DM42 News

[grsbanks]

Last I heard they were going on sale at CHF199.00

[jebem]

I have made my mind on this DM42 machine: I will buy one when the following conditions are all true:

- The machine is released (I read on the SwissMicros forum that the selling was delayed to next week because they are waiting to receive all the required parts to start the production);

- Some time have past (nothing against SwissMicros; I just do not buy anything that is absolutely new; I guess I'm not an early adopter);

- I have the money apart to buy it (at this time, i have other life priorities where to spend my hard earned cash);

[Logan]

(12-01-2017 03:12 PM)jebem Wrote:  I have made my mind on this DM42 machine: I will buy one when the following conditions are all true:

- Some time have past (nothing against SwissMicros; I just do not buy anything that is absolutely new; I guess I'm not an early adopter);

I'm generally the same but in this case the Beta machines have been out there and tested for months so I'm not too worried about it being "unproven" at this point.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(12-01-2017 03:18 PM)Logan Wrote:  

(12-01-2017 03:12 PM)jebem Wrote:  I have made my mind on this DM42 machine: I will buy one when the following conditions are all true:

- Some time have past (nothing against SwissMicros; I just do not buy anything that is absolutely new; I guess I'm not an early adopter);

I'm generally the same but in this case the Beta machines have been out there and tested for months so I'm not too worried about it being "unproven" at this point.

Yes, quite proven and robust! Recommended.

Buy early, buy often. (I did) :P

[Luigi Vampa]

:/ Nobody likes delays.
:) Is it the first time a calculator manufacturer has counted on so many qualified beta testers? I do think so, but I might be wrong.
:) SM has proven quite verbal when providing feedback about the delays and their causes.
:) And last, it is Swiss Engineering... they go quite OCD about quality.

[grsbanks]

(12-01-2017 03:12 PM)jebem Wrote:  - Some time have past (nothing against SwissMicros; I just do not buy anything that is absolutely new; I guess I'm not an early adopter);

Understandable. Although I've had my hands on a DM42 for the past 6 months during which I have been doing 3 things:

* testing the machine myself, including testing alpha-release firmware before it is put out to the beta testers

* running the SwissMicros forum and passing bug reports and fixes between the "army" of about 70 beta testers and the SwissMicros guys

* participating to some extent in the process of defining/deciding what goes into the firmware and how the machine should operate in scenarios that are beyond the HP-42S's feature set.

Trust me, this thing has been tested There are still some issues that spawn some discussion but are really down to personal preference and are not "faults" as such. You can't please everybody but we're doing what we can to please as many as possible!

[grsbanks]

(12-03-2017 11:19 PM)emersone12 Wrote:  Will Hewlett Packard's own HP-42 (???) new calculator rebirth, discussed under the "Dome of Silence" at HHC 2017, be released in 2018?

HP have a track record of announcing talk subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject actually discussed at HHC when there's a lid on the real subject.

As I understand it (I wasn't there), 2017 was no exception to this "rule" and the talk had nothing to to with the rebirth of the HP-42S. As far as I know, there will be no such rebirth.

[rprosperi]

(12-03-2017 11:23 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  

(12-03-2017 11:19 PM)emersone12 Wrote:  Will Hewlett Packard's own HP-42 (???) new calculator rebirth, discussed under the "Dome of Silence" at HHC 2017, be released in 2018?

HP have a track record of announcing talk subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject actually discussed at HHC when there's a lid on the real subject.

As I understand it (I wasn't there), 2017 was no exception to this "rule" and the talk had nothing to to with the rebirth of the HP-42S. As far as I know, there will be no such rebirth.

I was there. He's right! IANAL, but I beleive this doesn't violate any confidentiality agreements...

And that track record is more of a well-honed and time-honored tradition.

[grsbanks]

(12-03-2017 11:26 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  I was there. He's right! IANAL, but I beleive this doesn't violate any confidentiality agreements...

As long as you keep quiet about what was discussed

[rprosperi]

(12-03-2017 11:29 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  

(12-03-2017 11:26 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  I was there. He's right! IANAL, but I beleive this doesn't violate any confidentiality agreements...

As long as you keep quiet about what was discussed

Discussed? When? Where?

[Michael de Estrada]

If HP did reintroduce the HP 42s, they would probably call it the HP 42s Limited Edition, package it in a fancy presentation box, give it a limited edition number, produce it in the same Chinese factory as the HP 15c Limited Edition with a mediocre keyboard, a zillion bugs which they will not fix and absolutely no improvements such as a communication port. Oh, and you will need to replace the batteries every month.

[zeno333]

(12-04-2017 01:37 AM)Michael de Estrada Wrote:  If HP did reintroduce the HP 42s, they would probably call it the HP 42s Limited Edition, package it in a fancy presentation box, give it a limited edition number, produce it in the same Chinese factory as the HP 15c Limited Edition with a mediocre keyboard, a zillion bugs which they will not fix and absolutely no improvements such as a communication port. Oh, and you will need to replace the batteries every month.

