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HP Handhelds Hardware

HP Releases New RPN Scientific Calculator 402

Posted by timothy from the how-to-pick-up-chicks-part-58008 dept.
majid writes "HP just announced a new calculator, the HP 33S. It supports RPN and algebraic notation, and sports a funky V-shaped design. I don't think it looks as nice as the 33SII it is supposed to replace, and it seems to have rubber keys instead of the wonderful hard plastic keys on older HP calculators, but it's nice to have a new RPN scientific calculator that does not have the intimidating learning (and remembering) curve of the 48 or 49 series. This one just might join my trusty 15C ... The User's manual PDF is available courtesy of Amazon, where it is apparently already No. 85 on the best-selling list."
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HP Releases New RPN Scientific Calculator More

HP Releases New RPN Scientific Calculator

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  • *calc are dying (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Tirel ( 692085 )
    Really, why bother, the dedicated calculator is dead. Just install EasyCalc [sf.net] and EasyStat which can do some pretty neat stuff [sourceforge.net] for your Palm and you're all set. My Tungsten T3 has a 144Mhz ARM CPU, which is loads faster than anything dedicated calculators can offer and has a beautiful 320x480 16bit tft.

    Plus there are loads of software for Palms that can do statistics, etc..

    Too bad HP can't see it. Or maybe they can and they want to rip you off? After all, if you buy a Palm, all you have to do it upgrade

    • Calculators are here to stay (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:32PM (#8966240) Homepage Journal
      Try using a stupid stylus during a calculus final, or during an engineering project...

      No, for 'real' usage, you cant replace a real calculator with a flat emulation of one.

      That said i do have a RPN emulator for my Toshiba 330, but still, when i have to do more then just a quick calculation, its back to my HP48. ( or 41, that got me thru college.. )

      • Re:Calculators are here to stay (Score:5, Insightful)

        by RobertFisher ( 21116 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:54PM (#8966816) Journal
        I agree that calculators are still useful for educational settings, although for a different reason that the one you suggest.

        As a computational astrophysicist, I no longer find any use for hand-held calculators whatsoever. If I find the need to do a detailed numerical computation while working, I simply pop up Mathematica. I have hundreds of physical constants relevant for my work stored in a handy ".m" file, so if I wish to compute, say, the Planck mass, I can simply type in "Sqrt [hbar c / G]", rather than punching in numerical values. It is far more convenient and _more powerful_ than using a hand calculator since I can readily construct expressions, do symbolic manipulations on them, and produce complex plots with very little effort. Mathematica has an enormous understanding of mathematical functions, so if I want, say, the value of second derivative of the Laguerre polynomial of order n, I can simply enter "N [D [LaguerreL [n, x], x] ]". (Try to stuff than in your calculator and smoke it.) It also has unlimited numerical precision, so if I want the value of Pi to 100 digits, I just enter "N [Pi, 100]". (Not a practical example, given that 100 decades is greater than the total number of fundamental particles in the current Hubble radius, but an illustrative one nonetheless.) In addition, I have the ability to immediately translate those expressions into Tex format or C or Fortran code, so that they can be readily incorporated into papers or other standalone code. And that is saying nothing of the fact that a full-sized keyboard is vastly easier to use than _either_ a stylus or a weeny calculator keypad.

        If I am in a meeting of some kind or just informally speaking to someone, and the need for a quick numerical estimate comes up, I can always whip out an estimate good to within 10% without using any calculating aid other than a pencil and paper. You'll find that all good scientists and engineers can do quick back-of-the-envelope calculations when the need arises.

        So what use are calculators in schools when students could be using Mathematica (or any other mathematical software of their choice) on their laptops? The plain fact of the matter is that math and science instructors almost universally do not wish to construct a course in which the learning goes beyond the simplest applications of the principles learned. Therefore, they must almost always artificially control additional information and calculating aids during exams (normally no notes, books, or computers). Calculators are the one concession they do allow, only because their functionality is limited, and therefore the aid they provide is also limited. I admit calculators have become reasonably sophisticated as of late, and so as a result, partially to offset any potential unfair advantage, instructors are increasingly allowing students to stuff all of the equations they can fit onto a "cheat sheet" of a certain size.

