Just about everyone who has used one seems to rave about Fujitsu's ScanSnap line of sheet-fed scanners, especially when combined with OCR software like DEVONthink Pro Office. The only problem has been the price, running at nearly $500. Well, Macworld is reporting that Fujitsu is finally going to release Mac support for their newest, portable ScanSnap S300 which has hitherto been Windows only and which costs a considerably more palatable $295.

Unfortunately, it will not come with the full version of Adobe Acrobat like the more expensive scanners in the line, but it looks to be a good deal both for mobile and for home users looking to get organized. It will provide full-duplex scanning to PDF at 8ppm. Fujitsu's site has not been updated yet, but the scanner is expected to ship in March.

John Gruber already pointed out some flaws of The Register's Lance Davis who doubts the iPhone, but I have an even bigger problem with the line of thinking Davis used in his analysis. He writes:

Remember, the mobile industry is one where some of the biggest companies in the world have tried and failed: Siemens, Philips, Fujitsu. None of them have creditable [sic] market shares. Even IBM put a toe in the water in the late nineties and then stayed away.

Obviously, no one can truly say one thing or another about the iPhone until we all get our hands on one and the market decides whether the device sinks or swims. Until then, everyone is free to say what they want as long as we all take it with a grain of salt. The qualm I have with Davis' analogy is that the manufacturers he cites - Siemens, Philips and Fujitsu - are using Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform on their smartphones. Setting aside the debate about Microsoft's ability to write software for a moment, the more significant factor here is that these manufacturers are using someone else's software on their products, which means they're susceptible to all the circumstances that come with pairing one's hardware with software they have an inarguable lack of knowledge and experience with.

Got $500 bucks? Need a larger single drive in your shiny new MacBook or MacBook Pro? Care more about battery life than RPMs? Then head over to MacService and they'll hook you up with a large, 4200RPM drive upgrade for a cool $445 (installation and Ground shipping included) or $494 (includes installation and overnight shipping). The shipping costs are there because you have to send your precious portable to them in Santa Clara, CA to have the upgrade done.

Or you could just order a new MacBook/MacBook Pro from Apple and get the 200GB drive option for only $200 more, which is surprisingly inexpensive for an Apple BTO option.

Or you could buy a 200GB 2.5-inch SATA drive yourself and use one of those handy iFixIt guides to do your own installation. But I can't find the drives for sale anywhere. If I had to guess, I'd say they'll street-price for about $300.

Which drive are you getting with these upgrades? Well there are only two manufacturers rolling out 200GB notebook drives that I know of. There's the Toshiba MK2035GSS and the Fujitsu MHV2200BT, so it's one of those. Both utilize perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which is fancy talk for cramming a whole lot of data onto 2 tiny platters. There may be other 200GB that I am just not aware of. It's been known to happen.

Worth it? For some, no doubt. And although I kid about 4200RPM drives being slow, there are several folks who know far more about this kind of thing than I do that swear the technology used on these drives makes them almost as fast, if not faster, than the "standard" 5400RPM notebook drives when it comes down to real world use. 7200RPM may be better, of course, but only the serious pros probably need that for audio and video and such.

How many of you are actually considering or have already ordered a 200GB drive for your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Did/will you BTO from Apple, DIY or ship it off to a service provider?