Ionaudio Booksaver?

[cfmorrill]

Sounds to me like they're being eaten alive by some software issue...

[loyukfai]

Do they include a software suite as well...? I was under the impression that they're only selling the hardware.

If they do, I can imagine the difficulties. Obviously they're not going to include something like Adobe Acrobat at the price point they've been suggesting.

Even if they make use of the various open source tools, integrating them and presenting them in a unified UI, and make them all work under Windows, could be a challenge.

Having been done this myself, it's in my opinions that software is the more difficult part.

Cheers.

[davdat]

I just looked at the website again and they have updated the page for the scanner, they changed the design and are now saying it will be out Spring 2012.

http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/book-saver

[netherfred]

Also looks like they changed the design from the controller being in front to being in the top part totally.
Not really sure I like that for ergonomical reasons.
It seemed more logical to be able to lift it from the side than from the top.
The tent is a nice extra but I wonder how imporatant that is.

[loyukfai]

Yeah, think the "Wii handle" was a rather good design ergonomically.

The tent may be useful to make the light is better distributed and reduce reflection, similar to a light tent in photography. It could be rather useful for when scanning glossy pages...?

Cheers.

[netherfred]

Just a quick bump:
There's been some activity on the ION US website, where now the "tent" design is featured, delivery Spring 2012.
But the product sheet is still the old design.
I see that an SD card should now be included (no size mentioned), as well as software that can apparently change
the filetype into PDF, ePub and DOC. (Anybody an idea for PC/MAC software that can do that?)
Resolution still a myth (so I assume the 2x5Mpix is correct).
Still no pricing/ordering possible though...

The Dutch site still features the old "Wii handle" design, BUT it lists Q1 2012 as the ETA, which is what
my dealer told me. I'll be receiving one as soon as they get them, which will be quickly after CES.
CES is going to be from january 10-13th, so I guess the press release will be on the first day, like this year (2011) on
january 6th. That should be the cue for my order, I hope . The list (and pre-order) price is still set at €149.

OT: We actually also bought a CopyCat (which I returned within a week) and instead I bought their DocuScan, which
we really enjoy! Too bad that can only handle flat paper single sided, but it's a big help in digitizing our administration.

[loyukfai]

There are lots of software that can turn TIFF/JPG into PDF. For instance, some of them can even OCR the content. But to incorporate the functionalities from the like of ScanTailor (e.g. page splitting, deskewing, adding/removing borders...) is another matter.

However, since the design should allow for rather controlled outputs, some of the functions provided by ScanTailor probably aren't as needed.

BTW, SD cards are cheap these days, I wouldn't care much whether they include one or not.

Cheers.

[netherfred]

The question was not if there is software that can convert pictures to PDF, there are several available. But with such a low cost scanner I was wondering which one they would include, since also doc files require a special license? I remember having software like that with my Epson scanner in the past, but I can't recall the name now.
The sd card, while being cheap, is sometimes omitted, so it's a nice thing that they do bundle that.

[netherfred]

The software I mentioned is Newsoft Smart Panel for Epson and Presto! Page Manager. These seem viable options, since they are known to release almost functional "trial" versions bundled with scanners. Pretty cumbersome most of the time and you have to pay for a full version, which then still is pretty bad. Let's wait and see!

[loyukfai]

AFAIK, there are many utilities that can do such kinds of conversion, some are even open source, but whether the final output is of good quality is another matter.

Cheers.