Slashdot Mirror
TI-84 Plus Released
clear issue writes "The TI-84 Plus has now been shipped, and is avalible through a few distributors. (Try froogle) Besides the new stylish interface, when compared to the 83+, the 84+ has a number of technical advancements including a 2.5 times faster processor speed. To see how this new device compares to your current calculator, check out ti's comparison pdf chart. TI has even dedicated an entire web site for the promotion of the 84 Plus."
If you want to have a real chuckle, check out the Custom Graphics section. I was a TI 99/4A die-hard, and I couldn't help but remember my old system, and coding graphics from 99er Magazine, in all its glory, upon setting eyes on those custom graphics. I must have one of those calculators.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
that was my first programmable device, probably the start of the end of my school and the beginning of my career as a programmer !
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Is this a calculator or a PDA?
OK, so I haven't actually purchased a calculator in 15+ years, but it looks like this model is really geared toward the education market - it includes algebra tutorials, etc. Will a new calculator ever be marketed to make me want to turn in my trusty HP-41CX? (which btw runs on "normal" batteries available in any drugstore, so I never have to worry about the built-in custom rechargable battery dying like with my old, now completely useless TI calculators.)
I remember the awesome training video that came with the TI-82. This weird guy with a pocket protector standing behind a bluescreen which projected a giant image of the TI-82 in the background. Then it would show extreme closeups of his hands hitting the buttons...pure calculator pornography!
There was also a great showdown comparing the TI-82 to Casio and HP competitors (TI won of course). It was funny because you could tell the calculator dork really liked the HP best, but had to put on a good face because it was a TI video, at least I think it was...does anyone else remember that? God, I have no idea what I'm talking about...
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
I liked the "convince your parents" section. I'm not really sure that being dependent on a calculator is such a good idea.
I see things like "14/2", "sin(0)", Integral(1/x,x), etc. in people's histories all the time. Those are the things that you should know how to do; the calculator is making you lazy. Now for things like 239874/12398 calculators are nice, but I'm not sure it's worth $130 to a high school student for something that a 30 dollar scientific calculator can do fine. Graphs are nice, though.
Going of on a tangent (heh), I rather dislike TI (I found a bug that kills your memory and TI refuses to fix it), so go with an HP48/49 if you need graphs. TI is for students that "want to do well on tests", HP is for people who do mathematics on a regular basis, IMO. That said, my TI89 is pretty useful.
My other car is first.
"Bar of Soap" is a design methodology that inherently is supposed to deteriorate, collect dust, and give the device an 'outdated feel and look' within 6 months time. On OOBE, it is supposed to feel like a bar of soap, give the user an intimacy like only a bar of soap can give you, and inspire that 'oooh, intimate toy' feeling. And then 6 months later, when it starts to get 'dirty', gives the user a desire to 'replace it with something new'
The old, rugged case, even with years of grime and dirt, still didn't give you the 'replacement' feeling. BoS is a dirty consumer electronics design trick, and it sucks to see the TI's going that direction
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Having been a die hard HP48GX user since high school, I finally got sick of the bulky size, weight, and lack of development of the HP line (until now with the 49 etc). Well, HP isn't interested in making a dual line RPN stack calc, so I picked up a Casio fx-115MS and have never looked back. I would have gotten one of the TIs but, they didn't have the interface the casio has. So long RPN.
Just look at the apps that come built-in on this thing:
Cabri Jr. - now students can use their calculator to get all the answers in Geometry!
"Alter geometric objects on the fly to see patterns, make conjectures, and draw conclusions" No longer will students need to learn how to prove things, they can just draw two triangles and say "my calculator says so".
Probability Simulation - "Explore probability theory with interactive animation that simulates the rolling of dice, tossing of coins and generating random numbers on your handheld."
Come on, this is NOT necessary. Every TI I have seen has nCr and nPr function built in. Why not teach the students HOW those work rather than using this shortcut method?
When I was in high school, most of my teachers were really good about not allowing the use of calculators on quizzes or tests. There were a few in the school, however, that gave "use your calculator" as a solution to hard problems. Calculators like this will only add more to this growing problem.
I feel bad and perhaps it is because I feel ripped off by the "you have to buy 20 diferent calculators during your schooling monopoly" (i.e. Class A requires TI-83 Class B requires TI-84, ect.. and no they will not let you substitute a diferent model number) but it seems like a racket. 99.999999% of the functions are available with palm os and windows CE software.. Why pay all this cash for a limited device when I can buy a cheap palm that can do 3x as much.. Oh yeah: The monopoly at school.. thats why.
-=SiGH=-
Is this at the expense of battery life?
