Solution to scan business cards into my IPAQ

[2YY4U]

Hi Folks:

I have a lot of business card and would like to sacn tthem to my IPAQ. Any suggestions/experiences ? I saw one at arline magazine but it was too expensive. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

[Menneisyys]

Hi Folks:

I have a lot of business card and would like to sacn tthem to my IPAQ. Any suggestions/experiences ? I saw one at arline magazine but it was too expensive. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

The CF-based business card scanner was discussed some 2-3 years ago in a Pocket PC Magazine issue. Symbol is one of the manufacturers; check out e.g. http://www.mobileplanet.com/product.asp?vendor=SOC&dept%5Fid=2950&pf%5Fid=MP580105&listing=1 . It's a bit (?) expensive though.

[2YY4U]

Thanks, but, it is way too expensive. What I saw on the airline magazine was a small scanner that you put your business card thru and connects to your IPAQ. There is black/white option and the most expensive in color.

The scanned information becomes a new Contact at your Outlook.

[Darius Wey]

What price range were you looking at? I believe Socket's SDIO option is actually cheaper than the CF offering (or so I've seen in recent times, anyway).

[Steven Cedrone]

Do they have to go directly from scanner to Ipaq? You can get relatively inexpensive readers that will attach to your desktop and import into Outlook...

[2YY4U]

Do they have to go directly from scanner to Ipaq? You can get relatively inexpensive readers that will attach to your desktop and import into Outlook...

Thats what I want!! :D
I apologize for not presenting my question properly. :cry:

All that I want is a small business card scanner that reads the business cards and them include them at my Outlook. After that, the normal synchronization with IPAQ would give me my cards on the pda.

Do you have/know a solution ???? 8O

[PDANEWBIE]

Wow in that case there are a ton -

I would just do a google for Business Card scanner PDA -

I know Targus has one - http://www.digitallyunique.com/pa570u.html

WorldCard Scanner - http://www.asiazest.com/buscarscan.html

And plenty of others - I thought you wanted one that directly connected to a PDA so I didn't mention anything. Its almost amazing this type of device has not become a bluetooth device. That would be a perfect application if I ever heard of one.

[2YY4U]

Great! I follow you advise and found this one:

http://www.cadandgraphics.com/ircolbuscars.html

Now, the Bluetooth solution would be way too cool 8)

[IowaArchitect]

We use www.cardscan.com
We have scanned hundreds of business cards - the scanner takes them as fast as you can feed them in - VERY easy to use. You could use a flatbed scanner but that would take A LONG time to scan the cards. The one we use takes about 2 seconds a card, and the scanner pulls them through automatically.
THEN the software works great. It does a improved OCR on the card - and understands PHONE vs FAX vs MOBILE, etc, and tries it best to sort out the card. Last, it displays a graphic scan of the card - next to the OCR information it came up with - allowing quick and easy editing.
LAST you can hit one key and convert all the data into Outlook contacts.

In short, a stack of 100 cards can be done in 10-15 minutes. I know it costs some money (a few hundred) but if you are serious about converting a lot of business cards into Outlook Contacts....this is the way to go.

(We have a second scanner we dont use, but if you check, the scanner + software cost is about the same as the software by itself, kind of shows the real value is the software, not the $25 scanner)

[applejosh]

Another vote for CardScan. I have a client who has been using it for years now (thankfully upgraded to the USB device from an old serial based one). It scans cards into it's own little database, but afterwards you can sync it up with Outlook. And if this client can do it, then it has to be easy.