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TI Launches Three New Graphing Calculators
confusedneutrino writes "Texas
Instruments has announced 3 new graphing calculators to be available later this year. The TI-84
Plus and TI-84
Plus Silver Edition will be available this spring and are essentially the TI-83 Plus/SE, respectively, in a new case and with USB support. (The TI-84 Plus does sport a 15 MHz processor, compared to the TI-83 Plus' 6 MHz, though.) The TI-89
Titanium will be available in the summer and features 3x the available ROM of the 'old' TI-89 and will also have USB capability. Looks to me like a Voyage 200 minus QWERTY. I personally don't feel an inclination to upgrade at all..."
Who's their marketing department? AOL?
I still love my TI-92...While in college waiting for teachers to show up, I played lots of Tetris games on Fargo, which was the assembly-language system made possible only because of a buffer underrun...
And there are many occasions where the graphing functions of my TI have proved useful in the workplace. To name a few:
- being able to view every key I've entered before evaluating the expression
- being able to revise and edit incorrect expressions
- to determine linear regression fits for data sets
- to perform functions like logarithms and square roots on said data sets, in order to linearize them (linearity being checked, of course, by the R^2 correlation of my fit)
- anything at all to do with linear algebra, especially solving systems of equations or matrix manipulations. RREF is a bitch by hand.
For more "pure" math (like Diff. Eq.), I agree that pencil and paper are generally easier. But any applied math (a.k.a. engineering) requires an insane amount of busy work that could not be handled with a puny scientific calculator. I know you said Engineering and Physics are different stories, but everything I just wrote could certainly apply to all sciences (even the "soft" ones like Psych. and Sociology), or anything at all requiring data collection.
For the record, I use a TI-86 daily at a bio-tech job. It has the stats capabilities of the 83, plus all the good parts of the 85.
The TI-84 Plus, the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, the TI-83 Plus/SE, the TI-89 Titanium, this is all too confusing. Just tell me hich one of these looks like Kristanna Loken, and where can I pick one up.
I need to do me some computin' on a beautiful calculator bent on the complete destruction of mankind. And I want USB support, too, dang it!
--
Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
or the Son of God hanging dead and bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemned, but loved and bought with blood.
I'll happily buy one or both of these calculators for my school-age children, provided that they can run TI Linux. Frankly, I have grown weary of the proprietary, closed-source interfaces that plague graphing calculators. They're essentially small computers; can't they run a real OS?
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Linux on Calculators Expert
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
Why not a PDA that runs graphing calculator software instead?
Bloody hell, why must the urge to change the numbers of those calculators like that?
WHY CANNOT THE NEW ONE BE LIKE 94?
I don't want to remember that 83 is older than 86, but 83 plus silver-balls is never, and also faster.
I hate this. Same thing with everything. Hell, we couldn't stick to mhz, but we had to begin with 2200+ and so on.
At least those keep on incrementing.
That they can have my HP 48GX when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. And even then, I'm not so sure...
BEWARE! "Back in the old days" rant coming...
When I took those exams, we weren't allowed to use those fancy calculators. If we were even allowed to use calculators at all, we were only allowed to use the most basic scientific calculator you can find. No graphics, no programming, nada zip zero.
OK, rant over. I guess the old-fashioned kind of calculator is hard to find these days. But I'm quite curious now. Have the questions been adjusted to account for use of all these fancy calculators?
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Is there still a niche for calculators? I mean, between engineering computers, calculation programs, and PDAs with scientific calculators in software, dedicated calculators seem to be more and more on the wane.
Sure, I keep one on my desk, both at work and at home, for incidental calculations, but any "heavy lifting" is done via spreadsheet or a quickie program, or the likes of Mathematica if you're a real freak.
So, is there still a point to "scientific calculators" which seem to be becoming PDAs with specialized keyboards, less the address book, less the calendar, with the math software in firmware.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Ah, that brings back memories. I was 1337 enough to have the 85 instead of the standard issue 81 that everyone else had in high school. I don't remember what the differences were, but everyone was jealous. And it was BLACK. Not as cool as the geeks that turned the TVs on and off with their HPs, but still cool.
I remember writing programs to save myself 5 minutes a problem on my Econ exams in college. The professor was always puzzled why I would finish so quickly. I told him at the end of the quarter.
Surely calculators like this offer more chances for cheating on your exams (SAT, AP etc) - the programming features on these calculators can instead be used to store plain text, enabling you to write down formulae, notes etc.
I've used a graphing calculator for SATs, and was never asked to erase the memory. With USB, you could simply type up your notes on a PC, transfer them, and use them...
Personally, the 86 was my favorite of the bunch. Most powerful and straightforward of the calculators, but not crossing the line of being more like a computer. But instead of upgrading the 86, they're making programs that provide some of it's unique functions to the other calculators:
A suite of TI-86 features is being created for the TI-83 Plus and TI-89 in the form of free APPS, including:
* Polynomial Root Finder
* Simultaneous Equations Solver
* Differential Equation Graphing (built into the TI-89)
* Constants and Conversions (built into the TI-89)
When I was in Thailand, I encountered a lot of merchants who used the abacus to calculate whatever. People who had calculators used them more to show tourists the Arabic number price than to calculate the final sum.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
The RPNs worth buying are:
16C - awesome calculator for programmers, especially embedded work. There is no better number system converter available at any price. No I can't do bin/dec/hex in my head faster than the 16C and neither can you. Expensive due to relatively low numbers produced.
