What's Out There for Handheld Math?

PowerVegetable asks: "What's the story with handheld computation? Not address books and schedule reminders; I'm talking about the type of stuff computers were invented for. Anyone who's used Mathematica or Maple knows what desktop computers are capable of these days math-wise, but handheld computation seems to have fallen behind on the innovation front. Cell phones and handheld game systems have certainly enjoyed rapid advancement, so where are the handheld mathematical portable oracles? What's available that doesn't have obscure menu systems, bad displays, underpowered processors and unwieldy programming languages? Pickings are slim in the hard-coded calculator industry, but what about Pocket PC's or other programmable portables? Is there any portable solution out there that's more capable than my old HP49g?"

Comments

Ummm....

[Hanji]

Ti (Texas Instruments) calculators are quite powerful, especially the Ti-89 and above. 3D graphing, symbolic just about everything, ...

Unless I missed something skimming the post, seems like a good solution...

Re:Ummm....

[xenocide2]

The TI 92 is like a portable computer. Symbolic manipulation? Check. Indefinite integration? Done. graphing? Yes. The thing has a qwerty keyboard underneath the display. The 89 is essentially a 92 in regular TI style. I can't recall which language you program the both in, but I'd imagine it has the standard TI BASIC at least. The UI is menu based, similar to the TI 85/86 with more visual description.

Since its got a keyboard, you won't have to look up many key functions, unless you have a hard time with the alphabet.

Mathematica and Zaurus

[arcadum]

i've been using Mathematica on my zaurus for a while know... here is where I learned about it.

Symbolic Calculator

[timdaly]

Maxima, a general purpose computer algebra system runs on the zaurus. Yacas, another computer algebra system runs on the zaurus. Axiom is coming shortly (once the glibc issue gets resolved). Octave runs on the zaurus. These are open source, freely available, research quality computer algebra systems. More are on the way.

Re:gee.

[Mad Marlin]

If the HP 49G+ is insufficient for your handheld computation needs, you're in a really unusual position. What exactly are you wanting your calculator to do?

He said 49G, no +. The 49G+ is pretty good though. 75-MHz 32-bit ARM9 CPU, 2.5-MB of RAM, and an SD card port, which can hold more than 512-MB. Anything handheld with more power would be called a PDA. And, after you get it, download my library of 116 additional functions for it.

As far as the state of 'handheld math' goes,

[Mordant]

I can add and subtract numbers less than or equal to ten with no problems!

Re:As far as the state of 'handheld math' goes,

[Ratbert42]

Learn binary math. I can do 10-bit and sometimes 20-bit math (or even 21-bit if it's not too cold).

Handheld Math Device of Choice

[Chris Tucker]

Depending upon my whim and need for accuracy past a few decimal points, either my Pickett Microline 120 or my TI SR-40.

Why, yes. As a matter of fact, I am an old fart. Why do you ask?

Discrete Maths and more - Pari/GP

[You're All Wrong]

http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/

It's a bit like Mathematica, but faster, GPL'ed and amazingly well supported (i.e. bugs get fixed within days of reporting).

YAW.