[bluebean]

Anyone know whether it's been released ... Smith Micro's site still says 3Q

[naderby]

Press release stating Q3 2001

Good point, it's been quiet for a while. I depend on this software in OS9 alot and will not move to OSX till this issue is resolved.

Having said that I've never tried using it in Classic, does it even work in Classic? Anybody have any experience with this?

[ 12-05-2001: Message edited by: naderby ]

[drjoe]

Originally posted by naderby:
<STRONG>Press release stating Q3 2001

Good point, it's been quiet for a while. I depend on this software in OS9 alot and will not move to OSX till this issue is resolved.

Having said that I've never tried using it in Classic, does it even work in Classic? Anybody have any experience with this?

[ 12-05-2001: Message edited by: naderby ]</STRONG>

Spoke with SmithMicro today [ a REAL PERSON ] and she told me that the release date is 11 December (2001!).. And the older versions do not run in classic. It is a real bummer hoping back and forth just to send a fax. Forget receiving faxes. We will see. drjoe

[bluebean]

There's another post in another Fax STF thread here where a user says it works fine in Classic. I don't have it loaded on my machine so I can't try it, but sounds like it's worth doing if you rely heavily on it. Post your results, if you will.

Isn't it odd that Smith Micro wouldn't put on their website or announce somehow that the X version is coming out next Tuesday? Thanks for calling them ... nice thing to do.

I am waiting for fax software too, and FaxStf is not out yet. SmithMicro sent me an email about six weeks ago, saying release was expected first week of December. I guess they're having problems, and knowing that previous version for OS9 were not exactly bug-free...
Has anyone heard of beta testing for FaxStf? or FaxElite?

[drjoe]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by &lt;Rex&gt;:
[QB]I am waiting for fax software too, and FaxStf is not out yet. SmithMicro sent me an email about six weeks ago, saying release was expected first week of December.

Called SmithMicro again today. THIS TIME the word is that it is shipping on Friday, the 14th and should be in stores a few days after that. Who knows. We'll all be dead and buried by the time it actually appears.

[GRAFF]

When it does become available, will it be a free upgrade from the OS 9 version?

[Rex]

You wish! I'd love to see that, too. I think it's $59 for full version and $39 for the upgrade (something like that).

[bluebean]

Can you use (send and receive faxes) FaxSTF via airport?

[Rex]

[quote]Originally posted by drjoe:
<STRONG>

Originally posted by &lt;Rex&gt;:
[QB]I am waiting for fax software too, and FaxStf is not out yet. SmithMicro sent me an email about six weeks ago, saying release was expected first week of December.

Called SmithMicro again today. THIS TIME the word is that it is shipping on Friday, the 14th and should be in stores a few days after that. Who knows. We'll all be dead and buried by the time it actually appears.</STRONG>

I guess that didn't happen. What's going on Smith Micro? At least they could post some updated information on their website, to replace the "news" from July 18th (!!!!!) stating shipping will start in Q3! javascript: x()

I'm just surprised that Apple didn't include a rudimentary Fax function in OS X. This is too basic a function not to have on a laptop. (Mind you other OSes usually don't include it either, but that never made sense to me.)

[TheBarty]

&lt;Eug&gt;, I agree. Especially if you read devlopper doc in dev tools and pay attention to the print manager classes (NSPrintInfo) :


public void setJobDisposition(String disposition)
...
PrintFaxJob Fax job
...

seems something was on the way

[iBorg]

SmithMicro has released FAXstfX - $90, or $60 upgrade, download or physical shipment.

Anyone have any reviews on it yet?



iBorg

[ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: iBorg ]

[drjoe]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by iBorg:
[QB]SmithMicro has released FAXstfX - $90, or $60 upgrade, download or physical shipment.

Anyone have any reviews on it yet?



*****


Although the SmithMicro blurb tells as to how the s/w supports the internal modem on newer Macs does anyone know if it will work with older Macs with external Modems. Thanx.

[jblakeh1]

HUGE improvement over the OS 9 version. Great app. Very OS X.

