The best cheap scanner

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.

By Lizz Schumer

After more than 40 hours of researching scanners and testing the four units that made our final cut, we found the $90 Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 is the fastest, most accurate, and most intuitive flatbed scanner for everyday users. Whether you’re saving an old photo, a child’s artwork, or an excerpt from a book, the LiDE 220 produces the clearest scans with the sharpest lines and most vivid colors. In our tests, it also offered the most accurate text recognition across all documents. This light and compact unit can work upright, as well, and because it requires just one USB port, it won’t clutter up your workspace.

How we picked

Testing scanners with photo prints.

We searched for a scanner that is equally capable of scanning text documents for work, making a shareable version of treasured photos, or preserving a copy of a first-grader’s finger-painted masterpiece. Beyond making an excellent scan of anything we put inside of it, our scanner pick also had to be fast, easy to use, and affordable. That gave us just four models to test, which we put through a battery of comparisons by scanning books, printouts, newspapers, photographs and images in various colors and styles, finger painting, and film negatives (when appropriate).

Our pick

The CanoScan LiDE 220 is fast, accurate, and affordable.

The $90 Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 captures cleaner images than the competition, offers easy setup and use, accurately scans text documents, and can fit into small spaces when not in use. When you’re done scanning, it’s compact enough to fit on a bookshelf, out of the way. Using the LiDE 220, you can scan written material, photos, artwork, or other hard-copy materials quickly and with a minimal learning curve. Although it does not scan photo negatives and stalls periodically when faced with high-volume scanning, it does what the average user needs it to do, without too many unwanted features, for less than $100.

One caveat: Some users are reporting trouble with Canon’s drivers and Windows 10. This problem doesn’t appear to be universal, though, and Canon is investigating.

For film buffs

If you want to scan your own film and can afford to pay a bit more, the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II is the way to go.

The runner-up, the $170 Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II, provides almost identical functionality to the LiDE 220 but also gives you the option of scanning film negatives. That’s a hefty premium for a fairly minor feature, but if you’re intent on digitizing old film and slides via an easy-to-use interface, it’s the way to go.

For accuracy above usability

Accurate images—at the cost of usability.

If you want to scan film but need a more accurate image than the Canon 9000F Mark II can produce, consider the $170 Epson Perfection V550. You’ll have to battle a confusing interface, and we encountered some issues with setup and functionality, but once we had the V550 up and running, it scanned with more accuracy than the Canon models did, with less post-processing or sharpening built in. If you value getting the truest possible scan over anything else, this model is a sensible purchase, but otherwise we suggest going with Canon for a product that’s much easier to use.

Wrapping it up

If you want to digitize a child’s artwork or preserve old photos on the Web, and if you don’t need to scan film, the $90 Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 is the right choice. It’s easy to use, simple to set up, capable of capturing bright and sharp images, and designed to stow away easily when not in use.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

How To: Gift a Google Play Music subscription

Google has quietly introduced a new feature as part of its Play Music service which lets users offer up gifts. Said gifts come in the form of 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month subscriptions to Google Play Music All Access. Indeed, a few short steps separate you from pre-paying for all the music your friend could ever want. Here’s how to do it!

Step 1

Inside of the Google Play Music web client, scroll to the bottom left. Just above the Trash and Settings is a new “Send gift” option. Clicking it takes you to a landing page; you can also just click the link directly, too.

Step 2

Choose which gift subscription you’d like to pay for. The rates shake out to $9.99 per month, regardless of which level you purchase.

Step 3

Fill in the appropriate information. Where’s it going? Who do you want it to say the gift is from? You also have 200 characters to use for any sort of message, too. When you’re ready, hit “continue”.

Step 4

Verify the information and enter your payment details. Send it!

Note that the recipient has the opportunity to decline the gift. If that happens, you can send it to someone else.

The post How To: Gift a Google Play Music subscription appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Deal: amazingly portable Cord2Go micro-USB cable only $8.99

Any tech geek will know the hassles of having to carry a charger at all times. There’s no day I leave home without a tangled ball of cords, which happens to be quite annoying when the time to charge my device does arrive. Isn’t there a better way to handle these long cables?

There is, and you can enjoy it for very cheap! The AA Deals Store is selling the Cord2Go microUSB cable for only $8.99. But what is it, exactly? In essence, it’s pretty much a small cable in a neat case that keeps everything together. There are slots for the USB and microUSB ports, allowing it to be easily stored and carried around. This thing is so thin (5 mm) and light (1 oz) that you could even fit it in a wallet or use as a key chain.

You really can’t go wrong with this Cord2Go microUSB cable. It is super cheap and will literally change your life. Buy yourself one and just leave those annoying cables at home, where they belong!

Buy the Cord2Go microUSB cable for only $8.99!