        When you think about the situation, it is fairly ludicrous. No literature professor would make a student write a term paper on Shakespeare without having access to the original plays and all the additional supplemental information he can lay his hands on. But it is easier to construct a system in which students are tested on rote memory and simple application of known template examples from class, rather than being able to use all the resources at their disposal to synthesize everything they have learned in creative applications. Synthesis and creative use of one's knowledge, is, after all, what real world science and engineering are all about. Primarily because of this artificial construction, classwork performance is quite often a poor indicator of a student's potential as a real scientist or engineer.

        Bob

    • Re:*calc are dying (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ulumuri ( 550492 )
      The advantage of a graphing calculator is that it's made for just that -- calculating. The (conveniently placed) keys and display are a lot more convenient than having the Palm screen adapted to the purpose.

    • Re:*calc are dying (Score:3, Informative)

      by juhaz ( 110830 )
      Aside from (usually) much more convenient buttons on real calculator mentioned by others, good luck trying to use your newfangled PDA on exam, what's next, why not use a laptop? You can get much better mathematics software for that and it's loads faster than a PDA can offer. Hey it's got this umpteen megapixel beatiful 32-bit tft as well!

      Nah, it's you who can't see it, calculators are not going anywhere.

  • Well... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ItMustBeEsoteric ( 732632 ) <ryangilbert AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:26PM (#8966187)
    Until it can play a Tetris clone, it's not replacing my TI-92. :)

    • Re:Well... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by silvaran ( 214334 )
      Tetris was nasty on the TI-83... I didn't have the link cable so I used the built-in language to program tetris. It couldn't process loops fast enough, so I had to manually unroll all the loops. Nothing like 100 'if' statements in a row on a tiny non-qwerty keyboard to give you carpel tunnel.
      • ZTetris on the TI-83 is great. Of course games programmed on-calc in ti-basic are gonna suck. That's not the calculator's fault.

        • Re:Well... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by jrockway ( 229604 ) *
          Why is that not the calculator's fault? Whose fault is it then?

          TI is generally bad news. My roommate and I found a bug that kills all your memory and TI told us that they wouldn't fix it. "Don't press those buttons" is what they told us.

          I'm going for an HP when I next need a calculator (our school required TI-89s, but frankly I get more and more fed up with their idiocy every day. They're great for high schoolers, but for people doing real math, I think HP wins.)

          • Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)

            by damiam ( 409504 )
            It's inherent in an interpreted language like TI-Basic that it'll be slower and less powerful than raw assembly. A tetris program written in assembly, like ZTetris, is going to wipe the floor with a Basic tetris program, especially if the Basic program is an inefficient one written on the calculator by an inexperienced coder.
    • The TI-92 can play a lot more than Tetris. Try this [ticalc.org] doom-like game with a variety of weapons, pretty big levels, a storyline and vehicles! (It works on the TI-89 as well)
    • So replace it with the HP 49 g+. The ARM chip would make for a very fast game of tetris!
    • HP has always been able to play a tetris clone. Tetris on the HP-48 is what got me through classes last semester.

  • I don't use calculators. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:27PM (#8966189) Journal

    I just give the closest unemployed math student a buck to solve anything more complicated then 1 + 1 = 3.

    • You laugh, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ... that works. I'm a very successful and effective engineer who never made it past Calculus 2 at university. I have a strong creative impulse, good work habits, and an intuitive grasp of EE topics from signal propagation to circuit analysis that has served my employers well. But I can't deal with math. I don't like it, and it doesn't like me. I have the same problem with abstract mathematics that dyslexics have with words.

