Doxie Go Smart Digital Scanner - A Review

Doxie sent me a Doxie Go Smart Digital Scanner for the purpose of this review.

The big one for me is seeing how it is going to work with my iPad. If I'm scanning things, I want to access them on my iPad. If you are not using a wireless SD card, it would be wise to get the Camera Connection Kit. With a traditional SD card, you can scan the documents you want then slide the card into the connection to your iPad. The documents are instantly upload to iPhoto. From there, you can drop them into specific Evernote or Dropbox accounts. If you tend to need lots of scanning and travel quite often, the wireless SD card might be the route to go. If it is just occasional scanning with your iPad present, the traditional SD card will be fine. 

At $199, the Doxie Go Smart Digital Scanner might seem pricey, but I think it is a great value. I have plenty of items that need to be scanned and saved in one of the many other tools that Doxie works. I will have receipts from travelling, pictures that Leo will draw and many other things that I will receive in paper form that I will want to save in my digital space. 

I could see how this awesome scanner could be used in an Elementary classroom where a teacher scans and shares work their students complete with parents and the school as a whole. Since it is such a quick scan and load process, Teachers could quickly scan student work and share it before the students even get home. What a great way to create a digital portfolio of a student's work. 

If you are looking for a great way to quickly organize the clutter of paper on your desk into your digital life, look no further than the Doxie Go Smart Digital Scanner.

Doxie - The Scanner for Teachers and Students

This is the scanned cover of the Quick Start guide that came with the Doxie U. Scanner. The picture is beautiful. It looks like I just copied the page from the website. Here is some info on the Doxie Scanner. 

Tech Specs:

Scanning Modes

Color (24-bit), grayscale (8-bit), black and white

Scanning Speed

12 seconds per page (200 dpi grayscale)

Scanning Resolution

Up to 600 dpi

Page Size

From business card up to 8.5x14” (includes A4 / U.S. letter and legal sizes); sheets up to 0.75 mm thick

Connection

USB 2.0

Controls

Multi-action heart button

Dimensions

11.5" x 2.0" x 1.6" (291 mm x 51 mm x 40 mm)

Weight

10.9 oz (309g)

Power

USB powered – no external power required

Software

Free included software for scanning and sharing for any supported PC or Mac.

Apps

Works with dozens of desktop and web apps for sharing, archiving, photo editing, OCR, and more. Save as PDF, JPEG, or lossless PNG.

System Requirements

Free USB 2.0 port; Windows XP/Vista/7, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Here is what it looks like compared to my wireless Mac Keyboard, 

It really is the perfect size for travel. It also comes with its own travel bag to keep it secure. 

Use:

The Doxie U. is very easy to use! Before connecting the USB, I needed to go to getdoxie.com/start and download the Doxie App. Once I had the app downloaded, I connected the scanner and used their calibration sheet to calibrate the scanner. That process took less than five minutes. From there, I was ready to go. I scanned the cover of the Quick Start Guide because I loved the colors and I really wanted to see what this could do from the start. I was not disappointed. Once the the image was scanned, I was offered a host of options. 

The first options are saving the scanned document as a PDF, JPEG or PNG. If using a PDF, you are able to scan multiple pages to keep them on one PDF file.

Once I select the format, I have tons of great options. I can send it to Adobe so I can do some editing, I can send it to Evernote to store for later, send it directly to iPhoto to for later or I can just save it to the desktop. These options are fabulous, but it doesn't stop there!

I was also given the option to send the PDF directly to iTunes where it would be stores under books. I freaking love this option. As an English teacher, I could have students create stories in class, scan them to iTunes and I could upload all of them to the class set of iPad2s I so desperately want. The connection to iTunes is a wonderful addition to this excellent scanner. 

If you want to scan pictures, you are able to send them directly to Flickr. If you have random photos floating around the house of old classes you taught, this would be a great way to scan them and keep them online. 

You can also connect your Twitter account to Doxie. I sent a tweet of the Quick Start Guide. The file is stored on Doxie and I can determine how long I want it to be available for download. Anywhere from 1 week to 1 year. 

I was also able to connect Google Docs to my Doxie account and I scanned the image and sent it right over to my Google Account. I am very impressed. 

The only thing this scanner does not do is connect to Dropbox. That would have it connect to all of the place I keep documents. It is something they should look into. 

I see myself using the scanner to take my handwritten notes I make while lesson planning and scanning them into Evernote and iTunes so I can have digital copies of my notes instead of the Steno Notebook I use day to day. It will really help clean up the clutter of multiple notebooks on my desk with all of my lesson plans. I can also finally scan in some of those older documents I do not seem to have digital copies for. 

To get a Doxie U., an educator or student needs to show academic credentials (School ID) and it can be had for $119. I think this price is very affordable for what it is able to do. I've actually needed a scanner for a while but did not want to spend a ton of money and have it take up a ton of space. Now, I can take this with me to conference and scan handouts quickly and store them to my iTunes and/or upload them to Evernote so I can access all of the documents on my iPhone and iPad.

Overall, I happily recommend the Doxie U. for educators and students looking for a quick and easy way to store paper and help cut down on the clutter.

Full Disclosure: Doxie sent me their Doxie U. scanner for the purpose of a review.