I have to say, I'm not so sure this is actually a niche product. This actually seems like one of those "everyone who is into computers should have one" kind of product.
Michael: Jodie, how's my schedule look for today? Jodie: You've got a conference and dinner party at the Japanese Embassy regarding wildlife protection. Michael: Oh, yeah...sorry, but I'll have to cancel that. I'm heading out to save America!
Name: Marzella Brown
I am with you tornado. You know it was the strangest thing, for the last few weeks I had been thinking, Oh my gosh, how in the world am I going to get through all the reading for these classes. What I really need is a PDF version of the book so I scoured the Internet, looking for a PDF. No such document could be found.
So I then toyed with the idea of contacting the publisher and complaining (read raising a little hell), I mean I paid a nice little chunk of change for this text and if I want to listen to a digital copy they should provide it. I know it has to exists somewhere. The more reasonable portion of me determined that this would be an exercise in futility, not very Christian-like, and that idea was cast out. I didnt want to unbind and scan it with a traditional ADF, I mean this book was pretty pricey and while I dont sell them back to the bookstore, that idea was very abhorrent to me.
Then I began to visualize, it would occur to me as an image of me running a hand held scanner across the page and then connecting the device to my computer and blissfully listening to my text. I began to think, I wonder if someone hasn't produced that yet. Hmmm, well if it doesn't exists, then it would be a really good business idea. After some floundering about on the internet, and reviewing a whole lot of very expensive items, a lot of which are designed to help folks with reading disorders, I finally stumbled upon the Magic Wand and to my great joy it was available at Best Buy. So I ran out and bought one. Spare no expense on education is my motto.
It's immediately apparent to me, that once I perfect my technique this is going to be an invaluable little tool. So much so that I think I will keep the extra one that's on its way from Wal-Mart and give it to my boss for boss's day. Even the technologically challenged should be able to enjoy the benefits of this little gadget (the required training will focus more on how to use micro SD technology, than the actual device itself), especially professional people.
I can see her in a meeting now, "Oh can I get a copy of that right quick." "Sorry, I have to run." "Oh really, it will only take a second. My secretary bought me this nifty little gadget." She whips it out scans and once again me and my techy self have saved the day; except for it will happen over and over again. Maybe as much as once per day, and then when its time to do the budget, maybe she'll say you know I just don't know WHAT I would do without that girl, she DESERVES a raise.
Or maybe not, but I am always pleased when I can introduce my less technologically inclined colleagues and co-workers to simple, user friendly, useful devices and this little gadget definitely fits that bill. It should be noted that there is a small learning curve as it pretains to scanning for OCR. It seems to be mostly related to the manner in which the device is held (if its not held right, the text will come out skewed at an angle on the scanned page), speed (too fast causes errors resulting in page fragments), and how taught the document being scanned is held (if not held taught, lumps and waves in the text appear on scanned docs).
Name: Tracey
Is there a web site that can be used to find out little details like how to actually save things on my computer, being a little computer illiterate. Also can you erase what is on the memory card?
Name: Naimster
Its as good as it sounds, Ive bought two so far because of my job I need to keep one in each office, I bought one from amazon.com for around a hundred and today I found it on www.justdeals.com for 50 dollars.... Ive worked with it for a couple of weeks and it is very convenient
Name: Buffy Wells
How the HELL do you upload the images to the computer for storage? My computer which runs on Windows XP doesn't open anywhere, nor can i figure out how to do it. HELP!!!!
I've never used this product, but a search turned up a link http://www.vupointsolutions.com/PDS-ST410-VP.asp If that link doesn't work by clicking on it just copy & paste in your browser. There's a link at the top of the web page, under support, that will get you a manual to download. Hope that helps.
It has a micro SD card in it. It acts as a USB mass storage device if you plug the device into the computer and you can grab the images directly off the device.
2014 is going to be a good year. More content, more streamlining. Be a part of history!