      The truth that you'll never hear in college is that in engineering, intuition a

      • Interesting take (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ishmaelflood ( 643277 )
        I am reasonably skillful at maths, and a somewhat successful engineer (leastways I enjoy it and get good appraisals). For most of my career I have been involved in Noise and Vibration, which meant I had to eat Fourier transforms for breakfast. FTs are one of the few 'advanced' maths concepts I regard as easy.

        There are a lot of people around who have a good feel for stuff that I tend to analyse, but often I analyse it because its fun, not necessary. I have had some technicians working with me who could not
  • What is algebraic notation?
  • ... but does it matter?

    ;-)

    Daniel

  • Good for basic math (Score:3, Informative)

    by thedogcow ( 694111 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:28PM (#8966214)
    This calculator good for basic math and people in non-engineering majors.

    The Ti92 (or Ti89 if you don't want the qwerty keyboard) is still the best route to go for higher-level mathematics (Calculus etc) ... however it has its limitations. I am taking Partial Differential Equations this summer and I don't think any calculator can help me get the answer quick and easy.
    • I'm in engineering, but I think I'm going to keep this one around for everyday calculations and the portability factor - I'll still be using my 89 on exams, but I'm sure it will come in handy...

      It's nice to have a calculator that fits in a (normal sized) pocket when you know you won't be doing anything too complicated.

    • I am taking Partial Differential Equations this summer and I don't think any calculator can help me get the answer quick and easy.

      Who's taking Partial Differential Equations? You or the calculator?

      • That was his point, dude. He didn't say he wanted a calculator to do PDE for him, he said that they couldn't. His point was that there are some things that calculators can't do. One of them being manhandling symbolic formulas.

        And yet you acted like he was complaining about not being able to use a calculator. Please read the whole comment before firing off a kneejerk reaction.

  • I mean really (Score:5, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:29PM (#8966219)
    How can a calculator that does not support volkswagen's and libraries of congress as conversions units be of any possible interest to /. readers?

  • The Line Has Been Crossed!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by WwWonka ( 545303 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:32PM (#8966241)
    I'm all for geek chic' and all (being a former Navy Nuke and now a network security engineer) but the line has been crossed when I see review of someone drooling over a new model of HP calculator.

    I'm just waiting for that day now when I turn on Tech TV and see the new show "Pimp My Calculator" hosted by Ludicrous and Bruce Schneir!
    • Hey, that's this crowd. When I was a teen, I collected brochures of HP and TI calculators whose prices were too high for me to readily buy. So I would leaf through the brochures and imagine how cool it would be to have one of them.

      Then personal computers came out and my technolust transfered to other inamimate objects, but there is something about hearing of the release of a new HP calculator that makes my heart jump. That's why it's on /. Now enough explanation; time to go drool over hardware...

    • Oh god.... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 )
      I have pimped my calculator. I have a TI-83+ Silver Edition, with the clear/pearl case, i cracked it open and put 2 blue LEDs and a switch inside. Lights up real good, enough to read by in the dark. Doesn't backlight the screen however.

  • Complaints. (Score:5, Informative)

    by eddy ( 18759 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:32PM (#8966243) Homepage Journal

    There's been some complaints on the HP newsgroup about a near invisible decimal dot in the display, IIRC. Something to look out for.

    And people, this isn't a replacement for the graphing calculators, it's meant to be a competent calculator for people who don't need graphing, and it can be used on tests where the HP49G+ and such are often forbidden.

