If you have read a couple of my previous posts, go might be able to assume that I am interested in getting rid of a lot of paper, and that, more generally, I am interested in simplifying my life. I saw a review of the ScanDock (a collapsible cardboard ‘scanner’ platform which uses the iPhone to capture documents). Unlike the slew of reviews which you can find on the internet, I have been using a ScanDock to render all of my documents into digital forms.
I think that this little platform is a great idea, and it is priced for almost everyone (e.g. $14.99 USD + shipping). With this tool I can directly enter these pictures into my EverNote account, which allows me to search pictures for directly for print and numbers (this saves me a lot of time).
Here is the link:
http://www.ponoko.com/showroom/kyleakoch/scandock-for-iphone-2703
And here is a quote from Kyle Koch (the inventor and seller of the ScanDock):
When I got my iPhone last year I loved having everything important in one place, and the ability to get rid of unnecessary devices, documents and information I kept with me. I would frequently snap photos of class assignments printed on copy paper so I wouldn’t have to worry about losing them. The documents normally came out pretty clear, but it was tough to keep still while taking the pictures. I set out to make something that would ensure clean, consistent pictures of documents taken with the iPhone.
If you have a smart phone (an iPhone in particular), this platform can really make an EverNote application have a lot more value! While there are plenty of good tools out there to capture web pages to read later (e.g. read it later, or instapaper), and there are some good bookmarking tools (Delicious, Diigo, et. al.), EverNote can do these things too, but being able to integrate all of the documents you have, including PDF’s, as well as almost anything you can take pictures of, write notes about, or even record audio… There are quite a few possibilities with this program. I have an iPhone app, an online application (via Firefox), and applications residing on all of my PC’s. This allows me to have all of these different applications automatically synced together.
