I get lots of ads from Nuance and IRIS due to having registered a couple of desktop scanners that included OCR and Scanning applications from them, but until now the hand scan devices they've offered have been only wide enough for scanning newspaper columns or business cards.

A recent ad for the Iris Scan Book 2 indicates a scan width of 8.25 inches that would be suitable for most letter size (8.5x11 inch or A4) pages without photomerging, at a "special offer" price of $129 (US). I don't see a "list price" so can't tell if the "special offer" is all that special.

The scanner is battery powered and works without a computer connection during scanning. It claims 3 seconds per page for color at 600 dpi, or 2 sec/p for BW, for A4 size, and includes "ReadIris Pro 12" for OCR (List for ReadIris is $129) and a 2 GB memory card (can use up to 32 GB). I have an older version of ReadIris with one of my scanners and have been satisfied with the results it produces.

Since I've got two scanners that can autofeed stacks of pages and 3 flat beds, I likely won't rush out to get a hand scanner, but this one might be of interest to someone with different scanning needs, and is from some people I've had at least some mostly satisfactory experience with.

Since I don't have any specific experience with the device, you'll have to do your own checks on the specs. It's your money.

John