    • Re:Complaints. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jinxidoru ( 743428 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:41PM (#8966321) Homepage
      HP makes the best calculators by far. I love RPN. The stack is a wonderful computation tool (in fact I'm making an RPN calculator for PalmOS [jinxidoru.com] if anyone is interested in helping). Unfortunately, with every new calculator from HP, they continue making the same mistake. They need to improve the hardware. I don't know if anyone has tried symbolic integration on an HP. It's like those coffee commercials. Walk the dog, check the calculator, learn Dutch, check the calculator. The HP49g+ still runs on a 4 bit bus. What's the deal with that. This new calculator is an improvement, using the 6502 processor, but still. There are a lot better processors that are cheap enough. This is why HP can't beat out TI in the calculator industry. TI's interface isn't nearly as good as that of the HP, but TI can actually perform calculations in a reasonable amount of time. Symbolic computation is actually feasible with a TI. Come on HP, give us some power!

      • Re:Complaints. (Score:2, Informative)

        by eddy ( 18759 )

        I'm not sure why you're replying to me, but yes, the HP calculator division isn't it's former self.

        First of all, the HP49G+ use a 75MHZ ARM920T processor on which the Saturn and OS is emulated. The OS is now much faster than the 48-series -- and there's been progress on hacking around the emulation to run software on the underlying ARM directly. Bypassing the emulation makes for potentially very fast software indeed. This potential however is very cool, and as soon as they figure out how to control the di

      • Re:Complaints. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by haggar ( 72771 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:32PM (#8966653) Homepage Journal
        Wait a freaking minute: this thing runs on a 6502? Does this mean, the 6502 lives on in an actual product designed and implemented in the 21st century?

        As a Commodore 64 fan, I can only rejoyce at this.

        Where can I find any further info on the hardware architecture of this calculator?

      • Re:Complaints. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 )
        Is HP getting new fans with their product? It seems that it is mostly the "old guard" that digs the new products, but with the speed caveat.

        Other people that give it a fair shake are those that can buy several brands at once. I had a Casio, when it didn't have one feature that I needed, I bought a TI. I haven't gotten anything new in nearly a decade.

        RPN is something of a preference thing. I know some people swear by it, I really don't feel I should swap around the my order of thinking just to use a ca

      • Re:Complaints. (Score:4, Informative)

        by morcheeba ( 260908 ) * on Sunday April 25, 2004 @05:19PM (#8967445) Journal
        4-bit bus

        Actually, the Saturn processor [hpmuseum.org] is a lot more complicated than that. Just about everything in it is a different size:

        - 4-bit addressable word size
        - variable instruction sizes (very cisc)
        - 20-bit address
        - four 64-bit registers that can be addressed in a number of ways (example: you can manipulate just the exponent portion of the register, not the mantissa)
        - Physically, the HP48 interfaced to 8-bit-wide memory, but this is invisible to the programmer

        I'd be tempted to call it a 64-bit processor because that's the register size, but that is a generalization. It is fundamently a low-power design specifically for BCD math.

  • Well, it finally happened (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GarbanzoBean ( 695162 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:33PM (#8966255)
    Nokia finally bought out HP. I guess if you cannot make the phone with the normal keys, you can make other consumer devices so screwed up that people think that it is OK to go on diagonal to type anything.

    Sometimes I think form should still follow function. But I guess my brain was not destroyed by the rapid MTV editing.
    • I second this thought, and I'm suprised that nobody else posted on this.

      Can this "feature" really be attractive to anybody? I hope nobody thinks they're going to get laid because you can spot their deformed calculator keypad at a glance. :-)

      I've had a number of Nokia phones in the past and have been thinking about getting a new one as my last one (6360) has been losing keypad reliability on one side. But these days, my single requirement - a keypad that actually works as a regular keypad seems to mean t
    • Thats exactly what i thought at first. When i switched cell companies i wanted a nokia phone because i like their UI, and i wanted a color screen too. Unfortunatly i couldn't find any with out wacky buttons. Ended up getting a nice LG flip phone. But yeah, i prefer my cal buttons as roughly rectangles and arranged at roughly 90 degree angles. Could be worse though, at least the thing doesn't look like a football [nokia.com] or a taco [sidetalkin.com].
  • If its anything like the recently released 49g+, its a flimsy, flaky piece of junk.

