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Nowadays, when you hear someone talk about faxing, theres a decent chance its the punchline to a groan-inducing dad joke. (Not that I would ever be guilty of such silliness, of course. I stick strictly to the fax.) And yet, here in the futuristic-feeling time of 2025, we all find ourselves facing the very occasional and impossibly baffling need to send something somewhere specifically by fax. Try as you might, sometimes, you just cant avoid it. (One might even say those are just the fax of life!) Faxing is antiquated technology through and through, but for whatever reason, we as a society dont quite seem ready to shed it entirelydespite the fact that weve got approximately 4.3 gablillion better ways to transmit documents, be it via messaging, email, or secure cloud sharing. Heck, you could even ask Gemini or ChatGPT to summon a virtual carrier pigeon and see what sort of nonsense they cough up in response. When the specific request for a fax slaps you back to reality, though, youve got no choice but to figure out some way to make it happen. You certainly won’t find any easy options within the apps Google gives you as part of its Workspace productivity suite. But good golly, have I got just the tool for you to tuck away in your virtual toolbox for the next time that need arises. Unearth all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. A useful new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday! Free fax, no tax All rightwell make this fax and furious: The next time you find yourself facing the hilarious but unavoidable demand to send something via fax, an app called HP Smart is the tool you need. HP Smart is a completely free app that looks like a run-of-the-mill interface for futzing around with an HP-made printer. And it is that, on the surfacebut beneath that uninspiring outer layer is a hidden gem of a feature that anyone can take advantage of, whether you have a physical printer in front of you or not. Itll take you about two minutes to figure out and get running the first time, then all of 20 seconds to use after that. You just open up the app on whatever type of device youre usingphone, computer, carrier pigeon, you name itand then: Make your way through the initial setup screens. The app will ask you to sign in with an HP account. Fret not, though, for you can create one right then and there, on the spot, for free. On the apps main screen, find the Mobile Fax option. If you dont see that right awaywhich I didnt, the first time I opened the app on Androidlook for an option to Personalize Tiles at the bottom of the screen. You should then be able to activate the toggle next to Mobile Fax, whichll then cause the missing option to appear. Click or tap that option (or peck it, in the case of a carrier pigeon), then tap the command to compose a new fax. And hey, how bout that? There, in front of your fax-addled face-beak, will be a simple screen for specifying your lucky recipient and selecting exactly what files you want to transmit. Fill out a few fast fields, and poof: HP Smart will send any file or photo as a fax for you. You can select an existing file or photo, if you have a digital version already ready, or you can use the apps built-in camera option to capture a virtual copy of a physical document right then and there. You can even add in your own custom cover page, if youre really feelin wild. Need a cover sheet? Yep: HP’s app can handle that, too. And thats pretty much it! Hit that Send Fax button, then just sit back and watch as HP Smart works its retro-tech transforming magic. You’ll see your fax being sent right from your phone or computer. Within a matter of moments, youll see confirmation that your fax has been delivered, as a physical sheet of paper somewhere in the real worldall for the ever-reasonable price of precisely $0. The app lets you send faxes to a sprawling list of countries that isnt limited only to the U.S. Its specifically for sending faxes, though; if you for some reason need to receive a fax, please go get your head examined. Sorry. Thems just the faxand nothin but the fax. HP Smart is available as a native app for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. It is completely free to ue for now, with no caveats or catches and no credit cards required. Officially, HP says its part of an ongoing trial, but the trial has been running for months with no sign of an imminent end (and if HP does ever decide to start charging for the service, it says itll give 30 days notice before making any such shift). HP promises that faxes sent through its service are confidential, secure, and even compliant with the strict U.S. HIPAA privacy regulations. Get even more productivity-boosting goodness in your inbox with my free Cool Tools newslettera single new standout discovery every Wednesday!
Category:
E-Commerce
Fast Company senior editor Jeff Beer breaks down the price of what a Super Bowl campaign actually costs. Is it still worth it?
Category:
E-Commerce
All live poultry markets in New York City and some of its suburbs were ordered Friday to close for a week after the detection of seven cases of avian flu, which has also hit farms nationwide, led to the slaughter of millions of birds and driven up egg prices. Gov. Kathy Hochul said there is no immediate threat to public health and that the temporary closure of bird markets in the city and its Westchester County and Long Island suburbs comes out of an abundance of caution. No cases of avian flu have been detected among humans in New York, officials said. The order came after birds infected with the virus were found during routine inspections of live bird markets in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the virus poses low risk to the general public. The agency said there have been 67 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans in the U.S., with illnesses mild and mostly detected among farmworkers who were exposed to sick poultry or dairy cows. The first bird flu death in the U.S. was reported last month in Louisiana, with health officials saying the person was older than 65, had underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. In New York, live bird markets where the virus was detected have to dispose of all poultry in a sanitary manner, according to the state’s order. Other bird markets that do not have cases will have to sell off remaining poultry within three days, clean and disinfect and then remain closed for at least five days and be inspected by state officials before reopening. Ahead of the mandatory disposal order for markets with no cases, employees at La Granja, a halal-certified poultry market in Manhattans Harlem neighborhood, raced to sell the remainder of its inventory: around 200 live chickens of different varieties, along with turkeys, quail, ducks, roosters, pigeons and rabbits. Any remaining animals would be slaughtered and given away to employees and longtime customers, according to Jose Fernandez, the owner. Were going to lose money, for now, he said. But the law is the law. They know what theyre doing. The H5N1 strain of bird flu has been spreading among wild birds, poultry, cows and other animals. Officials have urged people who come into contact with sick or dead birds to wear respiratory and eye protection and gloves when handling poultry. More than 156 million birds nationwide have been affected by the outbreak, many at large farming operations that have had to slaughter their entire flocks. Despite growing attention on the avian flu, New York Citys poultry markets appeared to be doing brisk business Friday. Outside the Wallabout Poultry market in Brooklyn, a line of customers took numbers and picked their chickens, which employees snatched from crowded cages, weighing them upside down, before bringing them to a backroom to be slaughtered. Im not worried about any bird flu, said Stan Tara, a 42-year-old Brooklyn resident, as he purchased a large chicken for $22.50. Its the same as you buy from the supermarket. A little more expensive, but at least its fresh. Some animal rights groups, meanwhile, questioned the purpose of a state order that allowed the markets to continue selling fowl, rather than shutting them down immediately. The public is going into markets where no one knows if there are outbreaks of avian flu, then taking home dead birds that may or may not be infected, said Edita Birnkrant, executive director of NYCLASS, which has long raised alarms about conditions within the citys roughly 70 live animal markets. Its ludicrous. U.S. egg prices are likely to remain high past Easter and well into 2025, largely because of avian flu, according to CoBank, a Denver-based provider of loans and other financial services to the agriculture sector. The highly contagious virus has affected nearly 100 million egg-laying hens in the U.S. since 2022. But CoBank said other factors are also causing supply constraints and driving up prices, such as skyrocketing consumer demand for eggs in recent years. Fast-growing breakfast and brunch chains like First Watch are also eating up supplies. Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre and Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
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