The NeatConnect Scanner Is a Cloud-Connected Guilty Pleasure

A hassle-free scanner that’s easy to set up and does most of what it promises to do. But there’s a catch: It costs $500.

By the Book

I hate that not everything ever written is on iBooks. Man, I hate paper.

Penn Jillette, in a New York Times interview

Celebrating the App Store’s Fifth Anniversary With Paper Co-Creator Georg Petschnigg

Georg Petschnigg, CEO of FiftyThree and one of the guys behind the popular iPad sketching app Paper, shares his thoughts on Apple’s App Store — its past and its future.

News Byte

Paper App Draws $15 Million in Funding From Andreessen Horowitz, Jack Dorsey

FiftyThree, the New York-based company behind the popular iPad sketching app Paper, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors include Shana Fisher of High Line Venture Partners, Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, Ron Conway and Jack Dorsey. FiftyThree is comprised of ex-Microsoft designers and engineers who created Paper to enhance productivity on the iPad. The app is free to download, and includes in-app purchases for utility tool kits. The company plans to hire talent and expand the collaborative features of the app with the fresh funding.

Interview: Bill Gates Talks About Tech Innovations for Vaccines Ahead of Global Confab

Solve this: One child every 20 seconds dies from a disease that could have been prevented by an existing vaccine.

Lettrs Tackles Letter-Sending in the Digital Age

Lettrs is like Evite for letters: It’s nicer than sending a simple email, but there are some things you just wouldn’t use it for.

News Byte

Computing Pioneer Ada Lovelace Gets Deserved Google Doodle

Google does commemorative logos — called Google Doodles — pretty regularly now. But today, it’s a much-deserved tip-of-the-pen to celebrate the 197th birthday of Ada Lovelace, a woman who is one of computing’s earliest pioneers. She was a collaborator of Charles Babbage, designer of the ground-breaking mechanical computers — which he never actually built — the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. Lovelace’s notes on the Analytical Engine are considered to be among the first algorithms created; she also theorized about the larger potential of computers beyond mathematics, including to make music. All that with just a quill and some paper.

Two Budget-Friendly Printers You Won’t Want to Throw Out the Window

Printers are normally a source of frustration. Here are two that keep it simple but still get the job done.

HP Sails Into Perfect Storm for Printers

Sales of printers, ink and paper are all heading south, and that has already showed up in the results of four major printer vendors. One has yet to report this quarter: Hewlett-Packard.

Debt Markets Aren’t Only Worried About HP, but Dell and Others, Too

Think HP and Dell are a long way from the kinds of trouble facing Nokia and Kodak? The credit markets say otherwise.