42S - pricey, even used, but excellent. Two line display, a replacement for the 15C.
32SII - somewhat like a 42S but with single line display, not so nice to use.
15C - same form factor as 16C. At the time HP's top scientific.
11C - a simpler 15C
10C - a simpler 11C
All the above have solid old-HP build quality, excellent key feel and outstanding battery life.
Older HPs are also usable (and may be preferred) - but they have even greater collector status and sometimes fetch higher prices. They will go through batteries faster and the red LEDs can be harder to see.
Forget the 48 models, the 49 and all the new stuff. The 48GX is OK if you have to have graphing but the single and dual-line models have better UI for daily use. The 49? HP died when Carly took over. Now they make pretty colored plastic boxes that only work with windows and they have forgotten how to spell "engineering". In fact they fired all the engineers and HP is now run by MBAs in shiny suits.
(I own 16C, 42s, 15C and 11C models.)
My little bother did a steady business in TI-8x calculators during high school. Our high school required "accelerated" math students to purchase a TI-81 (or 83 or 85, whatever the "state of the art" was at the time) to use in class and on homework.
My brother would buy calculators cheap from kids at the end of school in June and sell them to the next year's students the next year for about $10 less than the school asked for the new ones. He probably made $250-$500 a year off those calculators. Not exactly chump change to a 15 year old.
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Back in *my* day, we were only allowed to bring in some beans on strings. And only the yuppies could affor that. The rest of us had to carry a bucket of dirt, and make little piles on our desks. And we were THANKFUL!
Have you any idea how hard it is to compute logarithms by counting grains of dirt?
Kids these days! Sheesh!
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Ahh, the good old days...
Back in High School, the teachers didn't necessarily understand the technology. Some profs would ban them altogether to prevent cheating. Others had no idea things like, say, ANSWERS and FORMULAE could be stored in them.
I remember writing little programs that played cute little games. (And happened to have useful test information in the comments of the code.) I remember playing pong over that crappy link cable in the back of Calculus class.
Best of all, I remember when the TI-86 came out. Sure it had more memory, but my parents just didn't understand a geek's needs. ("You already HAVE a calculator.")
Of course, geekery knows no bounds. Scant weeks later I'd overclocked my 85. Sure, it went through a whole set of batteries a week, and the games wouldn't work anymore, but it was FAST! (Faster than everyone else's 86 at least ^_~)
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
the currrent state of calculator technology is sad. they got so long to improve and they still have shitty UI and small memory. someone like apple ought to get into the market.
My favorite calculator was one I picked up in the late 80's. It had 128 built in formulas and was from Radio Shack. You could program several other fomulas as well.
What I haven't seen other calculators do well, is that this had excellent support for greek and other odd math characters. And the calculator was very small. I didn't usually like hauling around the TI's.
The build in formulas are nice when you can't remember some formula you really needed. Very handy.
The calculator is similar to some of Casio's calculators today, but I don't see them with good support for math symbols. I'd still use it today, except that it fell apart. You have to squeeze it together just right and hold it that way for it to work correctly.
Back eight years ago when I was starting my Algebra II class in high school, I went shopping with my parents to get what "I needed" to get...a TI-82. Mom looked at the calculator, looked at the price ($78 at the time) and said, "Pff...these things will probably be worth $20 in five years."
Course, the TI-83 (same one that they sold back when I was in high school, just a slight change in design) is priced now for $89, the same as it was back eight years ago. Or I could get the TI-83 SILVER (which is what the TI sales reps are REALLY trying to push on schools now...I know because I'm a math teacher now), which retails for $114 (just because it has 128k ROM and a bunch of crappy "ecucational" software...though anyone who knows anything about basic programming can muster up the same thing with TI's programming interface).
The point is, you're still getting pretty much the same calculator with almost all of the same abilities. Sure, you can crunch recursive functions, large matricies, and integrals faster, (plus you get more software, which is really not necessary for 95% of customers), but there's really little to justify the need for a SILVER edition when 1) you pay $25 more for 128K ROM and software, and 2) electronic components have gotten a lot cheaper over the last eight years but the prices of TI calculators have not ever gone down.
Reminded me of a NCTM conference I went to last year...there was a calculator dealer trying to sell some old calculators. There was a TI-92 there, brand-spanking new, for $60. Asked them why it was so darned cheap, and the saleswoman said that "TI now has the TI-92 plusses and discontinued the 92s, so there's no support from TI, just a 30-day warranty from us." Difference between the 92 and the 92-PLUS: 128K of ROM for additional software. Well, the 92-PLUSs retail for $189, but I really got almost all the functionality of a $189 calculator for $60!
