Customer Reviews

C Pen 600C Handheld Scanner

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The C-Pen is simply the best tool I ever came across for any kind of writing from research to novels to what ever your needs will ever be in the future.

The days of being at the Reference section of any library and copying and retyping are over. One swift use of the C-Pen and your in rewrite heaven with easy citations. Ever read an article in a magazine or newspaper and want to comment on it, just use the C-Pen, you got the exact quote and can respond in kind! See a specific piece of research you want to quote, scan it in line by line with the citation. The Business card scan with C-Pen is easier and faster than rewriting it on palm pilot!

I read how you must get use to using this device. I found no such problems. The text need only be put on a surface to steady it, then scanning line by line so long you keep your hand steady and straight makes it quite easy! The only one drawback is scanning underline text, but I found that to be a minor problem compared to the overall great benefits.

What I really appreciated was the easy installation. The OCR is simply amazing and works in Microsoft Word with absolute ease and speed. This is especially gratifying because I expected complications and found none!

I loaded the software and called Technical Support to make sure this was the latest device on the market! I was at first disappointed I was unable reach a real person, but within a half an hour they called back and walked me through it! When I found out the newer model holds more with a bigger dictionary, I was still satisfied with the 600-C. Depends on your needs whether you want to spend the extra cash on the 800-C model. The booklet is like a Car Manual, but if you take the time to read it, you will never read it again!

I made only one big mistake, I did not check Amazon.com first and saw the price is about $40.00 under retail prices at all stores I checked everywhere! I was unable to take back the device without a re-stocking fee so don't make my mistake, buy it from Amazon.com.

In closing, you will never regret buying this device and using it often for your purposes. It is simply the easiest and best product I have ever used and seen in quite awhile! It is every writers, businessperson, lawyers and research educators dream!

I am a student reading tens of pages daily I am supposed to remember. The only way for me remembering what I have read is exposing myself to the key sentences 3-4 times daily.
So here is what I do since I have my C-Pen:

1. When I read a book, after I read and understood a chapter I scan the important info with my C-Pen out of the book.
2. I beam the file into my Palm. (if necesarry I edit it on my pc, but usually it is not needed)

Whenever I have a little time like in the elevator or during lunch or waiting for the bus, I just flip out my palm and read a sentence or two so that the subject I dealt with comes back. This method rocks. I can refresh or recall things I have read months ago! Everything is at the touch of my finger in my palm.

This method works for me so much that I am willing to deal with the CPen 600. It is not flawless. I have found the scanning is accurate enough only for books with ordinary text: not many abbreviations special characters etc. My books are luckily like this, so I only have a letter wrong every 3rd sentence or so. Fine, I don't mind that.

But do not expect that you can just see some tel number in a newspaper or some mathematical expression and scan it out with 100% accuracy. First of all, I have found that I have to adjust the pen for every book I scan, which take 10 secs altogether. Secondly, when you want to scan important data, you can not afford the accuracy of this pen.

Summary:
Good for students researchers, people who deal with lots of plain text and want to make notes.

One more cool feature is that I can carry my files (6M) in the C-Pen between my office and home computer.

Not good for quick 1-line scans from various sources.

The C-pen 600c works perfectly! I use it in conjunction with my Visor and it works as advertised. This is an invaluable tool for as a student and researcher. I use it to create my own personal classroom notes and to grap the essential information from text books and scientific articles. The C-pen is easy to use and accurate. Once you get in a rhythm, scanning is quick too.

Summary PROS: accurate, easy to use, great tool for students and researchers, dictionary and forein language translater is useful, excellent accessory for palm pilots. CONS: battery life is somewhat short if used continuously (2-3hrs) and there is a file size limit (no problem, just create a new file).

I just unboxed this CPen about an hour and half ago, and I've come up with a few suggestions to save the rest of you from frustration. None of my suggestions are explicit in the owner's manual, but I've now mastered the pen by keeping a couple of the following hints in mind...

First off, hold the pen at about a 75 degree angle from the scanned text. Originally, I assumed the pen would work best at a perfect 90 degree angle, but it doesn't. I suppose my suggestion is similar to that of others that have suggested setting the pen in left hand mode. I also found that if you do not hold the pen at the 75 degree angle, the light tends to go off right after you start scanning (which means you are no longer scanning).

Next, depress the trigger at the beginning of the line, on the first letter to be scanned, as you quickly scan across the text. I originally thought that dragging the pen across the text more slowly would give the pen more of an opportunity to scan, but the opposite appears to be true. A quick drag across the line of text works best. Remember to keep the pen in contact with the paper and not above it...

In the end, the pen requires a bit of practice, even with these suggestions, but I hope that these hints will speed the process along.

I can already see how many ways this pen will help me in my everyday life, and I would surely recommend it.

