Which hardware revision do you have?

[jebem]

(05-31-2014 03:18 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  

(05-31-2014 02:27 AM)Michael Wrote:  Strange - there are two types:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/calcul...umn&page=1

Aha! Their descriptions differ:
NW280AA (what we have) does not mention wireless connectivity.
G8X92AA does mention wireless connectivity.

THEREFORE, we can now identify a Prime's hardware before buying it, simply by looking at the HP Product Number on the back of the package (just above the UPC barcode). "G8" means "Great!", whereas "NW" means "No Way!"

Great investigation, Joe. Thanks for that.
Now I know I have a real vintage less than a year calculator!

[Michael de Estrada]

(05-31-2014 02:27 AM)Michael Wrote:  Strange - there are two types:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/calcul...umn&page=1

I wonder if the G8X92AA version has also fixed the keyboard legibility issues ? It would be worth buying it for that reason alone.

[CR Haeger]

(05-31-2014 07:37 AM)jebem Wrote:  

(05-31-2014 03:18 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  Aha! Their descriptions differ:
NW280AA (what we have) does not mention wireless connectivity.
G8X92AA does mention wireless connectivity.

THEREFORE, we can now identify a Prime's hardware before buying it, simply by looking at the HP Product Number on the back of the package (just above the UPC barcode). "G8" means "Great!", whereas "NW" means "No Way!"

Great investigation, Joe. Thanks for that.
Now I know I have a real vintage less than a year calculator!

I prefer to think of mine as a stealth prime.

[jebem]

(05-29-2014 03:05 PM)Miguel Toro Wrote:  

(05-29-2014 02:36 PM)HP67 Wrote:  What are the differences in the hardware revisions?

The only thing that we know for certain is that with this firmware update, Revision A hardware does not support :

- Wireless
- unit-to-unit USB communication
- Data streamer

And now HP has updated their marketing catalogs to make sure people buy the second edition of this HP-Prime calculator (model G8X92AA) IF they need to take advantage of the "new" features like Wireless (model FOK65AA) and Data Streamer (model NW278AA).

These Wireless/Data Streamer/Unit-to-Unit "new" features were covered everywhere since last year, even at the HHC conventions where some of these features were announced and explained.
See for instance this HP official announcement as of 3013, where Wireless and Data Streamer was included as HP-Prime features. It never mention that you need to buy a new HP-Prime calculator to support them:
http://h30458.www3.hp.com/ww/en/ent/intr...26042.html

The need for new hardware to support these features, just after less than a year of launching this HP-Prime calculator is too much for me to accept it as a "normal" evolution. I would accept it if these features were NEVER announced as part of the HP-PRIME initial project.
So, at very least, misinformation as been the king in all this process.

As I said in other threads, calculators are just objects for my hobby as a collector. So, this HP-Prime model NW280AA (Hardware revision A) is valuable as such.

[Thomas Radtke]

(06-01-2014 09:17 AM)jebem Wrote:  And now HP has updated their marketing catalogs to make sure people buy the second edition of this HP-Prime calculator (model G8X92AA) IF they need to take advantage of the "new" features like Wireless (model FOK65AA) and Data Streamer (model NW278AA).

The current Prime can't read data from the StreamSmart devices? Why? There were several articles about the Prime and the StreamSmart. I'm very happy to not have bought the Prime as this would be an essential feature to me.

And what about the 39GII? An app was added AFAIK, but is its hardware ready to use the streamer? Or is the 39GII dead already? It seems, at least the museum community cares little to nil about it anymore.

[cutterjohn]

(06-01-2014 09:17 AM)jebem Wrote:  

(05-29-2014 03:05 PM)Miguel Toro Wrote:  The only thing that we know for certain is that with this firmware update, Revision A hardware does not support :

- Wireless
- unit-to-unit USB communication
- Data streamer

And now HP has updated their marketing catalogs to make sure people buy the second edition of this HP-Prime calculator (model G8X92AA) IF they need to take advantage of the "new" features like Wireless (model FOK65AA) and Data Streamer (model NW278AA).

