Can I Connect My iPhone to a Fax Machine?
I know that I can set my iPhone up to send faxes via email, just as I would with any PDA, but can I hook it up to a fax machine? I have a client who, for some complex legal or security reasons, doesn’t want PDFs and instead is insisting on old-school paper faxes sent to his standalone fax machine.
There is so far no third-party application I’m aware of that will allow the iPhone’s internal modem to be used as a fax modem, and AT&T does not offer such a service. It’s just not that common a need. But the official announcement of the release of the 3G iPhone on June 9, 2008 could mean greater access to new and more specialized apps via the Apple applications store, so don’t give up hope.
For now, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to either convince your client to embrace Internet-based faxing and deal with the PDFs, or keep tracking down fax machines.
If you’re successful in getting your client to make the switch, online faxing from your iPhone is almost as simple as sending an email. Installing SendFile, a charityware application, makes it easy to send documents via the iPhone. You can fax a PDF from an iPhone by locating the document (in var/root/Media/Documents), and choosing SendFile and then Email File.
Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.