Panasonic introduces KX-PW821 fax machine with a touchscreen and stylus, world may never be the same
By Tim Stevens 
posted July 8th 2010 8:02AM
posted July 8th 2010 8:02AM
posted July 8th 2010 8:02AM
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Excellent! More proof that we need an on-screen stylus for writing Asian languages. Stop hating on resistive screens!
@Discourse
What's next, the touchscreen typewriter?
@Discourse
a good resistive screen like the one in the n900 is about the best screen there is
@Failbait
if your asian than a touchscreen would be alot better than a keypad with 2847853765437563796547564764263958 keys
@Discourse
Talking bout' bad news day :S
@Failbait
Hey of you have a name like that, at least be a good troll and start flaming and fanboying.
@huzzlehoff I think they're hitting home runs today :P
@Failbait
HA! I hope someone does, I've been sitting on that patent for years! I'm just waiting for someone to come along and release one! Helllooo cash cow!
@Discourse
Yeah. Home runs of fail
@Discourse +1
Exactly...
Many Asian languages such as Japanese and Chinese are much easier and quicker to input with a stylus and resistive screen than having a keyboard with something like 50,000+ keys on it.
Also for any haters thinking that the fax is dead.. it's far from dead. Many professions such as security, require a paper-trail of all transactions, notes and messages for auditing purposes. Electronic documents are just to easy to tamper with.
@mukatuna
"Electronic documents are just to easy to tamper with."
Faxes are definitely less secure than a SSL encrypted Email, the only reason faxes still exist is scanning documents and then emailing them, receiving them and printing them is much more time consuming than faxing them.
@mukatuna
well yes but a keyboard with ~100 keys on it including 26 letter keys and a space bar and the enter key (...ie, a normal keyboard) is much quicker for inputting japanese than writing characters on a touchscreen (or with a pen or whatever else). drawing a character typically requires, say, 11 pen strokes (then you probably have to wait for something to recognise it and check it got it right)... or you could type 3 letters.
in this case though since this appears to be a fax machine for drawing fun pictures on (who are these people that (a) still use fax machines AND (b) would appreciate fun pictures) a touchscreen is obviously the most sensible input method. well, possibly slightly less sensible than the 'draw them on a piece of paper then fax it' input method, but other than that.
(If you are talking about mobile devices which perhaps have no physical keyboard, or only a number pad, or only a shitty keyboard, then drawing the character could certainly be faster. but this isn't a mobile device and nor would be the 5,000 character keyboard you suggested. :)
are you sure the kendo student is tiny?
maybe she's normal sized and the fax is just gigantic
@(Unverified)
fkn engadget comment system - why am i unverified all of a sudden, i'm logged in quite normally?
@mrqs
there we go
@mrqs
simple engadget hates you :P
jk
@mrqs Not Kendo. Naginata maybe... Or Jodo...
@FiLunder7
You could call her mashed potatoes, I'd still stick my dick in it.
@A25i Ok, now i'm scared.
@FiLunder7 or a student of Japanese calligraphy, which would explain the outfit and her holding the stylus like a giant brush and writing Japanese with it, just like she may do if doing giant calligraphy...
I thought that'd be the most obvious guess anyway.
pretty good idea if it can bring up a fax that needs a signature on screen without having to print it then sign it and refax it
Lol, Tim had to explain faxing.
@Distant
Hey, for some people they didn't get into the technology game until the iPhone3G and facebook came out.
"Wow! Did you guys know you can communicate with friends... online!"
@Kerensky97
But faxes have been around since the 1800s... How can people be so clueless?
@goldman60
Well if you've never used a fax machine or ever had to send a fax there's no reason why you would know about it. The plow has been around for, like, ever. I wouldn't expect you to know how to plow a field.
Why? this would have been cool 5-10 years ago, but now a lot of people have 3.5+ inch touch screen phones. Simply e-mail a drawering of what ever, or sms I don't care. Shyiet!, you can take a picture of what ever you draw too.
It'd be better if it had WebOS.
Modern fax machines are really not as bad as the author claims they are. Everything but photographs come through very clear. Further, most of the state court practice (at least where I practice) revolves around the use of fax machines. Want to file a last minute appeal to the VA Court of Appeals? You can either hire a courier or fax it. Fax transmissions are one of the accepted forms of service and email is not. They are absolutely invaluable in my profession.
@molson
is that because the laws are simply stuck in the 90's or is fax actually that much more secure?
@mrqs I work in health insurance and a lot of hospitals and brokers require us to send things via Fax instead of secure email. We actually use a virtual fax server that just stores it all digitally so we don't have to actually waste paper. Not sure what they do at their end.
If you guys got into the EMR systems in some hospitals and doctor's offices and saw how much they depended on electronic faxes you'd be appalled...
FAX???? It should be killed by now!!! It is so inconvenient! It is soooo unreliable. People always get the excuse "-I didn't get the fax"
Anything that can be sent by fax can be sent in much better quality by email with no excuse from the other part.
Come on! The only news about a fax machine that should be in a tech site is the day that they are not allowed anymore by law :)
Anyway... it is just my opinion :)
@mannyengadget
Amen! That and the 3.5 inch floppy drive. Luddites begone!
@mannyengadget ....yeh.. and I didn't get the email either. Have things really changed?
@mannyengadget
"I didn't get the e-mail, text, voice mail, letter....."
@mannyengadget There are too many companies that rely on faxes for legal reasons. The technology is outdated, but it is simple, and it works. As stated above, a Fax is considered a legal document, emails are not. Anything that has any legal importance(medical, law practice) will continue to be faxed until a new technology replaces it.
I was on the phone with ATT yesterday, three people over there told me I could NOT send them the documents via email but had to do by FAX since they could not receive faxes. Needless to say I ended my contract with them.
maybe fax machines are making a comeback????
I meant to say ATT could not receive emails, can't we edit the stuff we write, it's way too early to think clearly
She's way cuter than the little bird that carves pictures in slate when I push the button on my stone-age camera.
You guys need to realize just how much you depend on fax and don't even know it. Legally its the only way to electronically transmit a signature - think how easy it would be to spoof an email. I like fax, gets the job done quickly and easily...and it does it reliably.
@Snert That's not true, Snert. You can digitally "sign" your taxes without faxing, among many other documents with legal ramifications.
@Snert Commercial contract can be legally signed by email since 2000.
This is in fact more useful and intuitive than email. Great way to send a message or explain something to an elderly relative. I was just thinking of getting a fax for my mum, but then realised I didn't have any way to SEND a fax as we dumped ours years ago. Lol.
did the bow replace the period in japan as the sentence ender?
If your fax machine has a stylus...you've failed!
@Voxer18
If you've used the lamest hack of a Jobs quote ever... you failed.
Awsome!
...for someone who just woke up from being in a coma for 20 years.
Does it still sound like "Bweeeeeeeeee Guuzsssssshhhh KEEEEEEEE pshhhhhhhhhhhh be-dung be-dung be KAAAAAAAAAA ssssssssss pbpbpbpbpbpb EEEEEEE ksssshhhhhhhhh"?
Then I don't care.
@Triscuit Unless it sounds like a person saying that...then I'd want one, now. Even better: get that tiny Japanese girl to say it.
This seems the logical next step to having companies/professionals adopt paperless solutions. I have/use a fax in my office b/c the vast majority of business clients still depend on it (at some level). Just a fact.
As someone said, it makes live easier on my end (receiving a fax). What the other guy does with all the paper is his problem.
And honestly, it's just as easy (easier) to fax a hard copy then scan, attach it, type an e-mail...