| |
 |
CardScan Executive 800c
The
CardScan Executive 800c is portable and
fast, and it doubles as a powerful
contact management system.
Price: “$429”
by John Brandon
Date Posted: 10/26/2006 |
Business cards are still a fact of life for most
of us. We’d like to think that wireless
technology, Microsoft Outlook, and the Internet
are making much of the old-school paper pushing
obsolete. Yet when we meet a new business
acquaintance for lunch, the first thing we do is
exchange business cards; we don’t beam our cards
with our PDAs or smart phones.
CardScan Executive 800c is a digital tool for
mobile users who understand this reality. With
its three-second operation, a powerful OCR
reader that correctly identifies contact data,
and standalone contact management software that
supports the most popular contact managers,
including ACT! and Outlook 2003, CardScan
deserves a place in your laptop bag.
Scan speed is the primary feature here. We
scanned more than 20 cards, including a few from
an accounting firm and some graphically rich
cards from artists and photographers. CardScan
had no problems replicating the colours and
creating a contact record with the appropriate
data in the correct fields for all of the cards
in less than one minute—a time-saver for any
business traveller.
The CardScan is certainly portable; it weighs
only "220 grams" and measures a mere “147 x 83 x
38 mm”. Your laptop supplies the power through
USB. The included software helps you find
duplicate contacts, supports online backups, and
syncs perfectly with contacts on a Palm or
Windows Mobile device.
We have only one minor complaint: The blue arrow
on the right side of the card reader doesn’t
clearly indicate how to insert business cards.
Place the card face-up so you can read it, but
you might wonder at first.
At “$350.00”, the CardScan Executive 800c is far
from cheap. However, if you’d rather not search
your e-mail every time you want to look up a
contact, this is the product to buy.
NB: “ “ Article modified for Australian readers
where necessary.
|