Vupoint Solutions PDSWF-ST44-VP Magic Wand Portable Scanner with Wi-Fi® Black

I read voraciously, but even so magazines pile up in my living room because there is always that one article I want to read in a back issue... I tried tearing out the pages, but they pile up too - and are hard to keep together... Finally I had the idea to scan them and file them for future reading, and it's been AWESOME.Yes, it takes a bit of practice to hold steady - but it's really not that difficult after the first few pages.The battery issue: I scanned 137 pages before the delivered Alkaline Energizer batteries gave out - that is not exactly what I'd call a battery hog... I did scan 1/3 of the pages using B&W vs. Color, though not sure that really makes a difference. I switched them out for the blue Energizer Lithium ones - we'll see how far they go.My husband is working on a business case that requires him to do a lot of research in actual libraries, and we love the fact that he can make scans of articles and pages he wants to use later without having to make physical photocopies of the pages there.This is also perfect on business trips to scan receipts immediately each day, so in case you lose the originals you don't have to try to recreate something from your credit card files, or ask for a reprint from the business.Finally, this is wonderful for scanning things you want to remember, but not physically store - like special Christmas cards and birthday cards, notes from a loved one, old photographs, and to create a backup copy of a paper address book if you haven't manually entered everything into your phone or computer. Not to mention old tax forms, donation receipts.... the list is endless.An 8GB microSD with a regular SD converter card will run $15-20, and will store masses of files. The cable makes it easy to connect and manage the files.You put the batteries in, put the microSD in the slot, press and hold the power button for 2 seconds to turn on.To start the scan, put the wand down on the page and press the power button once, then drag the wand over the page or receipt or whatever, and when you want to stop the scan, press the power button again once. Viola - you're done. A green light confirms that you are scanning or not, so it's easy to confirm that the data input is working. I noticed that if you forget to stop the scan, if you pick the wand up, and it's away from the page for a few seconds, it seems to automatically stop scanning - not sure if that's intentional or not, but it did not compromise the quality of any images that I noticed.The only difficulty here is uneven surfaces... being a wand, the movement of the paper under your hand can create some blurry images, but 99% of my images are clear or readably clear, and that's more than reasonable for the tradeoffs of size, ease of use, value, etc.This is a great gift for those guys who are impossible to buy for - whether he's scanning his golf score cards, tax donation forms, or magazine articles.Perfect for the highly organized or highly disorganized person.Perfect for the compulsive reader who doesn't have enough time to read everything.Perfect for the traveler who doesn't want to carry the whole guidebook with them.Perfect for saving the menus at restaurants when you don't want to use your flash to take a photo.Perfect for scanning recipes from old cookbooks and index cards in a box at your mom's house.Perfect for saving certificates and awards you don't want to hang on the wall, since paper degrades over time.Perfect for scanning textiles - take them home and print them out to test them with your color schemes (even textures are picked up!)So

Scans better than I thought it would but it requires practice to scan with a steady hand. The great thing about this scanner is one can scan an entire newspaper page by scanning the page top to bottom, left side, right side, then stitch the images together with Microsoft ICE (free.) Fantastic!

I am loving this scanner. I have almost 100 photo albums and it was time to get them digitilized so I could enjoy them--the albums were stuck away in a box and no fun for anyone.I did find that it took a bit of experimenting and that going SLOWLY over the page was very important. It also has to be very smooth, so for several pieces, I put an additional piece of plastic over the page so the scanner wouldn't hang up.I also wish the directions were a bit clearer. I finally called about the "configuring" and a young lady answered immediately and walked me through the process very smoothly. The directions left out a few things, so her help was invaluable.I do wish there was an adjustment for brightness, as some photos come out pretty dark, but that can be fixed in my photo program.I also ended up with the wireless version, which I have yet to figure out, but am happy with the usb cable, anyway.If there were an easier way to adjust for brightness, it would have been 5 stars.

This is my second one. I had one for the last few years and it was OK. Had to get use to using it. Surface and paper must be completely flat and that is a pain when scanning a page in a book. They both eat batteries. The old one will no longer be recognized by my computer so I ordered the WIFI unit. I would not suggest wasting your money for this feature. You can not scan and see it on the screen till it is finished. It is far easier to plug in the USB cable and locate the file and save it where you want it.

Really cool device. I bought it for my kid going away from College. It allows he to scan a page a text book. The scan is easier to read than a photo from he phone. The view scan feature from the phone app is a must have in my opinion. It small and fit in a back pack and doesn't take up any room in her small dorm room. It doesn't have the best instructions in the world but we figured it out. And we aren't that bright LOL.

This ranks high in the cool factor. It is very convenient to be able to scan without being connected to anything. I use it to scan industrial equipment technical manuals or schematics that are applied as stickers on the equipment. It can be a little bit of a pain to get the wireless connected in order to transfer the files. It is easier to just connect a USB cable or use a Micro SD Card reader to do the transfer. I highly recommend this. Especially for its ability to scan directly to a PDF.

This small scanner is fabulous. I managed to scan hundreds of pics in no time at all. In addition I can take it anywhere in my briefcase, scan a document at a clients, hand them back the original and save, paste or send to the cloud in minutes. The wifi feature is difficult to work out but the real value is in the speed you can scan, save and edit. The PDF/JPEG feature is super and resolutions are crisp and clear. After a few attempts I quickly mastered the right speed to pas the wand over the document. Too fast and you get blurry images. All in all the price and function make this scanner an amazing product. Could not be happier!

Setting up the Wi-Fi to review scanned pictures on my iPad during a recent trip to visit family was actually fun. I expected there might be occasional hesitation smears during hand-scanning of family albums, and it did happen a few times. However, those glitches (less than 5%) became immediately obvious when reviewing the scans on my iPad, so I could easily and quickly re-scan the very few occurrences.