Is it just me (and it may be).....

[Craig Thomas]

....or is the bloom off this rose (the HP Prime)?

It's a math engine and not really what I needed. As an HP RPN calculator, I don't care for it.

I'll probably try and sell mine rather than wait an indefinite time to see if RPN is tweaked at all.

[Joe Horn]

(08-03-2014 12:07 AM)Craig Thomas Wrote:  ....or is the bloom off this rose (the HP Prime)?

It's a math engine and not really what I needed. As an HP RPN calculator, I don't care for it.

I'll probably try and sell mine rather than wait an indefinite time to see if RPN is tweaked at all.

You'll replace it when they improve the RPN. That will make HP happy, because that way they will have sold you two of them instead of just one.

[Craig Thomas]

...laughing...

Ha!

[eried]

(08-03-2014 12:07 AM)Craig Thomas Wrote:  ....or is the bloom off this rose (the HP Prime)?

It's a math engine and not really what I needed. As an HP RPN calculator, I don't care for it.

I'll probably try and sell mine rather than wait an indefinite time to see if RPN is tweaked at all.

Yeah, that's certainly a true feeling... I won't sell it but hype fades away quick. Right now it is like a Viewmaster waiting for new reels

[John R. Graham]

Not just you. I find usability in my day-to-day engineering work to be far inferior to the RPL series.

- John

[toml_12953]

(08-05-2014 06:23 PM)John R. Graham Wrote:  Not just you. I find usability in my day-to-day engineering work to be far inferior to the RPL series.

- John

I'm curious as to why engineers bought this thing to begin with. It's clearly marketed to students to compete with the TI Nspire. As such, it compares very well. Compare it to the HP 50g and it's not so good.

[CR Haeger]

(08-05-2014 07:16 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  

(08-05-2014 06:23 PM)John R. Graham Wrote:  Not just you. I find usability in my day-to-day engineering work to be far inferior to the RPL series.

- John

I'm curious as to why engineers bought this thing to begin with. It's clearly marketed to students to compete with the TI Nspire. As such, it compares very well. Compare it to the HP 50g and it's not so good.

Just an early adopter.

One good firmware update that gives more rpn and science/engineering apps and that would make many more move from their HP50G.

Hope it comes sooner rather than later.

[John R. Graham]

(08-05-2014 07:16 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I'm curious as to why engineers bought this thing to begin with. It's clearly marketed to students to compete with the TI Nspire. As such, it compares very well. Compare it to the HP 50g and it's not so good.

From the HP web site:

• HP 50g Graphing Calculator: Best used for - Engineering; Computer science; Surveying; Trigonometry; Statistics; Geometry; Biology; Chemistry; Physics.
• HP Prime Graphing Calculator: Best used for - Engineering; Computer science; Surveying; Trigonometry; Statistics; Geometry; Biology; Chemistry; Physics.
  

Clearly marketed? Not so much.

Now, after you get it and use it? That's another story. Clearly not targeted at scientists and engineers.

- John

[Thomas Radtke]

(08-05-2014 07:57 PM)CR Haeger Wrote:  One good firmware update that gives more rpn and science/engineering apps and that would make many more move from their HP50G.

You get the 50g audience if you port the 50g firmware to the Prime. Of course, the keyboard layout needs to be changed accordingly. Not sure about the screen ... maybe most people prefer battery life over colour? To be on the safe side, replace the screen.

[Angus]

Same here : I was fooled by hp advertising. Read the cite given by John R. Graham... The fact and the fact that hp consequently ignores requests and complaints about this topic makes me sad. (surveying is also funny - my prime does not provide grad. How would a surveyor react?)

Realizing the focus on explorer apps, exam modes and such and the argument that schools are the primary target came later (and only here in the forum). Even -if- that was the original strategy: a little more love and passion on features that boost a calculator to a working machine and a little less focus on gadgets that would possibly not even missed at school would have been so beneficial for the prime... truly sad. I don't have the feeling that re-thinking started hp wise.
Something like the number formatting introduced in the last firmware update: is that really necessary? A feature needed for an early update? The scrolling modifications... Especially when such modifications harm other modules in the calc, I would have priorized differently and set such visual features aside.

[Tim Wessman]

(08-06-2014 07:43 AM)Angus Wrote:  (surveying is also funny - my prime does not provide grad. How would a surveyor react?)

Well, ever single surveyor from the hundreds/thousands that I have asked and spoken with would not care 1 bit. Only a single one had ever used gradians - while reviewing a early 1800 deed in a dusty European library.

[Angus]

Then things must be different in some areas of Europe.
But I must admit I only know 7 surveyors, which might not be fully represantative. None of them would even think about buying such a calculator - especially not for university purposes. I found myself thinking why you decided not to include such a feature. Especially if it is so easy to add. Possibly yet less time consuming than doing the poll itself ;-)
Thank you for enlightening me about that.

[eried]

(08-06-2014 09:37 AM)Angus Wrote:  Then things must be different in some areas of Europe.
But I must admit I only know 7 surveyors, which might not be fully represantative. None of them would even think about buying such a calculator - especially not for university purposes. I found myself thinking why you decided not to include such a feature. Especially if it is so easy to add. Possibly yet less time consuming than doing the poll itself ;-)
Thank you for enlightening me about that.

I demand support for BASE27, because I like to use my body parts for counting stuff hahaha kidding; this might be a bit off topic but can you show some example why grads add some value to the device? or it is just because legacy usage?

I remember these from high school but we (in fact; no one that I know, even like math phds, physics, etc) ever used these for anything. More functionality does not harm anyone... but I think numeric formatting is/was way more vital than gradient support.

[Angus]

I don't know, but if I google for gon and geodesy there are numerous hits. I don't even have to do a refined search on german pages. I have seen even theodolites with both, degree and gon scale.
I would not have expected math or physics people to ever get into touch with gon. It surprises me that gon is obviously not used at college in the usa. Tim referred to hundreds of surveyors from the practice who don't miss it, nor does it seem to be vital for education at us-universities. Otherwise hp would surely have included it - thinking of the target market. (*) (interesting though that home view is somehow crippled I don't understand the the benefit of not including gon)
Don't get me wrong; I don't care at all about gon, it's only that to me it was totally clear that gon has its place in surveying, which is advertised.
So I would like to avoid playing the role of advocatus diaboli ;-)


(*) If any test exercise requires gon, then being able to switch to gon is more than valuable for the student I think.

[toml_12953]

(08-06-2014 11:51 AM)eried Wrote:  

(08-06-2014 09:37 AM)Angus Wrote:  Then things must be different in some areas of Europe.
But I must admit I only know 7 surveyors, which might not be fully represantative. None of them would even think about buying such a calculator - especially not for university purposes. I found myself thinking why you decided not to include such a feature. Especially if it is so easy to add. Possibly yet less time consuming than doing the poll itself ;-)
Thank you for enlightening me about that.

I demand support for BASE27, because I like to use my body parts for counting stuff hahaha kidding;

I can only count to 21. How many body parts do you have?!?

[eried]

(08-06-2014 03:18 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I can only count to 21. How many body parts do you have?!?

What are you counting?! it is "from body parts" but it is not limited only to convex-concave transitions http://goo.gl/QuK5Kd