UMAX Technologies: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 11:15, 1 February 2014

UMAX Technologies (originally UMAX Computer Corporation) is a manufacturer of computer products, including scanners, mice, and flash drives, based in Taiwan. The company also uses the Yamada and Vaova brand names.^[1]

History

UMAX was formerly a maker of Apple Macintosh clones, using the SuperMac brand name outside of Europe. Some of their models included the SuperMac S900/S910, J700, C500 and C500e/i/LT, C600e/v/LT/x and Aegis 200. The C500 was marketed as the Apus 2000 in Europe. After Steve Jobs returned to Apple as the new CEO, he revoked all of the clone producers' licenses to produce Mac clones except for UMAX,^[2] due to their sub-US$1000 low-end offerings, a market in which Apple was not strong, and UMAX's stated desire to expand the Macintosh platform's presence in East Asian markets. UMAX could not remain profitable selling only these systems, however; it briefly made IBM PC compatible computers in the mid-1990s, but since then UMAX has mainly concentrated on manufacturing scanners.^[3]

In 2002 UMAX started to charge its US customers for scanner drivers—a practice that soon proved controversial.^[4]^[5]

UMAX also made a 1.3 megapixel digital camera called the AstraPix 490. It is capable of recording video clips, functioning as a webcam and can even be used to listen to music encoded in MP3 format.

Scanners

Astra 2100U
Astra 4900
Astra 4950
Astra 5600
Astra 6700
AstraSlim
AstraSlim SE
PowerLook 1000
PowerLook 1120
PowerLook 2100XL
PowerLook 180
PowerLook 270

Scanner software

UMAX offers some semi-free (in the sense that some versions/updates cost money and some don't) basic scanner software:

VistaScan is their basic TWAIN scanner module, which also contains WIA drivers in its newer versions. The user interface is somewhat simplified and a little gaudy. Not all versions work with all products. In general, VistaScan versions after 3.55 no longer support SCSI scanners. The German site of UMAX has a (bilingual) web page/wizard that helps the user select the proper version for their scanner.^[6]
MagicScan is the higher-end version of the above with a user interface aimed at more experienced users; it does not ship with the cheaper scanners (Astra etc.) but only with the higher-end (PowerLook) scanners. It does however work with many of the cheaper UMAX scanners.^[7] Versions after 4.71 don't ship with SCSI drivers anymore.

Additionally, UMAX offers more sophisticated (typically non-free) third-party photo scanning/correction software:

binuscan PhotoPerfect, which is a standalone application and has a plug-in for MagicScan; PhotoPerfect is also bundled with high-end scanners^[8] and sold separately for others^[9]
SilverFast 6.6 is compatible with many UMAX scanner (especially the SCSI ones) and is shipped with some high-end UMAX scanners.^[10] and offered separately for others^[11]^[12]

For optical character recognition, some UMAX scanners come bundled with OmniPage^[8] and others with Abby FineReader.

References

External links

[brandnames-1] UMAX's website in the UK

[2] Article^{[dead link]} at cucug.org

[3] The History of UCC and the SuperMac Computers: "The End", SuperMac Insider, 2003. (archived webpage)

[4] Now you pay for Drivers – UMAX pioneers new price gouge

[5] UMAX US offers price cut … for free drivers/

[6] ttp://www.umax.de/support/treiber.htm

[7] Using MagicScan instead of VistaScan to avoid the RAM Doubler conflict

[macw-8] ttp://www.macworld.com/article/1021589/umax.html MWSF: Umax Unveils Macworld Product Lineup]

[9] ttp://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62789

[10] Umax intros Astra 6700 scanner

[11] SilverFast supports more Umax scanners, Umax offers deal

[12] ttp://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62904

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 Additionally, UMAX offers more sophisticated (typically non-free) third-party photo scanning/correction software:
-* binuscan PhotoPerfect, which is a standalone application and has a plug-in for MagicScan;<ref>http://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62789</ref> PhotoPerfect is also bundled with high-end scanners.<ref name="macw">[http://www.macworld.com/article/1021589/umax.html MWSF: Umax Unveils Macworld Product Lineup]</ref>
+* binuscan PhotoPerfect, which is a standalone application and has a plug-in for MagicScan; PhotoPerfect is also bundled with high-end scanners<ref name="macw">http://www.macworld.com/article/1021589/umax.html MWSF: Umax Unveils Macworld Product Lineup]</ref> and sold separately for others<ref>http://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62789</ref>
-* [[SilverFast]] 6.6 is compatible with many UMAX scanner (especially the SCSI ones) and is shipped with some UMAX scanners.<ref>http://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62904#specifications</ref>
+* [[SilverFast]] 6.6 is compatible with many UMAX scanner (especially the SCSI ones) and is shipped with some high-end UMAX scanners.<ref>[http://www.macworld.com/article/1042901/astra.html Umax intros Astra 6700 scanner]</ref> and offered separately for others<ref>[http://www.macworld.com/article/1027604/silverfast.html SilverFast supports more Umax scanners, Umax offers deal]</ref><ref>http://umax.com/scanners/index.jsp?cate=Scanners%3A+Scanning+Software&skunum=SFTW-62904</ref>
 For [[optical character recognition]], some UMAX scanners come bundled with [[OmniPage]]<ref name="macw"/> and others with Abby [[FineReader]].