Bluetooth Barcode Scanners

[bl0nde]

Hi,
I'd like to ask for any recommendations of bluetooth barcode scanners that can work with OS X - My dad has a collection of about 10,000 books that he wants to start cataloging and scanning onto his iMac. The books are scattered around various rooms in the house, and as he won't be able to bring the books to a scanner, he'll have to bring the scanner to the books. I browsed the forums a bit, but couldn't specifically find the names of any models of bluetooth scanner, so forgive me if this question has been brought up before.
Much appreciated,
Vasanth

[Nora]

Hi Vasanth,

the Flic bluetooth seems to be a popular model. I believe you'll need the application Serialio SerialMagic as well to transfer the scanned serials from the scanner into another application, i.e. Bookpedia. (I've heard this from another user who is currently testing that set up with fairly good results.)

Nora

[Jasperhound]

I've heard this from another user who is currently testing that set up with fairly good results.

I'll confess to being the 'other user'. In principle the Flic bluetooth scanner works for entering data into the -pedias. I'm using OS 10.4.5 on an Intel iMac. I've had some problems which may result from adopting this new technology. As Nora notes, any connection between a Flic (Bluetooth or USB) and a Mac requires the use of a programme called SerialMagic; SerialMagic takes the scans from the Flic and sends them on to a running programme that you specify.

Microvision, the Flic maker, is able to download scans via a USB cable to its Mac. This means that you don't need to buy a Bluetooth Flic, you can buy a regular Flic with remote scanning capability and save some money. The only 'extra' required is a free serial-to-USB driver. Unfortunately that driver doesn't appear to work with an Intel iMac; Microvision is chasing this up with the writers of the driver and, I hope, will resolve this issue soon.

SerialMagic (which is written in Java) seems to experience difficulties in remaining connected to the Flic via Bluetooth. Again it's not clear whether this is another Intel iMac issue.

In summary the Flic/pedia route is a good way to go and should help your father catalogue his books; though probably not all of them as, I suspect, like me he will have many that were issued before the invention of barcodes.