These Wireless/Data Streamer/Unit-to-Unit "new" features were covered everywhere since last year, even at the HHC conventions where some of these features were announced and explained.
See for instance this HP official announcement as of 3013, where Wireless and Data Streamer was included as HP-Prime features. It never mention that you need to buy a new HP-Prime calculator to support them:
http://h30458.www3.hp.com/ww/en/ent/intr...26042.html

The need for new hardware to support these features, just after less than a year of launching this HP-Prime calculator is too much for me to accept it as a "normal" evolution. I would accept it if these features were NEVER announced as part of the HP-PRIME initial project.
So, at very least, misinformation as been the king in all this process.

As I said in other threads, calculators are just objects for my hobby as a collector. So, this HP-Prime model NW280AA (Hardware revision A) is valuable as such.

Apparently not only the firmware was not finished, and I guess that I was wrong about the hardware being finished and their rushing the prime out the door for monies...

I love how HP is using us as guinea pigs, and how we got to pay for this particular privilege...

At a guess I'd say that they enabled USB OTG given that the wireless module looks to be a USB dongle, or more likely the ones that we got were the leftover pre-production run boards which were borked in ways such that OTG didn't work nor the datastreamer(and whatever else we might have like to have done with it).

[Angus]

I agree with jebem.... Actually I am surprised to hear that there are many restrictions on the hardware hp sold for almost one year. It was only said that the streamer dongle etc should be shipped late 2013. NOT that they don't work with the hardware?? That is really sad.

google showshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a4TGL1zBco there IS a prime doing data streaming...Is it leaked from some hp lab?

Anyway I am sure that most of us will play the game and end up with two primes sooner or later. Which prooves HP's marketing and dev teams do a good job :-)

[bhtooefr]

Whereas some of us, even those that had no interest in those features, have decided that they were right in their decision to make the 50g their last new HP calculator, rather than reward HP for that stunt.

[Dougggg]

What is the Other Version, looks like someone has 1

[Manolo Sobrino]

Is this thread serious? And if it is... come on, really?

I just can't believe the amount of disrespect that some customers are willing to take from a company. It's almost embarrassing.

I can't remember any other manufacturer cutting brochure functionality for their existing customers less than one year after launching a calc and having pocketed their money... It's one thing to reduce assembly programs size or go back to the memory specs and give up on the free goodies (BTW if people kept private their hacking and breaching of terms of use in devices meant for school use, maybe those companies would be nicer... to the rest of us, you know...), it's a different thing to leave early buyers without support for advertised core functionalities.

If HP's business plan relies on bootstrapping new products by treating their customers like suckers, with blatant moves like this they might run out of suckers sooner than expected.

Meanwhile, in the real world, people use devices that work and return/don't buy again devices that don't.

[HP67]

(06-01-2014 08:24 PM)bhtooefr Wrote:  Whereas some of us, even those that had no interest in those features, have decided that they were right in their decision to make the 50g their last new HP calculator, rather than reward HP for that stunt.

I think Joe Horn said it earlier, there is the difference between early and late adopters. I have always worked in an area where technology moves fast but the application of it has been very conservative. I don't get the latest of anything except at work. I let other people work the bugs out of stuff before I buy it, probably because I'm constantly confronted with the realities of insufficient and declining budgets and increasingly bad managers and increasingly out of touch marketing departments, all incented to deliver things "on schedule" (whatever that means) and punished if they're not. Whether the product is ready or not doesn't seem to factor into their equation.

I don't want to play sysadmin on a calculator, I refuse to be tied to Windows, and I don't want to have to hang out on a forum just to use a calculator. I want to want to hang out on a forum with people who like and use the same tech stuff I do.

On the other hand, look how much influence the early adopters have had on the Prime. For one it's unusual to have company people hanging out on a forum and actually listening to what is being said. It's even more unusual that they actually answer questions, explain motivations, and implement suggestions and fixes based on the customer's experience. HP did a lot right on this, even if it was just giving permission for their guys to post on forums. Many companies don't allow that, even on the employee's own time.

