The official site for Vuescan is this one:
https://www.hamrick.com/ Just make sure your downloading from them and not from anywhere else. I have never had a problem making it work, and you should be able to try out the software before paying, but I have been on a paid version for a long time so my experience may be outdated by now.
The iPad sales pitch that someone tried to put on your significant other does sound great, but I suspect that it is not the magic wand it is made out to be. Yes, the standard software can do a lot, but you still will need a way to edit your images. If you want to do this with an iPad the trick is going to be lighting, as you will need strong, colour corrected lighting to make sure you're not getting a colour cast on your photos. It could work... but I cannot guarantee that. Using a scanner set to produce a B/W output is going to be a much easier solution.