Anyways, all these "new" calculators that TI puts out, I really just wave my hand at them and say, "Baa." I already have one, and there's absolutely no need to "upgrade"!
HP stopped making an attempt at the last three some time ago. If I have to put up with a cruddy interface, eventually I'll take the speed hit and use a PDA with stylus. Until then, I'm hoarding old calculators off eBay. The 38SII, while not graphical, is probably the best professional scientific calculator for everyday use, but even they're getting expensive. I'd stick to old 48s/g for graphing.
Also includes new feature to calculate the number of years it'll take me to afford the 40gb iPod...
I don't think I'll be upgrading from my trusty TI-85. It has been dropped, kicked, and occasionally drop-kicked regularly for the past 10 years and still works perfectly. (I guess this is a plug for the 85...do they even still make it?) I have a 93 which mostly sits in a drawer. Whenever I've considered using it, I've realized that I'd be better served by a computer with a math package--bigger display, easier input, more flexible software, faster processing. So, what is the point of a 15 mHz calculator, or a USB-capable one? You don't need something like that in high school (would a student even be allowed to use one?), and you have better resources in college and in the working world.
Bet you could write some great games for these uber-calculators, though (there were already good games available for the 83/85/86/89 when I was in high school.) Which would have been all the reason I would have needed to get one, had they existed back when I needed something to keep me awake through AP Calc.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
I HATE this: they say 5x more RAM, but actually, it has the SAME amount of ram. It has more Flash ROM, but that is not nearly as usefull as pure ram.
Like on the 83+ compared to the 83, the 83+ actually has LESS memory than the 83, not more.
Sheesh.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
There are a ton of comments here that start with "Back in my day we didn't have (insert thing here) and we did GREAT!"
Here's the reality people, most course curriculim has changed since the introduction of the graphing calculators. I took the advanced Calc courses at the UofMN and it was REQUIRED that you owned one to enroll for the class...why? Because the professors had designed the course to use the calculators to teach the students things that were nearly impossible to teach without the visualization via graphing calcs. Sure they could get a comp and a projector and throw up a pick on a screen but they wanted more, they wanted you to change the values of the functions, understand how different terms affected the outcome.
Calc would have been insanly boring, if all we did was take intergrals, derivs, and solve diffi-Qs. I'm glad I invested in a TI-92 before my freshman year, its versatility beat the crap out of every other TI on the market.
I should also preface this post with how my class was graded...getting the "answer" was considered 25% of the worth of the question, what they wanted and taught was the process of deriving the answer, so having a calc that could do integrals was rather useless, you still had to show your work, especially on tests..it was nice for checking to make sure you added 2+2 right.
Apple free since 1990!
You obviously never bothered to read the section on "user defined keyboards", where you can map any command(and even a custom program) to any key. You can set up the "UI" any way you want; I assume you mean keys, because the very same commands do the very same things across all the RPN calculators. Swap, rotate, drop etc are all the same. Since you can take a set of RPN commands and make them in to a program, this is incredibly powerful. I found it endlessly useful, particularly in physics.
Dismissing the 48/49 series simply because you didn't like the fact that your favorite buttons for stack manipulation weren't there on the keyboard shows you never bothered to read the user manual. And I fail to see how 4-5 levels visible on the stack(more if you use one of the programs that installs a custom small font) is inferior to one or two lines. You can even make your own keyboard template if you wish; there are tab slots in the case to keep one in place. You can also just create scripts, and have different directories for different task sets that require similar functions. Oh, and i'd like to see you do a 3x3 matrix on your 1 line screen. Have fun pushing buttons if your RPN program returns more than one number...
Never confuse "crappy" with "I didn't understand how to use it." The 48/49 series, while being useable to do 2+2 kind of stuff, are really designed for people who do repetitive calculations and such. Not just graphing...
Please help metamoderate.
16C - awesome calculator for programmers, especially embedded work. There is no better number system converter available at any price. No I can't do bin/dec/hex in my head faster than the 16C and neither can you. Expensive due to relatively low numbers produced.
Try the trivial (and free) script at the end of this post, run as:
base 0xF43B
base 0b0010101
base 0755
base 521
Output:
Dec Hex Oct Bin
493 1ed 755 111101101
Whenever you're programming, a command line is closer than a calculator.
#!/bin/sh
NUM="$1"
perl -e "printf (\"Dec\tHex\tOct\tBin\n%d\t%x\t%o\t%b\n\", $NUM, $NUM, $NUM, $NUM);"
My HP 48G is almost 10 years old. It still does more than I need it too and it only has 32k of ram. Hell it was good enough to send us to the moon, it's good enough to add, subtract, multiply, and solve stress equations on the fly...
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
One would think they could afford to put in useful upgrades, such as an order of magnitude more RAM or a faster processor (IMHO, 10MHz is laughable these days, even for a graphing calculator).
Then again, perhaps TI sticks with the low-res black-only LCDs, slow processors, and miniscule amounts of RAM to limit power consumption. My TI-89 lasts weeks or months on a set of batteries--you won't get that from a PDA.