Smart Notebook 10

[eean]

According to SMARTtech .com Smart Notebook 10 is due to be released in 5 days.

Crap, I only just installed 9.7sp1 last week!

Smart, I think, must model itself on Microsoft - it's unwise to install anything until at least SP1 is out.

Did anyone have a go at installing the Beta -was it any good? And, more importantly, stable?

[contink]

LOL... Now why would I want to mess with something that already works when I know someone else on here will be itching to find the bugs for me

 

Haven't touched it myself and no plans to for the very reasons you noted...

[SimpleSi]

The trouble is, some training person will run a course using this version (which will no doubt produce files incompatible with previous version) and then I'll have a teacher asking me why the lesson doesn't work

 

(goes away praying I've disabled all the Smart Notebook update reminders on all PCs in all schools!)

 

regards

 

Simon

[Geoff]

That still wont save you SimpleSi as teachers download resources in Smart Notebook format too. It's only a matter of time before v10 resources start appearing online.

[SimpleSi]

That still wont save you SimpleSi as teachers download resources in Smart Notebook format too. It's only a matter of time before v10 resources start appearing online.

 

I know

 

I wouldn't mind if the updating was reliable - I'd just roll it out - but I find about 1 in 7 goes completely %^&s up and takes 3 hours to sort out

 

regards

 

Simon

[john]

I asked Steljes about this week and they said its supposedly Tuesday but they were not that confident....

[leco]

Thanks for the heads up on this one guys. At least I am forewarned if not four armed.

[SMARTuser]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm Giselle Goncalves, the product line manager for Notebook software. I just wanted to let this group know that Notebook software v.10 is now available for SMART customers to upgrade to. I invite you to review the revised product section with a full list of features and let us know what you think.

 

SMART - SMART Notebook software

 

Giselle

[john]

Many Thanks for posting this Giselle, its much appreciated by us

 

Although first annoyance is i need the SN off one of my boards to download and obtain a link to download, thats pritty annyoing, I know that the reason will be to stop anybody just downloading and using it on a Promethean, Hitachi etc board but slightly annoying as I'm going to have to trek over to get one

Edited April 15, 2008 by john

[SimpleSi]

Although first annoyance is i need the SN off one of my boards to download and obtain a link to download, thats pritty annyoing,

 

Understatement of the century!

 

I just don't adam and eve it!

 

I'm off to revise my list of invitations to an event involving a 2m structure made from fired clay and a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal!

 

How a company can continue to endlessly shoot all appendages off with not a single iota of assistance from outside parties at every single update release amazes me.

 

 

Complete and utter wassocks!

Si

[localzuk]

Well you can't blame them really. We should have our smart board serial numbers logged for insurance purposes should we not?

[SimpleSi]

Well you can't blame them really.

 

Sorry, which other company that you know, that previously has made all other upgrades freely available, has changed to requiring proof of purchase before letting its customers have the latest upgrade?

 

Apart from MS with WGA

 

Hands up if you think MS handles software upgrades correctly,

 

Is this a step in the right direction - i think not.

 

SMART care nothing for their customers - they just want to ship products - they don't support them (at least in this country) - they hide behind the "Steljes are the UK distributor" and Steljes care less than SMART about customer support (ever tried to send a SMART board back under warranty - you did keep the box didn't you?)

 

Off to bed before saying something I'll regret;-)

 

Si

[contink]

Well speaking frankly I support my schools remotely most of the time... Luckily none of them have sent me a request for this version but it's only a matter of time.

 

So, I have no serial number and can't access it. Getting a teacher to find a smartboard much less a serial number is going to be interesting.

 

I never understood why we were forced to go through the whole routine of inputting our contact details every blasted time we needed to get the latest MSI before, so rather than ditching that and heading for something simpler it's become more complicated...

 

To mirror Si... What are Smartboard thinking with?

[SimpleSi]

Well 1st thoughts are its looks very pretty - the pen tool that turns rough shape drawing into nice circles/rectangles is very neat.

 

On the download page you get 3 files - Notebook 10 - separate driver file and an admin install prog.

 

As usual - no information on changes.

 

No separate gallery download.

 

I installed Notebook 10 on my home computer - went OK.

 

Don't know if I'm missing out on resources by not going for the gallery download - not going to be downloading 600MB x 14 in every school that I do.

 

I'll just wait for the marketing dept to catch up on the documentation front - you'd think after 5 previous muck ups they'd learn - but no

 

I've no idea at all what to do with the admin prog - its seems to seek out xml and smart files but after that ..........

 

And I'll have to take a Notebook 10 file into school after the hols and see if it loads on a 9.5/9.7 install

 

regards

 

Simon

[contink]

you'd think after 5 previous muck ups they'd learn - but no

Good heavens man... After 5 times of not learning what makes you think they'd start now.

