Review - IntelliScanner Wine Collector
A simple way to catalog your wine collection. Just scan in the bar code for each bottle, no typing needed. Such is the promise of the IntelliScanner Wine Collector, a hardware and software solution for Windows and Mac. The price starts at $179 and includes a bar scanner.
The main part of this hardware/software bundle is a handheld bar code reader. The one I tested plug into a USB slot on your computer, but there is a wireless bluetooth version available as well for (for $279) . No actual software ships with the scanner. Instead, a slip of paper tells you where to download the software, and supplies a registration number.
Inteli Innovations also makes other applications available for the scanner (available bundled together, or separately). Besides Wine Collector, you can get Media Collector to help you keep control of your books, DVDs, games and such, Home Assets for your personal goods, and Auction Automator to keep track of items you may be auctioning. All of these applications are available for Windows XP/2000/NT and Mac OS X 10.3+ (I of course tested the Mac version).
After using the system I was intrigued to realize that the scanner just converts the bar code into the number that happens to printed under the code. The scanner is recognized by your computer as a keypad, and in fact you can type the numbers in almost as quickly as you can scan them.
Since the scanner just saves you a few seconds of typing time, if that, the software would have to be the real reason to buy this package. Unfortunately, the software falls short in some very critical areas.
After scanning (or typing) in the bar code number, Wine Collector looks up the number on their on-line data base, and fills in the various fields, name, vintage and so on. Herein lies the problem.
First off, you have to be connected to the internet. You can not scan in a bunch of wines, and then connect to the Internet and look them up in batches. It is strictly a one at a time affair. This makes using the scanner and software on a laptop in your cellar useful only if your cellar has an Internet connection.
The second problem is the wine data base itself. It is a "peer submitted" data base, meaning people add their own entries to it and it has the potential to become more accurate with time. As of this writing, only a few of the wines I tested were listed in the data base. And as is also too often the case with these type of lookups, the data it did find was inaccurate and usually in the wrong field.
Therefore, even if the wine you are looking up is found, there is a good chance you will have to retype much or all of the data anyway. Since older wines don't have bar codes most collectors will find few of their wines can be entered automatically using the scanner. A partial remedy is supplied, in the form of preprinted bar codes you can add to your wines.
That leaves the software itself. Again, it falls short of being useful for most wine collectors. The fields are not flexible enough to accommodate the many different ways wines need to be listed. And while there are a few custom fields you can add, they are limited. The software hides quantities under the tasting tab, and as far as i can tell, there is no way to sort the data once it is all in.
That is not to say that the software is not useful. It allows groupings by manual lists, and even automatically by criteria. It has search capabilities and you can even add label art work if you wish.
Ultimately, Wine Collector fails for me because of the inability to look up wines in batches, and due to the inaccuracies of the data base. If you have a lot of newer wines, which have bar codes on them, and you are willing to put in the time to correct any mistakes, and share your manually entered wines, then Wine Collector can be fun to use, if not actually practical. If you have a data base you are already using, chances are it is geared more to the way you enter your wines, and you should probably just keep on using it.
Wine Collector is still only in version 1. Perhaps as it matures and addresses some of the shortcomings I have listed, it will be worth revisiting.
The main part of this hardware/software bundle is a handheld bar code reader. The one I tested plug into a USB slot on your computer, but there is a wireless bluetooth version available as well for (for $279) . No actual software ships with the scanner. Instead, a slip of paper tells you where to download the software, and supplies a registration number.
Inteli Innovations also makes other applications available for the scanner (available bundled together, or separately). Besides Wine Collector, you can get Media Collector to help you keep control of your books, DVDs, games and such, Home Assets for your personal goods, and Auction Automator to keep track of items you may be auctioning. All of these applications are available for Windows XP/2000/NT and Mac OS X 10.3+ (I of course tested the Mac version).
After using the system I was intrigued to realize that the scanner just converts the bar code into the number that happens to printed under the code. The scanner is recognized by your computer as a keypad, and in fact you can type the numbers in almost as quickly as you can scan them.
Since the scanner just saves you a few seconds of typing time, if that, the software would have to be the real reason to buy this package. Unfortunately, the software falls short in some very critical areas.
After scanning (or typing) in the bar code number, Wine Collector looks up the number on their on-line data base, and fills in the various fields, name, vintage and so on. Herein lies the problem.
First off, you have to be connected to the internet. You can not scan in a bunch of wines, and then connect to the Internet and look them up in batches. It is strictly a one at a time affair. This makes using the scanner and software on a laptop in your cellar useful only if your cellar has an Internet connection.
The second problem is the wine data base itself. It is a "peer submitted" data base, meaning people add their own entries to it and it has the potential to become more accurate with time. As of this writing, only a few of the wines I tested were listed in the data base. And as is also too often the case with these type of lookups, the data it did find was inaccurate and usually in the wrong field.
Therefore, even if the wine you are looking up is found, there is a good chance you will have to retype much or all of the data anyway. Since older wines don't have bar codes most collectors will find few of their wines can be entered automatically using the scanner. A partial remedy is supplied, in the form of preprinted bar codes you can add to your wines.
That leaves the software itself. Again, it falls short of being useful for most wine collectors. The fields are not flexible enough to accommodate the many different ways wines need to be listed. And while there are a few custom fields you can add, they are limited. The software hides quantities under the tasting tab, and as far as i can tell, there is no way to sort the data once it is all in.
That is not to say that the software is not useful. It allows groupings by manual lists, and even automatically by criteria. It has search capabilities and you can even add label art work if you wish.
Ultimately, Wine Collector fails for me because of the inability to look up wines in batches, and due to the inaccuracies of the data base. If you have a lot of newer wines, which have bar codes on them, and you are willing to put in the time to correct any mistakes, and share your manually entered wines, then Wine Collector can be fun to use, if not actually practical. If you have a data base you are already using, chances are it is geared more to the way you enter your wines, and you should probably just keep on using it.
Wine Collector is still only in version 1. Perhaps as it matures and addresses some of the shortcomings I have listed, it will be worth revisiting.
posted by Wineguy at 4:54 PM
4 Comments:
Is there a wine tracking app which you like better? I've tried several and found they all had severe limitations, like only allowing 24 characters or something so ridiculous for "notes", or not allowing user to update the list of regions, etc.
I am a computer guy, when I am not teaching wine, so I make my own. I do the same for clients, but I have found few people (including myself) really keep them up to date.
If you are at all comfortable with any data base application, making your own will always work out better. It will be more flexible and you can customize it to your heart's content.
That said, I have thought about publishing wine collecting software myself. If you or others have any feedback on what you would like to see, please feel free to email me at wineguy@wineeducation.com.
Very poor customer service from intelliscanner. If you buy from them, think twice or even more because they shipping and response email is too slow. I don't know how they operate their business but I sent email to inquire about my order status, today is 4 days, I still have not received any email back from them. They told me that my requested has been in queue. In queue for 4 days? Must be kidding ...
Do yourself a favor and enter your wine into an excel spreadheet rather than waste your money on this IntelliScanner program. It is useless.
I inventoried a wine cellar with 3000 bottles and found first, that most good wines don't have barcodes and second, the ones that do were not recognized by their database or were recognized and it filled in incorrect or incomplete information.
Also, you have to look up and enter any ratings separately. The only thing it is good for is displaying where in the cellar the bottle is located. Not worth the price.
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