IRIS Pen Express (PC/Mac)

List Price: $129.99

Features:

• Easily scans text and numbers into your computer
• Recognizes up to 1,000 character per second
• Fast plug-and-play USB connection, USB powered
• Multilingual interface, foreign language recognition
• PC and Mac compatible

Customer Reviews:

Pen Dead on Arrival; Worse Customer Service [Posted on 2005-05-04]
Software loaded OK, but scanner pen failed to be recognized by the software on all of the five USB ports on my emac and ibook.

So I called customer service and spoke to some guy named "Jessie." I told him about the scanner pen, he asked for the pen batch#, and said, well, you can return it to Amazon or I can send you a new pen. I'm a patient guy, I wanted to give the product a fair shot, so I asked for a new one. It never arrived, and I even called three weeks later and some other guy said, oh yeah, that pen will arrive today. It never arrived. Nothing like customer service types who will lie in order to get you off the phone.

The only good news here is that Amazon accepted my return and gave me a full refund. So if only IRIS could emulate Amazon's customer service philosophy, maybe they'd sell a few more pens, instead of antagonizing once interested customers.

Maybe I'll try the C-Pen next.

Amazing handheld scanner [Posted on 2005-10-02]
Wanted something portable in a scanner for those ocassions away from home and the IrisPen fills the bill. Slower than a flatbed scanner but fantastic performance for such a small portable device. It set up easily, came with a printed manual and performed accurately on my first scan. I'm very pleased with it.

A Mac enthusiast's perspective [Posted on 2008-06-22]
I use this this neat little pen scanner on my Apple MacBook Pro MA897LL/A 17" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive) along with its sister scanner IRIScard Pro 4 Business Card Scanner.

Now the purpose of a business card scanner is obvious. What is not so obvious is how useful a pen scanner is.

I first started thinking about pen scanners when I attended a federal judicial conference. There a judge from Iowa spoke on courtroom technology and how is chambers uses pen scanners in the courtroom. So I bought an older version of this scanner on eBay. I was not too impressed but it worked well enough for me to keep it.

Customer service is not one of the stronger departments at IRIS. I learned this when I had problems with the first scanner and called them. The problem is in getting through, but once you get through you get actual techs who know their stuff. We resolved with issue with the scanner and it turned out my eBay special was a generation behind the new scanners.

So I bit the bullet and ordered the new version.

It works incredibly well. I take it to trial and to depositions to enter information about exhibits and jury panels. I scan paragraphs from books to paste into memos. I scanner my signature to paste it into electronic documents.

I would give this product a 4.5 if I could. It is still difficult to reach customer service on the rare occasions I needed them after getting the upgraded scanner. So if they are reading this the difference between a 4 and a 5 is response time.

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