Scanmarker Air

The Scanmarker Air aims to make revision, note taking and research a faster and more user-friendly process with this digital highlighter. It certainly feels more like a highlighter than a pen in your hand with its chunky design, but it is comfortable to hold and incredibly light weight at just 60g, the downside to this is that the plastic casing does feel a little fragile and it only comes with a draw string pouch to protect it in your bag, they do sell hard cases on their online store to make you feel a bit safer.

The Scanmarker Air is compatible with devices with Bluetooth 4.0 or newer, Windows 7+, Mac OS X 10.10+, Android 4.3+, iOS 7+ and iPhone 4S/iPad 3+. Packed with tech the Air has a scanning width of 1cm (0.4 Inch) with a transparent plastic tip and light making it easy to direct, you don’t have to press down but be aware that the tip can leave marks on soft or old pages (if you don’t apply too much pressure no marks are left), you may also not be allowed to use the light on certain texts. Once connected to your smart device simply scan the Air across the page and the text will appear on your screen in real time, it proved highly accurate. Things get a little trickier when it comes to using the translation feature, with over 40 languages including some rather obscure ones, it will do a good job at getting the basic information of the text, but you will certainly need to review it to correct grammar and slang words.

All the text can be edited via any computer application, allowing you to adjust the notes straight away or save them for later. The Air can read aloud in real-time which is really helpful for people with difficulty to read (i.e. dyslectic). The Air recognises 3000 characters per minute, that’s a full line of text within one second and can scan text from sizes 6 – 24pt, it can also be configured for both left and right-handed uses. A few things to consider, you will need WiFi and Bluetooth activated for all the functions, the battery will last up to a couple of hours with constant use, the company guarantees at least 500 scans between charging which last for a typical user for 4-6 days. You just have to make sure that the initial 3 hourse charge is performed) but it is easy to recharge from your laptop via the USB charger, your device needs to be within one metre of the Scanmarker for a stable connection. The Scanmarker Air is a handy tool if you spend a lot of time annotating, note taking and translating for various projects, it certainly isn’t perfect when it comes to translation but it much better than trawling through a translation dictionary. RRP $116

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