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B) Don't care

I should start making those.

I think it's a great machine. Folks that don't already have a Gen 1/2 will love it. It's not an iphone, so don't expect massive leaps and bounds in R&D year after year. At the end of the day, it's a grinding stone passing over some steel. No need to overthink it. I like that Beam is backwards compatible. Hopefully in the future, they'll integrate it directly into the machine. IE, laser automates edge checking and adjustments. That's what I first thought when I read the release. Definitely would've purchased one had that been the case. Though, I don't know how useful it would be in a home setting. I don't check my edges often, because everytime I do, it just confirms that the machine is in fact accurate. App functionality makes perfect sense. No need for Sparx to write entirely custom software. They're not making the mistake that automakers did betting against Carplay. In the future, expect the machine to have no buttons and be driven entirely by a smartphone. Additionally, it allows them to begin to collect usage and performance metrics, which can then be parlayed into further improvemnts in successive generations. This might not appeal to users at first glance, but I think will ultimately bear fruit in years to come.

Howdy, I'm on the Sparx FB group. I haven't done a scientific poll or anything, but it feels like half the posts asking for advice are some version of "my skate edges aren't level, what do I do?" I think the new edge checker w/app does a good job of helping people with that / making it more idiot proof. In terms of new stuff that I might care about as a gen 1 sparx owner... Pretty much there's nothing on gen 3 I care about. Like you, I'm fine with the display. It might be kinda nice to be able to program in 8 passes directly vs. 6+2 (etc), but that's hardly a pressing issue for me. Comparing Gen 1 to Gen 3, the gen 3 is more portable and the access to the grinding rings is a little better. But both of those were true for gen 1 to gen 2 as well. The OTA updates is one of those "double edged sword" types of things. Its great if they ever actually deliver an update that increases functionality (for instance... Does the new unit have a brain that can vary wheel or carriage speed and will they at some point modify that, perhaps with a new ring grit, to get better finishing passes?) Its not great if the OTA update breaks a feature / gets used to disable your machine in some manner. It looks to me like the vast majority of their focus was on making the Sparx even easier to use, vs adding capability. I already found it easy to use, so mostly that doesn't help me. Mark