“First off, let me say that I never intended this to happen. What I intended was a thoughtful, clear review of the Flip-Pal mobile scanner, complete with what I liked and didn’t like about the device. The last thing I wanted it to be was an all-out love fest! But right off there was a bit of a problem. See, I couldn’t find anything I really didn’t like but quite a few things I really loved! So I ask you all to indulge my gushing and try to read on to the end without developing a cavity,” wrote Janine Smith.
“When I say I was impressed from the first, I mean from the moment I opened the box! In this day of “batteries not included” and everything being extra, the folks at the Rocky Mountain Ventures Company, the makers of Flip-Pal, have included a 2GB SD memory card, a USB to SD adapter, in case you don’t have an SD card reader handy, photo-stitching and color correction software, a window protector sheet so your Flip-Pal window doesn’t get scratched, and, yes, batteries! But, really, the first thing I thought when I saw the Flip-Pal? “Oh, My Gosh! Is this thing cute, or what?!?,” wrote Janine Smith.
In this video, Tiffany Windsor demonstrates how to use the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner. It’s versatile and easy to use and you can scan images, large and small anytime, anywhere!
Don’t forget to “like” MobileScanning on Facebook and enter the Cool2Craft Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner giveaway!
Here are some comments on Cool2Craft website. Enter today!
“WOW! What an awesome tool. I can think of many reasons to have this.My mom just asked me if I can scan photos of her parents, they are from 1920! I was too scared to take them for fear of loosing them or damaging them! This tool, I could scan them (and more) right at her home! I take photos for a volunteer group for our Veterans. Like I said..many uses. AWESOME!”
“Isn’t it amazing how technology keeps making lives more fun and interesting!? I would love to have a portable scanner like that! It would make crafting and creating so much easier. I could scan old family documents that years ago were placed in sealed frames and therefore impossible to remove from the frame without damaging the item. Or, when doing research at the library in books that can’t be checked out, so creating family tree albums would come together much easier!”
“I would love to win the Flip Pal! I watched the demo you did on Cool to Craft and loved it. I am an artist and every time I do a drawing or a painting that is bigger than my scanner, I wish I could somehow fit it into the scanner. I make handmade cards from my art that is sold at the local Visually Impaired Persons Support Center to help raise money for blind and partially sighted persons. They can’t see the art but the funds help them to learn assistive technology to access the web and use a computer with talking software. I can see how this scanner could help the partially sighted also. They would be able to scan a document and then input it into a computer so the computer could hear it read to them or blow it up to a font that is big enough for them to read. I would love to be able to experiment with all the possibilities. Thanks for having the contest. Hope I win.”
“I would love a chance to win such a prize. I would scan pictures that relatives don’t want to lend for fear of not getting them back. Nature items like flowers and leaves would be fun. Would try pictures on phone. I am sure there are many items I have not thought of that I could scan. Loved the Flip Pal Tiffany showed and the glue embossing Heidi demonstrated. The jewelry, parade and barn show were great too. On to PJ Party Wed.”
The Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner has been built to high quality standards and will withstand normal wear and tear to be expected from a portable device. Here are some precautions you can take to ensure your Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner is always working at peak performance:
Keep the glass scanning surface free of lint, smudges and other debris
Avoid physical shock
Avoid electrostatic shock
When not in use for long periods of time, do not store with batteries installed
Avoid exposing to temperature extremes
More detail on some of these items can be found on our mobile scanner Technical Specifications page.
What can you do with pictures or documents that are larger than 4×6? It’s easy! All you need to do is make multiple scans of the original, then stitch them together later on your PC using the included stitching software.
First Make Multiple Scans
Remove the lid and flip the scanner over. Make multiple scans, with at least one inch overlap between adjacent scans. The overlaps need not be aligned or spaced precisely; the stitching software compensates for that. It is OK to scan past the edge of the photo.
IMPORTANT: Keep the scanner oriented the same direction for all of the scans of one photo rather than rotating it around.
Next, Stitch them Together
You will find the stitching software in the Flip-Pal. It’s really easy to use!
1. Click Stitch Scans from the Flip-Pal Toolbox
2. Click File>Open, then select the images to be stitched. (Press Shift or Ctrl while clicking on each image that you want to select)
3. Click Open at bottom of the Open screen. The program automatically stitches the images together into a single image, displays the stitched image using your default photo editing or viewing program, and automatically saves the stitched image as pano.jpg in the same folder as the original images.
4. If your default photo viewing program is also a photo editor, you can use it to crop, rotate or make other edits to the image. Next, save the photo and give it a unique name by clicking File, then Save As or Copy As.
5. If your default photo viewing program does not allow you to save and name the image, it is recommended that you close the photo viewer, find the pano.jpg file and rename it with a unique name.
The Stitching software automatically names the stitched image pano.jpg unless you choose a different name. This would over-write any previous stitched image with the name pano.jpg.
Hello Everyone. I am Stefan and I am the test engineer for the Rocky Mountain Ventures Company. During our Labor Day picnic, I showed the Flip-Pal mobile scanner to my family and friends. The reaction was very enthusiastic and everyone thought of a different application for the Flip-Pal. However the best way to summarize Flip-Pal comes from my nephew. He said it is “really cool”!
For the past week, I got the pleasure to play with Flip-pal and take it for a long test drive. Let me list some of the many advantages and applications for Flip-Pal.
Mobility
It is relatively light and small and you can take it with you anywhere.
If you need to do research at the library or copy class notes, take along
your Flip-Pal and you can quickly scan any document. The mobility also allows you to scan photos and small poster boards anywhere. No connection
needed and no umbilical cord.
Flip side
Flip-Pal gives you the option of taking off the lid and putting the scanner on top of the document and scan it. This gives you added mobility
and scanning options.
Photos
Like many others, I also have several shoe boxes filled with old photos
that I would like to convert to digital. Flip-Pal gives you the
convenience to scan those pictures quickly and file them digitally on your
computer or CD ROM.
Color Restoration
Do you have any photographs that have been hanging on the well for a
number of years and the sunshine has faded the color? I have several of
those pictures. With Flip-Pal, I can scan in the picture and restore the
color to it’s original shade.
During the CHA Supershow, I was lucky to spend some time with an awesome group of scrapbooking ladies. They were creating scrapbook page layouts, sharing scrapbook ideas and supplies with each other, and having a good ole’ time. Well, after I did a brief Flip-Pal mobile scanner demo, I then went around the room and asked them what they thought about our portable scanning technology. To say the least, they loved it! But if you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself! by Shantel
Here are just a few stories our users have shared with us:
Gary: “I like to send the scanner to my relatives via postal mail to capture their pictures of my family. Then, they send it to the next relative. After two weeks I get the scanner back with lots of pictures that I can make a slideshow out of.”
Mike: “I’m working on a term paper for class and I take my portable scanner with me to capture information at the library. I scan the tidbits of information I need from the books and save them to the scanner’s card. When I get back home, I can pop the card into my PC. It’s great not to have to lug books around or waste time typing up notes.”
Sarah: “I love scrapbooking and my mobile scanner is perfect for putting together creative memories at my kitchen table. I scan the pictures I want and save them on the SD card. Then I pop out the card and use it to print the pictures on my portable printer. I can cut up the new copies anyway I like and print out new ones if I need to.”
Manuel: “My mom has lots of old pictures that are starting to deteriorate. I take my mobile scanner with me to her house and scan a few photos every time I visit. I store them on the scanner’s card, and take them back home with me to burn onto a CD and email to my family and friends.”
