March 1996 New Products

Don't waste any more precious office real estate on bulky scanners. The Polaroid PhotoPad has a footprint about the size of a mousepad, and scans any color or black-and-white photo up to 4 by 6 inches in both 35mm and Polaroid formats.

Weighing less than a pound, the PhotoPad scans an image in around a minute at a 100dpi to 400dpi resolution. To scan an image, simply place the photo on the scanner and click the scanner's Capture button. After saving images, you can add them to documents, in most cases, by dragging and dropping. PhotoPad functions with Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, MS Works and PowerPoint. If your picture needs touching up, a single mouse click lets you crop, brighten or automatically correct the photographic exposure. If you need a walk-through, the software includes on-screen tips.

The PhotoPad works with Windows 95 and 3.1. The scanner plugs into your PC's parallel port.

$299
Polaroid
800-343-5000, 617-386-2000

The bansai MFX-I MicroFax is a combination document scanner and send-only fax machine ideal for the business road warrior as well as the desk jockey.

Weighing 20 ounces and less than a foot long, the MicroFax fits into a briefcase and sends faxes from any standard telephone. Optional add-ins such as a car power adapter, rechargeable battery and acoustic coupler let you scan from any remote site and from airplanes, cars and even nonstandard phones in foreign counties.

When used as a scanner, the MicroFax plugs directly into your PC's fax modem through a standard phone cord. By treating scanned documents like incoming faxes, fax-based scanning saves substantial hard disk space. It also allows you to save multipage documents as a single file.

$379 (direct)
bansai
800-566-6832, 415-491-0561

Presto Pro software turns your scanner into a multifunction input device. It supports 24-bit true color and consists of four modules: Presto Scan, Presto Filer, Presto OCR and Presto Edit. You scan images directly into an image editor, word processor, printer or other applications. Presto Pro supports drag-and-drop and full text search for locating missing scanned files. It works with all Windows-compatible printers and major fax modems.

$99 (street)
Maxvision
800-214-7059, 510-252-0267

Ligature claims its CharacterEyes Professional for Networks captures text at up to 300 characters per second with up to 99.7 percent recognition accuracy. The software program runs in 32-bit mode.

Five-pack, $1,040; 10-pack, $1,995; competitive upgrade, $745 for five-pack, $1,350 for 10-pack
Ligature
800-444-6433, 617-238-6734

Eventually, somebody will make a business card scanner that works like a charm. Seiko is taking its shot with the Seiko Smart Business Card Reader. The scanner's OCR software was designed specifically for business cards. You can add notes to the cards and search for contacts based on the notes, and drag and drop fields from a card image to a database.

$199 (street)
Seiko Instruments USA
800-688-0817, 408-922-5800

Remark Office OMR Lite is a low-cost optical mark reading package that lets you create forms using any word processor or survey design package. Remark Office OMR 3.0 automatically processes surveys, tests and office forms.

Remark Office OMR Lite, $99; Remark Office OMR 3.0, $399.95
Principia Products
800-858-0860, 610-429-1359

The Ascend Max 1800 puts your remote workers in touch with your WAN PC server through eight ISDN BRI (Basic Rate Interface) access lines. With two expansion slots, the Max 1800 supports up to 16 V.34 or digital modems.

The Max 1800's integrated digital modem support allows Internet and network service providers to offer higher-bandwidth services. The unit's remote access switch connects to a network via an integrated Ethernet port or a V.35 serial port running the frame-relay protocol. It supports either an ISDN U or S/T interface, and carries voice and data simultaneously on its B channels.

The MAX 1800 routes analog and digital calls by service type, so workers on the network can dial the same number whether they use digital modems or ISDN. It also supports data compression via a STAC coprocessor on the motherboard, and operates as a bandwidth manager for standalone corporate backbone network routers.

The MAX 1800 measures 1.75 by 17 by 12 inches. The company's MAXLink client software lets a remote PC become a node on a network by connecting over standard phone lines or ISDN to any Ascend remote access server that supports Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). MAXLink is available with the MAX 1800 as a $500 option.

$6,400 with S/T interface, $7,200 with U interface
Ascend Communications
510-769-6001, fax 510-814-3200

For less than $400, you can have a complete single-line fax and messaging system on your desktop. The Hayes Accura 288 V.34 DSVD Message Modem allows simultaneous voice and data communications over one phone line. It handles your telephony needs with digital voice messaging, 24-hour remote message retrieval, automatic paging and Caller ID. The DSVD (Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data) Message Modem comes in internal and external models.

The modem includes a full-duplex speakerphone and microphone. It also features Radish VoiceView for easy switching between data, fax and voice modes during a call. Its distinctive ring feature sets up calls to be handled as voice, fax or data. The modem's messaging feature answers incoming calls, plays recorded greetings and stores voice messages as digital files. Hayes bundles its Smartcom Message Center software and Internet access packages with the modem.

There's also an internal version of the product without DSVD: the Hayes Accura 288B V.34 Message Modem, which includes all other message functions.

