Smartphone App is Viable Replacement for Flatbed Scanner

    TurboScan-document-scanner-v1.2.7-APKRemember the facsimile machine you once “had to have” in order to run your small business? It was, the argument went, the defacto means of communicating with clients and just about anyone who was serious about commerce.

    There’s a pretty good chance that today’s typical startup has ditched the fax.

    Two key points to take away from this example. One is that staying current on the latest technological trends is not just about what’s fashionable, but what drives innovation in your own firm, be it small or growing by leaps.

    With that in mind, here’s the second nugget:

    A smartphone app (available for either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android platform) has become a viable alternative to using a flatbed scanner in preparation for e-mailing multi-page documents.

    By “viable” we mean the capability of doing the job quicker and with all the functionality of a typical USB connected scanner.

    One “app of choice” is TurboScan (published by Piksoft, Inc.), with both free and paid versions available (typically under $5 for the latter).

    The real “productivity” boost comes from handling multi-page documents.

    TurboScan-document-scannerWith a traditional scanner, each page may take a minute or so to scan before you can remove the page, set up the next one and proceed. With TurboScan, it’s done as quickly as you would take a picture.

    Click. Click. Click. Done. It’s that simple. Once done with the document, laid out on a flat surface with your smartphone taking a picture of each page, you have the option of e-mailing the PDF to yourself or directly to your intended recipient.

    A user can then send the document to themselves, which can then be renamed on the desktop, but the app also gives you the option of renaming the document.

    You call the shots. And the entire process is highly intuitive.

    It’s something to think about next time you have a 20-page document that needs your signatures or notations on each page.

    TurboScan is a definite time saver.