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IRIScan Book 2 mobile scanner: Review and giveaway
Although I tend to use my iPhone 4S and Readdle's Scanner Pro (US$6.99) or JotNot Scanner Pro ($1.99) apps to do most of my scanning, there are still documents that need a regular scanner of some sort. For that, I have an old Epson 4490 Photo scanner, but it has issues handling anything that isn't flat. For example, I've been trying to scan some sections of some really old books into a digital format, but due to the thickness of the book the section nearest the spine of the book is unreadable on a scan. The new IRIScan Book 2 (US$129.00) mobile scanner is a lightweight scanner that can handle a number of document types easily. Design When it comes to portability, the IRIScan Book 2 is almost as easy to carry as an iPhone. It's a tiny 10" long, 1-1/8" wide wand that averages a little over 1" in height. It's entirely self-contained: the scanner contains a pair of AA batteries (included) and uses a micro-SD card (2 GB card included) to hold your scans until you're ready to process them. There's also a micro-USB port and included cable for dumping your scans to a computer for processing. %Gallery-161947% It's an attractive little scanner, with a metallic blue finish and a carrying bag to protect it while in transit. Some addition value and power comes with the software that's included with the IRIScan Book 2 -- Readiris Pro 12 is an older version of the OCR and scan management software that is sold by I.R.I.S. Note that there is an iPad version of Readiris ($37.99) on the App Store; it is not included with the scanning hardware. Functionality The IRIScan Book 2 works like a flatbed scanner, only you provide the motion of the scanning head over the item to be scanned. There's a large and clearly labeled scan and power button; pushing it for two seconds turns the device on (or off), and a quick push starts or ends the scanning process. I decided to test the device without reading the instructions, so I grabbed a catalog for a local community college where I teach and started scanning away. Although the original catalog was printed on newsprint and had been folded for mailing, the scans were still extremely clear and legible. I also like the idea that you don't have to scan from top to bottom on a page; it's also possible to scan from side to side, which works best with books. Another pair of buttons provides an easy way to switch between color and grayscale scanning, or change the resolution of your scan from 300 to 600 dpi. There's a tiny LCD to show you how many scans you've made, what mode your currently in, and to help you set the time on the device. Let's talk for a minute about Readiris Pro 12, the scanning and OCR software that comes with this little scanner. To be honest with you, I'm not a big fan of scanning software. OCR software, which I've used since the early days of scanners, always has the same problem -- it works great for scanning one-column text, but start throwing a lot of columns, tables, and graphics at one and you end up doing a tremendous amount of manual labor to try to extract text from your scan. That's not to say that Readiris Pro 12 doesn't work well -- it does. As an example, I scanned a page from a book with wide margins and the text was saved into an RTF file that was completely accurate. It's just that the number of situations in which you're going to get this type of OCR accuracy are relatively few. When I scan documents, I prefer to just keep them in a PDF format without doing any OCR. In other words, the documents are an image of a document rather than the textual information. Sure, that makes for larger file sizes, but at least I'm not fighting OCR software to try to get readable text. As for the scans, take a look at this gallery. The first two images show one scan from a book, the other from a tabloid-sized course catalog, both "scanned" with Scanner Pro. The next two images are the same types of pages scanned with the IRIScan Book 2, and the final two images are using JotNot Scanner Pro. %Gallery-161942% The scans from JotNot Scanner Pro and PDF Scan are both curved somewhat due to the curvature of the book's page, but they're both quite legible. The IRIScan Book 2 scanned the curved page nicely, but note that if you're scanning a book with very narrow margins, you'll have problems. Looking at the catalog page, you'll notice that the page is cut off in the IRIScan Book 2. That's because the scanner only scans documents up to 8.5" wide. The scans from the iPhone applications were both full-width; I felt that JotNot Scanner Pro worked better for this page. Conclusion Before you invest in a document scanner, think about your end goals. Are you planning on scanning every document you receive in order to achieve a paperless life? If so, maybe a sheet-fed scanner would work better for you. Are you thinking about just scanning receipts while traveling? If you already have an iPhone or iPad, then perhaps scanning software will work better for you. But if you often need to scan articles from magazines or if OCR is a necessity, then the IRIScan Book 2 is a reasonably-priced and definitely portable scanner for you. Pros Compact size makes it travel-friendly Does not need to be attached to a computer in order to scan Attractive design Comes with OCR software package Absolutely quiet in operation Uses widely available AA batteries Cons Is not rechargeable Limited to 8.5" wide scans Who is it for? Best suited for those who need a small, portable scanner that is capable of scanning articles and converting them to editable text. Giveaway You know how we love to give away review items here at TUAW, and sure enough we have a full IRIScan Book 2 package complete with Readiris Pro 12 software, the 2 GB memory card (installed), and more. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before August 10, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected and will receive an IRIScan Book 2 scanner and software valued at $129.00. Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
IRIScan Anywhere 3 saves your receipts and photos without the cables
Portable scanners aren't quite the novelty they used to be, that much is true. But they're no less impressive or useful. The latest IRIScan, the Anywhere 3, follows a long tradition of tiny, wireless document and photo scanners with rechargeable batteries. It's capable of saving your files to its internal storage, an SD card or even a standard USB thumbdrive. At $199 the IRIScan Anywhere 3 isn't any cheaper than its competitors and, as you can see from the photo above, it's certainly not the smallest portable scanner. But, it does come with some free apps (Readiris Pro and Cardiris Pro) that let you import contact info from business cards into Outlook or Lotus and turn your scanned docs into editable files through OCR. For more check out the PR after the break.
