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LCieParagon · 02-29-2016, 01:16 AM

(02-27-2016 08:22 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:
(02-27-2016 01:46 AM)LCieParagon Wrote: Also, will this update be included when the firmware is updated?

Hello,

As one of the HP people who participate on this board, let me explain the reason you won't ever receive an "official" bit of information on this until the day any software update is released.

Basically, HP follows the same policy as most large companies. Namely, there are usually only a few people in the entire company that can release any "forward looking statements" such as "when will a product be released, is a problem going to be fixing in a new release, or even that will be a new release". There a plenty of reasons for this including potential legal trouble (someone sues because they were harmed in some way by a product not having feature X on Y date), people feeling like the company lied about something and the bad PR that can generate, or that something comes up needing to be dealt with immediately that causes delay. Due to these and many other reasons, most companies just don't announce things until they are good and ready.

What that means is that if anyone ever tells you that a release will happen on a certain day, or that a certain feature will be in there, chances are you should not pay attention to them. Since they will not be an official spokesperson (the calc group is just too small a part of the overall HP we would never blip on the larger radar of the time required to address such minor things), chances are they really don't know.

All we are really allowed to say is something like, "We are investigating the issue for potential possible inclusion in a future release". That being said, Prime does include some components that are not exclusive to the HP code - the CAS being the largest most visble one. If the CAS author has put in a fix for a known calculation, the chances of it not being included in a hypothetical future release are very slight. We do try to track very closely the main CAS source to avoid potential problems.

Can I say then that it will be in the next release? No. I cannot even ever say that there will ever be ANY future release. That sort of statement would not be allowed. I could say that should there be any future releases, the chances that this would be in there would be high due to the tracking of the CAS source closely.

Make sense?

I think that the HP calculator group is probably more open and responsive then any other major calculator manufacturer at this point in time precisely because they DO allow direct communication from developers and internal teacher development people within the limits that have been set. There are quite a few new features, fixes, or suggestions in Prime that can be directly traced back to posts like yours on a board such as this in every release that has happened so far.

This is fine and all, but like I have said, I have concerns as well. This calculator was approved for use by the College Board. My students plan on taking the AP test, and as such, are allowed to use this device on certain sections. My students can potentially receive incorrect responses by recording incorrect responses that your product displays.

While I do like this calculator very much and plan to use it for the foreseeable future, this can be detrimental to a student taking an exam utilizing this device. I find it troubling that students quite possibly may be penalized for faulty technology that is approved for use.

An example where a student can receive this question wrong on a test would be in calculating the remainder on infinite, alternating series which College Board now tests.

As an educator, I always enjoy learning myself, and if I'm proven wrong, I am happy to admit my mistakes.

Additionally, no where in my post have I compared competitors' products to yours. I find your response in regards to that curt, and unnecessary. Furthermore, your response didn't illicit a "Like" as it has with other members on this forum.