Test Driveįor me, the proof of how good (or bad) a scanner is lies in how it works in real life, so I unboxed the review device and set it up. Dimensions-wise, the scanner fills a volume of 11" width x 8.7" depth x 7.5" height, and it weighs in a 5.3 pounds. Take out the paper tray, and you can slam in up to 50 letter-size docs. The sheet feeder on the device can take up to 15 business cards, 15 receipts, and 15 letter-size documents at one time. The scanner can do single- or double-sided scanning with a maximum resolution of 600 dpi, while scans of up to 8.5" x 30" can be done at the lower resolution of 300 dpi. An SD card slot makes scanning directly to removable storage a possibility, perfect for situations where you may want to do scanning off-network. The scanner features 802.11b/g/n compatibility, and also has a USB port if - for some reason - you want to scan to your Mac. Neat's business plan appears to be oriented towards selling the Neat services rather than the scanners, but if you're averse to spending anywhere from $60 to $240 a year for their cloud storage, you can still use Dropbox, Evernote, Box.com, Google Drive or even Microsoft SkyDrive. It does this by putting a small color touchscreen onto the front of the scanner not only for entering commands, but for cropping scans if needed. The NeatConnect Cloud Scanner is designed to remove the personal computer from the loop, allowing direct wireless scanning to a number of cloud services. The app helped a lot in terms of turning the scans into PDFs that I could send to Dropbox and Evernote, but lacks a way to automate a lot of the process.
#NEAT RECEIPT SCANNER FOR MAC#
The software included with the Epson scanner wasn't that great, so I tried PDFScanner for Mac ($14.99). That sheet feeder works a lot better in theory than in practice - it often jams if I scan documents that were folded into envelopes or if I try scanning sheets of different sizes. Take, for example, my great idea of using my Epson WF-3540 all-in-one printer/scanner (it has a sheet feeder!) to grab handfuls of bills, receipts, and other paper detritus and bump them up to either Dropbox or Evernote. While I'd love to get rid of every piece of paper that comes into my home and office by scanning everything and storing it in the cloud, every solution I've tried so far has at least one failing. I have a love/hate relationship with scanners and the entire "paperless office" concept. The company sent one to TUAW for a review, so read how this latest scanner from Neat might just change your thinking about scanning. They show someone with a desk somewhat neater than mine quickly scanning in receipts, bills, and business cards with nary a desktop computer in sight.
#NEAT RECEIPT SCANNER TV#
You've probably seen Neat's TV ads touting their new NeatConnect Cloud Scanner (US$499.95).