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Just found this info at hpcalc.org in case you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.hpcalc.org/images/datasheet48gii
http://www.hpcalc.org/images/datasheet33s.pdf
Sorry folks, the double-wide enter key at the left of the fifth row from bottom appears to be history. Time will tell if that is the worst omission from these new models.
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looks interesting. not sure what they mean by "internal napier precision". but they have a sensible amount of memory. the 33s claims keystroke programming, but the 48 doesnt say. is it the same or some C like basic?
i just hope they're not full of bugs.
on the subject of bugs, i am supposing that the old range worked by recycling and improving the same algorithms as they were developed, maintaining a strong base. if you've ever tried to write a scientific calculator in software from scratch its way too easy for quite embarassing bugs to get in there. limiting cases of trig functions and so on. even though you think youve really tested it.
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I worry. All the pictures look like the calculor was just pasted on. Look at the shadows on everything else then that of the calculator the real ones have several shadows coming from different light sources the calc has only one. Plus the wording of the specs is strange. It doesn't fit with the wording for the 9g and 30s. It looks like a very elaborate fake.
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JaSon,
I agree - looks very much like a set of fakes.
The description of functions is incredibly inconsistent. There are some details that anybody who can figure out how to turn it on won't need, and some other remarkably obtuse comments (like the "Napier" precision) and the appearance of linear regression twice (for the '33S) as well as other confusing, non-standard terminology in the "statistical function" section.
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So maybe this is a taste of the manual quality of the new machines;-)
Raymond
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I wish I thought that the pictures and information shown on the 33S and 48GII were fake. Unfortunately, they are probably real. The keyboard on the 33S may be perfectly functional, but my first impression is: "Its a toy." Looks like a calculator Mattel would make.
On the other hand, my 32SII, 42S, and 41-CX look professional, have a good keyboard feel, and are sturdily constructed.
After I find out more about the new line of calculators I may be more impressed. But, as the saying goes, "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck."
Still, they do use RPN, so maybe there is some hope.
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The 48GII looks better than the 49G+, as far as being able to see the myriad of key function s clearly, but the 33S? That has got to be the worst possible design for a calculator keyboard ever imagined! Talk about throwing the ergonomics book into the paper shredder!!!
If they have already built and are selling the 12C Platinum, why not build a remake of the 15C? They have already solved the manufacturing and die casting issues, simply build on the 15C capability and correct the already identified ergonomic issues with the 12CP. I think that would be better accepted than this alleged 33S monstrosity. It does RPN a disservice by making it appear hard to use simply because you can't find the keys you need. Talk about a wacko casting job that must be too.
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For both of these the make or break for me will be the manual - from recent efforts (last 10 years) HP will have to try MUCH harder.
HP33S:
1) Sack the keyboard designer (is it the worst looking calc ever?)
2) Is this like the HP42 or HP32? Keyboard - 32, display - 42 (or is the display for alg replay - yuk)
3) What is the manual like?
4) 0.06 inches thick - WOW!
5) No input output (not even Ir out?) - so having 32K RAM is not very useful (lose power - start typing).
HP48GII:
1) Looks like the HP49G+ to me but: less memory, slower processor, fixed operating system?
2) Is the Ir only compatible with the HP48GII and HP49G+?
3) Serial port - RS232 or USB?
4) MOST IMPORTANTLY is the manual any better than the heap-o-junk that the HP49G came with?
5) It still looks way too high end for my use :(
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Quote: 4) 0.06 inches thick - WOW!
But ten times that thick in metric :-)
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totally agree. the 9g comes with 2 pages. just two fold out pages. its totally appalling. you have to read the program examples to reverse engineer the syntax of the program language!
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Well, the 33S sure makes the 32Sii look gorgeous, doesn't it? Form has ultimately trounced function, it seems.
I'm sorry, I know it is somewhat unfair to criticize without ever having held a machine in your hands, but these documents sure don't fill me with warm fuzzies.
Look at how in both documents the thickness has been incorrectly translated from mm to inches -- was it one of these calculators which did the conversion?
Look at the paragraph at the end of the 48Gii document, the one with the asterisk. Can anybody make sense of this paragraph, in English? Say what? You need an internet connection in order to use the serial cable? But please purchase the cable separately because it is included!?
If this is the attention to detail the microcode got then we're in for some serious disappointment.
I also echo another poster's comment about no I/O with the 33S. This was one of the biggest criticisms of the 42S and so what does HP do but go out and repeat it. Probably some brainy marketer vetoed it to keep "product separation" with the 48Gii.
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I think that phrase should be in parentheses (as in, "please purchase the PC separately").
