I am a very low volume faxer/scanner. Here's my ideal fax machine/scanner: a cylinder (or prism) about 9 inches long, 1/2 inch high, and 1/2 inch deep. There's an 8 1/2 inch slot through the middle of it.
When I need to scan, I pull out the retractable USB cable, plug it into my computer, and feed a piece of paper through the slot. (Plugging in the cable or pushing a piece of paper into the slot should wake the device up.)
When I need to fax, I do the same thing, but instead of the USB cable, I pull out the retractable RJ-11 phone cord and plug it into an outlet and punch the phone number in on a tiny keypad on the top of it. The buttons could even be laid out in a row, instead of in a grid.
I'd like this to be powered from the USB cable and the phone line, but if that's not enough power, I suppose I could deal with rechargeable batteries.
I'd even settle for a scan-only mode, since then I could use some eFax or tpc.int-style service to send my faxes.
