★ PEOPLES ★ NEW AMSTRAD FAX FACTS ★ |
| New Amstrad Fax Facts (Practical Electronics) |
On display at the PC Show in September was a really elegant-looking personal fax machine from Amstrad, their FX9600T, selling at £599 plus vat. One nice touch is that the machine has an in-build full function telephone handset allowing hands-free dialling as well as a 100-number library of commonly used fax and phone numbers. The sheet feeder takes up to 20 sheets at a time (if you've ever used as fax you'll know the advantage of this facility), and there is a built-in cutter which automatically cuts the received sheets to their original lengths. Alan Sugar. Amstrad's chairman is obviously proud of the last two features, saying, “We have looked carefully at fax machines already sold in this price sector and have noted that they failed to incorporate (these) two very important features. Our £600 machine includes them and many others that you could only expect to find on a model costing nearly twice as much.” The other key features that this fax incorporates are : CCITT Group 3 compatibility; user-friendly interactive led display with 20 digits by two lines; local copying facility enabling desktop copying of originals; separate fax and phone autodialling allowing up to 50 fax numbers and a further 50 phone numbers to be stored; automatic redial; special 16-shade halftone feature ensuring clear transmissions of photos and graphics; standard built-in parallel port offering high quality Epson and IBM compatible printer option, and the sending of fax documents from a word processor without using paper. There is an additional feature that enables personal signatures to be scanned and stored in memory (can't help thinking, though, I wouldn't want mine stored like this for fear of fraudulent use). For the business operator the machine offers a choice of using either BT or Mercury communication lines. Amstrad say this machine is the first fax to be Mercury compatible. Finally, the machine has a battery back-up, a paper-out alarm, and confirms that the transmission has been received. “Personal computers are now a commonplace sight on peoples desks and in their homes”, observes Alan Sugar, “and I consider that before long the same will be true of our fax machine.” For further information on the FX9600T, contact Amstrad at 169 Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM 14 9BB. Tel : 01-240 2520. Practical Electronics (1989-12)
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