Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Casio F-B100W-1A

casio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 407 posts

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#231

Post by TylerE »

SwellJoe wrote: post #223
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Korg did it right - budget off-the-shelf processor, most of the money spent on the UI, wildly optimistic prices, no nostalgic ties. The expensive part of a modern synth isn't the DSP board, it's the industrial design and tooling needed to build the rest of the hardware. The CZ series was workable, but there really aren't many passionate nostalgic buyers waiting to drop a few hundred - minimum - on an expensive reissu…

I don't think I buy that argument (that there aren't enough people interested in it). It's not quite in the ball park of something like the DX 7 or several of the better known analog synths, which have nearly all seen re-issues, mini-versions, software emulations, etc., often several. Damned near every Roland synth from that era has seen a re-issue and official plugin. Yamaha has been more measured in their re-issue…

> I don't think I buy that argument (that there aren't enough people interested in it).

That you can buy them on ebay all day long for less than most cheap synths costs new argues against it being viable.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#232

Post by SwellJoe »

TylerE wrote: post #231
SwellJoe wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I buy that argument (that there aren't enough people interested in it). It's not quite in the ball park of something like the DX 7 or several of the better known analog synths, which have nearly all seen re-issues, mini-versions, software emulations, etc., often several. Damned near every Roland synth from that era has seen a re-issue and official plugin. Yamaha has been more measured in their re-issue…

> I don't think I buy that argument (that there aren't enough people interested in it). That you can buy them on ebay all day long for less than most cheap synths costs new argues against it being viable.

The prices are pretty similar to Yamaha DX series synths on eBay right now (starting at about $300 and going on up to $700 for working specimens, depending on model and condition).

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#234

Post by euroderf »

hemmert wrote: post #186
VPenkov wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newish Casio user here. From what I understand, it's so that you can switch it to 24h after accidentally switching it to 12h and vice versa.

Plus, you don't have to manually convert from 24h to 12h time.

The state of American math skillz.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#235

Post by Ductapemaster »

wpm wrote: post #199

BIG Warning to anyone thinking about purchasing one of these You cannot connect the watch to Bluetooth without a proprietary app, and that proprietary app will not let you use the Bluetooth feature without some bullshit called a "CASIO Account". Their privacy policy is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser too. The absolute state of things.

While I empathize with your feelings about lock-in, I encourage you to see that we live in an amazingly empowering era. I would wager that with $20 in credits for the LLM flavor of the week and and an equally expensive BLE-to-USB dongle (try the nRF52840 dongle), you will have the protocol reverse-engineered overnight. BLE protocols are often very low-hanging fruit for this type of effort.

Yes, it's annoying this stuff isn't open source from the get-go, but it has never been easier to open hardware up for yourself and others.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#236

Post by compounding_it »

00deadbeef wrote: post #229
wpm wrote: post #199

BIG Warning to anyone thinking about purchasing one of these You cannot connect the watch to Bluetooth without a proprietary app, and that proprietary app will not let you use the Bluetooth feature without some bullshit called a "CASIO Account". Their privacy policy is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser too. The absolute state of things.

ffs all it needed to do was talk to Apple Health and I’d have bought it.

from a financial perspective they would assume one persons data is worth maybe 50$ a year (a random number) on top of maybe another 50$ in subscriptions they can sell. Assuming most such products service the business for up to 3 years, you are looking at an additional 300$ upfront that the business loses giving the data away to someone like Apple. Also the value gain from purely having such a business of subscriptions and data collection is probably another 100$ per customer. Thats close to 500$ for that thing.

Someone like Casio could just sell it for 500$ and collect their future cashflows right away. However, the customer turnout might be significantly less than 55$ they are selling it for.

So the only way to sell it for profit is to keep the data and make a subscription (which may or may not exist yet for Casio).

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#237

Post by fnord77 »

karlgkk wrote: post #162
SwellJoe wrote: post #161

Casio has been leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of nostalgia products. There's been a low rumble of demand for the Casio CZ series of synthesizers for a decade or more, and a bunch of non-Casio companies have cashed in on it (Behringer makes CZ-1 Mini, Arturia has CZ V, several other phase distortion synths exist). It's incredibly cheap to replicate, a simple early digital synthesis algorithm that'll run…

the watches are a high end fast fashion brand in japan. it seems to be very lucrative

80s casio watches are the rage with kids in the US, too

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#238

Post by gonzalohm »

joombaga wrote: post #155
Sidnicious wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sensor Watch is the non-phone-connected OG: https://www.sensorwatch.net

I use one of these daily. Got the expanded screen too. I love the USB design (the side of the board fits inside a USB micro B cable).

I'm curious, which features did you code into the watch?

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#239

Post by steve-atx-7600 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #161

Casio has been leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of nostalgia products. There's been a low rumble of demand for the Casio CZ series of synthesizers for a decade or more, and a bunch of non-Casio companies have cashed in on it (Behringer makes CZ-1 Mini, Arturia has CZ V, several other phase distortion synths exist). It's incredibly cheap to replicate, a simple early digital synthesis algorithm that'll run…

Hopefully because they’re focusing on having relevance in the future. It’s sad as a gen Xer to see Japanese electronics companies fading away.
Post reply on HN