One of my favorite parts of spy movies, aside from hotties like Daniel Craig, are the fabulous gadgets that aid the spy in hunting down the bad guys and uncovering deep dark secrets. When they're not saved in encrypted files, those secrets are often hidden on manuscripts and if the spy is lucky, he'll have a nifty scanner ring, camera or locket to record his findings.

I'm no 007, but the prospect of using a Docupen portable scanner was pretty alluring. The actual pen is much smaller than I expected: It's obviously as wide as a piece of paper and as thick as about three Bic pens. After loading the software onto my computer, I whipped out my copy of this month's Technology Review, selected a color page (it's actually a color scanner!) and whipped out the pen.

To read my review and check out the scan, read more