WizCom SuperPen Professional, Portable Business Library

Been working with mine for about a week, and am disappointed to report that the negative reviews are spot on.I too had trouble linking it to the PC. Ran into the hardware flow thing. Easy enough to solve after an email to customer support, but they were vague enough that someone less experienced with the windows device manager might have trouble.But the main reason I don't like it is that scanning is slow and not accurate enough. Really, you're better off with dragon speaking naturally, or just typing.The whole thing feels like it's 15 years behind the times. The interface is horrible. The PC connection is deadly slow. The software is junk. (Can we at least import notes into a text file? WTF is a .qnt file? Now I've got to screw around getting that into a program I actually can use!) One really has the sense that these guys aren't putting any effort into keeping up with technology. These guys should look at an iPod. Given how much they skimped on everything else (program, connectivity, interface, screen, memory, chip, etc) I have no reason to think that this is a particularly good scanner.A friend of mine has a C-Pen 20. That scans much faster, but has to be plugged in. C-pen used to sell portable versions, but I emailed their American distributer and found that they only have the wired one.Total disappointment. As a graduate student, this device could have changed my life. Instead, it'll sit in a drawer, reminding me of the money I blew on it.Bottom line: useless

I really find this product very useful and time-saving. I read a lot and always highlight important passages in my books. The process of going back and typing all the highlighted passages was very tedious and time consuming.With the Superpen, scanning the passages is now a breeze. However, one must get used to it first. For example, there is a certain way to hold the pen (a certain angle) and certain speed to scan your text. If you do it right, you might get a 100% correct output. However, if you do it wrong, you might get an output as low as 30% of the intended result. Take time and experiment and in no time you'll find yourself an expert at scanning text with this device.One problem I found in the beginning was the synchronization process between this device and my computer. The pen just couldn't synchronize with my computer, and I spent hours going through the support web pages and installing and re-installing the software a couple of times. At the end, the problem turned out to be the USB cable not fully snapped inside the SuperPen. Make sure you hear the snap when you insert the front end of the USB cable into the SuperPen. This can easily be overlooked as the cable will seem to be snuggly inserted into the device.If you need for any reason to change the properties of your USB driver to hardware flow, do the following in Windows XP:Start / control panel / system / hardware / device managerWhen you are at the device `manager screen' click on the `+' sign next to `Ports (COM & LPT)'. Make sure your USB cable is plugged into your computer. Then right-click on `Prolific USB-to-serial COMM port', and click on properties. Go to the `Port settings' tab, and in the `flow control' menu, select hardware.If you often take notes and find it time consuming to type the passages you highlighted, this pen will be a required item that you won't be able to live without.This pen also has other features such as reading a word aloud (it even comes with headphones), and giving you a definition of any word you scan. You can also scan passages in different languages, such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.I really recommend this product, but keep in mind that you have to be patient at first and be willing to spend time learning how to use this product. Once this is done, you won't believe how you ever lived without it!

I purchased the superpen mostly for my kids to able to conveniently look up words while reading to help improve their vocabulary. The pen works great at this task and even pronounces the word. The scanning is fairly reliable - most scans work on the first try but occasionally you will need to scan again. It's not a big deal to do so since you aren't required to do anything other than place the pen back on the paper and rescan - you don't need to hit any buttons. I have found it works best when you start your scanning on the last few letters of the prior word and go a little past the word you are scanning.The only issues I have noticed are:1)I have not been able to figure out how to scan hyphenated words (split between two lines of text)2)I have had problems scanning words when they are on a darker background because there is not enough contrast with the text.3)I set the option to automatically pronounce the word after it is scanned. The pen has a built-in speaker and also comes with an optional headset. If not using the headset (I don't) you will need to quickly move the speaker to your ear after scanning to hear the pronunciation because the volume is fairly low even on the highest setting. The voice definitely sounds computer generated, but pronounces the word correctly.I have not used any of the software that it comes with and have not tried to connect it with my computer so I can't speak to those issues. Also, I really didn't read the manual so there may be ways to overcome some of the issues above that I'm not aware. Overall I've been pleased with the purchase.

I purchased the pen to scan numbers only. That should be simple enough. NOT! The accuracy rate for the pen was about 20%. I could have made better hand written notes drunk. In fact, if the pen acts like a drunk. Not only cannot not copy numbers, just simple numbers, the software staggers like a bar fly constantly missing the stool, but foolish enough not to know it. So my pen, after a generous probationary period and attempts to rehabilitate is being returned to send never to come back to this house again under any circumstance. It is a very bad pen! I truly lost my patience trying to make this work. The designers need to go back to the drawing board sober this time.

very poor. very uncomfortable to use. Does not do a clean scan and keep missing part of your highlight..