The lack of support TI offers for users of the TI-86 calc is appalling. That friggin comparison chart _proves_ that for only $10US more than an 83+ Silver (dunno how much the new 84 costs) you get a _lot_ more features. This is the best TI calc you can buy for the money. The 89s and 92s are better of course, but they're about $70 more expensive last I checked. The 86 has more features in most areas and what it lacks can easily be made up for by a solid community of enthusiasts (www.ticalc.org) who write Z80 assembly apps to make their fav calc better. Looking at the chart, some of the notable things the 86 lacks that other calculators come with (or are added by TI with their own apps that are unavailable to out-of-date calcs (82, 83) and the 86) are spreadsheets(?!), chart graphing ie pie, bar, etc.(wtf would most people need this for?). Okay, I like the new mini-usb idea with the 84s and 89s, and you gotta start new ideas somewhere, but dammit I wish they would just support my 86 more than they do. I paid an extra $10 for a lot of good features and my calc has been exemplary, but some friggin gratitude towards 86 users would be nice. TI's own connectivity software (the new one, TI-CONNECT) doesn't even support 86s! That's _pathetic_! Come on, TI. People who bought your 86 deserve some love too. Dammit.
You can get small laptops for 5-10 times the money of a calculator, but they make you more than 5-10 times more productive.
A $20 calculator and a $1000 laptop are both okay but I can't see there any place for devices in the middle ground that are not properly hackable.
In college I remember taking the final and 10 guys spent all of 10 minutes taking it. They had programmed their calculators with every possible question (from the homework) and all made 100%. I spent 3 1/2 hours taking the test because the test was so hard no one else was done in 3 hours so they gave us more time.
...
I still hate those guys, but I am not bitter
Let me tell you it isn't a myth if you are doing upper level math on a graphing calculator. Doing 3D plots will often take a Ti-89 a minute or two to generate and rotation is on the order of 2fps. Also doing symbolic solving for complex series can often take a couple minutes. That's why I eventually turned to either Maple or a Ti-89 simulator running on my laptop (same great interface and programs but at 800MHz instead of 8 =) With a numeric keypad it was about as fast as entry on the calculator (improved text entry for variable names with slower entry for special symbols because you had to point and click em). The good thing about the slow CPU was that I had to change batteries twice a semester (before midterms and finals, don't want dead batteries during an exam!) vs recharging daily for my laptop.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
RPN is great for entering complex formulas without having to enter or balance parentheses.
"Pretty print" is worth whatever dollar amount they put on it. It virtually eliminates mistakes made by careless calculator users. I am an engineering student in my senior year and I don't know how I would have survived without my TI-89.
I am really astonished that TI (or anyone else) continues to make any calculators at all without this function.
--for non-TI 89 users--
"Pretty Print" is the feature which takes:
lim(e^(42x*sqrt(2))\x,x,0) and puts it on the display as you would have written it by hand. It also keeps pi/sqrt(2) as an answer as you would have written that by hand rather than a decimal approximation (unless you use the approximation button)
What I like are their sections on how to write "requests for bids", so that only a particular TI calculator meets the specifications. At least in the federal government, you are not supposed to do that, or admit to doing it.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Prior to 1983, I went through at least one TI scientific calculator per year -- literally wore them out as an engineering undergrad. After having one go on the fritz during a chemistry final, it was time for a change.
And what a change indeed. Bought an HP-41C, which was quite expensive on a student't budget, but I figured that maybe it would last two or three years. Twenty years later, it's still within arm's reach, looks just like the day I bought it, no bouncing keys, no flickering display.
But the real reason it's still in my arsenal is that it turned out to be the ideal tool for working EE AC circuits problems. The '41 can do complex math, in both polar and rectangular coordinates, and flip back and forth between those two representations with ease. I have fond memories of walking out of a tough exam after only 20 minutes, handing my completed (and aced) test to the very suprised professor. Thanks Dave and Bill!
...-.-
You know, it's bizzare almost. This seems to be pretty much the only truly new calculator from TI in the 80x range since I was a sophomore in highschool, like 7 years ago.
:P. TIs were fun in HS, but it's just amazing to me how little they've advanced...
a 2.5x speedup? The machine I had then was a pentium 75! I guess this is what happens when you have no competition.
Why would you need more CPU power in a graphing calc? Well, graphing for one thing. It can take a couple seconds for these things to draw a graph. There are plenty of high-power low-cost chips out there that could crank most of those out almost instantly.
And lets not forget the games
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
project back in 1973/74. What a great calculator for it's time!! I designed the electronics for the card reader and the power supply section as well as the charger/adapter. There's one of those around somewhere in my calculator collection. I also still have a good working TI-150 handheld with the larger gas discharge display.
Did you ever see an SR-60? That was the desktop with the dot-matrix display. I did the card reader electronics as well as some of the main board circuitry on that one, too.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
While studying in my first year toward a Computer Science degree, I wrote a cross-compiler for a high-level language for it, in Pascal, running on a CDC 6600 mainframe (c. 1979): TIPCAL: Texas Instruments Programable CAlculator Language. It was rather like a cross between BASIC and FORTRAN and spat out programming keystrokes.
Ah, the memories: A vaguely remember something about an SR60 desktop, yes.
You could've hired me.