I read only a few lines from the instruction book before I began to fiddle with this pen scanner. In just a couple of minutes I had successfully scanned a line of text. It did misread a numerical bullet point and the first capital letter. My next two attempts were flawless.
The battery holder confused me. Look carefully at the stamped images showing battery polarity, or you will get one of them backwards as I did.
Also, I assumed the pen had only one sensor that also doubles as the infra-red port. Wrong! Be sure to turn the pen's back end with the wheel control toward other infra-red devices when beaming. It also connects to a computer by wire with special software loaded on the computer, if desired.
The edit and selection menus are very intuitive and easy to use. It is easy to skip a line of text when scanning. Also, the pen sometimes shuts off when in use. I hold the pen so a few rays of red light shine out onto the page to let me know it is still scanning. It is also easy to start scanning mid-line if the pen does shut off. Editing is probably easier on a handheld or a computer than on the C-pen. Still, it is a great little helper.

I just received my 600C C Pen, and it works really, really well. So far I've used it to scan in text and then beam it to my Palm - really cool, and I've used it to scan in business cards. I couldn't believe how accurately my 600 C scanned in such small tightly spaced text on those cards - but it did!

Great product C Pen!!!

The C-pen is just what I needed. I love the bar code. It reads all major bar codes. You do need to download the software but, it is free. You can't be in too much of a rush when reading the bar codes because it sometimes does not read and you have to look at the pen to see if it has read the bar code or not. I have found the key is to keep the pen at the angle of the opening. If you very it too much it will not read correctly. I found that if you pass the pen too slowly it is not good either.

I used the C-direct mode to enter specific text from a book. This program allowed me to enter text into places that I wanted and only the text I wanted. I usually scan in pages and modify them later. I found that I could "take notes" and eliminate much of the text that I usually have to delete later.

A nice plus is having an option of left and right handed as an option and I am left handed and it helps read the words. If you have a bad read it could be you are using the wrong hand.

The negatives are that it does not "learn" text and that when linking to my Palm, using the IR port, it would only read into the memo section. This means that you are limited in the size of the text. I use quick word and wish it would link to that program because it would allow unlimited text.

As a foreigner going to north america for student exchange, I found this pen indispensable. The pen proved itself already on the flight over the pond; the man next to me got curious about my device and the following conversation ended with a business card and my first contact on the scary continent. I especially use the pen for translation and am more than happy with its use. The only thing its lacking is an easy way to build a list of words I've looked up; I'd like to save all the words I've looked up in a special file for further repetition and learning. It takes some time to get use to scanning text but once you get the hang of it C-pen is just great. A definite buy for anyone who uses a dictionary frequently. C-direct, the function that lets you scan text straight into the cursor's position (in a Word document e.i.) is also usable. Of little use is the address book. There is no need to have your address book in Outlook, cell-phone, PDA and C-pen. If you need more than one dictionary (I could need one English-Swedish-English plus one English-English)you need to get the C-pen 800 (has more RAM). But with the 800 you also get (and thus pay for) some other useless functions such as SMS and fax.

Boy, what a great idea. I bought the pen because I do a lot of research and wanted to be able to take notes which could then be downloaded into my computer for editing. That way, I could quickly find and incorporate source material into my own work.

As one reviewer mentioned earlier, my scanned material was messy after transfering it. I didn't mind that too much. It's still one heck of a lot faster than retyping handwritten notes.

It's my inability to consistently synch that caused me to give up on the CPen. I was only able to get the pen to synch once using infrared. This was after spending way too much time holding the pen at various angles and distances from my infrared port.

I was able to synch using the cable but I only attempted to do this once.

When I bought a new notebook computer (a Dell Inspiron 300m) I first downloaded and installed CPen's XP update. I had zero luck getting an IRR connection. I was able to connect via the serial cable exactly once. After that I was never again able to successfully connect.

I communicated by email with CPen's support. Their replies were prompt and friendly but ultimately their advice was pretty basic...the tech equivalent to "take two aspirins and call me in the morning."

I suspect the problem is XP systems based (aren't they all) and because I have minimal knowledge of MS operating systems, this means hiring a rather expensive tech support person to help. There have to be some less expensive alternatives to transfering notes to the computer.

Bottom line: A terrific concept but CPen doesn't deliver. Some folks can tolerate quirky products, I'm not one of them. Reliable, affordable OCR just is not a reality yet. Or if it is, I haven't yet found that product.

I really like this pen. I am a college student and find it useful to alleviate highlighting and marking in text books. All key info is easily stored and reviewed for tests.
The software that comes with the pen is not Mac compat. and I find it to be really buggy in windows. Terrible software.
Battery life is pretty good. And pen works very well. I can really capture what I want with ease - it is pretty accurate too.
Not very cool looking design, but people do stare and wonder what in the world I am doing when I use it. I have found increased efficiency with the pen. I have owned it for two months.