Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 Handheld Scanner

• Scanning and OCR - Easy and Convenient With the Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 you can scan and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) printed text into your computer. A brief sweep with your Ectaco C-Pen and the text instantly appears in any open application on your computer. Easy to use with translation software, text-to-speech applications, internet banking, etc. These applications are NOT included in this package.
• USB connected - simple and reliable The Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 is a USB connected device. Simple to install, easy to use, and powered by your computer so it never runs out of battery.
• Ergonomic Design The Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 with its ergonomic design fits perfectly in your hand and is designed for both left and right-hand use without any change of settings.
• Ectaco C-Pen Core Software The Ectaco C-Pen 3.0 is shipped with C-Pen Core Software for Windows. The C-Pen Core is designed to seamlessly fit with multiple applications.
• C-Pad With C-Pad you can easily enter special characters and commands without releasing C-Pen from your hand. The C-Pad is provided as a PDF and is easily printed on a regular printer. More details

The box that my pen came in had a peel-off sticker covering the old cpen 20 name. The peel-off sticker said c-pen 3.0 The box that my pen came in was entirely different then what is advertised above. The software in the box said Cpen 20. The pen is black, not grey like in the pix. These people are doing something slick! Stay away!

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I bought this product to help me with note taking for my Master's. I was very disappointed in it. The pen itself feels very flimsy. It DOES NOT come with a standard USB cable, instead it comes with a cable that has a male end that looks like it should plug into a phone or other mobile device. This cable also has a spur that comes out of it with a female end that will accept an external hard drive cable (the one page directions did show the pen with a standard USB cable).

The software was fairly straight forward to load. The installation process put an icon in my taskbar and a shortcut on my desktop. When I clicked on the shortcut it told me that another instance of the program was running and that I should uninstall it and then restart the scanning program. It took me awhile to figure out that it was refering to the instance of the program running in my taskbar. After that I just ignored the desktop shortcut.

I then connected the scanner pen to my laptop and attempted to scan. Nothing happened. I realized that my icon in the taskbar wasn't showing the pen connected. The only way I could get the pen to connect was to right click on the icon and select a setting. This connected the pen but I still wasn't scanning. I couldn't get the scanner light to come on at all. I then uninstalled and reloaded the scanning program with all of the same results.

I contacted Ectaco through email and explained my steps and the results that I was having with their product. After 3 working days of no response from technical service I sent the item back to Amazon.

I've heard really good things about this device, not just from the reviews here but other students who have successfully used it. I want to believe that I just got a defective product (it happens) but the total absence of a response from technical support, the non standard USB cable, and the software quirks all add up to the one star review.

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When I first handled this thing after taking it out of the package, I was about ready to seal it all up and ship it back. It seemed too light for it to really be worth anything. But, the wife insisted I give it a shot, and get our bills organized. Boy am I glad I listened to her, this C-Pen has made my life so much easier. I did invest in a hard case for it though, just to be sure.

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I do a lot of traveling for work, and that means a lot of receipts for expense reports. I was thinking about getting one of those smart scanners they advertise on television, but then I heard about this, and thought I could get more use out of it. Admittedly, it took a little to get used to just what angle to hold the scanner at for the best results, but as soon as I had that down, making up those spreadsheets is extremely fast, and I even use it to pull out quotes for presentations.

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In an attempt to reduce the clutter in my filing cabinet, I decided to get rid of some of the industry magazines I had been holding onto. Problem was there were tips and tricks that I wanted to save. A co-worker of mine suggested I just digitize what I wanted, and lent me their C-Pen 3.0. The thing was so easy to use, and very comfortable. There were a lot of magazines to go through, but my eyes got tired before my hand did. The plastic is a little flimsy, so I can understand why my co-worker has the thing in a hard-shelled case.