This looks like a nifty gadget for the genealogist as well as for many other uses. The iPICS2GO is a new device from ION Audio that literally turns your iPhone into a photo, slide and negative scanner.
The box-shaped iPICS2GO is a digital photo booth that requires an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to work. Owners of either of these Apple devices are required to place their smartphone into the slot at the top of the scanner. The image that needs to be scanned is placed onto a photo tray and slid into place directly underneath the iPhone's camera. Seconds later, a digital version of the image is present on the iPhone ready to either be shared on the Internet or merely kept for posterity.
Obviously, this will not work on bound books or on larger sheets of paper, as the item being scanned must be inserted into a slot on the device. However, it should work well on smaller pieces of paper as well as on photographs.
iPICS2GO works by using the iPhone's camera to take a snapshot of the scanned item. This does mean the quality and resolution is limited by the capabilities of the iPhone's camera, but with smartphones now being many people's primary point-and-shoot devices, this shouldn't be an issue.
You can learn more at http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/pics2go.
CAUTION: The scanner was announced by ION Audio, the same company that last year announced a book scanner that I wrote about at http://goo.gl/QqCVW. While the book scanner was announced by ION Audio, the product never made it to market. ION Audio eventually announced that they were not going to offer it after all the introduction hoopla. I have no idea if the iPhone scanner will suffer the same fate or not.
If you enjoyed this article, please share it with others. Tweet it, share it on Google+, Facebook or on your preferred social network.
Republishing of this article in newsletters, blogs, and elsewhere is allowed and encouraged, with a few minor restrictions. Details may be found at http://goo.gl/hoHH1.
Of course, if you haven’t done so already, you should join my email newsletter mailing list to stay current on my latest articles and announcements. You can also cancel at any time within seconds. I promise to never, ever send you any unrequested e-mail, other than newsletter updates.
