Specifications

Reviews
the card and highlights the area from which the text was grabbed. At this
point, it takes just a few seconds to verify the information and correct it. In
an elegant touch, CardScan 7.0 provides numerous ways to synchronize
scanned info with your PDA.
If we could change any-
thing about the CardScan
Executive, we’d add a more
effective bin to catch cards as
they’re scanned. We’d also fix
the software’s annoying prac-
tice of asking a user to register
each time a job is started.
Otherwise, the CardScan
Executive is a dream.
—GORDON MAH UNG
Corex CardScan Executive
This gadget eats through business cards
as if they were Pringles
MAXIMUMPC JANUARY 200584
Cuts through business cards like a light saber
through human flesh.
HANDSHAKE
BIZ CARD EXCHANGE
Program will nag you to register until you
finally do.
$250, www.corex.com
9
MAXIMUMPC
VERDICT
W
hen Logitech announced it had upgraded its Kick Ass
award-winning Z-2200 speakers, we figured the new
product would offer more of what we loved. Tragically,
this is not the case. In fact, Logitech’s Z-2300 set leaves a lot to
be desired, making this “upgrade” seem more like a downgrade.
The most disappointing aspect of the Z-2300 is the satellites,
which now look better but sound worse. The squat, gray-ish pods
of the previous system have been replaced by more elegant sil-
ver-colored satellites that are taller and thinner with black grilles.
The satellites sport slightly smaller phase-plug drivers, but are spec’d to
deliver the same power as their predecessors—40W per satellite.
Although the new sats are definitely easier on the eyes, they don’t offer
the same limitless power that the Z-2200 sats possessed. For example, when
testing the Z-2200 set, we cranked the subwoofer and master volume all the
way to maximum without the least hint of distortion. By contrast, when we
nudged the volume knob to three-quarters of maximum, the Z-2300 satellites
snapped, crackled, and popped so much we thought we were at the breakfast
table. Additionally, during our 20Hz-to-22kHz signal sweep, the satellites emit-
ted a bizarre high-frequency oscillation at about 300Hz we’ve never heard
before, and at the end of the test the subwoofer let out a long, rattling fart that
sounded like it had just come off a four-day chili-con-carne binge.
The subwoofer flatulence is a shame, because in every test prior to the
frequency sweep, the 8-inch subwoofer delivered incredibly powerful and
deep bass response. In fact, in back-to-back tests with our current favorite 2.1
rig—the Klipsch ProMedia GMX A-2.1—the Logitech subwoofer dominated the
proceedings, although the Klipsch satellites sounded much crisper.
In the end, Logitech has taken a significant step backward with the
Adding insult to injury, Logitech has hard-wired the Z-2300’s
speaker cable to the satellites—and provides just five feet of
cable per satellite.
Z-2300 system. At rational volume levels, the speakers deliver deep bass
and solid, punchy mids and highs. Crank it up a notch or two, though, and
quality disintegrates. Granted,
most people rarely crank
their speakers to maximum
volume levels, but when you
do go all-out, you sure as hell
don’t want the sound to fall
apart. That’s precisely why
we conduct all our tests at
peak volume. We wouldn’t be
Maximum PC if we didn’t.
—JOSH NOREM
Sublime audio at normal listening levels.
FIDELITY
INFIDELITY
Satellites crackle at high volume and subwoofer
farts during extremely deep bass.
$150, www.logitech.com
7
MAXIMUMPC
VERDICT
Logitech Z-2300
Disappointing performance take down a
former champion
D
emonstrating a stubbornness akin to the floppy drive’s, business cards
persist as a widely traded currency despite the presence of more mod-
ern alternatives (think the vCard, PDAs, and Bluetooth-enabled Smart
Phones). Thankfully, Corex’s new CardScan Executive can help you eliminate
the stacks of cards that have been festering on your desk for months. Or has it
been years?
The way it works is simple: You just grab a handful of your business cards
and individually feed them into the scanner. The process takes about as much
time as it would for the average computer geek to shovel a series of Pringles
into his maw. As we fed our stack of cards into the CardScan Executive, we
noticed several improvements to the already-impressive functionality of its
predecessor. For starters, we experienced a 33 percent speed increase and
eerily accurate character recognition. And while the new CardScan Executive
is still a color scanner, it’s now about half the size of the previous version. Even
better, it’s USB-powered, so your workspace won’t be burdened with another
bulky power brick.
The real magic is the CardScan 7.0 software that powers the device. As
mentioned above, we found this software’s OCR accuracy to be outstand-
ing. We scanned about eight months worth of backlogged business cards
and the software correctly identified and slotted approximately 95 percent
of the stash without the need for manual editing. For cards that do need to
be manually corrected, the software shows you a color scanned image of
OK, no more
empty promises.
Start the New Year right
by scanning all the business cards
you’ve amassed.