External DSVD model, $359; internal DSVD model, $339; non-DSVD model, $229
Hayes Microcomputer Products
770-441-1617, fax 800-429-3739

You don't have to choose between ISDN and analog data transmission. The ZyXEL Elite 2864I ISDN modem also has V.34 capabilities, and lets you automatically switch between an ISDN and analog call for an incoming transmission. Send data over one ISDN B channel at 64Kbps while sending data at 28.8Kbps to an analog modem over the other B channel. The modem comes bundled with Quarterdeck InternetSuite.

$749 with U interface, $699 with S/T interface
ZyXEL
714-693-0808, fax 714-693-8811

FAXport LAN 5.0 runs as a 32-bit service on a Windows NT server or as a 16-bit app on any other Windows server. Aimed at the small LAN or workgroup, FAXport lets you send, receive, administer and manage network faxing. The new version features DDE linking; it also uses the Universal Naming

Convention. $399 for a 5-user, 1-server license (supports 4 modems)
LANSource Technologies
800-677-2727, 416-535-3555

Fax-It-Back, a system designed for Windows 95, provides full fax-on-demand features at a price small businesses can afford. It uses Win95's 32-bit multi-thread architecture to service simultaneous fax-on-demand callers. The system requires one to three U.S. Robotics voice/fax modems and a dedicated phone line for each board.

$1,495
Ibex Technologies
800-289-9998, 916-939-8888

With MultiExpressFax Server 4.0, you can use multiple fax servers on a single network. The FAXCOM model supports up to four simultaneous fax sessions through PC COM ports; the FSI08 version supports up to eight simultaneous sessions via an 8-port serial card.

FAXCOM, $799; FSI08, $1,799
Multi-Tech Systems
800-328-9717, 612-785-3500

KEA for Windows 95 puts a Win95 face on host data you retrieve from UNIX or VAX computers. The software program extends your OLE 2.0 and drag-and-drop capabilities, so you can drag and drop VAX and UNIX host files or data into Windows 95 applications or send data from Win95 apps back to the host.

KEA for Windows 95 includes a graphical keyboard mapping utility, a macro language, customizable menus and dialog boxes, a programmable button pad and the ability to transfer multiple files with one click. Besides giving you the Win95 interface, it supports long filenames, Digital's Local Area Transport (LAT) in Pathworks for Windows 95, and telephony API modems.

Kea for Windows 95 comes in two flavors: The 340 version provides full graphics and text support, while the 420 version supports text only.

KEA 340 for Windows 95, $395; KEA 420 for Windows 95, $245
Attachmate Corp.
800-426-6283, 206-644-4010

The strength of Cenergy is the synergy of its three Tally Systems management products. The suite combines NetCensus 2.8 for PC inventory, CentaMeter 2.5 for license management and metering, and WinInstall 5.1 to aid software distribution over the network.

All three programs support Win95 and NT, and they offer increased benefits when used in combination. NetCensus' software lists make it easier to set up applications in CentaMeter, and NetCensus supplies WinInstall with data that helps ensure software goes only to PCs that meet specific criteria. Links between WinInstall and CentaMeter set up software metering immediately after distribution. CentaMeter's monitoring capabilities extend to Internet connections and Web browsers.

Cenergy's flexible console provides one access point for all three apps.

$3,350 for 100 PCs
Tally Systems
800-262-3877, 603-643-1300

NLMAuto Professional 3 lets you schedule NetWare server and workstation jobs at your convenience, rather than according to the network's idiosyncrasies. You can write a job from your desktop and schedule it to run on a remote LAN server. NLMAuto Professional copies the job to the remote server directory during the dial-up connection and adds it to the job queue on the network. You can schedule jobs based on the condition of more than 65 identifiers, including server utilization.

$695
Knozall Systems
800-333-8698, 602-545-0006

The Conner Tape-Stor 8000 Travan mini-cartridge tape backup system holds up to 8GB of compressed data and transfers at 64.8MB per minute. The 1-inch internal tape drive fits any standard 3.5- or 5.25-inch drive bay, and the external model attaches to your computer's parallel port. The product ships with Conner Backup Exec for Windows 95 software, and is available with SCSI-2 or IDE interface options.

$449, internal; $600, external
Conner Peripherals
800-626-6637, 714-641-1230

The Kingston DataPak 340 PC Card Type III hard drive adds high-capacity mobility to your data. The DataPak 340 holds 340MB of uncompressed data and measures 0.41 by 2.1 by 3.3 inches.

$595
Kingston Technology
800-337-8410, 714-435-2600

Connecting to your PC through a parallel or SCSI interface, the Epson ZIP 100 works like a floppy drive and provides portable external storage. The ZIP 100 weighs I pound and sits vertically or horizontally. It has an average seek time of 29ms with a sustained transfer rate of up to 1.25MBps. The Iomega-compatible drive uses 100MB ZIP disks and comes with ZIP Tools software to track and organize files.

$199
Epson America
800-BUY-EPSON, 310-782-0770