[drjoe]

Originally posted by jblakeh1:
<STRONG>HUGE improvement over the OS 9 version. Great app. Very OS X.</STRONG>

Oh Yeah! Great App. Very OS X. Phooey. ANother Apple/Apple Vendor triumph of form oer substance. It orphans the hundreds of thousand of G3's and AOI's that support OSX and use external modems. It has no redial capability,It has no classic capability. It has no support for multiple documents to a single destination. It has no custom cover sheets except for more Smith Micro vaporware. It has no ability to direct a fax except through the address book [no faxing on the fly]. Do you want me to go on? No? I didn't think so. What an abortion [ characterization courtesy of another poster in Version Tracker but my sentiments exactly.

[jblakeh1]

Granted, redial would be nice, and some other features. Nice to have, but not essential... Then again, the pdf integration and address book integration are really cool. Cooler than anything you'll ever see in Windows, I'd imagine. This is a new app, like OS X itself. The other features will be there eventually.

The external modem thing is unfortunate, but come on. Macs have shipped standard with modems since 1998, at least. External modems are antiquated in the Mac world. It is hard to imagine any machine that can honestly run OS X smoothly didn't ship with a modem. I can see the logic in not supporting external modems for support reasons alone.

All the complaints I've seen have been pretty trivial. Then again, I send recieve 2-3 faxes a week at most. I'm not a fax jockey. It more than suits my needs.

Let them know what you feel are shortcomings so they have some direction for the next upgrade.

[Eug]

Originally posted by drjoe:
<STRONG>

Oh Yeah! Great App. Very OS X. Phooey. ANother Apple/Apple Vendor triumph of form oer substance. It orphans the hundreds of thousand of G3's and AOI's that support OSX and use external modems. It has no redial capability,It has no classic capability. It has no support for multiple documents to a single destination. It has no custom cover sheets except for more Smith Micro vaporware. It has no ability to direct a fax except through the address book [no faxing on the fly]. Do you want me to go on? No? I didn't think so. What an abortion [ characterization courtesy of another poster in Version Tracker but my sentiments exactly.</STRONG>

Hmmmm... So it has fairly limited functionality, but costs as much as VPC 5 does? I guess I'll be checking out that freeware fax utility that some guy on this forum wrote.

[drjoe]

External modems are antiquated in the Mac world. It is hard to imagine any machine that can honestly run OS X smoothly didn't ship with a modem. I can see the logic in not supporting external modems for support reasons alone.

*****

You hae to be kidding! I can't believe that you wrote this!! I have a Re A beige G3. It has an xlr8 500 MzG4 processor, 768 meg of ram and a pair of 45 GB IBM deskstar HD's [ slave drives are supported in OSX in RevA machines - to forestall your telling me how they aren't.] And I run OSX fast, flawlessly and 'seriously' [whatever THAT means} There are oodles of machines of that generation out there and running just fine thank you very much. And what support issues are there anyway. The OS has built-in support for the serial port for dialing out and communication. It does it very nicely when I am on the web to my ISP. Sheer laziness and/or ineptitude. Not to put to fine a point upon it but you simply don't hae any clue as to what you are talking about. I guess as long as the buttons throb and the cocoa framework is used a vendor can release any piece of crap they want and Steve's syncophants will jump up and down, beat their chests and scream "rip, mix, and burn", "rip, mix, and burn", "rip, mix, and burn". This is garbage. The only consolation is that the aggregate score on Version Tracker X is a whopping 2.2/5 with most folks giving it a 0 or 1 and a smattering of 5's which, when you read the comments are tongue in cheek.Shame on you.

[Ron Goodman]

"Steve's syncophants"? I'd say you have some issues beyond FAXstf. I've been waiting for it, today I bought it, and I'd say it's a good start. I might get burned(I think I did with Drive 10, but maybe not), but I'm supporting a company who's writing for OS X and the program works. Let us know how the freeware version works when you get it.

[ 12-22-2001: Message edited by: Ron Goodman ]

[drjoe]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ron Goodman:
[QB]"Steve's syncophants"? I'd say you have some issues beyond FAXstf.

*****

You bet I do. The issues are [in no particular order]

1.] compulsive priority of form over substance.