    Keypresses dont register, screen flicker, the works.

    Why couldnt they have made it like the 48sx?

    • Re:Stay Away! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:09PM (#8966480)
      Why couldnt they have made it like the 48sx?

      Because in recent years HP decided to save a bundle of money by decreasing the product quality which is what the HP name was known for. They made up for it with that shiny metallic paint. Some focus group must have preferred it to the staid ABS plastic that was typical of HP stuff. Good thing, too, since it makes it easy to recognize pre-Carly from post-Carly HP products.

      I have an HP-28S that I got in 1988 and used through college, and a HP49g+ that I was stupid enough to get in 2000. I know exactly what you're talking about. Once an HP model gets that metallic sheen on it, it's game over.
    • The screen does kind of suck on this (small decimal, annoying shadows), but it feels sturdier than a 32sii to me. I also think you should exchange your 49g+ if it is so bad--they've fixed a lot of the bugs.

  • Talk about price gauging! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Hektor_Troy ( 262592 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:34PM (#8966259)
    The US Internet Price is $49.99

    The campus bookstore at my college (DTU Denmark) charges ... sit down ... $112.61

    Granted, Denmark has a 25% sales tax. Let's add that and compare: $49.99 * 1.25 = $62.49

    I believe the words I'm looking for are "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

    Good thing I'm not a poor pennyless student ... no - wait ...

  • LAME... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:35PM (#8966267)
    Fifty bucks buys you a calculator with rubbery keys (in a weird 'newbie-friendly' pattern), a two-line (!!!) screen, and 31KB (!!!) of "RAM user memory"? What the fuck are they smoking? How is this better than a used HP48G that you could get for probably the same price?

    Jesus Christ, it's 2004. We should have HP48G-looking units with 64MB of RAM, double-high-res colour transflective screens (think GBA), USB ports, AND full backwards-compatibility with all the wonderful HP48[G/GX/S/SX] software out there (think of how the newer Palm devices can run older Palm software), but no, we get this pile of steamed monkey dung...

    I guess this is what we can expect from..... Compaq.

    • Re:LAME... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by reidbold ( 55120 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:42PM (#8966331)
      Full out graphing calculators are of no use to me as a student really. For doing calculations, this is dandy. If I need to do graphing or stats work, then I use the $1000 calculator with a 21" screen right in front of me.

      This is just what the doctor ordered for me really. I've been looking for a sub $100 RPN without graphing, and now I've found it.
    • Yup, you're right. It really is time to roll up my sleeves and start writing a tolerably decent calculator for my Palm. It's like calculators come from a different universe where the last 20 years in computer technology didn't happen.

    • Re:LAME... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by juhaz ( 110830 )
      How is this better than a used HP48G that you could get for probably the same price?

      It might be faster (no idea if it is, just guessing, CPU speeds have climbed quite a bit in the last ten years), but yep, in all other respects it's obviously nowhere near 48's... Not that it's meant to, but 49's are and they are supposedly crap too.

      Jesus Christ, it's 2004. We should have HP48G-looking units with 64MB of RAM, double-high-res colour transflective screens (think GBA), USB ports, AND full backwards-compatib
    • The keys are plastic. They learned the listen of the 49g. Even the 49g+ has plastic keys.

      Keep in mind that this calc is useful on tests (including the FE/PE) that ban higher calculators & is useful to lend luddites who you don't want touching your higher power (more expensive)calculators. It is also smaller than the 48/49 series & faster than the 10 series.

      Finally, if you want a souped-up 48, try the 49g+. No color, but USB & takes flash cards.
    • Sounds like its a step backwards from my dependable HP-28S.
  • Why is amazon trying to sell a 30-pack of AAA batteries as an accessory on the product page [amazon.com]? According to the specs [hp.com], it only needs the lithium batteries...