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i delivers scans to Android or iOS, spreads a little cloud love as well
Fujitsu's original ScanSnap S1300 earned a soft spot in our hearts -- no mean feat for a scanner -- so it's with piqued interest that we catch word of a direct upgrade. The S1300i is all about serving those of us who might never send scan results to a printer. Android and iOS aficionados now only have to send the results to a relevant mobile app, skipping the usual computer-to-phone shuffle. That stack of receipts can also go skip devices entirely and go straight to the cloud, whether it's Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, Salesforce Chatter or SugarSync. However that paper gets converted to digital, it'll be accomplished about 50 percent faster, or 12 double-sided, color pages every minute. All the extras lift the price price even higher, though: $295 is a lot to ask for a scanner. Even so, if that stack of bills is high enough to trigger an avalanche, it might be worth the premium to avoid being snowed in.
HP teases new Envy all-in-one printer, glass and metal dotted all over (video)
We all love teasers, so it's rather swell that HP decided to tease its next Envy-branded all-in-one printer at the Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai -- almost two years after introducing the Envy 100. As you can see in the above slide and the extremely brief video teaser after the break, this time round the design will feature a glass control panel, as well as a metal scan bar and a metal hinge under the scanner's see-through lid. Pretty hot, we'd say, and looking back at the Envy 14 Spectre which shares similar elements, this certainly sets a good example of how the new Printing and Personal Systems Group is already bringing a better design consistency across what used to be two different groups. For now, stay tuned for more info.
Daily iPhone App: Consmr makes grocery comparisons easy
Consmr is another barcode scanner app that just released on the App Store that's targeted at groceries and pharmacy products. There are lots of barcode apps out there: ShopSavvy is one of the more popular, and we've covered RedLaser before, and all of these work pretty much the same: Aim your iPhone's camera at a barcode, and immediately get pricing, reviews, comparisons or even coupons all designed for whatever you've scanned. If you've already found an app like this that you like, I don't know if Consmr has enough in it to pull you away. There are lots of other apps specifically for grocery shopping that offer plenty of solid features. But Consmr is free and easy to use, and it will deliver all of the information you need about whatever products you put under the scanner. It can be very helpful, for example, to get some tips about competitive products while in the aisles at the grocery store, and Consmr will definitely do that. I worry a little bit about the objectivity of the app's listings (bigger brands such as Pepsi tend to show up easily while browsing, which makes me wonder, in perhaps a paranoid way, whether or not these listings are being manipulated for advertising purposes). But it's a free download and worth a look if you want a little more information or insight on what's going into your grocery cart.
Canon unveils PIXMA MX892 wireless all-in-one, prints from the cloud for $200
If you're in the market for a new wireless printer for that fancy new home office, Canon has a new model that may suit your needs. The PIXMA MX892 wireless all-in-one boasts copy, scan and fax features for those official docs that still have to be sent over the wire. Prints employ the ChromaLife, 5-ink system for high quality images at a resolution of 9,600 x 2,400 dpi. The printer also features a 3-inch LCD screen for last-minute adjustments and will have your 4 x 6 inch borderless Yellowstone photos printed in around 20 seconds each. Built-in effects, such as toy camera and fish-eye, offer quick photo customization in the event of an extreme time crunch. Through software like Google Cloud Print and PIXMA Cloud Link, you can send those documents or photos to the MX892 directly from online albums and your mobile device -- should you be on the move. No word on a shipping date as of yet, but the unit will set you back $199.99 when it hits shelves. Check out all the details in the PR below, should you be in need of a few more.
