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Portable scanner looks like a pen, is way more expensive

Portable scanner looks like a pen, is way more expensive

I've never needed to scan a document or photo while sitting in a plane seat, but if you ever have, there's a gadget for that. The unfortunately named DocuPen is a portable scanner made by PlanOn, about the size of one of Harry Potter's magic wands. Just roll the scanner along the document or photo you want to scan, and it'll capture it in JPEG format. Pretty impressive for something that weighs only a couple of ounces.

The DocuPen X-Series, new today, has 64GB of internal memory, which you can add to with a MicroSD card. You can transmit your scans via Bluetooth to your phone or a portable printer and it can capture color scans up to 600 dpi (true). A power-saving OLED display helps you navigate through wireless and USB transfers. We checked out one of the new DocuPens yesterday, and a JPEG photo scan looked surprisingly good, with detail on par with some desktop scanners.

I can see this being useful for mobile-business warriors or anyone who wants a scanner but doesn't have the desk space for a flatbed. But the price — $369 — is pretty insane. I realize there's a whole load of processing and storage in this micro scanner that doesn't exist in desktop models (since they rely on the PC for all that), but that's a lot of coin to part with for something you could lose between the couch cushions.

Via PlanOn

 
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(3) COMMENTS

Sahal:
Ok, not to be a jerk about it, but c'mon guys... You said "...today, has 64GB of internal memory, which..." Wrong, ...More »


Comments

By fazalmajid at 1:11 AM ON 11/04/09

How about using the regular digital camera or cameraphone you already have? A letter-sized sheet of paper scanned at fax resolution is only 2 megapixels.

By Paul at 11:49 AM ON 11/04/09

I am reminded with fazalmajid's comment about the fortunately untrue but rather appropriate story of the Nasa zero gravity pen and the Russian solution to the same problem.

By Sahal at 1:25 PM ON 11/04/09

Ok, not to be a jerk about it, but c'mon guys...
You said "...today, has 64GB of internal memory, which..."
Wrong, it only has 64 MB of internal memory (http://planon.com/v2/products/docupen/xseries).
Think about it, this device weighs a few ounces, and it has such a small footprint. There's no way it fits 64 GB of data storage into it's slim form factor with all its required electronic workings.


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