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Wow, three smooth and/or no-brainer installations this week. Could it be that hardware manufacturers are actually starting to make the process of installation and getting up to speed easier, more well thought out? Nah! Just the luck of the draw, I'm sure. Today's quick fix is brought to you by ImageWave, a super-cheap flatbed scanner from Storm Technology. The entire hardware and software installation process took about 12 minutes.
The ImageWave is part of Storm Technology's EasyPhoto line of flatbed and sheet-fed scanners and photo readers. It was originally priced at $150 and was recently reduced to $99. You can get it through mail order postpaid for $88! So do you get anything worth talking about for your dead presidents? You be the judge:
Beyond the stats, does the ImageWave perform? Damn straight! It may not rival a mid- or high-end machine--like many other lower-priced flatbeds, the colors are a little washed out--but for the home user or Web designer who doesn't need true reproductive quality, the ImageWave is totally acceptable. We tossed the cover of the manual onto the scanner glass and this came out:
The water is a shade darker blue on the original. The ImageWave software lets you adjust colors, so you can get it closer to the original. Neither my UMAX S-6E nor the PaperPort Strobe could do much better, and they cost two to three times more. The ImageWave comes with EasyPhoto scanning software, the ubiquitous PhotoDeluxe, the surprisingly accurate Xerox TextBridge OCR software (for turning printed text into computer-editable files), Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer 4, and DocuMagix PaperMaster. This last piece of software is similar to the PaperPort Desktop. It allows you to store documents, photos, and other datafiles in a series of filing cabinets. It's not as well-designed, easy to use, or flexible as PaperPort's system, but it's got its charms (like a search engine!). My only nervousness with the ImageWave comes from its weight: it's unsettlingly light. It feels like a plastic box with nothing inside; the scanning window glass is probably 30% of the weight! I have a feeling that, while this machine might be perfect for casual home use and for websites that only need occasional hard copy input, it might not hold up to heavy usage. It certainly is easy to move around. I can carry it around with one hand! I went a decade without a scanner because I didn't think I could justify the expense (remember when scanners were a thousand bucks?). In this day and age when 200Mhz Pentiums (w/monitor) can be had for a thousand bucks, the ImageWave is an impressive tool for computer users on a tight budget. - Gareth Branwyn [3/30/98] [Update - Shortly after this review was written, Storm Technologies, the makers of the ImageWave, went bankrupt (d'oh!). We've had lots of requests from people since then looking for drivers for the scanner. You can find drivers for most of the Storm Technologies scanners at http://www.windrivers.com/company/stormtech/. Tell 'em Street Tech sent you!] |