  • RPN! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Limburgher ( 523006 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:37PM (#8966278) Homepage Journal
    RPN
    I
    love
    Equals!

  • HP still making calcuators? (Score:4, Informative)

    by jpmkm ( 160526 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:42PM (#8966325) Homepage
    I seem to recall an announcement a while back saying that HP was getting out of the calculator business. Since then they have released two new calculators(HP49G+ and then this one). What's up? I love HP calcs though. I have an old HP41CV that I have thought about selling on ebay(they are worth quite a bit now) but I think I'm going to keep it. RPN is the best idea ever.

  • Funny, was talking about this yesterday (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OpenGLFan ( 56206 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:42PM (#8966333) Homepage
    I'm in grad school in EE about 6 or 7 years behind my fellow students (cashed in on the dotcom boom, etc.) and we were talking about this yesterday.

    When I was in engineering school, the HP48GX was the calc. Everyone knew RPN, all the circuits students learned quickly how to solve linear algebra rather quickly on the HP. Now I'm the only one with an HP. Everyone, everyone has a TI-89. Symbolics plus nearly everything the HP could do (except RPN), much improved graphing, much improved processor. The new HP calc? Overwhelmingly, reviews have pronounced it crap, both in interface and underlying engineering. (It still uses the same old "Saturn" chip the HP48 series did ten years ago, with a slight speed bump.) Two or three students had never even SEEN an HP calculator.

    Is this true everywhere? Has the HP calculator series been relegated to the trash heap? If so, how did HP allow itself to bungle this so badly?

    OpenGLFan, whose love of RPN is the only thing attaching himself to his current calculator...
    • Is this true everywhere? Has the HP calculator series been relegated to the trash heap? If so, how did HP allow itself to bungle this so badly?

      Two words:

      Carly. Fiorina.

    • This is really just based on my observation, but I'd have to say that the reason why HP calculators are almost unheard of these days [or rather, why TI's calculators are everywhere] is because that's what middle schools and high schools buy to sell to their students. I belive that the schools get a bit of a discount, buying in bulk and being educational institutions. I think that the bottom line is that early on, the schools get TI calculators for their students.

      This way, the teachers and students are mor
    • TI calcs are great and you can do RPN on them if you
      install the software for that. However I think that
      TI can be beat pretty easily. Their stuff is huge,
      bulky, unwieldy, and heavy. Formfactor-wise, you
      are almost better off buying one of those tiny
      japanese subnotebooks and installing Matlab on it,
      or Mathematica, or both.
      If HP wants to get in on the calc biz, all they have
      to do is duplicate top of the line TI functionality
      with a TI-85 width and length but half of TI-85
      thickness. I'd pay $200 easy for that.

  • HP 42s (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MoTec ( 23112 )
    I still miss my HP 42s. I replaced my stolen 42s with with a 48GX but while the 48gx does everything that the 42s did (and more) I still like the smaller form factor on the 42s.

    I've seen 'em for sale on e-bay but I don't feel like paying $250.00usd just to get one back, expecially since the only thing I use a calculator for anymore is balancing my checkbook.

    The 42s had a lot going for it - I think HP would do well to re-release it, or at least make a new version.
  • The reason those HP calcs kicked so much ass is the keyboard - you could enter things quickly and you didn't need to double or triple check you hit the key right.

    I really want a next-gen hp48 with the same form factor.. but it doesn't seem to be likely. I've thought about surgically removing the keyboard from a hp48 and making a frankendevice with a Palm..

  • enlarged image (Score:5, Informative)

    by Janek Kozicki ( 722688 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:50PM (#8966380) Journal
    the enlarged image didn't work for me (don't know why). but at last I managed to get it. In case some of you had similar problems - here it is:

    http://www.hp.com/calculators/images/33s_350x350.j pg [hp.com]
  • http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0184.jpg [systemrecycler.com]

    http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0183.jpg [systemrecycler.com]

    http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0182.jpg [systemrecycler.com]

    Still works after almost 2o years. Only changed the batteries ONCE and I use the hell out of it.. I wish I still had the original manuals though, the ex threw them out just to be mean..