That does not mean that this apparent public alpha test of the Prime was smart on HP's part. Personally and with the disclaimer that I didn't buy a Prime and am not interested in owning one, I'm extremely disappointed and frankly pretty surprised that the project has been mismanaged to this extent. From the outside it seems there are communications and quality problems and that gets back to a lack of quality technical management, and probably a lack of autonomy of technical management, that stems from poor senior management. All that stuff is typical of so-called market-driven companies. And it always affects the people and products in destructive ways.

I think if HP would have sent out limited batches to people on this forum, to the hpcc, and whatever other HP-enthusiast venues there are, and did thorough alpha and beta tests and had the discipline to wait until the product was ready for sale before they started selling it, then HP could have created a lot of good will and avoided a lot of angry customers. People who know they are working on an alpha or beta product come from a totally different angle than somebody who spent money on something he thought he could use without significant problems or surprises.

The guys on this forum are mostly old-time HP enthusiasts and more technical than average. If the problems that are going on here are also occuring in the wild in the "education market" the the Prime is targeted to, then the way this has been handled is nothing short of a disaster and an embarassment for a company like HP.

I hope they get their priorities in order and get the management straightened out on this project. Because it's very clear they are not communicating internally, not understanding QA, product delivery and many other fundamental things, and not positioning the product and features clearly to the marketplace. Nobody should have to find out that his new wireless-enabled calculator isn't.

[DrD]

Many of us have followed hp calculators from the very beginning. Having evolved with their production, all the society ramifications, (exploring the limits of each calculator, the journals, the HHC community events, Easter eggs, etc.), there is almost a sibling relationship with hp's calculator division. In that sense, working through birth difficulties of a new generation product, for me, anyway, is no big deal.

Let's say that a new product is emerging, and I want to be an early adopter. In my case, with my hp history, I *expect* there will be 'issues' that reveal themselves, which probably will be resolved by hp internally, and/or the hp user community, in general. In a perverse way, I find that fun and entertaining.

IF a mission critical mandate for 'absolutes' exists, as in failure not an option, I wouldn't rely exclusively on this new product, (or any new product), and until the products credibility is validated, I might use it, perhaps, in tandem with other technologies.

So that is why, in my case, I look forward to new products from the calculator division, and happily participate in the new product maturity curve. If being born in this generation affords [me] an opportunity to play with such a wealth of knowledge in a tiny box, imagine what the great mathematicians of history would have been able to accomplish, but for the fate of time? So hp gets no complaints from me!

-Dale-

[toml_12953]

(05-31-2014 01:03 PM)CR Haeger Wrote:  

(05-31-2014 07:37 AM)jebem Wrote:  Great investigation, Joe. Thanks for that.
Now I know I have a real vintage less than a year calculator!

I prefer to think of mine as a stealth prime.

So where can you actually *buy* a new one? Even HP's own Website only has the NW version for sale.

[Michael]

Get over it! We were Beta-Tester. And in 2015 there will be Rev. C!
These behavior is a matter of character!

[peacecalc]

Hi calculator friends,

Quote:Original jebem:
I love how HP is using us as guinea pigs, and how we got to pay for this particular privilege...

That is not very different from car industries or software manufactures. I told my family the second time not buy a prime as a gift for me. I can wait... heaven, too.

BTW: every forum concerned with a product is a cheap service for the producer of the product. That is a main reason that every company has fora dealing with their products.
So proud owner and user of this product can help other users with problems. It establishes a hierachy: the best informed poster is/are employee/s of the company, second the poster who worked/played already a long time with the product and know a lot of tricks and workarounds, the third one in the chain (but very nessecary, because he/she justified the existence of the first and second one) is the newbee with the product.

Greetings peacecalc

[Angus]

I'd like to cite myself...

Quote:Just to clarify: I don't blame anyone for existing bugs, nor did I ever. My daily work teaches me every day that bug-free is impossible. I have to struggle with software-centric devices including precision analog electronics.
But I do blame hp for tolerating obvious problems and flaws from the beginning and for non existing feedback. They have people like Tim who is very encouraged and an essential part on the system. But on the other hand he states that his opinion (i.e. post) has nothing to do with hp.
And since yesterday I do blame hp for advertising a calculator for one year that CANNOT work as advertised. If I were a teacher who introduced the prime to my physics class some mounths ago I would be more than mad.