Fujitsu ScanSnap 500: Deal of the Month

The best tech purchase that I made in the last year, by far, is the Fujitsu ScanSnap S500. My theory on scanning is that if it takes longer than making a photocopy, it's counter-productive. The ScanSnap more than fills the bill, with color and black-and-white duplex scanning, at up to 18 pages per minute. Although it doesn't support TWAIN (necessary to interface with a broad range of image-scanning programs), it comes bundled with the full version of Adobe Acrobat 7.o0, and can scan directly to Microsoft Office applications via the included ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap software. Superbly designed to fold up like a clamshell and automatically turn off/on when closed/opened, the ScanSnap is not only compact and light-weight, it's almost portable. It even scans business cards, and comes with software that uses OCR to help organize and manage them. A bargain at only $409.99 at NewEgg (and with a $50 rebate if you buy before March 31), you could have this little gem at the ready before tax time. Considering that Adobe Acrobat 7.0 now goes for about $150 (with Acrobat 8 going for about $299), the bottom line expense is in the neighborhood of a hundred bucks.

Thanks to Kenneth G. Miller, Attorney at Law, for the great find.