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Last week was my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. We wanted to send them into Manhattan for a weekend filled with the symphony, good food and a great hotel with a view of Central Park. It all came together at the last minute and we ran into a bit of a problem trying to prepay everything that they would be doing. The hotel and both restaurants (one for dinner and one for brunch) required us to sign a number of papers and fax them back so that our credit card could be charged. The problem was, we were up in the country and don’t have a fax machine there. What to do?
iPhone and iPad to the rescue
Two of the businesses required photocopies of our credit card and driver’s license. We couldn’t do that but we were able to take pictures of both and e-mail them to the office. Why photocopy something and then scan it when you can simply take a picture with your iPhone and send it as an attachment?
Then there were the pages that were sent to us and required us to fill in information, affix a signature and then fax them back. That’s where the iPad application Sign My iPad came in quite handy.
I opened the pages in the application and used it to add the relevant information such as names and credit card information. I then handed the iPad to Elana. “What do you want me to do with this?” She asked. “Just sign in the box.” I replied. She looked at me strangely. “With what?” I got another look when I replied, “Your finger.”
She scribbled her name with her finger. It looked perfect. Truth be told we were both surprised by how well it worked. I added the signature to the PDF, saved it and then e-mail to all of the documents back to the hotel and restaurants.
It was fast, seamless, and it didn’t waste a bit of paper either. They accepted the documents and the in-laws had a great weekend.
It’s a whole new world and the iPad is leading the charge.
