Doxie: the amazing scanner for documents

doxie scanner
I have an ancient — and gigantic — Umax scanner I’ve been hanging onto for what feels like eternity for the two or three times every year when I need to scan something. My scanner is big, and bulky, and has a power brick about the size of Idaho. It’s not very convenient to use. Sure, I could replace it with something else, but really I scan so infrequently that it’s just not been a priority. But the newly announced Doxie scanner may be the product to which I upgrade, and I suspect I’d find myself scanning things a little more often.

This thing is small, light, and portable. It’s totally USB powered, and the heart-shaped button is programmable to react differently based on how it’s used. Do you find yourself repetitively scanning, enhancing and then uploading stuff to Flickr? Assign that a special combination on the heart button. Say, tap the heart three times to execute that sequence automatically when you insert a document. I’d love to see such programmable macros show up in more hardware.

Windows and Mac compatible, this is exactly the kind of thing you could stuff into your laptop bag for that junket you’re taking: scan all your receipts while you’re on the trip and email them back to your corporate overlords. And admit it: the little hearts on the front of this thing make you feel warm and fuzzy, which is exactly the frame of mind you want when you’re scanning business receipts.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive review after I get a demo unit to play with.