2.) a plethora of buggy, incomplete software.

3.) an unending cycle of poor software - upgrade to OS - software doesn't work - upgrade to poor buggy software - repeat.

What happened to the entire notion of the Mac as a center of excellence in personal computing - the platform whose software and hardware JUST WORKED. I find it impossible to install an upgrade without finding my heart in my mouth, my palms sweaty and my heart pounding [well sorta :-)]. And that is not a total exaggeration pace itunes 2.0.

All is not lost - I append a snippet from the Faxelite site. If FaxstfX is as bad as the general opinion over a Version Tracker seems to indicate it has to be an improvement. At least they know nw what not to do.

*****quoted*****

The Network Server Software and FaxElite Solo will not currently run under Mac OS X. There will be two updates available shortly to address this. The first update will enhance the Network Server Software and FaxElite Solo to run under Mac OS X to receive faxes and fax from Classic applications. The second update to the Network and Solo software will enable users to fax from native Mac OS X applications. Both these updates will be free electronic downloads to version 6 users.

Modem Requirements

FaxElite will require access to a fax modem. FaxElite supports all the current Apple internal modems.

We expect FaxElite to work with any fax modem produced in the last 2 years and the majority of older fax modems. If you are choosing an external modem, make sure it supports the Fax Class 2 standard.

[jblakeh1]

1.) compulsive priority of form over substance.

2.) a plethora of buggy, incomplete software.

3.) an unending cycle of poor software - upgrade to OS - software doesn't work - upgrade to poor buggy software - repeat.

OS X is a completely new OS, the software in question is also completely new... If you are bothered by buggy, incomplete software, why not stick with OS 9 until Apple officially starts using X as the default OS? I started using OS X when the public beta was released, and I've had several unpleasant experiences along the way... I didn't badmouth anyone's hard work, however... they call it 'bleeding edge' for a reason.

If companies like HP and Epson are scrambling to get drivers to work with OS X on their own hardware, what makes you think a smaller company can just pull hardware support out of thin air? No less, for hardware that in many cases isn't even sold anymore?

Why not spare us the rhetoric and just come out and say "I'm angry this software doesn't work on my external serial modem" and leave it at that... if you can't run the software, you don't have any business critiquing it.

One less OS 9/Classic app for me, so I'm ecstatic. I'm sure a lot of other people will be, also.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Ron Goodman:
<STRONG>"Steve's syncophants"? I'd say you have some issues beyond FAXstf. I've been waiting for it, today I bought it, and I'd say it's a good start. I might get burned(I think I did with Drive 10, but maybe not), but I'm supporting a company who's writing for OS X and the program works. Let us know how the freeware version works when you get it.

[ 12-22-2001: Message edited by: Ron Goodman ]</STRONG>

Well, I tried Cocoa eFax and I cannot get it to work. There is no dial capability so you have to manually dial, but even with the fax directly connected to the iBook I can't get it to work. Plus it only supports PostScript and Text files. At this point it doesn't seem too promising. Any other options out there?

Based on the reviews though, I'm going to stay away from the Smith Micro OS X software for now. The cost is too much for what you get it seems. I'd rather just print out the file and send the fax manually. (When I'm on the road, I'm usually nearby a fax, and I can't use my cell phone as a modem anyway - I'd need a phone jack.)


EDIT:

Ooops. The dial number goes under the "To" area in the menu and then the dialing DOES work. I tried hooking up to my own fax on the same line, but I was only able to get a line of text through. I was also able to hook up to my work fax, but I don't know if the transmission was successful since I am nowhere near that fax machine. What I do know is that the program didn't give me an error message. However, there is no message indicating the message transfer was successful, and I didn't get an error message when I sent that one line of text, despite the fact that the file was much larger.

The author says a new version is out soon so I'll check that out.

It seems that text sends are not going to be idea. What about PostScript? Just how does one save a PostScript file anyway?

Here is my thread on this software.

