I am on a cable modem and would like to take advantage of the fax feature in Panther. Can I fax without a modem, over the cable connection, or do I need to have the modem hooked up in order to fax?
ya, having to have it hooked up to a phone line is a shortcoming to me. Ever since i got broadband a ditched my home phone in favor of a cell phone. Maybe Apple will introduce a fax service as part of .Mac?
it might even be a semi-killer app, because many people like you have two lines: a broadband non-telephone line, and, a mobile connection.
.mac handling faxes. brilliant.
there are other alternatives out there already that can receive yr internet sent document and shove it onwards over telephony.
but .mac doing it would be great.
here's hoping they do it, because there are only two competing forces in the online fax-email services out there: efax and j2 (formerly jfax). and NEITHER of them services Louisiana without using a more-expensive 1-800 number. i'm sure it has some sort of legal and/or tax logic behind it, but who knows...
there's definitely a space they could exploit here witht he .mac service, its email part, and the fax built-in to panther.
Yeah, I was wondering that. I suppose I could just run a phone cord over to my Mac and quickly connect it when/if I had to send a fax.
But yes: in this age of broadband and cel phones (in other words, I imagine many people simply don't have an active traditional phoneline in their apartments or wherever), it would indeed be cool if Apple came up with a way to somehow let you use the Panther fax capability with broadband...even if it meant being a .mac member (and being that I am, I don't mind...bring it on).
Of course, I guess there are those who would say "it's the 21st century...e-mail, pal! Fax is so passé...". Yeah, maybe. But being that, oh, EVERY BUSINESS IN THE WORLD STILL USES IT, you can't swim upstream all the time, over everything.
I know more businesses who don't have e-mail/online access than don't have fax machines. Even the lowliest, barebones, just-getting-started, mom-and-pop, smallest small business operation always seems to have a fax machine...
Kinda sucks that those out there living a big "ahead of the curve" (cel phone only and a cable/DSL hookup) are a bit locked out of the Panther fax thing. Apple could do it somehow, make it easy and 1-2 steps and a complete no-brainer process.
Of course, I guess there are those who would say "it's the 21st century...e-mail, pal! Fax is so passé...". Yeah, maybe. But being that, oh, EVERY BUSINESS IN THE WORLD STILL USES IT, you can't swim upstream all the time, over everything.
Yeah, this is one indication of the sort of world Steve seems to live in: I remember when he introduced that feature he made some comment like "apparently some people still use faxes" and there was a sort of nervous chuckle in the audience.
Earth to Steve: Yes, some people still do use faxes. For one thing, if you want a secure transmission that you know has reached the destination, it beats the hell out of email.
Add my vote to the idea of fax-over-broadband via .Mac. Maybe we should all start hitting Apple's feedback page.
Originally posted by Defiant It really looks like people don't know how faxing works... hmmm.
Well instead of just taking 6 seconds to post a pithy little zinger with no content, how about elaborating on that and tell us how it works so we can talk a bit more intelligently about it all?
Why be vague in 6 seconds when you can be helpful in 60?
I think Defiant is alluding to the fact that modems use FSK (frequency shift keying) as the means to transmit data over phone lines - a different frequency is used for each bit of data transmitted.
Well someone needs to come up with a way around that, don't they?
For the very reasons I state earlier: many individuals/homes are doing away with traditional phone lines altogether (going with cellular phones and broadband Internet access), yet businesses are still quite fax-happy...there oughtta be a way to bridge those two sides so communication between freelancers, sales reps, telecommuters, etc. is still possible)...
...possible without businesses having to give up the fax machine AND possible for those doing the cellular/broadband thing to not have to mess their clean "thinking to the future" lifestyle up by having phone lines installed or, worse, having to buy a godawful ugly, bulky and noisy fax machine.
We can do all these things we do, but we can't do this? I ain't buyin' it...
It is possible to fax over either[list=1][*]a mobile/cell[*]or a land line[/list=1]That means that mobile users still can get the comfort of being on the road and send and receive faxes.
As Cake stated, broadband doesn't do frequencies. If you want to send a traditional fax, you have to use an old-fashioned phone line (can be a cell too).
This site has a nice 'walk-trough' to show how 'traditional' faxing works.
Quote:
To transmit the information through a phone line, early fax machines used a very simple technique: If the spot of paper that the photo cell was looking at were white, the fax machine would send one tone; if it were black, it would send a different tone (see How Modems Work for details). For example, it might have sent an 800-Hertz tone for white and a 1,300-Hertz tone for black.
At the receiving end, there would be a similar rotating-drum mechanism, and some sort of pen to mark on the paper. When the receiving fax machine heard a 1,300-Hertz tone it would apply the pen to the paper, and when it heard an 800-Hertz tone it would take the pen off the paper.
What you all want is a way to send a 'fax' over broadband, and still have the user receive a 'traditional' fax.
This would only be possible if there was a service where you could send your documents (the faxes) and that this service would then place the fax for you. That would mean that this service is connected to a phone line. A phone line is always necessary to place a fax.
There are already such services out there. Example. Of course, it doesn't mean only broadband.
The Internet in general will be the transmitter.
Now, there only has to be someone who does this for a nice price, and easy to use.