Nike and Adidas turn to tech to make sneaker shopping safer

I recently bought an online shopping cart from a 16-year-old on Twitter. And when I say “an online shopping cart,” I mean it: In exchange for $140, I received a login code to Nike’s site that guaranteed me a pair of highly coveted sneakers, the “Chicago” Air Jordan 1s. That code was won through a Twitter-based raffle, a system Nike has started testing for limited edition releases; I had entered myself, but wasn’t lucky enough to have my name drawn. Instead, while sadly browsing the social network to see how many people were chosen, I came across a young kid from New Mexico who had been picked and wasn’t interested in purchasing the shoes. I reached out to him; we followed each other on Twitter; and, after vetting my character over direct messages to make sure I wasn’t a scammer, he agreed to sell his “ticket” to me. It was bizarre, considering I still had to pay the $160-plus-tax retail price for the footwear. But, nowadays, it’s the kind of thing you have to do to get Jordans. My other option was to find them on eBay or Amazon and shell out $400 to $500 — more than twice as much as the original MSRP.

Here’s the deal, though: I’m not talking about any sneaker. This is a retro Nike Air, the kind Jordan wore during his professional basketball career, and part of the replica models that have turned his brand into a cultural and fashion phenomenon. Since 1984, Jordan’s first year with the Chicago Bulls, Nike has made 29 versions of his signature shoe, each with multiple color variations. But they’re not all equal. Every now and then, a pair comes along that’s special enough to make sole collectors go above and beyond to secure them — to the point where lining up at retail shops became unsafe over the past few years. Back in December 2011, for example, during the release of a retro Air Jordan 11, there were reports of physical violence at stores like Foot Locker in California, North Carolina, New York and Texas. The next year, Joshua Woods, 22, was gunned down outside a Houston mall by three men who wanted to steal his newly purchased Jordans. He died a week later from his injuries, over a $185 pair of shoes.

A screenshot of the Nike countdown page for high-profile shoe releases, such as the Air Jordan 1 “Chicago.”

As it turns out, however, keeping the crowds under control is easier said than done.

Cases like these have led Nike to experiment with different purchasing methods for consumers, such as its SNKRS app for iOS and the Twitter lottery system I mentioned earlier. As it turns out, however, keeping the crowds under control is easier said than done. While the application, introduced earlier this year, was designed to provide an efficient and safe way to get access to special releases, it hasn’t worked that way in practice. On May 29th, Nike announced it would be canceling the online launch of the Air Jordan 1 “Chicago,” which was supposed to be the application’s first real test — since thousands of people were expected to overwhelm it, and Nike’s site, with traffic. “Nike is committed to creating the most premium experiences for our consumers online,” the company said in a statement regarding its decision to temporarily pull the plug on the shoe. “Bots have been compromising the experience around specific products. We’re working hard to make sure real consumers are the ones getting access.”

Bots are every sneakerhead’s worst nightmare, especially on the day of a major launch. Shortly after Nike began selling limited edition shoes online, and via the SNKRS app, some people found a way to gain an unfair advantage over others. A bot could be self-coded and come in the form of a browser plugin, with its main purpose being to save you time setting up your order; a simple click and anyone can skip directly to a predetermined place on a website. Say Nike tweets out a link to a product page for long-awaited Jordans; you could then use your bot to have the pair added to your cart instantly — complete with your shoe size and other personal information filled in, such as your name and address. And believe me, every second counts: The longer you take to place your order, the more likely the Jordans you want will run out of stock.

The drawing for the Air Jordan 1 begins Wednesday, 9.30 at 7pm EDT. Here’s how it works: http://t.co/JINFuddsB4 pic.twitter.com/E3soq3lpXm

— Nike.com (@nikestore) September 29, 2015

While one could argue that a savvy person shouldn’t be frowned upon for building their own bots — those are often associated with resellers, who are responsible for driving up the prices of sneakers on the market. These people don’t buy limited-run shoes because they want to wear them; they buy to sell for a large profit on eBay, Flight Club, Amazon and other third-party sites. That’s why Nike is now trying a new lottery system on Twitter, with the goal being to control the crowds at brick-and-mortar stores as well as on the web.

This is how it works: Nike sends out a tweet with a link to a retro sneaker, after which you have 60 minutes to enter the raffle. After you’ve signed in with your Nike+ account and entered the verification code sent to your phone, you pick your size and whether you want to have the shoes shipped or do a pick-up at your local Nike store on launch day. Within 24 hours, the company will send you an email to let you know whether you were chosen and have reserved a pair. If so, you get sent a private link to the product where you can pay for it and, voila, it’s yours. (I’ve entered a couple of Nike lotteries to no avail, hence the ridiculous amount of money I paid for someone else’s token.)

Nike, which declined to comment for this story, has completely given up on releasing high-profile shoes on its SNKRS app, at least as it intended from the beginning. Last time a limited release came out, nearly a month ago, the application basically acted as a barebones web browser that simply let you enter the raffle from within. That’s not how Nike pegged it when it launched. Still, using the app to buy other types of shoes remains a pleasant experience, thanks to its big, pretty imagery and a speedy checkout process.

