As iPhone sales continue to grow, we are seeing more and more iPhone users of Qipit. Having the ability to copy, scan and fax from anywhere, and to keep the flow of the meeting by capturing whiteboard notes on-the-spot, is a natural fit for the hip and savvy iPhone user.

One question we see, is how to get the iPhone working smoothly using the Qipit service. Depending on which iPhone you are using, your capabilities are a little different, so let′s start by defining the capabilities of the different iPhone models.

iPhone and iPhone 3G

The original iPhone and the iPhone 3G, both have 2 megapixel fixed focus cameras so they are great for capturing whiteboards, flipcharts, paperboards and other large format displays of information. They are also good for some larger handwritten notes. However, both of these models fall a little short for sending faxes and scanning documents because of the absence of the ability to change the focal point of the lens to take a clear close up picture.

There is however, an innovative solution for this problem, available from Griffin Technology called the Clarifi. The Clarifi is a protective case, with a macro focus lens that is optimized for capturing documents. Think of the Clarifi as a trendy pair of glasses for your iPhone or iPhone 3G that enables your phone to be fully compatible with all of the functionality of Qipit.

iPhone 3Gs

The iPhone 3Gs, comes equipped with a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, so there is not a need for a third party macro focus lens such as the Clarifi. This means the 3Gs will work great for scanning documents, flyers, magazine articles, receipts, forms, whiteboards and flipcharts, you name it. The next step is configuring your iPhone to work with Qipit.

Email Setup

If you did not setup your iPhone email address when you first registered, you can add this address under My Account, then click Email Settings and select Add Email Address. Make sure you confirm the email address by clicking the link that is sent to your email account. Once this is done, I suggest you add Qipit as a contact in your address book and add the Qipit email address: copy@qipit.com (for black and white copies) and color@qipit.com (for color copies). This will make it easy to use Qipit in the future.

Tip: You can add an “a” in front of the Qipit name (ie “a Qipit”), to keep Qipit at the top of your contacts list.

Note: Since the iPhone is setup to use email, there is not a need to setup your phone number unless you want to use Qipit with MMS (aka Picture Messaging). I advise against using MMS, since it may downsize your image (Read more on image downsizing below).

Taking the picture

After you have setup your iPhone, the next step is to capture the information you want to copy or fax by taking a picture of it. You can also reference the post Receiving a clear qipit document in 4 easy steps for more on that subject.

Sending full resolution photos to Qipit

The next step is getting the photo off of your iPhone at the maximum resolution. Typically Qipit needs 1,000,000 pixels (or 1 megapixel) of resolution to process an image; however this is the minimum and would not accommodate replicating very densely packed content. The type of content density you typically find in a 12 point font printed document or magazine article.

For maximizing the iPhone you want to send the full resolution image to the Qipit server to be process. This full resolution is 3,145,728 pixels (2048×1536) on the iPhone 3Gs and 1,920,000 pixels (1600 x 1200) on the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.  If you follow the natural path of taking a picture, then simply tapping the Share button, you will only be sending a measly 480,000 pixels (800 x 600) image. Yep, your 2 or 3 megapixel image is not even sent as a full megapixel. So, to get around this obstacle (You will need iPhone OS 3.0 or later), you simply use the copy and paste feature on the phone.

Hold down on either the thumbnail of the image in the camera roll, or directly on the image and “Copy” will appear.

Touch “Copy” and it will turn blue. This copies the full-sized image to the clipboard. Now compose a new email and hold down until “Paste” appears. Touch “Paste” and it will insert the full-sized image into the new email.

Another option is to use the Share button in Album view, this option also allows you to send more than one photo at a time. This is very handy for sending a multiple page fax or document. Both methods allow you to send a full sized image from your phone, maximizing the capabilities of Qipit and the usefulness of your iPhone.

Please share any more tips and tricks you have found using Qipit and your iPhone.

(Special thanks to our friends at lifehacker for bringing the copy and paste iPhone trick to our attention)

~ Conrad

P.S. If you have an iPhone, be sure to checkout our Qipit White iPhone application. It is an even more convenient way to copy and share whteboards and flipcharts.