Look the business with PlanOn's super-slim receipt scanner
Receipts. You request them every time you make a claimable purchase. Then you put them in your pocket, the washing machine, the dryer, an old envelope, until they've been everywhere except where they need to go. Sure, you can use a smartphone app, but wouldn't you be so much more diligent if you had a $140 dedicated portable scanner like PlanOn's SlimScan SS100? It's taken a while to come to market since we went hands-on, but it's finally available with immediate effect. You swipe the credit card-sized stainless steel device over your receipts and store the images -- up to 600 of them -- on its built-in storage. Then you hook it up to your PC over wireless-schmireless USB, auto OCR the images, correct any inaccurate fields and export the data straight to your spreadsheet. Then you wash it, dry it, put it in a drawer...
Scientists produce stronger T-rays, bring Tricorders closer to reality
A group of scientists from Imperial College London and Singapore's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) have developed a new technique that could have far reaching impacts for Star Trek fans everywhere. It all involves something known as Terahertz (THz), or T-rays: electromagnetic rays that have already been used in full-body airport scanners and have the potential to be used across a much broader range of medical and environmental applications. Because every molecule can be uniquely identified within the THz range, these T-rays can be used to pick up on cancerous cells and other biological matter, perhaps even within a Tricorder-like scanner. Now, Imperial College's Stefan Maier and his team of scientists say they've found a way to create a stronger beam of T-rays, using so-called "nano-antennas" to generate an amplified THz field. In fact, this field can produce about 100 times more power than most other THz sources, which could allow for sharper imaging devices. "T-rays promise to revolutionize medical scanning to make it faster and more convenient, potentially relieving patients from the inconvenience of complicated diagnostic procedures and the stress of waiting for accurate results," Maier explained. "Thanks to modern nanotechnology and nanofabrication, we have made a real breakthrough in the generation of T-rays that takes us a step closer to these new scanning devices." For more details, check out the links below.
OrcaM sphere constructs detailed, digital 3D models of wares while you wait (video)
Ever wanted a 3D digital copy of all those Little League trophies? Well, the NEK has whipped up something to lend a hand that's a bit larger than another recent scanner. Enter the OrcaM, an Orbital Camera System capable of producing an accurate, digital 3D model of objects up to 80cm (about 31.5 inches) wide and weighing up to 100kg (around 220lbs). Making use of seven shooters simultaneously, the system photographs the object while projecting various light and shadow combinations in order to determine the ware's geometry. The OrcaM is able to reproduce high-quality digital reproductions with a geometric accuracy less than millimeter (nearly .04 inches). As if that wasn't enough, it produces complete color, texture and reflectivity maps so that every minute detail is accounted for. Once your to-be-copied object has been loaded, the OrcaM takes over and is automatic, churning out the completed rendering shortly after the requisite photos are taken. Hit the video up top for a look at the beast in action.
NYPD begins testing long-distance gun detector as alternative to physical searches
As part of its ongoing effort to keep New York City safe, the NYPD has begun testing a new scanning device capable of detecting concealed firearms from a distance of about 16 feet. Developed in conjunction with the Department of Defense, the technology uses terahertz imaging detection to measure the radiation that humans naturally emit, and determine whether the flow of this radiation is impeded by a foreign object -- in this case, a gun. During a speech Tuesday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the device shows "a great deal of promise as a way of detecting weapons without a physical search." Kelly went on to say that the technology would only be deployed under "reasonably suspicious circumstances," though some civil liberties activists are already expressing concerns. "We find this proposal both intriguing and worrisome," New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement, adding that the scanner could all too easily infringe upon civilian privacy. "If the NYPD is moving forward with this, the public needs more information about this technology, how it works and the dangers it presents." For now, the NYPD is only testing the device at a shooting range in the Bronx, and has yet to offer a timeline for its potential deployment.
