HP Forum Archive 19

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HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #1 Posted by Mark Edmonds on 19 June 2009, 8:26 a.m. I found a listing on Ebay for an HP 8S which I had never seen before. I couldn't find it on the US and UK HP sites but did find it on the Australia site. It probably isn't a "true" HP anyway but is this a new machine which will make it worldwide eventually or is it limited to a specific market? If the latter, have there been any other examples of limited availability? Just curious... Mark

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #2 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 19 June 2009, 10:08 a.m., in response to message #1 by Mark Edmonds It appears to be legitimate, Australia only: (See this link)

Yes, and learning modules too... Message #3 Posted by Gene Wright on 19 June 2009, 1:37 p.m., in response to message #2 by Michael de Estrada Modules

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #4 Posted by John Stark on 19 June 2009, 1:48 p.m., in response to message #2 by Michael de Estrada Looks like another Casio repack. Truly a pity.....:( John Stark

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #5 Posted by Mark Edmonds on 19 June 2009, 2:08 p.m., in response to message #4 by John Stark Quote: Looks like another Casio repack. Truly a pity.....:( John Stark Such a thing is an unthinkable nightmare. Ten years ago, if someone predicted that HP would be re-badging Casio, they would have been laughed out of town. However, I fear you might be right. The HP8S could be a Casio FX85ES Scientific Calculator in disguise. Casio aren't that bad of course. They have done a lot of good models and I have fond memories of the old VFD FX series but somehow, HP doing this seems really cheap and tacky. Mark

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #6 Posted by Les Bell on 19 June 2009, 9:12 p.m., in response to message #2 by Michael de Estrada At first glance, it looks rather like the Casio FX-82au, which seems to have "captured" the school system, at least here in New South Wales. See http://www.schoolstationery.com.au/calculators/fx82au.htm for an example - I haven't compared the keyboards, but they look superficially pretty similar, as does the construction with a sliding cover to protect the calculator when closed. It's no HP, at least in the classical sense of quality and use of RPN, but I can't fault the company for making a buck by introducing something that's compatible with the classroom instructional materials and techniques of an entrenched competitor. Best, --- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au]

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #7 Posted by Didier Lachieze on 20 June 2009, 3:03 a.m., in response to message #6 by Les Bell For me it looks like an HP 10s in a new case: same key functions, same training modules ...

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #8 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 19 June 2009, 10:10 a.m., in response to message #1 by Mark Edmonds I simply love the speification: "HP 8s has a LCD view area of 61 x 18.8 pixels with 2 display lines." Regards, Joerg

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #9 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 19 June 2009, 10:30 a.m., in response to message #8 by Joerg Woerner I am speculating that it is a typo, and should be "mm" rather than "pixels". I am seeing a lot of this sort of error in current HP literature and documentation, given that apparently they no longer have any educated staff to review it.

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #10 Posted by Mark Edmonds on 19 June 2009, 11:20 a.m., in response to message #9 by Michael de Estrada Interestingly, HP's specifications page for this machine states that the display size is "64x24x2.7mm". Rather odd. Mark

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #11 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 19 June 2009, 12:00 p.m., in response to message #10 by Mark Edmonds Curious. When I first looked at the HP Australia site, I saw the "pixels" description. Now it's gone. Perhaps I spoke too soon, and they have fixed it.

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #12 Posted by Tim Wessman on 19 June 2009, 11:37 a.m., in response to message #9 by Michael de Estrada Hey now. . . that's not very nice. TW

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #13 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 19 June 2009, 12:13 p.m., in response to message #12 by Tim Wessman I agree. I'm in a grumpy mood today, but should not take it out on the generally good folks at HP. So, I officially retract my editorial comment.

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #14 Posted by Dave Britten on 19 June 2009, 2:02 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mark Edmonds Looks to be functionally identical to this guy: Ativa AT 30SX That would mean they're both Kinpos, not surprisingly. I think Datexx and likely Citizen have released their own versions of this model.

Re: HP 8S ?? What's this? Australia only? Message #15 Posted by Joerg Woerner on 19 June 2009, 2:35 p.m., in response to message #14 by Dave Britten Dave, The Ativa AT 30SX sports a dot-matrix display and is a sibbling of the SmartCalc 300s while the HP 8S is a "two-liner". It is very close to different Casio products, I guess Kinpo / Citizen / Casio is a good place to start ;-)) Regards, Joerg BTW: voidware.com: HP 8s Hits The Streets Contributed by hugh Friday, 30 December 2005 THAT'S MORE THAN 3 YEARS!!!

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