There was a day when HP did whatever it took to fix a calculator bug...Anything...Those days are gone now.

[Thomas Okken]

(12-04-2017 04:37 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 01:37 AM)Michael de Estrada Wrote:  If HP did reintroduce the HP 42s, they would probably call it the HP 42s Limited Edition, package it in a fancy presentation box, give it a limited edition number, produce it in the same Chinese factory as the HP 15c Limited Edition with a mediocre keyboard, a zillion bugs which they will not fix and absolutely no improvements such as a communication port. Oh, and you will need to replace the batteries every month.

There was a day when HP did whatever it took to fix a calculator bug...Anything...Those days are gone now.

To put this in perspective: when HP released their first handheld calculator, the HP-35, in 1972, they charged $395 for it. In 2017 dollars, that's roughly $2300. How much did you spend on your latest brand-new calculator?

[zeno333]

(12-04-2017 06:28 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 04:37 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  There was a day when HP did whatever it took to fix a calculator bug...Anything...Those days are gone now.

To put this in perspective: when HP released their first handheld calculator, the HP-35, in 1972, they charged $395 for it. In 2017 dollars, that's roughly $2300. How much did you spend on your latest brand-new calculator?

The previous "quality" philosophy that HP had had nothing to do with the price...It had to do with a certain mindset that applied no matter what the price happened to be...That mindset was rare, and HP was one of the few that had it...(The images on the keys used to be inlaid, this was just one of the "symptoms" of that previous quality mindset.)

[Thomas Okken]

(12-04-2017 06:49 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 06:28 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  To put this in perspective: when HP released their first handheld calculator, the HP-35, in 1972, they charged $395 for it. In 2017 dollars, that's roughly $2300. How much did you spend on your latest brand-new calculator?

The previous "quality" philosophy that HP had had nothing to do with the price...It had to do with a certain mindset that applied no matter what the price happened to be...That mindset was rare, and HP was one of the few that had it...(The images on the keys used to be inlaid, this was just one of the "symptoms" of that previous quality mindset.)

And the price "just happened" to be the kind of money where you can afford to provide a lot of after-sale support, and nice details like injection-molded keys.
Right. :-D

[zeno333]

(12-04-2017 02:05 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 06:49 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  The previous "quality" philosophy that HP had had nothing to do with the price...It had to do with a certain mindset that applied no matter what the price happened to be...That mindset was rare, and HP was one of the few that had it...(The images on the keys used to be inlaid, this was just one of the "symptoms" of that previous quality mindset.)

And the price "just happened" to be the kind of money where you can afford to provide a lot of after-sale support, and nice details like injection-molded keys.
Right. :-D

The first 20S calculators had injection molded keys as was mentioned in the early manual, so that is an example of a lower priced model that still had inlaid keys. My 20S manual said it had injection molded keys but the actual calculator I got did not have that...That was from a change in "philosophy that was much greater than any change in price for the 20S.

[Michael de Estrada]

(12-04-2017 06:28 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 04:37 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  There was a day when HP did whatever it took to fix a calculator bug...Anything...Those days are gone now.

To put this in perspective: when HP released their first handheld calculator, the HP-35, in 1972, they charged $395 for it. In 2017 dollars, that's roughly $2300. How much did you spend on your latest brand-new calculator?

That is a false equivalency. All electronics were far more expensive back then. My first color TV that I bought in 1972 would cost over $10K in today’s inflated dollars. The same could be said of my first Tandy microcomputer. When I bought my HP 35 in 1973, the price had just dropped to $295, but that still represented two weeks of my take home pay. As production costs came down, so did the prices of HP calculators, yet HP still managed to maintain high quality standards until the company lost its way in the new millenium. Meanwhile, companies like Apple still manage to maintain high quality standards, while remaining competitive.

[grsbanks]

(12-04-2017 03:15 PM)Michael de Estrada Wrote:  Meanwhile, companies like Apple still manage to maintain high quality standards, while remaining competitive.

I'm not so sure Apple could be called competitive. Yes, the build quality and after sales service on their devices are of an extremely high standard but you pay for that. The slightest MacBook with a 13" screen costs £1000 over here. I could buy 4 laptops with bigger screens (or a car...) for that kind of money.

[Michael de Estrada]

(12-04-2017 03:20 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  

(12-04-2017 03:15 PM)Michael de Estrada Wrote:  Meanwhile, companies like Apple still manage to maintain high quality standards, while remaining competitive.

I'm not so sure Apple could be called competitive. Yes, the build quality and after sales service on their devices are of an extremely high standard but you pay for that. The slightest MacBook with a 13" screen costs £1000 over here. I could buy 4 laptops with bigger screens (or a car...) for that kind of money.

Wow ! Cars must be really cheap in the UK. lol

[grsbanks]

(12-04-2017 03:29 PM)Michael de Estrada Wrote:  Wow ! Cars must be really cheap in the UK. lol

They can be The one I've been driving for the past 3 years cost me £260 (ca. €280) and I've driven 50,000 miles (80.000 Km) in it. Mind you, it is on its last legs now.