In the past, a common knock against the Fujitsu ScanSnap was that once you bought the scanner, you were stuck with the software. Sure there would be operating system updates, but you would have to buy a new scanner to get new software goodies.
In recent versions of their software, Fujitsu has really started to address this. Once they added the ability to do online updates, it has really improved the situation. The recent smooth OS X Lion upgrade and addition of Google Docs scanning are two examples of this.
This week, Fujitsu has released[1] their largest online update yet: the addition of new cloud services, and their first iPhone and iPad apps.
Over the next few posts, I am going to be going through some of the new updates, starting with the new Scan To Mobile functionality.
Get The Update
Before you do anything, you are going to need to update your ScanSnap Manager software. Fortunately, this is pretty easy.
Right-click on the ScanSnap icon in your Dock (for Mac users) or System Tray (for Windows Users), go to Help and then Online Update.
Before I ran it, I had Mac software version 3.2 L20. Afterwards I was on 3.2 L41. For the Scan To Mobile functionality, you need to be on at least 3.2L31 for Mac or 5.1L30 for Windows.
Set Up Scan To Mobile
Before using Scan To Mobile, you have to set it up with a password. The easiest way to do this is to run it first and set it up.
On the Mac, go to Applications > ScanSnap > Scan To Mobile. On Windows, go to the equivalent program through your Start Menu. Run Scan To Mobile.
First time you run it, it gives you a popup with instructions. Read it and hit OK.
Then you need to give it a password.
There are a few options here worth mentioning. The first is Start up “Scan To Mobile” when you log in. Despite what you see in the screenshot, I decided to turn this off. The reason why is because if I am going to start my scan from ScanSnap Manager, it will start up the program anyways. No need to have something running in the background if I am not using it.[2]
The second option is Wait until the Send button is clicked. By checking this, it will allow you to batch up your scans before sending them to your mobile device. For our purposes we will leave this off, but you can enable it later if you want to.
When you hit OK, it puts an item up in your Menu Bar (or, I assume, System Tray on Windows). It is yellow because we are not currently connected to a mobile device. That will change color when we are.
In the windows that pops up, you can see the Scan To Mobile application is waiting for a connection.[3]
Set Up Mobile Device
As I mentioned earlier, Fujitsu has released a free iOS app for iPad and iPhone: ScanSnap Connect. Install it on your mobile device of choice.
Once you have installed ScanSnap Connect, fire up the app. If you are on the same Wi-Fi network as your computer, you should be prompted to enter the password for ScanSnap Scan To Mobile that you set up earlier.
If you want to see your connections, you can hit the drop-down in the Connect To field. You can see my Untitled computer there with a checkmark.
Back on the computer, now that I have fired up the app and put in my password, my iPad shows up.
Scanning
There are a number of ways that you can scan to your iOS device, but I will take you through setting up a ScanSnap Manager profile.
First you want to right-click on the ScanSnap icon in your Dock or System Tray and choose Settings or Scan Button Settings.
Hit the Profile dropdown box and choose Add Profile.
On the Application tab in the Application drop-down, choose the new Scan To Mobile application.
This is what your Application tab will look like:
Set up the rest of the tabs in your ScanSnap Manager profile however you would normally do it.
Make sure ScanSnap Connect is started on the mobile device, and hit the Scan button on the scanner.
It will show the received scan on the iOS device, and then you will see that it has sent on the computer.
Documents On The Mobile Device
On your iPhone or iPad, you can tap the little arrow on the right to view the PDF or JPG in the ScanSnap Connect application, or if you tap the name, you can (probably more usefully) send it to another application that handles PDFs.
Other Options
If you just use the Quick Menu, there is now a Scan To Mobile option that you can use without having to set up a profile.
Also, if you use Windows, you can initiate the mobile scan using ScanSnap Organizer or Rack2-Filer.
Supported Devices
According to Fujitsu, this will all only work on the ScanSnap S1500, the ScanSnap S1500M, the ScanSnap S1300, or the ScanSnap S1100.
As far as mobile devices go, it works on the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3rd and 4th Gen. I assume it works on the iPhone 4S as well, but they don’t mention it.
Unfortunately, no mention of Android devices, but hopefully that will come someday?
All-in-all, this is an interesting update. Of course there are many ways to get your documents onto your iPhone or iPad, but I can see this being handy if I just want to send a quick scan without doing the Dropbox / GoodReader dance.
How about you, have you tried this out? What do you think?
