Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Today’s smartphones handle voice conversations, short texts, email, instant messages, and tweets from around the globe. They are moving toward real-time translation of languages — and if the batteries malfunction, they can even send smoke signals. But if there is one staple of communication that has seemed immune from “app-ification,” it is the fax machine. This dial-up dinosaur has proven so resilient that it seems certain that the mutant cockroaches surviving humanity may find some use for 14,400 bits per second document transmissions. However, a recently launched $3 app for the iPhone may be the harbinger of the demise of the fax, or at least for one of its most common rationales.

Continue reading Switched on: Giving fax the axe

Switched on: Giving fax the axe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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