Use iConvert to scan documents directly to your iPad
I saw quite a few document scanners for iOS devices at CES last week, but this is about as elegant as they come. Brookstone is offering a scanner called iConvert, which uses your iPad as the receptable for anything you scan with it. Not only does it scan your documents with a 300 dpi scanner, but it even does a very nifty graphical representation of the document showing up on the screen. The iConvert is US$50 cheaper than the popular Doxie Go at $149, but of course this scanner is specifically built for the iPad or iPad 2 and offers fewer features than other scanners. There are also a few apps out there (including Scanner Pro) that will let you use the iPad's camera to pull in documents without extra hardware. Those don't work nearly as well, though. If often bring drawings or forms into a digital format, you'll want something more reliable. The iConvert seems like a solid option, and the fact that it's completely based on the iPad means it should be simple to port around. Brookstone is offering it for purchase next month. [via Dvice]
Scientists scan damaged audio discs, resurrect fresh beats
Digitizing your analog archives? Vinyl to CD / MP3 / iPod turntables might do well enough for your old 45s, but the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory prefer to listen to their old beats by taking pictures of them. More specifically, restoration specialists are using a system called IRENE/3D to snap high resolution images of damaged media. The cracked discs -- often made of wax on brass or composition board -- are then repaired digitally, letting researchers play the digitized discs with an emulated stylus. So far, the team has recovered a handful of 125 year old recordings from a team in Alexander Graham Bell's Volta laboratory. The all digital system gives researchers a hands-off way to recover audio from relic recordings without running the risk of damaging them in the process -- and no, they probably won't let you use it to listen to that beat up copy of the White Album you've had in your closet since eighth grade. Hit the source link to hear what they've recovered.
Doxie Go mobile scanner cuts the wires, sort of... (Updated)
Apparent Corporations Doxie scanner has been a hit since it arrived a few years back. It's small, lightweight, and pretty well perfect for mobile use. So when I heard that the company had come out with a new scanner called Doxie Go ($199) that allegedly removes the need to have a computer around when you need to scan something, I got a bit excited. Read on for a full review of the Doxie Go. Design When I first saw the PR blasts for the Doxie Go, my thought was that they'd figured out a way to build in Wi-Fi for a scan-to-cloud solution. Nope. Maybe it would use an iPhone or iPad as a go-between for scanning on the road? Not really. So how do they do PC-free scanning? It's quite simple, actually. The scanner has some built-in memory, and also has an SD slot for expanding storage. No SD cards on hand? There's also a standard USB port into which you can plug a USB flash drive. Once you've charged up the device and done a quick calibration, any media placed into the scanner's slot is captured to memory. To actually do anything with the scans, you need to move them to another device; either a personal computer or an iPad. The move to the computer is done with a standard USB to mini-USB cable, and the Doxie Go shows up as an external drive. If you've installed the Doxie software on your Mac or PC, attaching the Doxie Go launches the application for importing the images. Your alternative is to double-click the Doxie "drive" to transfer the files to your computer. All of the scans are saved on the device as jpeg images. Using the app, you can also save your images as PDFs or PNG files. Later this month, there's supposed to be an update that provides optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities for scanning documents and saving them as editable text files. The Doxie Go is still pretty small and light, perfect for traveling. It weights in at 14.1 ounces and will fit into almost any computer bag at 1.75" high x 2.125" deep x 1.5" wide. It comes with a cloth bag for protection, a USB cable, and a small cleaning tool, but no USB power brick. That's fine, because most Doxie Go users are going to either have a power brick they can plug into for charging (like the one that comes with the iPad) or a PC or Mac with a USB port. %Gallery-142381% Update: According to a spokesperson from Apparent, the Doxie Go works well with the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi / SD cards and can be set up for fully wireless scanning. Coupled with the Eye-Fi Direct Mode, it's possible to have scans transferred directly from the Doxie Go scanner to an iPad, iPhone or Android device. Functionality There are two different resolution settings for the Doxie Go -- 300 dpi and 600 dpi. To switch between the two settings, you tap on the power button until the light goes from green (300 dpi) to orange (600 dpi). The device automatically scans in color, and is drop-dead simple to use. Turn it on, slide the document in face up on the left side of the scanner slot, and it takes over from there. For older or glossy photos, there's a special scanning sleeve with a bar code on it to put the photos into. Scans are quite fast -- a 4" x 6" color photo at 300 dpi took about 4 seconds, while a full 8.5" x 11" black and white document scanned in a little over 8 seconds. At 600 dpi, the scan times were about 11 seconds and 27 seconds respectively. I mentioned earlier that you can use the Doxie Go with an iPad. To do this, you'll need the Apple Camera Connection Kit or a similar device. You will need to store scanned images right onto an SD card and put that card into the SD reader dongle from the kit. I tried to attach the scanner directly to an iPad using the USB cable connector from the kit, but the