When you’re on the road and traveling light, the last thing you need is a large mobile scanner. But what if you want to scan receipts, maps or documents instead of carrying home reams of heavy paper? The Planon Scanstik SK600V is an option that has few peers in size and scanning quality.
What can it do?
Less than an inch in diameter and only nine inches long, the Scanstik is seriously a handheld scanner that you can slip in a pocket or the corner of any backpack or briefcase. The Scanstik is battery powered and operates completely independently, so you don’t even need your laptop to do your scanning. With a micro SD card (up to 32GB), mobile scanning is completely self-contained and can be transferred to your computer whenever you want to download the scanned images.
Not only does the scanner do a great job of scanning individual sheets, you can also annotate your scans with voice recordings after the scan. Each voice recording has a similar file name so you’ll easily be able to match the scan with your voice instructions. This is great when passing off your scans to someone else, where you want to make sure they know exactly how you want each one treated. No more hand written notes that might get misplaced. All your digital files stay right together.
How about some specs?
Scanning can be done in color or B&W, at resolutions of 150, 300 or 600 dpi. Files can be saved as JPEG’s or TIF’s.
A limited version of Paper Port scanning software is included to turn your scans into PDF’s and to keep your scans organized. Abby Fine Reader is included to allow your scans to be OCR’d and then placed in other documents.
This model of the Scanstik is Bluetooth enabled, so you can even send your scans wirelessly to the Planon battery operated portable printer.
The battery is rechargeable via USB so it’s easy to recharge any time your computer is plugged in or via a battery pack like the one of these .
So how does it work?
A couple key things to realize…this scanner is made for scanning flat things – don’t plan to scan pages in a book or magazine. You want your documents flat as possible on a firm flat surface.
Secondly, you are driving this scanner by manually pulling it down over the page you want scanned, and your results are going to be determined by how smoothly you pull the scanner over the scanned surface.
You can see from this scan that the Scanstik does a nice job of maintaining detail when scanning photos reproduced in a magazine.
In this scan you can see that I failed to maintain a continuous smooth motion while pulling the scanner over the page, resulting in some lines being less than perfectly formed.
When you take your time and with just a little practice, the scanner does a great job of scanning both photos and text as this next scan illustrates .
If portability is key, and if you can see the advantage of attaching voice annotations, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better deal than the Planon Scanstik SK600V. Check out the whole line of Office in a Pocket accessories at http://www.Planon.com .
Check this out too
This device and many others can be powered by a plethora of portable, external battery packs. For an exhaustive list of options, check this quick list I compiled . You’ve got to find one here that is just right for you.
Doug Bardwell , based in Cleveland, OH, writes about interesting new travel technology topics, across the country and around the world at DougBardwell.com . Feel free to drop him a line at travel.dougbardwell@gmail.com with suggestions for future products to be reviewed. If you've ever used one of the products he's reviewed, please leave your thoughts in the comment box below. To get his stories delivered to your inbox, click the RSS feed or the "Subscribe" button above or follow him on Facebook , Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ . To read Doug’s disclosure notice, click here .
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/scanstik-sk600v-is-a-scanner-for-those-on-the-road?cid=roadrunner