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.
How long before they relase the TI 99/4A?
Pan
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
With the TI-84 Plus, all students can now share their work by connecting their TI-84 Plus to any TI presentation tools for the whole class to see, fostering a collaborative learning environment.*
(*) Kids can now network to the smart kid in class and steal answers via infrared USB. No longer do you have to seat near the geek to get good grades!
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
I emailed "daddypants" while it was still in the Mysterious Future, but to no avail.
that was my first programmable device, probably the start of the end of my school and the beginning of my career as a programmer !
MP3 Search Engine
now i can play tetris 2.5 times faster!
It sure beats the hell outta my abacus but my abacus has really low power consumption.
The Erogenous Zone
Not at all. The different calculators are aimed at different groups and for different purposes.
The 92/+/v200 are aimed at engineers and other professions/things to do while the 83/+/84/+ are aimed at highschool students (mainly).
The TI-92 isn't allowed on SATs and some other tests because of the QWERTY keyboard. This one probably would be allowed by standardized tests and by teachers in school, so it's good that they're working to improve the TI-8x type calcs.
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. --
TI's models are designed to suit different needs, the TI-82, TI-83, and now TI-84 are aimed mainly at High School level maths, though the 83 is generally considered the best calculator TI makes for doing statistics work. The TI-84 is just a revamp over the TI-83, just like the TI-83 was to the TI-82 before it.
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.
When TI finally releases a better calculator, I hope they also release an upgrade for the 89. After all, the hardware will be sufficient for a long time. With 700k+ memory and a good-sized processor (I think it's 33Mhz underclocked to 11Mhz), it should work very well for just about everything but non-linear differential equations and other extremely CPU-intensive operations.
When the time comes, all we will need is a firmware upgrade to keep it around for even longer without having to upgrade. I've used this calculator for 6 years now, and I recommend it to everyone looking for a high-performance calculator. I hope to try the new HP calculator so I can compare to the competition, but I just don't think I can set my 89 down after all this time. I know it all too well.
Ugh. For the Nth time, you can't use a Palm on an exam. Plus, using a stylus on a calculator is like using a wooden spoon to do open heart surgery.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
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=-
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
This is what stylish looks like.
http://www.hp41.org/41Drawing.jpg
Not saying the 41 is better as I have not reviewed the new TI. I still find it the best looking calculator ever designed.
Is this at the expense of battery life?
Real engineers use slide rules! :-p
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
While you might light having everything integrated into your handheld, there is no denying that a dedicated calculator is prefered by a lot of people. I personally would have more confidence in my calculator with button pushing than screen tapping. Tapping the screen just doesn't work as well and is definately prone to error. Don't even get me started on giving handheld devices to kids in middle school. Battery life is also terrible. The list goes on and on, so I hope you get the point.
Your reference to HP is a bit uncalled for since TI owns most of the graphing calculator business. It's definately not in TI's best interest for everything to go handheld since they don't have handhelds waiting in the wings.
Before I begin this rant, I should mention that Texas Instruments does not actually make these things anymore. They sold off their calculator division long ago. Hence these things are TI's, not Texas Instrument calculators.
The company that does make them makes a good deal of their total revenue of these things. And in order to keep this revenue coming in, they have made themselves the official Calculator of Calculus (TM). Every major textbook is geared for this calculator, and even the AP exam requires it (or something very much like it) these days. I get students in Calculus straight out of high school who ask me to tell them what the "official calculator for the course" is.
Now, there are some really useful things you can do with a calculator in a Calculus class. The problem is 90% of all high school calculus teachers are not trained enough to use them properly. And using them improperly is worse than not using them at all.
I use to be head proctor for the placement exams for the Engineering school at Cornell. The year calculators were added to the Calculus AP, we saw a statistically significant drop in scores. However, when I complain about these problems, I get called a technophobe.
God, how I hate these things.
I always preferred the 85/86 to the 83/82. The "UI" of the 85/86 is just... better. The buttons are organized the way they should be, and not grouped according to if you're doing your taxes or not.
:D
What about those ones? According to ticalc.org, they're the "engineering" oriented calculators, maybe that explains the above paragraph...
Then there was also the 92/89 pair, but that always seemed a bit silly... I don't need to have 3d graphics, thank you
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Am I the only one that is disgusted by all these "Need to Convince Mom and Dad?" buttons (see bottom left) that are popping up everywhere?
I mean, how long before companies begin to advise children to cry out loud and shout that their parents don't love them if they don't want to buy them their product?