 

I'm still waiting to see if the Smarttech rep is ever going to return to post, much less actually read the feedback. Let's be honest Smarttech won't bother reading, taking notes, going away, rewriting the product and actually learning from our experience and feedback...

[Otter]

Good heavens man... After 5 times of not learning what makes you think they'd start now.

 

I'm still waiting to see if the Smarttech rep is ever going to return to post, much less actually read the feedback. Let's be honest Smarttech won't bother reading, taking notes, going away, rewriting the product and actually learning from our experience and feedback...

 

Yes they do, in fact I *ahem* hear EduGeek has some fans from SMART that come around almost daily, whether logged in or not and take note of what you say. ;-) (And also find fixes for their Vista/mac/Linux issues ) When they do come around, they do it unofficially and quietly to muck about, reading stories about cab, innits, etc.

 

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.

http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455

Some more reading may help here

SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

 

Hope it helps,

 

Otter

[contink]

Yes they do, in fact I *ahem* hear EduGeek has some fans from SMART that come around almost daily, whether logged in or not and take note of what you say. ;-) (And also find fixes for their Vista/mac/Linux issues ) When they do come around, they do it unofficially and quietly to muck about, reading stories about cab, innits, etc.

 

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.

http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455

Some more reading may help here

SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

 

LOL... Colour me a nice liddle shade of pink right now then...

 

In fairness could these "fans" please take it as read that things could be a mite easier when it comes to administration installs... and I wish we'd known about these extra nuggets too..

 

Thanks for sharing

[eean]

I emailed them a fairly obscure feature request - being able to use the pen over a flash file - they replied with a fairly useless "that feature it not available" (I know, that's why I'm requesting it!!) but, to be fair, in the next release it was included.

My email probably had nothing to do with it; but a very small and trampled part of me (the part that silently cries at the end of sad films) believes that it might have!

[eean]

So, I have no serial number and can't access it. Getting a teacher to find a smartboard much less a serial number is going to be interesting.

 

 

Well... what ever you do don't just find out the format of a smart board serial number and make up your own. You shouldn't, therefore, enter : SB580-15xxxx (where xxxx isn't a random 4 digit number). A working example wouldn't be: SB580-151111.

 

Don't do it.

 

Just don't.

[john]

ooh eean you naughti boi hehe

[contink]

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.

http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455

Some more reading may help here

SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

 

Having found the time to visit those links and grab the administration version of the software for version 10 I no longer feel embarrassed.

 

Smart Install Manager: Looks like it could be very useful... Any documentation on how it should be used, what you should actually do with it, whether you should be using it to pick your nose? Erm.. no, nada, not a thing.

 

Now I'm not stupid (no, really! ) and I can guess that I'm supposed to go get the full version of everything and then use this install manager to customise it, but nothing actually tells me I should, where I should put stuff, if that even matters, etc... You also have to remember that preceding versions of admin install software actually provided you with the driver and software so if you're going to change things that much you have to DOCUMENT IT!

 

Even the "help" menu on the install manager itself only has an "About" link which is great for knowing what version I have but documentation? Nope, not a thing.

 

Anyone starting to detect a theme here? Hmm... ?

 

*wanders off muttering*

[eean]

Am I being thick? How the hell do you download the Gallery - I know there's no bulk download at the moment, but I can't even work out how to do it inside the program.

[SimpleSi]

Am I being thick?

No - every release seems to have been created by a new team of programmers without any "grown-ups" around to stop them making fundamental documentation(lack thereof) errors

 

 

How the hell do you download the Gallery - I know there's no bulk download at the moment, but I can't even work out how to do it inside the program.

 

its still available via the old 9.5/9.7 links. (not tried installing it myself -I'm just assuming it will work

 

However, if you click on the icon on the far right next to the search bar in gallery you can check for updates online.

 

I don't know which method will be simpler/quicker in practice.

 

regards

 

Simon

 

PS I've just noticed the desktop icon has changed again - so we can start to expect calls from teachers saying their SMART notebook has disappeared !

[eean]

No, I think I am being thick actually. Yes - there's no download but I couldn't even get the gallery to install. The reason is, however, because I'd installed it using their custom instillation wizard and, in doing so, I'd disabled downloads - which is why it didn't offer me that option during setup and why 'Check for upgrades' is disabled within the program. I uninstalled it and reinstalled without the transform file and it downloaded it for me - They've stuck it in c:\documents and settings\all users\ - so I'm going to make an MSI and put it somewhere sensible.

 

Their admin tool is quite handy but the registration part doesn't work. You can, just register it once then export the following key from the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SMART Technologies\License Information

I'll then reimport it into the mst or something. Will post some instructions when I've figured it out.

[SimpleSi]

No, I think I am being thick actually

 

No -your really not

 

An inability to guess what a program is supposed to do without any documentation is not a sign of thickness on your part.

 

And by trying to glean it, you just encourage them to carry on in the same manner.

 

Please just raise a support issue and then they'll maybe publish some information for everyone to use

 

regards

 

Simon