  • Nasty looking (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fatman22 ( 574039 )
    That thing is painful to look at and resembles something out of my kid's Transformers collection. What's wrong with rectangular keys and straight columns and rows other than Marketing doesn't think that's 'cool' enough? On the plus side, it has a "last x" key. The 48GX doesn't have one and I miss it.

  • 48 series still stands unchallenged... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by juhaz ( 110830 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:52PM (#8966387) Homepage
    Looks like the golden oldies are still top of the line. It's amazing that over 10 years old calculator still beats the living daylights out of these new toys. HP calculator division should take more note about their roots... if you can't design a worthy successor, heck, at least put out a slightly modernified (more memory, higher clockspeed) version of 48GX.

    Not that this is even meant to be a competitor for 40>, it's supposed to be few steps below, and the reason for "easy learning curve" is obvious, it just does so much less, but still... it's hard to know if those keys are as bad as they look, but apparently they are if fellow posters are correct, and the display sucks as well (in addition to being way too small for lots of things).

    Looks like you still need to pry my 48GX from my cold, dead hands.
  • Maybe its just me, but this sounds like a marketing gimick for HP.

  • 15C Still rules for programmers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rarose ( 36450 ) <`rob' `at' `robamy.com'> on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:11PM (#8966501)
    The big advantage my old trusty 15C has for me is dedicated A-F keys for doing hex math. This new HP suffers the same problem that the 48SX/GX has: you need to do the friggin' "Alpha shift" key before every hex digit.

    No thanks man... if it doesn't have dedicated A-F keys it ain't no programmers calculator.
  • Might be OT, but I'll trade anybody for my nearly unused HP-48G.
    Email jollyleprechaun@yahoo.com [mailto] to trade through ebay.
    Everything works. It's a good deal, actually (auction is not actually mine, but similar). [ebay.com]
    Comes w/soft case, orig. box, both manuals, batteries, NO MODS to orig. hardware :)

    goodbye karma

  • Still using a customized HP41CV (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rossz ( 67331 ) <ogre&geekbiker,net> on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:13PM (#8966516) Journal
    If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

    The 41 was THE calculator in its day. Nothing could come close to its power. The 41 was also one of the few calculators you could truly hack, both the software and the hardware.

  • obligatory - (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Unabageler ( 669502 ) <josh&3io,com> on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:16PM (#8966540) Homepage
    these
    of
    cluster
    beowulf
    imagine
    ++++

  • "packing 31K" (Score:5, Funny)

    by updog ( 608318 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:20PM (#8966566) Homepage
    From the product details [hp.com]
    The HP 33s is HP's most advanced, programmable scientific calculator, packing 31 kilobytes of user memory along with the powerful "HP Solve" application into a shirt-pocket-sized unit weighing only 119 grams (4.2 ounces).

    Wow, how do they manage to "pack" an entire 31K into something that can fit into your shirt pocket!?! Amazing!
    Seriously, I'm sure the calculator is fine, but they really need to find some better marketing people.

  • HP48 GX was the best ! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chrysalis ( 50680 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:23PM (#8966583) Homepage
    A while back I owned a HP 28S.

    Then a 48SX and it was really an amazing beast. Not as a calculator but as a geek machine. Programming in assembly language was a breeze. I really loved the Saturn CPU. In fact, I spent a lot of time at school coding on the calculator instead of listening to teachers :) A lot of other people were hacking on that calculator, there was a real scene, with a lot of good free software.

    Then the HP48GX was out. It rocked. It was twice faster as the HP48SX. More people joined the HP 48 scene, new tricks were found (like using interrupts for grey levels), minitel services were there to share and download code... well... it was just excellent.

    -HPdream.

