Groqit Portable Inventory Computer w barcode reader

The other four star review of this product uses comments right off the seller's website, the grammatical errors are even the same. It's a plant.

I had high hopes for the Groqit after receiving it they did not last long. Here's why:

"Organize things your way"

You can create lists to enter bar codes into, but you can't delete them.

This from Groqit's site:

"You can not remove a Category from your Groqit without using the services of the Groqit web site. This is a safety feature."

If removing a Category was easy, you could lose a lot of work in a few button pushes. To remove a Category, you must have a Paid Membership. The process requires you to run a backup and a Web Sync, then log into your account and delete the Category. Running Web Sync again will remove the Category and all of the information in it. "

This basically means that you can't delete categories from your Groqit without paying them more. That's simply ridiculous. They do this so that you are "safe". So if you misspell something? Too bad. Pay up. Doing some holiday shopping and have more categories than you normally would? Too bad, pay up or keep them until death do you part.

"You take the Groqit to your collection, rather than dragging each item over to your computer for reading"

They say "dragging" like you're inventorying furniture. I've never seen a book or CD that I had to "drag" I have a laptop. Taking my laptop into my library is as simple as walking in there. Even if I didn't have a laptop the Groqit WILL NOT allow you to transfer your scanned bar code list to your computer. You have to pay Groqit for the convenience. They go on about how easy and small it is, and how you can inventory so many thing away from your computer, but then don't allow you to use your computer to make lists unless you pay them.


"The Groqit device alone is a powerful tool for keeping track of your possessions."

I tired the Groqit on just about every bar code in my office, from printers and books to first aid kits and refrigerators. The only codes it successfully read was books, and the sticker on the bottom of my coffee cup. They are very specific on which type of bar codes the device will read, but I think claiming that it will keep track of your possessions is a bit of a stretch. Also, if any bar code you want to read has an actual letter in it "A B C" it won't read it.


"Have you ever purchased a CD or book, gotten it home and discovered you already have it?"

The Groqit won't necessarily help you here. All books have different bar codes, the hard back and paper back version of the same book have different bar codes. New artwork on the cover? Large Type for visually challenged people? Different language? New edition? Updated Edition? New Publisher? ALL DIFFERENT BAR CODES. Of course this will help you if you want every single copy of a book, or went through the process of adding all version to your Groqit so that you don't get something you don't want. The Groqit site mentions "version control" siting this problem. There's no real way around it. Once you pay and have your inventory looked up Groqit will put names to the numbers. You will need a computer for this.

"Free backups so you never lose your data!"

You can back up the information on your Groqit for free via their website. The catch is that to get it back you have to pay their monthly fee.

"Much less [price] that any other hardware reader available"

Lies. You're reading this on amazon. You can see for yourself in the similar products section. Even if that were true, the monthly fee would start to close the small gap between more expensive items.

"A Groqit costs less than the software for many personal inventory systems."

Despite the fact that we're comparing two different things, Groqit doesn't mention the monthly fee you have to pay to access basic features such as re storable backups or lists of your scan bar codes.

On this note I use "Alexandria" for my personal book collection in Linux. It's free, looks up book bar codes for free (gasp) using Amazon and others sites. It downloads detailed information and allows you back up and store all of this on your computer. There are several versions of similar programs out there for all operating systems.

Manual entry:

There are five buttons on the Groqit. Manually keying in a standard book bar code takes forever. Basically you have to key in each number by scrolling down 1 through 9 and A through B, then moving to the next number. There are 10 or 13 digits in a standard book bar code. Some books will list both, so you will have to enter or scan both, too.

"Do I need a computer?
No. It is designed to operate completely independently of a computer OR a PDA."

Without the web based (the ones that make it useful are fee based) services the device is severely limited. You are not going to access the net without a computer of some type.
Now ask yourself, in spite of the claims of keeping track of your possessions, without a computer how are you going to know what you have? All you will have is a list of bar codes that you can scroll through one by one on the tiny screen manipulated by the five buttons. Then you can use the device to see if something already exists in your inventory, and that's it (imagine searching a list of a few hundred items on that same screen with the same buttons). You aren't keeping track of anything, your just keeping a list of numbers. If someone just robbed your house and the officer asks for the information on your (for example) TV, how are you going to give it to him? How are you going to even tell him which number it is?

"The interface works with Linux, MAC OS/X and most versions of Microsoft Windows."

I'm using Linux. The only thing it does is enable the whole device like a flash drive. I guess I could use some type of VM ware or attempt to run it through WINE. I'll cover later why I don't do this.

"You can use the free Member Services to look up information on music CDs, books. Movies and games in our data bases."

You can do that with Amazon.com, too

"The only constraints in your free membership are a limit of 100 items per category and an inability to export CSV files or do Restores from your backups**, after your introductory trial period expires (30 days from your first synch of your Groqit with the site)."

Amen to that. They tout the Groqit as having the ability to help you handle 100's of items, but they limit you to 100 per category. Like I said before, you want your backup restored? You're going to pay for it. Also, the device does not do two of the things that almost every other single device on the market will: Enter information directly into a computer, or allow you have a simple list of all the bar codes in the device. You have to pay for these lists.

"Gifts: If you have friends who also use our services, you can share your lists, to make gift giving less of a hit amp; miss guessing game." (misspelling in this quote are theirs).