Hey, at least they're being consistent. They've patched up some old designs and put 'em in flashy packaging. For marketing materials, they're not doing all new photography -- just patching in images of the new units into existing pictures. (I think I've seen the architect guy somewhere before . . . )
As for the 33s, it occurs to me that the designer either worked on or drives a Pontiac Aztek.
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Also look at the words "maths students" no one whose native language is English would say that. I see it all the time from people who post messages on comp.sys.hp48 that are not native english speakers.
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Unless you are English (not american): then you refer not to the subject as "math" but rather as "maths"
Regards,
-Bill
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Not just the English - the Scots, Australians, probably the Irish, etc.
The term "math students" is only used by people whose first language is not English; to wit, Americans.
(Why *do* they only teach one mathematic in schools there?)
Best,
--- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au]
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In almost every english speaking country besides the USA, we refer to it as maths.
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We don't use the "s" up here north of the USA, either, even with our strong English heritage.
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I was hoping a Canadian would get into this thread--I rather expected it with my ambiguous "american" moniker!
It's fun how Canadian english is sort of in between--the spelling of "colour" yet the use of "math" "funny" (meaning queer or eerie) "diaper" (not nappy). I can't remember about "soda" or "pop" but certainly not "tonic". I'd say Canadian feels more "States" than "U.K" to me--but I mostly interact with those in Nova Scotia where there are lots of familial ties and also an old french speaking population (L'Acadie was the province's original name after all). I don't know so much about the West (i.e. west of N.B!).
I had a great conversation just a week ago, in N.S., with a 16 year old, on this topic. She had a bunch of other great comparisons which I cannot think of now. My 15 year old cousin was also in the chat, and she just moved back State-side after five years in the Midlands--so she had a bunch of great comparisons and of course "bad words" to compare (like b*gger, bl**dy, and the British expression for a person who wears the jerseys of her favorite sports team all the time---). I wish I could remember them all!
regards,
Bill
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Well, Bill, to answer your question,
We refer to it as pop, not soda. And the only time I order tonic is if it's mixed with gin!!
My school had quite a few british teachers, so I have a few british phrases in my lexicon. For instance, I refer to it as maths, and thanks to my chemistry professor (from Nottingham), I also pronounce some chemical names differently, for instance, aluminum is "alew-minium", methane is "meethane" and ethane is "eethane". You'd think that it would be an easy thing to change, but it isn't!!
The fact that I was exposed to british accents for most of my schooling makes it easier for me to follow Coronation Street...I've watched that since I was "knee-high to a grasshopper" (thought I'd throw some American English in for good measure!) I had some American friends up a few weeks ago, and they couldn't understand a word of it. Then again, most Canadians can't understand what they're saying either!
Of course, with the last name of Platt, I'm sure you would have no problem Bill...any relation to Gail and her gaggle of obnoxious children?? She married a murderer, don't you know!
(A coronation street reference, for those of you who don't follow the longest running soap opera in television history...now in its 41st season!!)
Anyhow, I digress...back to American and Canadian English
The difference between the two dialects becomes apparent to me when I go south of the border. For instance, when I order tea, they usually bring me iced tea, so now I'm in the habit of ordering hot tea. When I need a napkin (which we call a serviette), Flo usually stares at me like I'm from Mars. Finally, when I give up on the tea and order a pop, she asks me if I want "a Sprite Coke, an Orange Coke or a Coke Coke". The power of branding! Hehehe
Imagine if HP had the same brand power as Xerox, Kleenex, or Coke...
So do you want a Casio HP, a Citizen HP or an HP HP?
B.
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...the last letter of the alphabet is "zed" not "zee"!
:)
Cheerio! I'm knackered...off for a kip!
B.
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Scuba,
(canadian bacon). How did this one ever come to be? And what do *you* call it?
Then there is french fries (pomme frites en francais?)
and how about "raisin" and "grape" vs french "raisin et "raisin sec". I have a theory about this one. If we english speaking people use the french word meaning grape to decribe the dried grape, perhaps it is because any grapes that came from France would have been dry by the time they got there, and so the "raisin" printed on the box would have "stuck". Or hte box said "raisin sec" but the second word was merely dropped for expedience. (I don't know what the real reason is, but it is fun to imagine it, anyway.
Isn't the bird the "turkey" so named because somewhere in europe it was though or assumed that the bizarre creature was from Turkey? What did the pilgrims call it, anyway--big-*ss bird?
And then there is cos(x) rather than cosine(x).....
ciao,
bill
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What the US calls Canadian Bacon, Canucks call back bacon.
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Patrick,
thanks! Of Course! How could I forget! It was even in one of the Bob-and-Dave McKenzie skits!
Best regards,
Bill
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Quote:
It was even in one of the Bob-and-Dave McKenzie skits!
I remember, from the early '80s, the "12 days of Christmas"
...
