Proprietary HP Brand 15C and 12C iPhone emulators

[Les Wright]

Just noticed these in the App Store, even though they have been out for awhile.

They are quite pricey compared to the open source alternatives from Tom Fors & Eric Smith and RLM.

Anyone splurge on either? Any benefits over the cheaper choices, besides just the reassurances of the Official HP imprimatur?

Les

[Howard Owen]

Yes and yes, though that second affirmative is probably not what you'd expect. Yes, I bought the 15C emulator, and the differences between it and SCI-15C are minor. Both feature a flip over quick reference diagram when you touch the 15C logo. Both reproduce what's on the back of a real 15C. HP's is more readable because it's larger. You flick-scroll to see successive parts of the much more legible guide. SCI-15's QRG looks just like the real one, but doesn't scroll. The HP emulator will do portrait mode as well as landscape. Because of those two features, you could say the HP emulator is better adapted to the iPhone. But other than those things, which are pretty minor, the machines both appear to be very faithful simulations of the real thing.

I bought the HP15C emulator because I want to vote with my dollars for an official HP product involving a classic calculator. If HP sees there's a market for an HP-15C at $30.00, they might be more likely to bring out other products based around old machines. On the other hand, if this community won't pay $30.00 for such a thing, then I'd guess the chances of a 15C+ or 43S are even slimmer than they seemed to be before these programs appeared.

Regards,
Howard

[Byron Foster]

Quote:

---

They are quite pricey compared to the open source alternatives from Tom Fors & Eric Smith and RLM.

---

I don't think these calculators are open source.

[Les Wright]

I stand mostly corrected.

The RLM programs are of course not open source.

However, I thought the Nonpareil basis of Tom Fors' series of emulators WAS, and that the issues with proprietariness has to do with the ROMs, not the UIs.

I still have the long-since-pulled Crimson Research emulators, but the only one I actually keep on the iPod is the curious 16C emulator.

Les

[Byron Foster]

The source to Thomas Fors' binaries available through iTunes are not available.

I'm not aware of any open source calculators, other then Free42/42s, offered through the iTunes appstore. However, given that there are a bazillion calculators I'm sure there are others.