iPad complained that the peripheral used too much power. There is also an iPhone / iPad Sync Kit sold by Doxie for $39, although there are no images or specs for the kit. I would assume that it's a Camera Connection Kit clone. With the iPad, I imported scanned documents into the Photo Library, then used Readdle's PDF Converter app ($6.99) to convert them to PDFs. Once that was done, I could open them in Readdle's PDF Expert app ($9.99) for annotation and signatures. That's actually a very useful use case for the Doxie Go -- if you need to capture and annotate legal or other work documents just about anywhere, use the scanner, the Camera Connection Kit, and an iPad and you're good to go. On the Mac, the software (downloaded directly from Doxie's website) is pretty basic. You can change the file names, add a counter number to each scan, change the image quality, have the app do some automatic processing of images, and move the scans to local or cloud apps. The app gave me the choice to send scans to Adobe Reader, Evernote, iPhoto, Picasa, or Preview. For cloud apps, the choices were CloudApp, Flickr, Google Docs, Picnik, Scribd, Tumblr and Twitter. No iCloud or Dropbox, the two cloud apps I use the most. The final choice is to send scans to Doxie Cloud, a free service provided by Doxie for sharing scanned documents and photos. Conclusion As you can see from this review, you won't totally cut the wires when you're using the Doxie Go. But this scanner can be used to ingest numerous images and documents while you're away from a computer, and then spew them quickly into whatever app you want. There are other solutions that might be less expensive. For example, my usual solution for scanning on the go is to snap a photo of documents and receipts with my iPhone using the $1.99 JotNot Scanner Pro app, which acts as an even smaller "scanner" for traveling. On the other hand, JotNot is not made for scanning photos, and it can sometimes take a while to manipulate scanned images to look good. Other mobile scanners include the NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner ($200), HP ScanJet Pro 1000 ($219.95) and the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 ($200). If you're looking for a fast and incredibly easy mobile scanner, the Doxie Go is definitely a product to consider.
IRL: Spotify, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 and Oakley's AP backpack 3.0
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. In this, our last edition of IRL before worldwide eat-Chinese-food-and-go-to-the-movies day, we're unpacking our gifts a few days early. Darren replaced his document scanner after his old one went to wherever it is that deceased scanners go, Joe finally settled on a gadget bag stylish enough to go with his skinny jeans and Brian's given himself the gift of a Spotify premium account. So how's it going, here in real life? Head past the break to find out.
Holiday Gift Guide: Buying a printer (Updated)
Welcome to TUAW's 2011 Holiday Gift Guide! We're here to help you choose the best gifts this holiday season, and once you've received your gifts we'll tell you what apps and accessories we think are best for your new Apple gear. Stay tuned every weekday from now until the end of the year for our picks and helpful guides and check our Gift Guide hub to see our guides as they become available. For even more holiday fun, check out sister site Engadget's gift guide. Updated to correct AirPrint availability for Lexmark and Epson. As much as we'd all love to get away from the piles of paper that dominate our lives, it's still hard to live without a way to commit digital content to paper. Whether you're printing labels and envelopes, need to print a report for school, or you like to print photos from your iPhone or iPod touch, a printer may be a necessity for most computer users. Printers have come a long way from the days of the slow and noisy ImageWriter II shown above, and now even cheap printers can astound you with their high quality output. In this edition of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide, I'll provide some hints on what you should consider when purchasing a printer to work with your Mac or iOS device. We'll start with the basic questions you need to ask yourself about the way you print and the features you can't live without. All-in-one or print-only? Most printers these days come in two styles -- all-in-one printer/scanner combos (often referred to as multi-function devices or multi-function printers) and just plain printers. All-in-one printers are very useful if you often need to scan documents that have been signed, or if you want to be able to scan printed photos. Those who are thinking about doing high-quality photo or slide scanning should opt for a separate printer and a specialized photo scanner. While the scanners in the all-in-one models have improved dramatically over the years, they usually can't match the high resolution, scanning speed, and retouching software that comes with a dedicated photo scanner. There are some differences in the all-in-one printers as well. Some are designed just for printing and scanning, while others provide the ability to send and receive faxes. If you're still using the ancient technology of faxing to send documents, you'll want to look for a model that has the built-in fax modem and RJ-11 telephone port. Photos, printouts, or both? The next thing to think about is what you'll be printing. Photo printing is done on special coated paper that provides either a matte or gloss finish to your images, and even a low-cost photo printer can turn out fairly good printed pictures these days. On the other hand, if you do a lot of photo printing, it's going to be much less expensive in terms of consumables (ink cartridges and photo paper) to just take your images to a local drugstore or photo shop on an SD card or flash drive for printing. A 2005 New York Times article noted that