News about en-us I've had a love affair with Neat scanners for a while now and the company has just updated their roster with two new cloud offerings, the aptly-named NeatCloud and a mobile scanning system called NeatMobile. For those not in the know, Neat is essentially a scanner for receipts, documents, and business cards. It's surprisingly fast and efficient and has allowed me, personally, to reduce my paper load considerably. NeatCloud is a fairly simple concept. It's basically a cloud backup service for Neat documents. The service is a lot like Evernote in that it allows you to save documents via email and grab information on the fly.]]> Three guys from Provo, Utah set out on a mission to make QR codes, those boring pixellated, black-and-white squares come alive -- in other words, to extend their functionality by turning them into realworld "like," "follow," and "buy" buttons. And it's been working. In February, Scan closed a seed funding round from Shervin Pishevar, Google Ventures, CRV, Start Fund, Social + Capital, Ludlow Ventures, and more. The company moved their operations from Utah to San Francisco, and is currently sitting at just over 12 million downloads across iOS devices. As Scan is in the business of creating apps that extend the potential application of QR code tech, Scan is today leveraging the buzz around Instagram to let businesses, organizations, etc. build their Instagram user base via QR codes. The new app, appropriately called Scan-to-gram, which launches today, lets users scan QR codes and instantly follow a company and its employees. Notable Instagrammers to be part of its initial launch, including Warby Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Nike, Marc Jacobs, and, notably, the Instagram team itself.]]> Doxie, the cute but functional document scanner, last made waves with its ability to send scanned items to Evernote, Dropbox, or your iPhone. That functionality was handy, but you still needed to dig out your Doxie scanner, attach it your PC or Mac, and then perform the scan. Doxie's cutting the cord today with Doxie Go: a cordless self-contained scanner that saves scans to its internal memory. At your convenience, tether the scanner to your PC or Mac (or iOS device, with optional accessory kit) and transfer your scanned documents to your hard drive. This makes the scanner operate much more like a digital camera.]]> This thing has been sitting on my desk for most of the summer, like a sad-eyed puppy. It wanted me to review it, but like a petulant, spoiled child, I ignored it. "You're just a scanner," I said. "Who cares?" "You'll care eventually," said the NeatDesk For Mac. "And when you do, I may not be there for you."]]> This is a great scanner for occasional scanning of single pages. It doesn't have an auto document feeder, so you're not going to use it for large scanning jobs. You'll use it to scan your W-2, or old family photos, or that newspaper clipping your mom saved from when you did something famous in your home town. For $129 it provides a good deal of functionality, including the ability to send your scanned items directly to a number of online services (Flickr, Picnik, etc). It's small and lightweight, which makes it a no-brainer to take with you on the go; but the form factor does present some placement issues.]]> Short Version: Tax season is upon us, friends, and wouldn't those 1099s and W2s floating hither and yon would be much more accessible if they were nestled deep inside a searchable PDF? Sure. That's why Fujitsu invented the $295 ScanSnap S1300. The ScanSnap S1300 is supposed to be a mobile scanner. While I'm dubious that many of us need a portable scanner, the device is small enough to fit in a briefcase and is quite light - about 3 pounds. It is USB-powered — it requires two ports (one for power and one for data) however, which is a pain - and the top is collapsible for portability. ]]>