Five golden tukes
Four pounds of back bacon
Three french toast
Two turtlenecks
And a beer on my knee
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;-}
PS was it "beer in a tree"?
Edited: 17 Aug 2003, 2:32 p.m.
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An HP-34C is what I call a classic calculator.
Canadian Bacon and pineapple is what I call a classic pizza.
There is a problem that there is too much variation between pizza stores; often substituting cheap types of meat for the genuine back-bacon that was mentioned.
Another classic pizza is pineapple with olives.
HEY GET THIS ONE: The ultimate classic pizza?
I invented it myself . FOUR ingredients
* Canadian Bacon
* Pineapple
* Pepperoni
* Olives
See? You take two classic pizzas and merge them together. You can't beat the taste, plus it keeps most everybody happy.
Kind of like combining the red LED's of an HP-34C
with the more sophisticated programming of an HP-41C.
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Which beer should one consume with such a classic pizza?
It would not be fitting to pop a lowly Budweiser or Miller with such a creation. Would you recommend a full-bodied Belgian? wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Edited: 18 Aug 2003, 7:39 p.m.
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Well, just so long as it isn't American beer...one of these days you'll realize that beer is supposed to have alcohol in it! Hehehe
The pizza sounds yummy, and I'd go with a nice wheat beer, especially this time of year. Nice and refreshing.
On the topic of beer, a British friend (who was a bartender) told me something and I don't believe him (I'm usually quite a trusting fellow!) I'm a big fan of snakebites, which are 1/2 lager, 1/2 cider. He said that British pubs can't serve it, and the reason is that it can cause brain aneurisms. If pubs are not allowed to sell this drink, I think it's because the cider makes the lager go cloudy, which might throw off other patrons.
My question to those on the other side of the pond is:
Can I order a snakebite in a local, and if not, why?
B.
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"tukes" is I believe, actually spelled "toques".
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Sorry Harold, your parochial "slip" is showing. "Maths" is the usual abbreviation for mathematics that native English speakers outside North America use.
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For me, the 33s looks much like a 32sII with more memory.
The design, especially of the 33s, remembers me to stylish cellular phones. A matter of personal taste, but I wonder if that key arrangement is really comfortable. The worst is the missing PC link: did you ever typed in 32KB of program/data?
As Patrick noted before, I'm curious what the Internet connection is good for (perhaps to access MoHPC?).
My fear (see 12C Platinum): stylish, but not really an invention...
Juergen
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I have typed in large amounts of programs- my 42s has about 22k in.
Far, far worse for me than the lack of IO is the keyboard look.
Oh- I'll end up buying one and trying it out, but it looks horrid.
(And i still think the 32Sii is a pretty machine)
but- what about the 48? Do we get to hack? Can you get in there and do assembly language programming? Is it *real* addition to the 48 series?
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Well Folks,
I had high hopes that these new units would return HP back into what it once was, in terms of calculators. Reading the descriptions and looking at the images, I now have to finally come to terms, that the old HP is truly dead and this new one is not far behind. Currently the only option that I can see is to take out a mortage on my house and buy 10 units of each of the older HP calculators I use off of eBay.
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I am a little conservative... I am a mechanical engineer student, and the classical design mean me a value of this profession (engineering).
I belive, the calculator represents this profession, like slide-rule many years ago.
I will be an engineer, and I use day-to-day a classical HP calculator.
I think the next young engineer generation LOST something from the honour of this profession when begin to use this new calculators.
That was a 'great era', when the engineers desingns for engineers not the market.
Sorry for my poor english...!
Csaba
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'classic' I mean HP10C, HP15C, HP28C, HP32SII, HP48SX...
Csaba
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Thanks for the update.
>Sorry folks, the double-wide enter key at the left
>of the fifth row from bottom appears to be history
>
Yes, I really hoped that at least the 48GIIxyz;-) would have a more ergonomic keyboard.
The new electronics inside the machines made hope for some advanced program development options, like programming in C or alike, and interfacing to RPL.
Like Richard, I'm very disappointed.
Maybe I'm too used to the much more ergonomic keyboard of the Pioneer Series, including the 'Streched Pioneers' (HP-48, not 49), and of course the HP-41 series.
The 49G and alike aren't Pioneer series machines, at least from the overall hardware.
So maybe someday I'll buy one of these 'redesigned 49G's' for my collection only, but after seeing the pictures, my buying priorities suddenly shifted to one of the latest HP-48GX's with the high-contrast display. The mechanical quality isn't as good as in the 'A' or 'S' made units, and the key legends are painted, but these are minor points, because the keyboard layout and tactile feedback is how I want it.
So if someone wants to sell or trade a GX with the new display, or knows where I could buy such a unit for a good price, please let me know.