printing a 4" x 6" photo from a home printer could cost anywhere from 28¢ to 50¢ per image. Consumers in the US can go to a number of retailers and get prints in the range of 10¢ to 16¢ a piece, or easily use one of a score of online photo printing services (including Apple's built-in print service in iPhoto). Prices of consumables -- the print paper and ink -- haven't dropped much, so these numbers are probably still accurate. What are you paying for? Convenience. You can do one-off prints of favorite pictures in a minute or less. I've often been able to upload photo files to a local Walgreen's store and pick them up in about an hour, which is still pretty convenient. Most inkjet printers will do both photo and regular printing, so if you still think that you need a printer that does a decent job of making photo hard copies, go with inkjet. Which brings us to our next topic: Laser or inkjet? Laser printers have dropped considerably in price over the years while capabilities have soared. In fact, a quick look at the HP website showed two black and white laser printers with a price tag of less than $100. The least expensive color laser printer is now running $149 on sale. What's the big attraction of laser printers? Speed. Many laser printers can pop out a first page in less than ten seconds, then churn out pages at anywhere from 12 to 42 pages per minute. For the impatient folks in the crowd, that's a plus. However, inkjet printers are no longer as poky as they used to be, with print speeds up to 35 pages per minute. Once again, it's the consumables that will bite you every time. Toner cartridges are expensive, especially for color laser printers that generally require four cartridges -- black, cyan, magenta, and yellow -- to print a full range of colors. It's not uncommon to spend well over $200 for toner cartridges for a color printer, and $75 - $100 for black toner cartridges. Inkjet printers are also quite inexpensive. HP has a low-end color inkjet printer that is available for $30. How can printer manufacturers sell printers cheaply? It's easy -- they're using the pricing model that was pioneered by razor manufacturers years ago. You basically give away the razor and then make money on the consumables -- the razor blades. In this case, the manufacturer makes a ton of money on ink (or toner) cartridges. With that $30 printer I was referring to, you get a single black ink cartridge and a single color cartridge, good for about 165 pages of printing. When it's time to buy a new set of cartridges, you're looking at $58 -- almost twice the cost of the printer! The page yield on those replacement cartridges is about 330 (color) to 480 (black) pages, which adds up quickly. If you do a lot of printing, I'd recommend a laser printer. The toner cartridges are more expensive, but they also last a lot longer -- usually in the range of 1,300 (color) to 2,000 (black) pages. The extra speed is also going to make you happy if you're printing big reports all of the time. For photos or casual color printing, it's inkjet all the way. USB or wireless? Back in the day, every printer had a cable. Whether it was AppleTalk, Ethernet or (more recently) USB, you were constrained to printing from a computer that was tethered to a printer. Now many printers come with built-in Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth, rarely) connectivity so that you can print from anywhere on the network. For those who just want to print from a desktop Mac or PC and don't mind being anchored to a printer, then USB is just fine. For those who want to print from a laptop, Wi-Fi is the way to go. And for those who want to print wirelessly from an iOS device without an intervening personal computer running something like Printopia, you want to look for an AirPrint-compatible printer. There's a full list of AirPrint-savvy devices in this recently updated Apple knowledge base article. Lexmark is represented with the fewest devices (3) and Canon's list is deceptively long, since most of those model numbers are variations on the three announced printers. Epson & HP, on the other hand, have a relatively complete suite of options there. HP has the most AirPrint printers, with more than 20 models listed on the company's US site as supporting direct printing from iOS (Apple's list of HP devices is longer, including some not sold in the US). Canon recently added three AirPrint-compatible printers to its line and promises that future Pixma photo printers and all-in-ones will also support AirPrint. Epson supports AirPrint on most of the devices that fall under its Epson Connect feature branding; the three printers that don't support AirPrint do work for photo printing using Epson's iPrint app. Conclusion There are a lot of good printers on the market. Remember when you're looking for one to use with your Mac that you should make absolutely sure that it supports Mac OS X printing. Printers from most manufacturers, including HP, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark, work very well with Mac OS X, but be sure to check older models for compatibility. If you're trying to ditch the PC or Mac and just go straight from iOS, then be sure to look for AirPrint compatible printers from HP, Canon, Epson or Lexmark. Be sure to check manufacturer online stores for deals that you can't usually find in stores, and also keep an eye out on the Apple Online Store (or ask at Apple retail locations) for free or low-cost printers added to a Mac package. Whatever printer you decided on, remember that consumables are the biggest part of the lifecycle cost of your printer. Look at the replacement toner or ink cartridge costs before you buy, and try to get a feel for the cost per page that you print. Printers are becoming less of a necessity for computer users, so think about your needs before you choose. Don't buy one with all the bells and whistles unless you have money to burn or really need all those capabilities.