Not surprisingly, The Swoosh isn’t the only one trying to come up with a solution that works for everyone. Adidas is doing something similar with its Confirmed app, available on iOS and Android, which is designed to make it easy for people to purchase Kanye West’s Yeezy Boost sneakers. The Yeezy Boost has been one of, if not the, most hyped footwear lines of 2015. Unlike Nike’s SNKRS app, though, Confirmed is only available in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. But its purpose is similar.

Once Yeezy season hits, the Adidas app will let you know the exact date a sneaker is expected to be released and, on that day, you’re able to reserve a pair and pick it up from a retail store when it comes out. That’s assuming the application doesn’t crumble under the heavy traffic pressure, as has been the case every time I’ve tried to order a pair of Yeezys — first the Boost 750, then the blacked-out 350s. To put things in perspective, Adidas sold the Boost 750 for $350 at launch, before selling out, and now you can find them on eBay for anywhere between $800 and $3,000 (brand-new).

Real people know. I’m off the kids getting killed for Jordan’s. I hate that this dude won’t change that. Greedy! https://t.co/tcpL2whXVE

— I AM PEACE STAR (@StarburyMarbury) October 6, 2015

“Right now there’s not a safe, fair and efficient way to launch products, period, and we saw an opportunity,” says Brandon Beaty, director of brand communications at Adidas Originals, about the idea behind Confirmed and how the app came to be. “Today the industry standard is Twitter, or sometimes it’s a Twitter-based system. Sometimes it’s a manual lottery system, and there’s problems with those. Some are riddled with bots; some are perceived to be unfair; some are manual. We wanted to take that out of it, streamline it, make it fair and also make it safe.”

“Right now there’s not a safe, fair and efficient way to launch products, period, and we saw an opportunity.”

When Beaty mentions safety, he’s of course referring to violence over a pair of sneakers. “The reality today is that lines out the door isn’t the cool thing anymore. We used to say energy is perceived by if there’s a line around the corner, but the reality is the majority of malls are actually shutting those down,” he says. “Ideally, there should not be a line for a Kanye West shoe, or whatever shoe we’re launching within that app, at the retailer in which you’re getting it, so we’re eliminating the line, but we’re also still making it fair for everyone to be able to purchase it.” As for what Adidas is doing to combat bots, Beaty says the app is “close guarded to those bots and threats” he sees other launch-reservation systems fall victim to. Still, Confirmed is far from perfect, and that has to do with Adidas not making enough supply to meet demand — there aren’t enough Yeezy Boosts to go around.

Kanye West showing off his coveted Yeezy Boost 750 sneakers.

“One thing we could do is you make more product available and then it doesn’t sell out as quickly. That’s not something strategically that you just turn the faucet on right away. We have a plan; we’re going to build that business, in a very smart way over time,” Beaty explains. “So a lot of the responses and I think frustration is that people aren’t able to get the shoe, and that’s a very fair frustration. What I would say is that no matter what happens along that experience within the app, no one is given an unfair advantage and that’s the number one thing that we wanna make sure happens. We hope that everyone has a level playing field and everyone has the same shot at getting the shoe as the person next to them, as long as you’re in that territory [where the app is live].”

Between Nike’s SNKRS app and its Twitter raffles, plus Adidas Confirmed, both sportswear juggernauts are preparing well for the future of shopping, taking into account past and present elements that are going to shape the experience for consumers. Yes, there are tedious growing pains, but it beats having to wait in line at a store and risk not making it out alive — unfortunately, that’s not an exaggeration.

[Image credits: Associated Press (Air Jordans), Getty Images (Yeezy Boost 750s)]

Germany orders recall of 8.5 million emissions-cheating Volkwagens

The outcome for consumers affected by the diesel emissions cheating scandal that has enveloped Volkswagen over the past month is becoming clearer, at least in Europe. According to the AP, Germany is ordering the company to recall all cars that include the emissions-cheating software across the European Union. That comes out to 8.5 million cars out of the total 11 million affected vehicles that were sold worldwide. Naturally, the fix will be free for owners — and it’s still possible that Volkswagen could compensate those who own cars affected by the scandal, as resale values are sure to drop significantly.

About 2.4 million of those cars are located in Germany itself, with another 363,000 found in Austria. In the United States, about 482,000 cars are believed to be affected. Next week, the company is expected to tell the US Environmental Protection Agency for 90,000 of those vehicles; the fix will be tested before the EPA can go forward with its push for a recall. But it’s unclear as to when the nearly 400,000 remaining cars will be fixed.

In Europe, most of the cars will be fixed can be fixed via a replacement software update, though a number of them will need to be physically altered — VW says that hardware change may not be ready until the fall of 2016. Indeed, new Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller said that the recall would “stretch through the 2016 calendar year.”

[Image credit: AP/Luca Bruno]

Source: Associated Press