Yeah, it's a bit offtopic. I know.
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.
I like having my calculator batteries last for months, if not years, on end. My ancient TI-85 is always near, always ready.
Plus, the input area on a TI calculator is much larger than even the screen on a PDA, which has to display both the input interface and the results.
Hardcoded keys are fantastic for memorizing quick patterns. Would you try to replace a computer keyboard with a few square inches of touch-sensitive LCD and a stylus?
...
Given the extremely high price compared to the hardware you get (monocrome non-touch screen), you can safely say that this is a calculator. With a calculator, you pay for the software. I wish somebody would come out with an easy to use palm pilot application that has all of these advanced features so that we can stop paying so much for cheap hardware.
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.
Perhaps because I saw the GBA article above this one on the main page, I remembered a page I had seen a while back about overclocking your TI(change in capacitor). Thought it was pretty cool, I'd try it but my calculator is school-owned. Somehow I don't think they'd find it as cool as I would. =)
Uh, no.
You're correct in that the TI-89 Titanium has the same processor as the original TI-89, but the new TI-89's processor runs at 12 MHz, as opposed to the original 10 Mhz.
Granted, it's not a huge difference (20%), but it would be noticeable.
And as to your assertion about the 49g+, I haven't personally used it, but I've read a lot of reviews -- and it seems to be almost universally agreed that the 49g+ sucks.
Now, if you want to debate about the TI-89 versus the HP 48GX, then we can talk. I *have* used one of those, and I like it a lot better.
To see how this new device compares to your current calculator, check out ti's comparison pdf chart.
What if I don't have a TI calculator? My calculator is a pencil and paper, you insensitive clod!
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
Look, this calculator is all sorts of cool. What it is not is stylish. Not even remotely. Heck, it's so ugly, you'd get kicked out of Starbucks by your local Apple crowd just for bringing one!
It finally died last year (though I hadn't used it seriously in ages).
You could've hired me.
"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)
Most professors wouldn't fancy the idea of their students whipping out a palmtop during an exam.
I haven't checked the official tests, but the TI site says: "The TI-89 is allowed for use on the AP* Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Physics, AP Chemistry, PSAT/NMSQT, SAT I, SAT II Math IC & IIC." I apologize if I'm passing on inaccurate information.
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!
...-.-
I purchased the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition about a year and a half ago. The Processor is 2.5 times faster than the TI-83 Plus it has 24KB RAM and 1.5MB flash memory and it stores up to 94 applications. It also came with a cable to hook it up to an USB port. As far as I can tell, the 84 is nothing more than a repackaged 83 silver edition.
On a good note - despite heavy use I have only had to change the batteries once in the last 1 1/2 years.
Bullshit, from the collegeboard website:
Calculator Policy You may use almost any four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator on the SAT I and Math Level IC, and Math Level IIC Subject Tests. You are not permitted to use:
* Hand-held minicomputers or laptop computers
* Electronic writing pads or pen-input devices
* Pocket organizers (PDAs)
* Calculators with QWERTY (typewriter-like) keypads
* Calculators with paper tape
* Calculators that "talk" or make unusual noises
* Calculators that require an electrical outlet
The bolded entry is why the Ti92 is banned and the Ti89 is not.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
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
I overclocked my 89 and it was pretty sweet because I could render a 3d graph in 2/3 the time! Mine had a switch too so you could change the capacitance back to normal if you wanted to to play a game or something. My stupid friend made one also but he just directly soldered on a new capacitor with no switch and it ended up being faster than mine (I think the extra wires in mine wonked up the capacitance a little) Anyway, it's a fun project and there's nothing that impresses girls in high school more than an overclocked calculator!
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.
* Calculators with QWERTY (...) keypads
They didn't ban Dvorak layouts now, did they? Just reprogram your TI-xx to Dvorak layout, and its entirely legal!
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
You mean like EasyCalc?
"Hu, ho, ho-ah-oh-oh-oh. Hu, ho ho-ah-oh-oh-oh. Mario Paint! Whoaaa!"
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Real engineers hardly ever use calculators, considering there are things like Matlab around.
My Calculus teacher has had the TI-84 Plus Siver Edition for about two months now, and I've had the chance to play around with it alot. I can tell you that it really is alot faster than my 83 Plus, as I've done speed comparisons as far as graphing is concerneed. They also seem to have refined certain menus with a smaller font, but overall, the OS remains about the same. Not worth the upgrade from the 83, but certainly a plus for people in the market for a new calculator.