[ 12-23-2001: Message edited by: Eug ]

[drjoe]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Eug:
[QB]Well, I tried Cocoa eFax and I cannot get it to work. There is no dial capability so you have to manually dial, but even with the fax directly connected to the iBook I can't get it to work. Plus it only supports PostScript and Text files. At this point it doesn't seem too promising. Any other options out there?

Based on the reviews though

*****

Ah yes ... ... the reviews. In all the years I have looked in on Version Tracker I have never seen a piece of software whose aggregate score is less than 2.0. Today FaxstfX achieves this goal. Good Work Smith Micro. To those who castigate me for expressing an opinion without buying the software - good for me. To those who wasted their cash on this monster - send it back. Mac OSX does not need this - it needs good software honestly priced by a company that does not have such utter contempt for the Mac customer. We put up with enough second class citizenry [ ?a word? ].

[moki]

Originally posted by jblakeh1:
<STRONG>

OS X is a completely new OS, the software in question is also completely new... If you are bothered by buggy, incomplete software, why not stick with OS 9 until Apple officially starts using X as the default OS? I started using OS X when the public beta was released, and I've had several unpleasant experiences along the way... I didn't badmouth anyone's hard work, however... they call it 'bleeding edge' for a reason. </STRONG>

Disclaimer: I have not used FaxSTFx, so my comments won't be about it, but rather in accepting buggy and/or incomplete apps.

I suggest you don't do it. The Mac has always had high standards in terms of usability, and I think you should continue to hold vendors to those high standards.

There really isn't much excuse for churning out poor quality software for OS X, other than not investing the time to do it right. If you look around, there are examples of software that made the transition to Mac OS X in style. Clearly it can be done.

Demand quality software, done in spades for Mac OS X, both from Apple, and from third party vendors. Obviously posting biting criticism may not be the best way to go, but rather clearly state what you find deficient about the software, and what you expect in order for the company to gain a customer.

Companies will listen -- don't lower your standards folks, if anything, the standards should be raised over OS 9 for OS X apps.

[Drizzt]

I agree totally with mister "El Presidente"

MacOS X deliver us power and deliver to developers possibilities. Unfortunately, some people don't like change.. I don't mind about it.. and I cam to know, with time, that you can't stop evolution, but just make it slower.

That said.. if our standards are higher than those of MacOS 9, the evolution will be quicker, and near painless.

Just look at Starcraft ans The Sims.. on my tiny iBook 366 they run like charm, faster than their OS 9 counterpart.

Than look at Internet Explorer.. and.. well.. start it again and look at it.. hum.. I mean.. start it an other time.. and.. oh? where's the text gone? oh wait.. it's here.. ah damnit it quitted again..

Know what I mean?

[iBorg]

Some people didn't read the webpage before downloading or ordering, which clearly states that Fax STF doesn't work with external modems. That isn't "buggy," that's a program requirement. If you don't have the equipment necessary, don't buy it! Analogous to someone running system 8, and complaining that the program they bought is "buggy" because it "requires OS 8.5 or higher" as stated clearly on the box!

I've had no problems with FaxSTF, and am glad that someone has finally provided OSX users with the ability to fax!



iBorg

[jblakeh1]

Disclaimer: I have not used FaxSTFx, so my comments won't be about it, but rather in accepting buggy and/or incomplete apps.

I suggest you don't do it.

Come on, if you really believe this, you wouldn't be using OS X at all. It's missing many features from OS 9 (although IMHO, it has added more important features than those that are missing), and thus far, many apps on X are missing some functionality that was available in 9... AIM comes to mind.

[jblakeh1]

This isn't ideal I know, and is little more than a hack... but for custom cover pages...

/Library/Printers/SmithMicro/Fax.plugin

ctrl-click --&gt; view package contents

Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Fax Cover.pdf

If you have an app that can edit pdfs, you can customize it here.

[Ron Goodman]

We ran across a bug in FAXstf I haven't seen mentioned. After installing it, I noticed in Classic that I could select the Laserwriter8 driver in the left hand pane of Chooser, but our Personal Laserwriter 320 didn't show up on the right, where it normally does. Uninstalling FAXstfX made the printer visible again. I've already sent Smith Micro a note about this. The printer is attached to our Macs via an Ethernet hub.