Honey, they shrunk the scanners!

The scoop: Visioneer Mobility scanner, by Visioneer, about $200.

What it is: This small, mobile color scanner is powered by a rechargeable battery, making it more mobile and portable than devices that require connection to a PC. It goes beyond cordless, though, giving users the ability to scan documents, photos and other flat paper items (business cards, receipts, etc.) directly to a SD memory card or USB flash drive. Documents are scanned through an automatic feeder -- if you know how to put a dollar bill into a vending machine, you will know how to scan with this.

The battery supports up to 300 scans per charge, and recharges in about four hours. Photos are saved in JPG format, documents in PDF. It supports documents up to 8.5 inches by 11.69 inches in size (2-inch-by-2-inch minimum), and scans at about 10 seconds per page. The scanner supports the Eye-Fi wireless card (sold separately), which can upload photos directly to the cloud via a Wi-Fi network. If you do want the PC connection, the Mobility connects via USB cable and comes with additional software (Newsoft's Presto! BizCard, Nuance OmniPage Pro OCR conversion software and Nuance's PaperPort document management software).

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The scoop: Visioneer Mobility scanner, by Visioneer, about $200.

What it is: This small, mobile color scanner is powered by a rechargeable battery, making it more mobile and portable than devices that require connection to a PC. It goes beyond cordless, though, giving users the ability to scan documents, photos and other flat paper items (business cards, receipts, etc.) directly to a SD memory card or USB flash drive. Documents are scanned through an automatic feeder -- if you know how to put a dollar bill into a vending machine, you will know how to scan with this.

The battery supports up to 300 scans per charge, and recharges in about four hours. Photos are saved in JPG format, documents in PDF. It supports documents up to 8.5 inches by 11.69 inches in size (2-inch-by-2-inch minimum), and scans at about 10 seconds per page. The scanner supports the Eye-Fi wireless card (sold separately), which can upload photos directly to the cloud via a Wi-Fi network. If you do want the PC connection, the Mobility connects via USB cable and comes with additional software (Newsoft's Presto! BizCard, Nuance OmniPage Pro OCR conversion software and Nuance's PaperPort document management software).

Why it's cool: The cordless nature of the scanner and its ability to scan directly to memory cards without needing a connected PC opens up opportunities for scanning where they didn't exist before (mobile workers, field workers). On the consumer side, the scanner is an awesome way to take the shoe box or photo album filled with pre-digital camera photos and digitize them (for posting on social networks or just to store them in the cloud).

The scanner can also connect to a smartphone and scan directly to the phone's storage, although this can get a bit tricky. You need a phone with its own mass storage memory (typically a microSD card) as well as the ability to connect via USB cable. You can also scan photos directly to an Apple iPad if you have the iPad Camera Connection Kit (USB adapter to the iPad dock connector).

Some caveats: At $200, this probably won't appeal to the casual scanner user -- if you have only a few photos to scan, you probably already have access to an all-in-one printer or other device that could handle the job. But if you've got that giant box of photos waiting to be scanned, or if you have workers who need to scan things without being connected to a PC, you can't go wrong with this handy device. At 22.5 ounces, it's a bit heavier than the ScanSnap device (read the next review).

Grade: 5 stars (out of five)

The scoop: ScanSnap S1100, by Fujitsu, about $200.

What it is: Even smaller than the Visioneer unit, the ScanSnap S1100 is a very tiny scanner that can scan color photos and documents to a connected PC or Mac. Unlike the Mobility, however, the S1100 requires that you be connected via USB to the computer, and it cannot scan directly to a USB flash drive or an SD card. It comes with ABBY FineReader software and business card software as well.

Why it's cool: The unit's tiny size (it weighs 12.34 ounces) makes it more appealing to road warriors than the heavier Visioneer unit -- this unit would be optimal for workers who need to scan business cards, receipts and other travel-related documents. The small size also takes up less space on the desktop than a larger scanner or portable unit.