I think we’re still in the dark age of scanning. You line up your document, do a butt-slow preview scan at low resolution, see if it’s lined up, re-align until it’s not, and repeat until you either get the piece of paper where you want it or else set your hair on fire out of frustration. I mean, imagine this: a scanner with a 5FPS camera in it that transmits live video of your document so you can align it on-the-fly without having to resort to those lousy preview scans. Boy that would be cool. Sad to say, I’ve never stumbled on such a device.
What I have stumbled on is the Canon CanoScan LIDE 100 scanner. It’s a very neat, very thin, and very cheap desktop scanner. You can get the dang thing for about 60 or 70 bucks, but when I found a $50 deal on Amazon
a few months ago, I had to pull the trigger. Here’s what it looks like on my desk beside a horde of Orks and Tyranids:

I can’t really say much about the included software because I tossed it out without even looking at it. My time in IT has taught me that scanner software that comes from the manufacturer is universally, 100% shoddy beyond belief. Why is this? I’m honestly confused.
I instead elected to use Mac OS X’s built-in Image Capture software, which I find to be not only perfectly sufficient for my purposes, but also quite pleasant to use (caveat: I’m talking about the Snow Leopard version. In Leopard and before, it’s kinda lousy too). The scan button on the front even opens Image Capture and starts a scan, just like it should! How cool is that?
I mostly use it for scanning receipts, documents, and things like that, because I am obsessed with disaster preparedness and I want records of everything I own in case the place blows up and my renter’s insurance company is being a dick. For that purpose, the scans it produces are perfectly nice-looking, and text is extremely sharp and crisp.
In terms of speed, I have to admit it’s not the fastest scanner in the world. From placing the document on the bed to having a file on disk, it’ll probably take you maybe 30-45 seconds to have a finished product. But that’s perfectly suitable for my relatively infrequent needs.
The one issue I’ve had is that sometimes Image Capture can’t find the scanner. I don’t know if this is Image Capture or the scanner’s fault, but momentarily unplugging it never fails to beat whichever is the guilty party into comprehension of the other. Works for me!
For a $50 scanner, it’s held up great, and produces good results. It makes a great addition to my home office and if you need an unobtrusive, low-duty scanner, this one is pretty nice.
Update: I forgot to mention that the scanner is also USB-powered, which means that it doesn’t have to be plugged into the wall, which saves power and reduces clutter. I find it sort of silly that I neglected to mention this, since it was one of the primary features that drew me to it! Oh well, better late then never.