This is obviously a personal choice, but I don't see myself downloading someone else's list of hundreds of items when I'm shopping so that I can tell if they already have it or not. Try doing that with a few people. Of course a person could make a "wish list" of say a dozen items they wanted that you could download, but what would be the point? If you had a list of a dozen items then you would already know what they wanted. It's the same thing as a person saying "Get me one of these things". For a person to make a wish list they must go to the store and scan the items or manually enter them to upload to the Groqit site so that you can download it. Remember, the Groqit is not going to work with a vastly different number of things. If you're that much in doubt, give them the receipt (it not like they're not going to know how much a book or CD costs) so they can make an exchange, or get them a gift certificate to the book store. Even if you were to do it the way Groqit says do it, you can only search one category at a time. For instance you have three people you're shopping for, and you and they have paid and gone through Groqit to download their entire inventory of times to your Groqit. It would go like this - Pick up book, scroll on Groqit to "Bob" scan, nope he doesn't have it, scroll on Groqit to "Sam", Scan, yep he does, Scroll on Groqit to "Sally", nope, she doesn't. Scrolling and scanning is a little more difficult that it appears. The menu system is annoying to navigate sometimes, and the scan doesn't always take, If it does take it might not have read the first or last numbers which means you have to verify that what is on the book is on screen.

"Loans
Whether you borrow books from friends or they borrow them from you, the Groqit site is a great way to keep track of which books got loaned out to whom"

How? There is no notation field, no way to write down what I loaned out. For instance, let's say I wanted to loan out a book. I grab it down from the shelf and scan it in. Damn, the Groqit only tells me whether I have it in inventory or not. Ok, I'll create a category called "loans" then I'll scan it in and add it to that category. But wait! How do I put a name next to it? Or a date? Even if I could do all of that (by using the tiny screen and 5 buttons to scroll through numbers and letters one by one) I might as well have just written down what got loaned to whom. I honestly don't know if they allow you to add notes online, if they do it would still be pointless. Scanning into a new category gives you number, you would then have to get online and after 'translation' you would have to remember who you gave what to and write it down. Just write it down, save yourself the money and time.

The Groqit only understands the UPC/EAN font.

"Example three: Gift-giving made fearless
Say you're the grandmother to the kid with 100 games and the one with the complicated toys. You buy a Groqit and have the grandkids join up, create, and share their lists. You can download the lists and go shopping, with no worry about duplicating a toy, game or accessory. They don't even need to know the bar codes, they can type in the names or titles. Each list is sorted when it gets downloaded. You can search or view the lists whenever you wish. "

How many kids do you know that have 100's of games? Out of those how many kept 100's of boxes? Face it, they're not "joining up" to make bar code lists of what they already have. Same with toys: the toy itself doesn't have a bar code on it, neither do accessories.

Any kid into games (even more so has hundreds of them) will know exactly what he/she wants next. There is no need for hundreds long list of what they already have. Fearless shopping? I don't' think so. Some kid into the latest Sci-Fi games will not appreciate you giving him "Barbie's Malibu Adventure", but the Groqit will tell you it's not on the list of things he has! It doesn't make you a better shopper, nor will it guarantee the person wants what you get, only that they don't already have it (that bar code version of it, anyway). Once again, this scanner won't work with the majority of bar codes, so toys and accessories is VERY skeptical.
Back to the example of 100's of games (after paying to have them translated into lists on your Groqit), are you going to scroll through a one line screen with hundreds of items? I wouldn't either.

I scanned the same book a few times and got different numbers a couple of times. This meant false reads on whether something is in inventory. You might be thinking that you'll just swipe a book and it'll instantly tell you whether you've got it, or swipe and store. Not so. In getting three different numbers from the same book I realized that to get an accurate inventory I had to make sure that the number on the Groqit after scanning was the same as the one on the book. This is incredibly annoying to read the number off the book and verify it is the same as the one on the Groqit. On lot of books there is more than one bar code and it will get both or a piece of the second.

I would rather it give me an error and fail to read than falsely read the bar codes (which happens a lot). On a false read you have to click to tell it no, or delete the bad bar code. With an error you only have to click and scan again.

Basically put this is a standard bar code scanner that is limited to very few bar codes. It is lacking the basic abilities of all other bar code scanners that I know of (import a list? Information direct to the computer?), and even further is crippled to get you to pay for simple things (backups, lookups). There are cheaper scanners out there that do more and do not require another @#$@! monthly bill. There are also perfectly functional and free software packages, too.

If you're already using some type of inventory program, forget using the Groqit. If you do you will be paying the price of this item, and the monthly fee just to convert your list of Bar Codes to a document you can then import into your current system.

This is also a physical contact scanner. It's a minor thing, but if you have glossy covered book it will put a very faint 'groove' into where you swiped. More so if you have to swipe it more than once. The tip is very similar to a ball point pen (without the ink of course).

Swipe too fast it wont scan, or will but won't get all the numbers right. Swipe too slow and the same things happens. Don't swipe soon enough after you hit the button, and you have start over. There were several times that I didn't make it to the book before it gave me an error. I started placing the Groqit point down on the book then hitting the button but it 'senses' contact and starts giving you an error. This is incredibly annoying.

I'm not looking forward to the 15% restocking fee they will be charging me for returning the item. If they read this review they may not give me anything at all.. Also the four star review above mine quotes the selling points of the Groqit right off their site. I think it's a plant, but that's a very personal opinion.

The Groqit is also made in china.Buy Groqit Portable Inventory Computer w barcode reader!