Doxie Go portable scanner creates searchable PDFs without a PC, syncs to almost anything
As far as scanners go, Doxie makes some of the more interesting products on the market. There's one problem though... the bright trail of hot pint hearts splashed across the front. Thankfully, the upcoming Doxie Go dons a more conservative shell that will look just as at home in a CEO's office as it would in a 16-year-old girl's bedroom. The Go is a portable scanner with built-in memory for up to 6,000 pages, and you can even add on more storage through the USB port or SD slot. All scans are automatically fed through OCR software and turned into searchable PDFs. To get the scans on your PC you actually sync the Doxie Go to your Mac or Windows machine. You can also sync with your iPhone, iPad or send your documents straight to Dropbox, Evernote or Google Docs from the Doxie 2.0 desktop app. You can pre-order the Go now for $199 and it'll start shipping in late November. Check out the gallery below and PR after the break. %Gallery-136890%
Doxie Go cuts the wires, scans to Mac, iPad, and iPhone
Apparent Corporation today announced Doxie Go, a new member of their portable scanner family and the first to allow scanning without a computer. The US$199 scanner won't ship until late November, but there are plenty of reasons to get excited about Doxie Go. To start with, the scanner no longer requires a computer. If you're on the run somewhere and need a quick scan of a document, you can grab it and store it on the Doxie Go. The device has a 600-page memory, and you can use USB flash drives or SD cards for more storage. The scanner can grab a full color page in less than 8 seconds. Once you're returned to the vicinity of your Mac or PC, Doxie Go plugs into your computer and synchronizes the scans. Yeah, it's not "really" wireless, since you'll still need to connect it to something via USB to retrieve and use the scans. When you're ready to sync, Doxie Go launches the Doxie 2.0 software (included) and your documents, receipts, or photos are moved to your computer. In December, Apparent will release a $39 accessory for transferring scanned documents to your iPad or iPhone. If you use an SD card to store your Doxie scans, you can also use the Apple Camera Connection Kit to move those scans to your iOS devices. The Doxie 2.0 software can create searchable PDFs through the included ABBYY OCR capability, and sync to Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs, and other cloud services. Scanned items can be "stapled" together to combine them for a specific purpose. Check out the press release below for more information. Show full PR text Scan anywhere: Doxie Go unveiled Groundbreaking 'Post-PC' paper scanner scans anywhere – no computer required; sync scans direct to Mac, PC, iPhone, & iPad; all new Doxie 2.0 software creates searchable PDFs RALEIGH, NC, USA (October 18th, 2011) – Apparent today unveiled Doxie Go, the modern new mobile paper scanner that's tiny, cordless, and simple, so you can scan anywhere – no computer required. Doxie's app syncs scans – just like a digital camera – then organizes multi-page documents, creates searchable PDFs with ABBYY® OCR, and sends to the cloud – Evernote, Dropbox, and more. Scan anywhere – no computer required.For all your paper Doxie scans everything from bills and receipts to reports, recipes, ideas, cards, photos, and everything else.Tiny and fast Doxie's tiny size means you can scan anywhere, no computer required. Scan full color pages in just 8 seconds.Built-in battery and memory Scan up to 600 pages with built-in memory, or insert a USB flash drive or SD card for endless storage.Sync to Mac, PC, iPhone, & iPad Doxie Go syncs scans to your computer – just like a digital camera. Doxie even syncs direct to iPhone & iPad.1 Doxie 2.0 software included.Connect to sync Doxie Go syncs scans to Doxie 2.0 when you plug it in – just like a digital camera – and charges while you sync.Simplicity is key Doxie's intuitively designed companion app makes going paperless amazingly easy. Just sync, staple, and save.Create searchable PDFs Award-winning ABBYY® OCR technology recognizes the text on your scans and creates searchable PDF files.2Evernote & Dropbox ready Doxie works directly with Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs, and more – send PDFs and images to the cloud.Now Available For Pre-Order Doxie Go is the newest member of Apparent Corporation's award-winning Doxie® scanner family, and includes the cordless scanner, Doxie 2.0 software, and a carrying case. Now available for pre-order for $199. The first orders ship in late November. Complete product information and images available here. Doxie Go web site: http://www.getdoxie.com/product/doxie-go Resources for press and bloggers: http://www.getdoxie.com/press/ About Doxie® brand paper scanners Doxie delivers modern, award-winning scanners for digitizing and organizing paper, photos, and receipts. Doxie scans anywhere – no computer required, sends directly to the cloud, and syncs to Mac, PC, iPhone, & iPad. +1 800-550-5470, www.getdoxie.com. About Apparent Corporation Apparent makes smart devices and software that rocks. Apparent's award-winning products and brands include IntelliScanner home and small business barcode readers that organize everything; Barcode Producer, the industry standard barcode generation suite for graphic designers; and Doxie, the amazing scanner for documents. +1 919-468-0340, hello@itsapparent.com, www.itsapparent.com.
SWYP concept printer combines good looks with touchscreen editing
A concept printer from Seattle-based designers Artefact wants to bring those touchscreen editing skills learnt from smartphones and tablets to the not-so-electrifying world of printers. The streamlined SWYP (See What You Print) has a pretty striking design -- for a printer. The paper tray even folds away flush on top of the touchscreen in a very (very!) familar way. That contraption shown above would be able to connect directly to your camera or phone, foregoing the PC step with editing and collating all done on-screen; there's even an augmented reality interface that visualizes ink levels and those inevitable printer woes. At present, these guys aren't gunning to take out the only thing HP hasn't flubbed lately, but hopefully the glossy concept vid after the break will tide you over till commercialization (prayerfully) hits. [Thanks, Gene]
LG announces LSM-100 Scanner Mouse, saves valuable desk space
You may recall, back at CES, we got our hands on LG's LSM-100 mouse scanner and were able to try it out for ourselves. Well it appears that you may have that same opportunity soon. The company has announced that it will be "opening a new era for scanners" at IFA in a few days with its mouse that boasts a built-in scanner. Simply by holding the Smart Scan button, you'll be able to save or drag and drop scanned images as large as A3 paper size in a variety of formats -- PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and PDF, just to name a few -- by swiping the mouse over it. If that wasn't enough to entice you, the peripheral also features Optical Character Recognition that converts text from said images into an editable Word document. Perhaps lost in all this is the fully functioning mouse bit... which you'll probably need as well. No word yet on pricing or availability, but hopefully soon, you'll have room on your desk for one of these. Update: Apparently this bad boy is already available the UK for £89.98 (around $148), via the coverage link below. Also, we added a promo video from the folks at LG showing the peripheral in action -- which you can check out after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Comscore finds 6.2 percent of smartphone users scan QR codes
QR codes may be turning up in more places than ever these days, but are people actually using them? According to market research firm Comscore, at least some of them are -- 14 million in June in the US alone, to be specific, or about 6.2 percent of all smartphone users. As for who makes up that slice of the smartphone market, Comscore says that just over 60 percent are male, 53 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34, and 36 percent have a household income of $100k or more. Folks are also apparently more likely to scan QR codes at home than at a retail store, and magazines and newspapers edge out websites or product packaging when it comes to the top source of the QR code being scanned. So, not exactly an explosion in use, but still fairly impressive for a weird-looking barcode that was rarely seen outside of Japan until a few years ago.
