SUPER SCANNER COMES IN SMALL SIZE
Look there! Up in your pocket. It's a pen. No it's a laser pointer! No, it's a scanner! But this is not one of those mild-mannered pen scanners that merely scans a word or a line at a time. This is a FULL PAGE scanner. Yet it's just a smidge bigger than a pen.
The problem with most pen scanners is that they use the tip of the pen as an optical reader. You hold the pen as you would a writing instrument and move the tip of the pen over the lines in a page you wish to scan. Because of the tiny surface area at the tip of the pen, you are limited to scanning in a line at a time at best. But with the DocuPen from Planon System Solutions, the entire length of the pen is the scanning element. And since the length of the pen is 8 inches, you can scan in an entire page with just one top-to-bottom motion.
 To initiate a scan, simply place the DocuPen at the top of a standard 8.5 by 11 inch page and begin a downward movement. Depending on the contents of a page, the DocuPen will scan the entire page of text and graphic images in around 4 to 8 seconds which is actually faster than some flat bed scanners I've seen. What's even more amazing about this device is that it does all of this without the need for it to be connected to a computer at the time of the scan. That's because the DocuPen contains its own power source along with 2 megabytes of non-volatile flash memory. The flash memory is a nice touch since this kind of memory doesn't forget its contents even if the battery runs down. According to Planon, the 2 megabytes is enough to let the DocuPen internally store up to 100 pages before it fills up. From there, all you have to do is connect it to a computer via a USB or serial port connection and offload its contents.
The DocuPen's appearance is high-tech all the way. The beautifully sculpted exterior lends itself to a firm fingertip grip as you position the device and move it down the page. The glowing green scanning light runs along the entire length of the pen. The whole thing looks like something you'd see being used in your favorite science fiction movie. But the DocuPen is a reality and it's a James Bond gizmo you can own right now.
The DocuPen's monochrome resolution scans at up to a 200 by 200 dots-per-inch resolution, uses a 1.55 silver oxide battery and weighs in at only 2 ounces. Planon includes image as well as OCR software that will transcribe any document into a word processor for further manipulation if needed.
The DocuPen works with any minimally configured PC running Windows 98 or later and sells for $199.99.
www.docupen.com
More juice for your cell phone
 It's happened to most of us when using our cell phones. You're right in the heat of a debate when you hear that dreaded little bleep that signals the end of your battery is nigh. And while carrying around a spare battery might work, you may be out of luck if you forgot to keep it charged. Then again if you are in your car or near an AC power source, you'll be just fine. Well, just fine if you remembered to bring along your cell phone's power or car charger. If not, your talking plans could be toast. Unless you brought along some portable power. Have you ever seen those flashlights and radios that have a hand-crank generator? Turn the crank and you have instant power. Well the folks at Innovative Solutions and Technologies thought that was a great idea and have come up with a tiny portable hand-crank generator called the SideWinder. Simply connect your dying cell phone to the sidewinder, turn the crank for around 2 minutes and you wind up with 6 minutes of talk time and considerably more standby time.
The SideWinder comes with adapter plugs that let it work with many of the more popular phones from Nokia, Motorola, Audiovox, Kyocera and Sony Ericsson. And if you find yourself literally in the dark over this, the SideWinder has a built-in white LED flashlight that will show you the way. The SideWinder is around 2 inches long and 1 inch thick when its retractable crank is not being used, and weighs around 2.5 ounces.
You may laugh now when you envision yourself cranking this little thing at an airport somewhere, but when your power runs out, you'll thank yourself you had the foresight to take one of these along with you. $24.95.
www.sidewindercharger.com |
