Tech & Gadget Stream

Ever wanted a portable scanner that you could tote around with you? The VuPoint PDS-ST410-VP Magic Wand could be what you’re looking for. It’s able to scan A4 pages with resolutions up to 600 x 600. The scanned documents (color or black and white) will be stored on the microSD card of the device, after which you’ll be able to download the pictures to a computer via USB connection. You’ll be able to scan a full resolution A4 page in about 28 seconds, which isn’t all that bad, and if you really want to be quick, a black and white standard resolution scan will use 4 seconds of your time. It’s powered by 2 AA batteries, and will work together with Mac and Windows. At $99.99 it’s slightly pricey, but we’ll leave it to you to decide whether it’s worth a spot on your office table.

It looks like Yinlips is looking to beat Apple to the market, and possibly confuse iPad shoppers. Its upcoming iPad clone will sport a 6-inch e-ink screen, instead of a boring LCD display. You’ll get a battery that can last up to 20 hours on a full charge and support a variety of formats such as PDF, TXT, CHM, FB2, RTF, TCR, PDB, OEB, HTM, PRC, HTML, EPUB, DJVU, IW44, IW4, DJV and picture files. Considering that it looks quite a bit like the iPad, do you think the arguments of the iPad’s design can be leveled against this eBook reader too? The official pricing of this device don’t seem to be available just yet, so let’s keep an eye on this upcoming eBook reader, shall we?

It’s rather cool that Google is busy taking pictures all around the streets for Google Street View, but there’s nothing stopping you from having a little fun at Google’s expense, right? It seems that some folks have managed to stick a GPS tracker on the Google Street View camera car, and now you can follow the car’s progress around Berlin using Google Maps. It feels kind of ironic that the car doing ground work for Google Maps (and Street View) would be tracked by Google Maps, but it’s also kind of cool. The car hasn’t moved in quite a while, so maybe the drivers discovered the device, or they’re taking a break. You can check it out if you want to know where the Google car (supposedly) is right now.