastic (both shiny and matte), with a Silver band running around the center.

The front of the printer has all the user controls.

There is a power button, CD tray extender button, an adjustable touch screen display, unlock button for the touch screen, the paper tray and the media / USB slots.

The touch screen display can rotate upward in order to adjust the view.

You can rotate it 90 degrees so that you can easily interact with the menus when you’re standing in front of the printer.

The color touch menus are bright and easy to understand.

The buttons are large and finger friendly.

It’s easy to do a quick ink level check.

Insert a memory card or USB flash stick in one of the slots on the front, to print images saved on them.

The touch screen menu will automatically bring up the photo menu, so that you can cycle through the images on the inserted media to print. You will have the ability to crop, rotate and enlarge the photos right from the touch screen display – no computer or photo editing software is needed.

The bottom edge has a fold down door that will expose the paper tray and CD tray. The CD tray is normally hidden, until you press the CD Tray button. It then extends slightly from the slot, so that you can place a blank writable CD in the tray.

Using the included Print CD software, you can print images on your blank CDs.

Printing is quick and the results are pretty cool.

The Artisan has a pull out paper tray that can hold up to 120 sheets of letter-size or A4 plain paper or when extended, the tray can hold up to 50 legal-size sheets. This tray can also hold up to 20 sheets of 4×6 or 5×7 photo paper at the same time that you have the letter-size paper loaded. The photo paper goes in the top tray (not shown in the image above – but you can see the grey guides where the 4×6 paper would sit).

The tray itself feels somewhat flimsy, but I’ve not had any issues with anything jamming or breaking.

An output tray can be extended to catch newly printed documents. Like the paper tray, the output tray also feels kind of flimsy. I do wish that the plastic was thicker. I haven’t had anything break, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s built to last.

To load the ink cartridges, you lift up the top half of the printer.

The six color coded ink slots are located in the right corner.

Unlike a lot of printers that I’ve purchased in the past, the Artisan ships with full cartridges. A full set of ink cartridges from Epson will run about $53.

The cartridges are easy to install, but according to one article that I read on Gizmodo, you have to be careful NOT to remove a cartridge before it’s empty. Apparently, doing so may cause the printer to reject the cartridge and you won’t be able to use the rest of the ink in it. Yikes! So far, I’ve not had this happen during my testing…

The connection points for this printer are located on the back. There is an Ethernet port, USB port, phone jacks and the power port. Since the Artisan 800 has WiFi built in, I opted to go the wireless route. Setup does require you to use Ethernet, but once it’s complete, you can disconnect the cable and you’re good to go.

The lid of the printer has a 30 page document feeder that can be used for faxing, scanning or copying.

Just flip the feeder door open, load your paper and off you go.

Individual scans, copies and faxes can be placed directly on the scanner glass by lifting the document cover.

Before you can use this printer with your PC or Mac, you have to set it up using the included CD. The CD includes the required drivers, along with extra software for CD printing.

The first printing test that I tried with the printer, was to print some 4×6 images on photo paper using Photoshop.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

Depending on the color correction method chosen, the resulting images come out noticeably brighter or darker. In the image above, I’ve used the scanner to scan printed 4×6 images with different color correction settings. The top left is Epson Vivid, top right is Epson Standard, bottom left is Fix Photo and the bottom right is no correction.

Photos are sharp and clear. I used to drag out my little Epson PictureMate Dash whenever I would want to print a 4×6 snapshot. Now, I’ll just use the Artisan.

Next, I tested the printer by printing various press release PDF files that I have received. I tested on both cheap OfficeMax copy paper and samples of Epson Premium Bright White paper.

Here’s a sample of a document that I printed on OfficeMax paper and then scanned. You can click the image to see the full-size version.

Here’s a sample of the same document that I printed on Epson’s Bright White paper and then scanned. You can click the image to see the full-size version.

I found that the cheap OfficeMax paper actually makes a better print. If you look closely at the Epson paper, you can see that there are some ink bleed issues. Nothing that you would probably notice to the naked eye, but it’s nice to know that this printer works just fine with just about any paper.

Regardless of paper type, printing is very fast with the Artisan. I have no complaints with speed at all.

Using this printer to make copies, scans and faxes is very easy due to the friendly touch screen menus and controls. It’s so much  faster and quieter than my older than dirt CanoScan LiDE 500F USB scanner.

This printer as a few really interesting extras that I’ve not seen with other printers. From the touch screen menu, you can print Blue lined graph paper, and lined paper. You can also print coloring book type images and photo greeting cards.  The photo greeting card feature is really pretty cool. You put an image on a media card or USB stick and select a desired image. Then the printer will create a template for you like you see above. Your mark different choices like you would on a scantron sheet, add your handwritten note on the template, put that template on the scanner glass and then choose print. A new image will print out with your handwritten greeting updated in the style you chose. It’s really very cool.

I am really liking the Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One printer very much. It may require a bit more room than my previous printer, but It’s amazingly fast and I really appreciate that I no longer need to dig out my flatbed scanner when I need to copy something, or setup my 4×6 PictureMate printer when I want to print a snapshot. Now I can even print on blank CDs with the same printer. This one’s a keeper for sure.

Update 5/26/09 – A couple users noticed that they were unable to scan to PC or PDF using the touchscreen. I sent a note to Epson and received this response:

It sounds as if your reader is using the Artisan through a wireless connection, and the all-in-one is actually not capable of wireless push-scanning (i.e., from the unit to the computer).  It is only able to pull-scan through the driver when set up wirelessly (i.e., through the Epson Scan software on the computer).  This means your reader must use his computer to initiate the scan.  However, this is a feature that Epson is working on changing in future Artisan models for added convenience.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Fax, Printer, Scanner

Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 16, 2009 at 6:01 am.