This review is a long time coming. I'd first reviewed the basics of the IntelliScanner SOHO back in February, and had hoped to get to the software reviews in March, but that got sidetracked by a few months of travel and a few more months of being sick. Slowly getting back to normal, and this week's blog time will be spent reviewing the software solutions for the IntelliScanner SOHO scanner.
As the unit I received didn't come with the codes for the Business Integration Kit or Inventory software tools that make up the office side of the SOHO scanner, this review will focus on two of the Express software packages.
Those who read the overview blog post from early February will remember that the Express software packages consist of tools to organize everyday household items like books, DVDs, wine, groceries or electronics. We'll focus on two of these - the Kitchen (groceries) and Media (books, DVDs) since they each present different opportunities and challenges when working with a portable scanner.
Overall impressions. Since the software packages are all bundled together, my initial thought was that there would be a level of integration between them, so that one could go merrily on his way scanning anything in site and letting IntelliScanner worry about sorting out where they were to go.
Not so fast. The instructions give the first inkling that this isn't really feasible, when they suggest that one piece of software be open at a time, and that the software of choice for a particular tool be opened to the "Add Items" dialogue.
Hmm. So now, if I want to go scan my books and DVDs, I can't also scan groceries. It's not that groceries have an ISBN number, nor is it that the books would have a UPC bar code, so it seems odd to require all content scanned on a fairly powerful scanner (the SOHO holds up to 2500 bar code scans) fall only in to one software package's point of reference.
I'd much prefer that the IntelliScanner Dashboard do more than just be the launching point for all the other software packages. Ideally, it could verify which software packages have been activated (verified by their activation codes) and then sort through all the scanned bar codes. It could then provide a suggested list of scans (and their retrieved information) grouped according to program or content type.
Secondly, even within a single set of barcodes, there appears to be no post-scan correlation between the retrieved information and the barcode, nor is there even a listing of the barcode numbers - critical when the software spits out archane database entries such as "unknown KINGSTON MARKETING CO item" for an item it thinks it understands. If one is going to go to the trouble of scanning anywhere near the potential level of the SOHO scanner (2500 scans) or even the mini scanner (150 scans) there needs to be a way to easily retain those unassigned scans and be able to assign them via the barcode number. If only 2-3 scans are listed as unknown, it will take someone with Solomon's memory skills and Job's patience to figure out what was not added correctly to the scanned list.
Third, scans get lost very, very easily. Remember the first point, where the instructions recommend having a piece of software open to the "Add Items" dialogue box before plugging in the scanner? The reason for this is to keep from losing the scans, which are output from the scanner as a series of keyboard strokes. If the scanner is plugged into the serial-to-USB cable without the right piece of software being open, in the foreground or even on the "Add Items" dialogue box, there is a high probability that all the scans will be lost.
Even when the software is open to the appropriate spot, each program behaves differently for unknown scans. The Media software package places an unknown scan in a dialogue box that is somewhat difficult to understand; clicking to bypass the box dumps the scanned bar code information permanently. As you can see by the accompanying picture, the default is to close and bypass the unknown scans.The Kitchen software package lists them out as unknown in the assets list IF they can be identified at least to the company level, but dumps the rest.
In other words, while the hardware is incredibly handy and easy to use to scan bar codes, the software implementations can easily make the casual user confused, frustrated and bewildered as to what all their hard scanning work has wrought.
Media. The software kit for Media launches a very Mac- or Bento-like software package that contains collections for various types of media: books, movies, music, games.
Added items will first appear as a series of numerals, and then the software will attempt to retrieve the information on books, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs or games from a number of online databases.
Once the data is retrieved for all items - or as many items as the particular software program will allow, since it rejects barcodes that would make sense in other software packages - the Media software package populates that particular information in to the appropriate media catalog.
What if the computer you are using is not online? Good question. Our testing showed that the information will not be retrieved and will reflect as not being in the database, which is inaccurate. In other words, Media treats offline attempts to add scanned content no differently than items that aren't actually in the database. Even the same error message is displayed.
Lending is available, in a rudimentary form, in Media. The act of "checking out" a book, DVD or other media is a manual process, which is fully understood given two facts: the need to put in the name of the person who is borrowing the media (with clever integration of the Address Book application) as well as the inability for the software to differentiate between a scan representing a rise in quantity versus a lowering in quantity.
Still, given the fact that the software can prompt for redundant scans and offer at least two options (ignore or increase quantity), it would be nice to see the software offer a third option for items that are already in the library, such as a check-out option.
Even simpler to perform would be the ability to rapidly check-in books or other media, as the manual check-out process changes the status in the database (and the corresponding icon color) to a color and detailed information about when the book has been checked out.
In our testing, we could not find any way to force the status color to change to a different color (red, for instance, since green is used for available and yellow is used for lent out) when the book became past due. All this to say Media seems a good way to keep track of what's in your home collections, for insurance reasons, but not necessarily a stellar check-in / check-out private library sort of tool. For that, you'll need to pay the big bucks for IntelliScanner's Daneiza (Latin for to lend) software.
Wow, this post is pretty long, so I'll post my thoughts on Kitchen in a separate blog post.
1 comment:
Thanks very much for this review. It's one of the only ones of any merit that I've been able to find, and it has a lot of merit.
For reference, the Intelliscanner Mini is a rebadged Opticon OPN-2001, so the two units are compatible with each other.
It's probably too much to ask, but your review of the Media app was so good I was really looking forward to reading how the Kitchen app really works. I know it's been a long time, but is it at all possible to write that review as well? I have a feeling that there are more people out there who would like to know, too.
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