Raymond
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Hi Raymond,
I think samson cables ( www.samsoncables.com) may have the black and white ones.
There was a post in last month's archives, which I instigated, which also found a source.
http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv013.cgi?read=35477
just follow down through the responses, and you'll see who found one--he leaves his e-mail address.
Another source, from an old post:
http://cgi.es.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3029192245&category=20335
Best regards,
Bill
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I agree with all your posts that the classic HP cals were of high quality and I always apreciated this very much. But I don't see the new calcs as negative. At least it's a sign that HP have changed their mind upon leaving the calc business. And it seems as if they were reading the comp.sys.hp48 and also MoHPC in order to find out what the customers want. I only do hope that the new calcs will be of better make than the 6S and 30S which I had in hands. I can imagine that Kinpo are able to write an emulator. But where are the innovations? What we want is a more powerful CAS, other calc software or engineering packages which need a lot of know how and ingenuity. And we want it bugfree because we like to use the calc for work and not to play. I'm curious and will sure buy the HP49G+ to play but maybe only to play with...
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Hi Bill,
many thanks for the links !
Best Regards,
Raymond
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just what I feared after seeing the 49G+ pdf. The 33s is a Kinpo. Has the entire world gone form over function? I wish it *were* a hoax, but seeing is usually believing. Conspiracy theorists: please don't waste everyone's time.
Here is page 5 of Kinpo's line of Citizen branded calcs:
http://www.jcbm.co.jp/eng/consumer/calc/scientific/scientific5.html
look familiar? I wish the 33s were as plain as the citizen SPR-350, but hp had to go and do a flashy custom design. I'm definitely getting a 48gx while still I can, they're on hpshopping.com for US$150. Try using those slanted keys during a test. I'll treat my 28s very well from now on.
I was hoping they would at least reuse the 10bii mold for the 33s, but it wouldn't be 'economically viable' to start that production line up again. Somewhere in a dump in Singapore or Malaysia there lies the fab line for the pioneer series. :(
To Kinpo's credit, they do have good bang for the buck. Someone please convince Kinpo to buy the Pioneer patents and sell HP calcs back to HP.
~ned
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Well at least the new 33S has a two line display like the 42S.
Tom Scott
Lander, WY
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And maybe someone can find a way to connect the 33 to a pc or mass storage.....Randy?
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The HP48GII looks pretty good. The only thing is probably the buttons. Can't wait to get one though.
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I don't like the looks of the 48gII, but the 33s is really awful! The weird key shapes are very distracting.
They must be getting their design ideas from the same people who are doing the new Nokia phones. (The phones are even worse -- they've replace the standard rectangular keypad with various strange layouts apparently designed for their novelty effect, rather than what's easiest for the customer to use. Hopefully they won't sell many and this terrible trend will come to a swift end.)
Give me a boring rectangular keyboard any time.
I'm not crazy about the small Enter key either.
Having said all that, I may end up getting a 33 just so that I'll have a cheap throwaway RPN machine I can take everywhere. Otherwise, I'll stick with my real HP calculators.
- Michael
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Who cares if the keyboard slants like a cell phone. After a while of using the calc, you'll get used to it.
Face it - it's not the 1980's anymore. HP won't doom itself by bringing the ugly brown design back. Some people buy based on looks. HP needs that.
I feel like a lot of people who post are just bigoted for the 1980's calcs. They haven't even used the new ones, and they are already bashing them.
If the 33S turns out to be a smashing success for my generation, I'm sure we'll be nostalgic when HP changes the color to black in 2020.
-Louis
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Hey, I LIKE the look of the new 33s.
Two line display, and around $50-60? Why not?
My question to HP is why are the cube-root and integer-divide top level keys? Is it really THAT common?
--
ee
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They found themselves with 3 extra keys and didn't know what to do with them ;>}
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. . . and both SST & BST are shifted (as in HP-32Sii). And for Algebraic users, left & right parentheses are shifted . . .
Troubling! (Geez! How I wish someone who frequents this board had had a shot at the keyboard layout early on!)
But more memory is what the 32sii needed most. And a second line of display (assuming it's appropriately functional in RPN and programming modes -- it had better be!) will be nice. And the 32s/sii programming interface (assuming that's what's being carried forward) is, I think, H-P's most user-friendly for the occasional programmer.
I'll still probably buy one, and I still hope it feels good!
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I was hoping the 33S would be more like the 42S than the 32S ---vain hope, it turns out now. Also, the specs say the display is 2x14 characters of 5x7-pixel characters, so it's a 2-line version of the 32S display rather than a true pixel grid like the 42S, aka, not even suitable for (rudimentary) graphics :-(
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Anybody have any idea what the price on these calcs. might end up being?
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