Portable Color Pen Scanner And GPS
Help Mobile Professionals
By Terry L. Brock
You’re a mobile professional. You need to get around a lot and don’t have room for a lot of baggage to carry. Here are a couple of new products that can help you as you’re moving about to be more productive and more competitive.
DocuPen RC800
I love reading and going to the library. Often I’ll find items there that I want to bring home and would love to have a portable scanner. A flat-bed scanner---even a very light one --- is difficult to drag along with a computer. Ugh! The sheet-fed scanners that I love and use often still need to be attached to my laptop.
Enter the DocuPen RC800, the world’s first portable color scanner. I’ve been testing this device for about a month on the road and in seminar presentations. It is pretty amazing at what it will do.
The device measures about 9 inches in length, long enough to scan an 8” swath as you scan regular 8.5” X 11” stationery or 8.5” X 14” legal paper. I’ve used it to scan business cards, magazine articles and even color photographs with success.
However, you have to maintain a steady hand as you scan. You also need to scan on a flat, preferably non-moving surface or the resulting image will be unreadable with lines and distortion.
Recently I discovered another use for this device from my audience members. In a recent presentation after I discussed the benefits of the DocuPen, many of them lit up like flashlights after a power failure when they said they could visit a potential customer who is accepting bids and scan proposals from the competition. Because the DocuPen is lightweight and can be carried in a coat pocket, I guess it can be quite useful in business intelligence gathering! Armed with the right technology, you can be a James Bond type of industrial espionage gatherer!
The DocuPen will hold about 400 business cards of information and about 100 pages of 8.5 X 11 paper. Color requires more storage space than B&W but for scanning just a few quick documents, it is doable. You can add memory modules for an extra charge that provide more capacity for scanning hundreds of pages.
Once you have the documents scanned, you load them into your computer via the provided USB cable. Connect one end to the DocuPen and the other to your laptop computer and you can transfer.
I used this in conjunction with Nuance’s PaperPort, a great piece of software that handles scanned documents.
This is a handy device for a portable professional who needs to quickly scan magazine articles, important documents, business cards and other items while away from the computer. To see a video of this in demonstration go to http://tinyurl.com/73ljl (that is “ell, jay, ell” in lower case when typing ).
(DocuPen RC800, $299.00, www.planon.com)
Locate Where You Are And Where You’re Going
If you travel a lot in rental cars and your own vehicle, you know what it is like to be lost. Ugh! You can be late for appointments, waste precious time and even endanger your safety. Knowing where you are and how to get there quickly is very important for today’s traveling professional.
Recently I tested a new GPS (Global Positioning System) that is now available in the States at a lower-price point than normal. It is the FineDrive 400 from Fine Digital. This device helped me find the location for a meeting (very important for a speaker!) and avoid the frustration of getting lost.
Like other GPS devices, it narrates turn-by-turn directions, shows a map which you can use to zoom in and zoom out and shows areas of interest. I’ve used it in various locations as I maneuvered around San Diego, drove to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida. My experience with the unit has been quite good.
It takes a few minutes each time you start your car for the FineDrive 400 to locate where you are. I’ve seen it normally requires about 5 minutes to “find” you. Once it has you on the scope, you see a map of your location and the unit tracks your progress.
I like the ability to zoom in and zoom out for detail. You can see distance for tracking where you should be with small city streets. Rather that driving around hoping that a road leads to another, you pause, zoom out, and can see the bigger picture. Zooming in and zooming out helps in the real world of driving.
You can also plug in various places of interest and types of restaurants. In the video I mention (below) you see how we plugged in a search for the nearest Korean restaurant and the FineDrive 400 was able to locate and plot the path. The unit comes pre-loaded with a detailed map for the US and Canada so in North America, you’re in pretty good shape. Because it is portable, this is a device that is easy to move from one rental car to another.
To see a video of this in more detail go to: http://tinyurl.com/bm3el and see it in action.
(FineDrive 400, FineDigital, www.finedigitalusa.com , $499)
________________________________________
________________________________________
Terry Brock is a marketing coach who helps business owners market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their busy days using the right rules and tools. He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.
Copyright © 2006, Terry Brock, All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used in any way without prior written permission. Permission granted to Business Journals to use in regular publications.
