Scandock, the "Post PC" Scanner

I haven't had a chance to use this yet but the advertisements look interesting. Atiz, a well-known manufacturer of large, heavy-duty book scanners (see http://www.atiz.com/) has announced a new pint-sized device for document scanning. (Click on the picture to the right to see a larger image.) The new Scandock device turns your smartphone into a professional-grade scanner for pictures, documents, and books. With Scandock, all your scans go with you. You can send scanned images by email, create a PDF, or upload right from the phone. You can leave the scanned image in the phone or, once uploaded, copy it to any application or storage area you wish. Of course, you can also do both: leave one copy in the phone and upload additional copies to other applications.

Atiz calls this a "Post PC" scanner as it does not require a Windows or Macintosh computer. Instead, it uses the power of your Apple or Android smartphone.

Scandock appears to be the best of both worlds. The convenience and ease of a smartphone, and the level of quality expected by businesses and professionals. It works with the iPhone 5/4s/4 as well as with iPod touch 5th generation. It also should work with most Android phones, having been tested with Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, and HTC One X.

Having only looked at photographs, it appears to me that the device is not too portable. It does not fold into a smaller size for carrying. However, it is obviously lightweight so it should be easy to transport. This should be easy to take to a library or other archive.

The dual-track lighting arms distribute light evenly over the document, cutting glare and reducing external light interference. The documents being scanned are placed on an easily-removable silicone mat that gently flattens the paper. The material has no adhesive and does not harm the document. The base also has a Kensington security slot to secure the device to the table. This is useful when Scandock is used in a public library or other shared environment.

This is an "announced" product. In short, it is not yet available for purchase. The producing company issued the announcement to generate publicity and, hopefully, raise enough funding to start production. The iPhone/iPad version should be available in early 2013. The Scandock app for Android should be available soon thereafter.

UPDATE: The Scandock web site has now been updated at http://www.scandock.com/preorder with an expected price of $549. Delivery is expected in March, 2013.

The iPhone software is already available free of charge in the iPhone App Store. I suspect this is useful scanning software that can be used even without the scanner hardware.

You can learn more about Scandock at http://www.scandock.com or watch the YouTube video below and also available at http://youtu.be/5VX9a0oKqa4.