I didn't research on that, because I still have a land line, and I can still use my cell.
Comments
that'd be cool. 8)
NeilyB
it might even be a semi-killer app, because many people like you have two lines: a broadband non-telephone line, and, a mobile connection.
.mac handling faxes. brilliant.
there are other alternatives out there already that can receive yr internet sent document and shove it onwards over telephony.
but .mac doing it would be great.
Originally posted by niji
yes, that would be great.
it might even be a semi-killer app, because many people like you have two lines: a broadband non-telephone line, and, a mobile connection.
.mac handling faxes. brilliant.
there are other alternatives out there already that can receive yr internet sent document and shove it onwards over telephony.
but .mac doing it would be great.
here's hoping they do it, because there are only two competing forces in the online fax-email services out there: efax and j2 (formerly jfax). and NEITHER of them services Louisiana without using a more-expensive 1-800 number. i'm sure it has some sort of legal and/or tax logic behind it, but who knows...
there's definitely a space they could exploit here witht he .mac service, its email part, and the fax built-in to panther.
But yes: in this age of broadband and cel phones (in other words, I imagine many people simply don't have an active traditional phoneline in their apartments or wherever), it would indeed be cool if Apple came up with a way to somehow let you use the Panther fax capability with broadband...even if it meant being a .mac member (and being that I am, I don't mind...bring it on).
Of course, I guess there are those who would say "it's the 21st century...e-mail, pal! Fax is so passé...". Yeah, maybe. But being that, oh, EVERY BUSINESS IN THE WORLD STILL USES IT, you can't swim upstream all the time, over everything.
I know more businesses who don't have e-mail/online access than don't have fax machines. Even the lowliest, barebones, just-getting-started, mom-and-pop, smallest small business operation always seems to have a fax machine...
Kinda sucks that those out there living a big "ahead of the curve" (cel phone only and a cable/DSL hookup) are a bit locked out of the Panther fax thing. Apple could do it somehow, make it easy and 1-2 steps and a complete no-brainer process.
Originally posted by pscates
Of course, I guess there are those who would say "it's the 21st century...e-mail, pal! Fax is so passé...". Yeah, maybe. But being that, oh, EVERY BUSINESS IN THE WORLD STILL USES IT, you can't swim upstream all the time, over everything.
Yeah, this is one indication of the sort of world Steve seems to live in: I remember when he introduced that feature he made some comment like "apparently some people still use faxes" and there was a sort of nervous chuckle in the audience.
Earth to Steve: Yes, some people still do use faxes. For one thing, if you want a secure transmission that you know has reached the destination, it beats the hell out of email.
Add my vote to the idea of fax-over-broadband via .Mac. Maybe we should all start hitting Apple's feedback page.
Rather than have a phone line hooked up to each computer for faxing capabilities.
Originally posted by NeilyB
ya, having to have it hooked up to a phone line is a shortcoming to me. Ever since i got broadband a ditched my home phone in favor of a cell phone.
You can fax from a cell phone.
Amorya
Originally posted by Defiant It really looks like people don't know how faxing works... hmmm.
Well instead of just taking 6 seconds to post a pithy little zinger with no content, how about elaborating on that and tell us how it works so we can talk a bit more intelligently about it all?
Why be vague in 6 seconds when you can be helpful in 60?
Broadband doesn't do frequencies.
For the very reasons I state earlier: many individuals/homes are doing away with traditional phone lines altogether (going with cellular phones and broadband Internet access), yet businesses are still quite fax-happy...there oughtta be a way to bridge those two sides so communication between freelancers, sales reps, telecommuters, etc. is still possible)...
...possible without businesses having to give up the fax machine AND possible for those doing the cellular/broadband thing to not have to mess their clean "thinking to the future" lifestyle up by having phone lines installed or, worse, having to buy a godawful ugly, bulky and noisy fax machine.
We can do all these things we do, but we can't do this? I ain't buyin' it...
As Cake stated, broadband doesn't do frequencies. If you want to send a traditional fax, you have to use an old-fashioned phone line (can be a cell too).
This site has a nice 'walk-trough' to show how 'traditional' faxing works.
To transmit the information through a phone line, early fax machines used a very simple technique: If the spot of paper that the photo cell was looking at were white, the fax machine would send one tone; if it were black, it would send a different tone (see How Modems Work for details). For example, it might have sent an 800-Hertz tone for white and a 1,300-Hertz tone for black.
At the receiving end, there would be a similar rotating-drum mechanism, and some sort of pen to mark on the paper. When the receiving fax machine heard a 1,300-Hertz tone it would apply the pen to the paper, and when it heard an 800-Hertz tone it would take the pen off the paper.
What you all want is a way to send a 'fax' over broadband, and still have the user receive a 'traditional' fax.
This would only be possible if there was a service where you could send your documents (the faxes) and that this service would then place the fax for you. That would mean that this service is connected to a phone line. A phone line is always necessary to place a fax.
There are already such services out there. Example. Of course, it doesn't mean only broadband.
The Internet in general will be the transmitter.
Now, there only has to be someone who does this for a nice price, and easy to use.
I didn't research on that, because I still have a land line, and I can still use my cell.
Happier now?