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| CardScan Executive 600c |
| Corex Technologies |
|
Price:
$299 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| A business card scanner in a nice small package, the latest version of this scanner includes the ability to scan in color business cards with amazing accuracy. I had my doubts when scanning, but was wowed at the ability of the scanner and software to accurately input a pile of my business cards that had been collecting dust. If you do any sort of traveling and want to organize all those business cards, you owe it to yourself to get one of these scanners. The scanner has hooks to all major contact managers (if not all contact managers), so after you scan them in you can transfer automatically to your program (like Outlook or Palm Desktop, for example). The new cardscan.net Web site lets you upload your contacts to a Web site for access anywhere you can connect with a browser. |
| Lexmark X83 “All-in-One Print Center” |
| Lexmark |
|
Price:
$200 |
| Coolness
score: 6 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| A combination printer, scanner and copier, the Lexmark X83 is very simple to set up, with great instructions. In fact, you can do some copying without hooking up to a computer. But that would be silly. With a computer, you can then scan and print. This printer would be great for a remote office worker who needs all three functions, the only caveat is that if the machine breaks down, all three functions get lost. But the upsides outweigh that concern, as you save a lot of space by having the three functions in one machine. |
| Presto! BizCard Reader |
| NewSoft Inc. |
|
Price:
$150 |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 7 |
|
| Very small and portable business card scanner that is somewhat easy to install. The software gives you different views of the business card (for example, view by a list, with a ‘rolodex’ type view, or in a card ‘album.’) The program also keeps a scanned picture of the card with the listing, so if the scanner doesn’t read it correctly (it wasn’t a perfect scan on the cards we tested), you can still see the card to verify or correct. The software can also export your list of contacts into a Palm OS, Windows CE device, Outlook, Outlook Express and Symantec’s Act! Contact managers. And if you prefer the old way of inputing your business cards, the software lets you edit via the keyboard. Because the hardware is small, it’s very handy for travelers. |
| SiPix PocketPrinter A6 |
| SiPix |
|
Price:
$150 |
| Coolness
score: 5 |
| Ease
of use: 2 |
|
| This is a small portable printer that lets you print from your notebook computer on A6-sized paper, either roll-up or individual sheets. The printer also works with Palm and Handspring devices through the infrared ports. In testing, we never got the printer to work correctly, but your mileage may vary. If you’re patient with RS-232 ports or infrared ports, this may be useful for traveling. |
| Antec Attache USB personal imaging device |
| Antec |
 |
Price:
$100 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| I felt like a spy scanning secret documents with this device, a very small portable scanner. The scanner can scan a page of text that can then be read by an OCR program, or you can scan photos and then edit them with the provided photo software. Also, you can scan them in order to fax them or send in an e-mail attachment. The device was extremely simple to set up, I was up and running in less than five minutes |
| Canon S360 bubble jet printer |
| Canon |
|
Price:
$199 |
| Coolness
score: 6 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| A great little color printer, very easy to set up and get running, and able to print color photos very quickly. At $199, it’s a little bit more expensive than some other entry-level color printers, but the print quality is worth the extra money. I wasn’t too impressed with the bundled printing software, I ended up using other printing software to print out photographs. One other thing, you have to buy either a USB or parallel cable to attach to the printer, it doesn’t come with one. |
| Multi-Function Center 4800 |
| Brother International |
|
Price:
$300 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| The MFC-4800 grew on us it has very good print quality, it’s a copier, a fax, a laser printer, and a scanner. While we already have a printer, scanner, and fax server, the level of integration between the components made the MFC-4800 very easy to use. We used it a lot and only rarely looked at the manual, and are sorry to see it go. If it was a color scanner, we’d have to go out and buy one! |
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