Targus Mini USB Business Card Scanner

Targus Mini USB Business Card Scanner

Everyone has stacks of business cards they have picked up over the years. Typing them into your computer can take a lifetime, but the Targus Mini USB Business Card Scanner lets you scan them instead.

The small scanner measures 4.4-by-2.7-by-1.1 inches and weighs only 4.8 ounces. It comes with a universal serial bus cord, an installation guide (the English instructions are only four pages long), a software CD and a calibration sheet. The bundled software actually is from NewSoft Technology Corp., which produces the Presto BizCard application. The software is compatible with any TWAIN-compliant scanner so Targus just bundled its scanner and the Presto software together.

Connecting is simply a matter of plugging the USB cable into the scanner and your computer. The scanner runs off the power from the USB port, so no additional power brick is necessary. This really comes in handy when you tote the Targus Business Card Scanner along on a business trip.

The software installation was smooth and painless. The first interface you see looks like a Rolodex, which is comforting since you are working with business cards and contact information. You can change the view to a list or a card album.

I was pleased with the software, but it bugged me that if I had a problem with the software, I might have to call NewSoft Technology if Targus could not help. The CD even tells you outright the software doesn’t come from Targus. I don’t like to contact two separate places for hardware and software support issues.

I was up and performing my first scan within a couple of minutes. Once you pick your preferred scanner (you actually can use a flatbed or any other TWAIN-compliant scanner with this software), you click the “Scan” button and a dialog box opens up allowing you to select options such as resolution and card size.

I left the resolution at 300 dots per inch on a card with black text on a white background — a common-looking business card. After the scan, the software “processes” the card and attempts to identify as much of the text as possible through optical character recognition.

My first scan went well, but I noticed some glaring mistakes with the OCR such as a missed ZIP code and a weird phone number. To be fair, there is no software that will give you 100 percent recognition — there is just no way that can happen. I was not expecting 100 percent, but I figured it would be a little better than what I received. I changed the resolution to 600 dpi but didn’t see much of an improvement. Since OCR always is going to return some mistakes, you must check every scan. The Presto software lets you do this easily enough, and I had everything corrected within a few seconds.

I was very disappointed to discover the Targus Business Card Scanner doesn’t scan in color. Granted, this is a personal preference, but I like to have color. Color obviously increases the size of a graphic image, but I like to see the card as it was intended to be seen since I eventually throw away the paper version. If you do require color, you will need a scanner that is a little bigger.

I was impressed by the Targus scanner’s ability to turn a card around, regardless of the way it was inserted, to run OCR properly. Lastly, the Targus Business Card Scanner is fast. I was very impressed at how quickly a card zipped through the slot.

Once your cards are scanned, checked over and sorted properly, you can synchronize them with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Symantec Act. This worked well, although I would have liked to have the image of the business card transfer over, too.

The Targus Mini USB Business Card Scanner is an overall good product for digitizing your business cards and is very portable. If you are not very concerned with portability, I would recommend a competing product such as the Corex CardScan instead (see “Lay Down Your Cards,” October/November 2003 Law Office Computing).

Targus
(877) 482-7487

www.targus.com

Price: $129.99

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Reviewed by Brett Burney, a legal practice support coordinator for Thompson Hine in Cleveland, Ohio. He also authors a monthly legal technology column for www.llrx.com. His e-mail is brett.burney@
thompsonhine.com.

Aug/Sep '04 Issue

PROS
Small size, light weight — only 4.8 ounces; ability to export contact information to many contact managers, such as Outlook and Act; only requires a USB cord.

CONS
Doesn’t scan in color, and software is from Presto, which means you have to deal with another company for support.

VERDICT
Great if you want something portable. If mobility isn’t very important to you, you are better off picking a scanner that uses color.