VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

I love this product! It's easy to use, so handy, seems well made. Of course, it is an electronic gadget, so I have been handling it with care and put it away in it's case as soon as I am finished with it. I have used it to scan a few hundred pictures so far, and the picture quality is excellent (for my needs, it's clear enough to see detail and read text) in both low and high resolution. Took me just a few scans to guage how quickly to move across a page. If the page is too large to do in one swipe, simply do it in two or three overlapping passes. You could stitch it together if you had to, but I have found it to be sufficient to have multiple images rather than spend time putting them together. I then hook it up to the pc (included usb cord), it is recognized as an external storage device, and the images are quickly transferred to my computer. I have used my Picassa photo software to crop the edges neatly, but you don't have to. Currently I am trying to figure out what I'd like to do with my kitchen, so I have been scanning pictures of ideas from books, magazines etc, and saving them to a file on my computer. I can use this anywhere for that! I'm using the files on my computer right now, but am getting an e-tablet soon, so will be able to have the files with me when i am out and about. I will also be using this to organize receipts, warranties, etc. And, since we homeschool, I can see this coming in handy to scan and organize co-op notes, schedules, all sorts of things. I love this so much I don't even mind I paid $20 more for it a few weeks ago, than it is now. My friend has gotten them for herself and siblings because of mine, and I think I am getting one for my sister for a gift, too. I highly recommend buying the extra storage case, I can't imagine throwing this wand into a backpack or purse without it. And you will want to get rechargeable batteries ( I recommend the hybrid kind, they hold a charge much longer), and keep spares with you if you're out of the house or at the library with it. I only cannot comment fully on the included software, it is supposed to allow you to convert text in the picture to 'useable' text, I haven't messed with it enough to be able to give an honest report. I've got an 8gb micro card for it, the most pictures I've had on it at one time was 139, of high resolution, and it wasn't full....I didn't think to check and see how much room was left. I do have a desktop scanner, and I found it to be quite a pain to sit at the desk and try to put a book in there the right way, it was so nice to sit at the table and scan that way! I'll still use it as a copy machine, or for quick flat scans, but my go-to scanner is my magic wand. Oh, another recommendation, if you have younger children you may not want to call it a magic wand, mine have been having Harry Potter fantasies about mom's new gadget! I think this would be an excellent gift for students, craftspeople.......

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. I've been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the 'Magic Wand' on one of my news feeds. This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... it's a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... it's a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isn't fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better. The scanner is bundled with 'ABBYY Screenshot Reader', which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard. So when you scan an image with the 'Magic Wand', you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text. You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text. I am very pleased with the 'Magic Wand'. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, I'm a multi-computer geek, and I do "side surfing" while I'm watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And it's small enough to toss in my computer bag when I'm on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer ( Planon Printstik PS950ME Label Printer - Monochrome - Direct Thermal ), I've got a complete office in a bag!

This is a review for the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand portable scanner. I rarely write reviews about products, only if it is really good, or really bad. In this case I am happy to say - this is a really good product. It works just as well, if not better then advertised. This was a Mother's Day gift to my wife from my kids (dad bought it, lol) and she loves it as well. By the end of the weekend, she had scanned every picture in every photo album we have, and we have alot of pictures!! I have read many reviews about not only this portable scanner, but others as well, and alot of them, the Magic Wand included had many negative reviews which I do not understand at all?? Possibly they got a bad unit? But the complaints they had are some of the things I like best about this scanner. It was said multiple times that if you dont keep your hand perfectly steady when scanning something, that the image comes out really bad. I'm sorry b/c I know I dont have a steady hand, and the scans come out perfect 99% of the time. This device is so easy to use, my 10 yr old uses it all of the time to scan pics out of magazines, and stuff, and they come out really good. I have even started using it to scan stuff for work, like my job orders, and inspection papers. Again - perfect. The only thing that I would change is that it would be nice if it came with the micro SD card, and an adapter. Even though it doesnt, they are relatively cheap at a Wal-Mart or Target, etc.. I have an 8GB card in mine, and it has plenty of room - and then when you get close to full, just dump it onto your computer HDD. Overall, I would defanitely recommend this product to anyone. Great value, especially for the price!

I order this particular magic wand manufactured by Vupoint, for my sister for Christmas. I have owned and used this same product for sometime, with great satisfaction. So I shopped around to get the same manufacturer. To my surprise the name on the magic wand was different. I was not pleased. With little time to spare, I gave the one I received to my sister, anyways. After Christmas and helping her use the magic wand, we discovered ... there was not a 32g micro chip included? I will be in contact to get, what was promised. Other than that the scanner seems to work fine. So tired of not getting what you pay for :(