  • NCEES's calculator bans on FE, PE (Score:3, Informative)

    by Noksagt ( 69097 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:28PM (#8966618) Homepage
    The NCEES just banned [ncees.org] the HP48/49 from their popular engineering exams. People were using them to steal exam questions and/or to cheat by transmitting to one another. The HP33s is the ONLY RPN calculator that is explicitly approved. They are seriously considering switching to only allowing calculators that have been explicitly approved, but say they want to keep the list short (so may exclude the great vintage RPN calcs like the 15c). There was a HUGE rush to get the 33s in time for the April exam a week or two ago & they were being sold on ebay for hundreds of dollars.

  • OpenRPN Project (Score:3, Informative)

    by Noksagt ( 69097 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:34PM (#8966668) Homepage
    Good time to plug OpenRPN [cradleofintrigue.com], a project to develop a series of open hardware RPN calculators. It just started, so don't expect learning TOO much from it (they still have some problems with their forums, so please be gentle with the server), but if you can help out please do so!
  • I like the 33s. I would like it more if it had the matix and complex math that were on the 15c. We still have the 17c, so why can't they bring back that model?!

  • For all of you who complain about rubbery keys... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by writermike ( 57327 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:51PM (#8966799)
    Count your stars lucky.... At least HP still manufactures decent calculators. It's not that far a stretch to see HP take their calculators down the road of so many of their other products like their printers, which used to be sooooo good.

    Here's a plausible scenario:

    Imagine having to first activate the calculator via a Windows software install. This would, of course, require an Internet connection, so that the latest firmware (2.45, of course, to fix recent problems with totals) could be downloaded to the calc. The firmware, by the by, is 12.85 megabytes. (Well, not _really_ but there's other stuff in there, too, of course.) No Internet? No activation. No calcy.

    Oh, and you must register the product, otherwise you won't receive support or updates. And while installing, Share-to-Web, BackWeb, and five other processes will be installed. They'll come up with the next reboot. (That explains the extra 50 seconds added to reboot, anyway.)

    *sigh*

  • RPN for Cluebies? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:54PM (#8966814)
    I love RPN. Many of the posters here love RPN. But to the average user, RPN is like "lol i dont get it its all BACKWREDZ". I remember offering to loan my HP48G to people who handed it right back to me after trying (and failing) to comprehend RPN.

    Is there a paper somewhere on why RPN is a Good Thing(TM), and not just "lol teh math is backwardz"? Cuz to the average user, RPN is like "speak like Yoda do I!" It seems pointless to them, and only slows comprehension.

  • CPU 6502 (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Sunday April 25, 2004 @03:58PM (#8966846)
    CPU 6502

    Does this mean I can boot Apple ][ DOS?

  • For anyone that hasn't read User Friendly, Erwin (the SGI Box in the comic) is an AI that the non-geek marketing guy Stef (the guy in the comic) is trying to seek revenge on for various reasons (read the archives to figure all that out).

    Check out http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990823& mode=classic [userfriendly.org] and the next [userfriendly.org] several [userfriendly.org] comics [userfriendly.org].

  • HP Calculator Emulator for PalmOS (Score:4, Informative)

    by pigpogm ( 70382 ) <michael@pigpog.com> on Sunday April 25, 2004 @05:28PM (#8967507) Homepage
    If you want to emulate the 48SX, 48GX, and 49G calcs on your Palm...

    http://power48.mobilevoodoo.com [mobilevoodoo.com]

    They look fantastic - an impressive graphics job, and look like they work well to me. Sadly, I'm just a wannabe geek hanging around slashdot to look cool, so I don't actually follow a fraction of what they do.

    How sad is that?

  • 6502 processor? (Score:3, Funny)

    by number6x ( 626555 ) on Monday April 26, 2004 @08:23AM (#8971243)

    This thing has a 6502 processor [hp.com]?

    Can it run Apple II software?

    I just have to ask.

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