Help Mobile Professionals
By Terry L. Brock
You’re a mobile professional. You need to get around a lot and don’t have room for a lot of baggage to carry. Here are a couple of new products that can help you as you’re moving about to be more productive and more competitive.
DocuPen RC800
I love reading and going to the library. Often I’ll find items there that I want to bring home and would love to have a portable scanner. A flat-bed scanner---even a very light one --- is difficult to drag along with a computer. Ugh! The sheet-fed scanners that I love and use often still need to be attached to my laptop.
Enter the DocuPen RC800, the world’s first portable color scanner. I’ve been testing this device for about a month on the road and in seminar presentations. It is pretty amazing at what it will do.
The device measures about 9 inches in length, long enough to scan an 8” swath as you scan regular 8.5” X 11” stationery or 8.5” X 14” legal paper. I’ve used it to scan business cards, magazine articles and even color photographs with success.
However, you have to maintain a steady hand as you scan. You also need to scan on a flat, preferably non-moving surface or the resulting image will be unreadable with lines and distortion.
Recently I discovered another use for this device from my audience members. In a recent presentation after I discussed the benefits of the DocuPen, many of them lit up like flashlights after a power failure when they said they could visit a potential customer who is accepting bids and scan proposals from the competition. Because the DocuPen is lightweight and can be carried in a coat pocket, I guess it can be quite useful in business intelligence gathering! Armed with the right technology, you can be a James Bond type of industrial espionage gatherer!
The DocuPen will hold about 400 business cards of information and about 100 pages of 8.5 X 11 paper. Color requires more storage space than B&W but for scanning just a few quick documents, it is doable. You can add memory modules for an extra charge that provide more capacity for scanning hundreds of pages.
Once you have the documents scanned, you load them into your computer via the provided USB cable. Connect one end to the DocuPen and the other to your laptop computer and you can transfer.
I used this in conjunction with Nuance’s PaperPort, a great piece of software that handles scanned documents.
This is a handy device for a portable professional who needs to quickly scan magazine articles, important documents, business cards and other items while away from the computer. To see a video of this in demonstration go to http://tinyurl.com/73ljl (that is “ell, jay, ell” in lower case when typing ).
(DocuPen RC800, $299.00, www.planon.com)
Locate Where You Are And Where You’re Going
If you travel a lot in rental cars and your own vehicle, you know what it is like to be lost. Ugh! You can be late for appointments, waste precious time and even endanger your safety. Knowing where you are and how to get there quickly is very important for today’s traveling professional.
Recently I tested a new GPS (Global Positioning System) that is now available in the States at a lower-price point than normal. It is the FineDrive 400 from Fine Digital. This device helped me find the location for a meeting (very important for a speaker!) and avoid the frustration of getting lost.
Like other GPS devices, it narrates turn-by-turn directions, shows a map which you can use to zoom in and zoom out and shows areas of interest. I’ve used it in various locations as I maneuvered around San Diego, drove to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida. My experience with the unit has been quite good.
It takes a few minutes each time you start your car for the FineDrive 400 to locate where you are. I’ve seen it normally requires about 5 minutes to “find” you. Once it has you on the scope, you see a map of your location and the unit tracks your progress.
I like the ability to zoom in and zoom out for detail. You can see distance for tracking where you should be with small city streets. Rather that driving around hoping that a road leads to another, you pause, zoom out, and can see the bigger picture. Zooming in and zooming out helps in the real world of driving.
You can also plug in various places of interest and types of restaurants. In the video I mention (below) you see how we plugged in a search for the nearest Korean restaurant and the FineDrive 400 was able to locate and plot the path. The unit comes pre-loaded with a detailed map for the US and Canada so in North America, you’re in pretty good shape. Because it is portable, this is a device that is easy to move from one rental car to another.
To see a video of this in more detail go to: http://tinyurl.com/bm3el and see it in action.
(FineDrive 400, FineDigital, www.finedigitalusa.com , $499)
________________________________________
________________________________________
Terry Brock is a marketing coach who helps business owners market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their busy days using the right rules and tools. He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.
Copyright © 2006, Terry Brock, All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used in any way without prior written permission. Permission granted to Business Journals to use in regular publications.
posted by Terry Brock @ Friday, February 03, 2006
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