HP should offer a free hardware upgrade

[Steve Simpkin]

(06-05-2014 05:16 PM)Jake Schwartz Wrote:  

(06-04-2014 08:46 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Same with two-way IR communications. I remember when the HP-49 came out without an IR receiver many people on this forum were upset about its removal (along with being unhappy about the rubber keys, color choice, etc). Jean-Yves Avenard (JYA) explained that the two-way IR link feature disqualified the HP48 series from many educational institutions and test boards.

Right....and that was despite the fact that IR required line of sight plus the '48 had such a relatively short range (of only inches).

Very true and by design the communication range was only a few inches at best. Even so, the test boards can be a conservative bunch. What if evil doers, modified a pair of HP-48's to have a longer IR range - Gasp! In their minds they would rather be safe than sorry no matter how implausible the potential for cheating would be. They would be better off designing the tests so it did not require a calculator at all.