In Calculator Arms Race, Casio Fires Back: Color Touchscreen ClassPad

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In Calculator Arms Race, Casio Fires Back: Color Touchscreen ClassPad

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 29, 2012 @10:38PM from the all-colors dept.

KermMartian writes "In what seems to be an accelerating arms race for graphing calculator supremacy between Texas Instruments and Casio, the underdog Casio has fired a return salvo to the recently-announced TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition. The new ClassPad fx-CP400 has a massive color touchscreen and a Matlab-esque CAS. Though not accepted on the SAT/ACT, will such a powerful device gain a strong following among engineers and professionals?"

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MATLAB by ipquickly · 2012-11-29 22:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

Just stop playing around and get the real MATLAB on there.
The only thing that will make me switch from my HP-48.
1. Re:MATLAB by ikaruga · 2012-11-29 22:53 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Or at least Octave. MATLab is too expensive to put on a calculator and if you only want the programing language then Octave is more then enough.
2. Re:MATLAB by gr8_phk · 2012-11-30 02:23 · Score: 2
  
  And Maxima. Matlab/Octave are not real CAS.
Let me be the first to say... by Jojoba86 · 2012-11-29 22:41 · Score: 5, Funny

Welcome to 2012 graphical calculators, nice of you to finally join us!
1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by ipquickly · 2012-11-29 22:59 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Welcome to 2012 graphical calculators, nice of you to finally join us!
  The first Casio graphing calculator with color came out in 1996. CFX-9850
  I still have one somewhere.
  "500KB RAM to users; appears to have at least a 2-4MB RAM chip"
  I think this development puts the new calculators on par with PDA's from 2001. Just before the Treo hit the shelves.
  It's like re-living history.
2. Re:Let me be the first to say... by menno_h · 2012-11-29 23:20 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Being born in 1996, I missed out on most of computer history. Thank you, Casio and TI for allowing me to experience the growth of the computer -again.
  
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  AccountKiller
3. Re:Let me be the first to say... by VAElynx · 2012-11-30 00:34 · Score: 2
  
  I have a colour CFX-9950, (Graph 65 - it's the france-sold version). While the screen is uncomfortably slow for things like games (and I *have* written some back then, and it was good enough for a chess clock eg.), it's an awesome calculator and buying it used, it's been with me for 6-7 years by now, ever since high school. (last year of MEng now) Though the library programs in the EU version are nowhere near as useful as the US ones, it's still a good piece of kit. That said, I dislike anything that comes with a touchpad -they are utterly clumsy tools. Something with a kindle-like keyboard, a good processor and RAM , and running Octave would be a dream, though.
No, it won't gain a strong following. by tstrunk · 2012-11-29 22:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why does one need a graphing calculator?
a) because it's actually required in an exam (didn't happen to me in my life).
b) because it makes life easier during an exam.
There's no math field work, where you need immediate mobility anymore. There's no need for a graphing calculator, which must not be used during exams.
1. Re:No, it won't gain a strong following. by Kurast · 2012-11-29 22:50 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This!
  People only use these things for examinations. Nobody that I know uses these to do Real Work® . If you are in the field, you use a laptop with Matlab and/or Mathematica, and for surprise stuff, there are very good apps you can carry in your phone.
2. Re: No, it won't gain a strong following. by TheRaven64 · 2012-11-29 23:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I still do like the hp stack method though, especially for adding bills together quickly
  If you want a calculator that does RPN, type dc into the terminal on any UNIX system...
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
3. Re:No, it won't gain a strong following. by AmiMoJo · 2012-11-30 01:38 · Score: 2
  
  They were useful learning tools before computers became cheap and ubiquitous.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
No. by elvum · 2012-11-29 22:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

What do these devices have that couldn't be implemented as an app on a general purpose smartphone or tablet?
1. Re:No. by ipquickly · 2012-11-29 22:50 · Score: 2
  
  What do these devices have that couldn't be implemented as an app on a general purpose smartphone or tablet?
  I think the answer to that is: Absolutely Nothing.
  In fact - I'm sure a smartphone could run an emulator of the calculator and the emulated calculator software would still run faster.
2. Re:No. by marcovje · 2012-11-29 23:33 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Do 1 year with a battery.
3. Re:No. by Kergan · 2012-11-30 00:54 · Score: 2
  
  Most exams are there to gauge a student's level of knowledge, judgement or analytical skills, not their data processing ability.
  You mean multiple choice tests allow to gauge any of that? Wow, who knew?
  On a more serious note, two things that most aren't taught in school, or not well anyway, relate to data processing.
  One is how to find with the data in the first place. Aka "Here's a tub; What's its volume?" -- leaving the student explain what he needs to measure to come up with the answer, and why.
  The other is identify useless data. For instance, "Three customers give the $10 they each owe to their waiter. His boss hands $5 back to the waiter, saying it's on the house because they're regulars. The waiter pockets $2 as a tip, and gives $1 back to each customer. How much did each customer pay? Isn't it weird that 3 * $9 + $2 != 3 * $10?
Wake me when they have native RPN support by runeghost · 2012-11-29 22:47 · Score: 2, Informative

I'm still confused as to why I'd ever want to replace my HP 48GX.
Third world by Kupfernigk · 2012-11-29 22:53 · Score: 4, Interesting

Long battery life and run on batteries you can buy from street vendors?
An awful lot of people live in the 3rd world. Why does Blackberry still sell well in Nigeria? Long battery life and easily replaceable batteries, along with low use of wireless data. These things are still major issues for an awful lot of people. North Americans have to get over the idea that everything has to be useful to them to have a point.

--
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
1. Re:Third world by gtirloni · 2012-11-30 00:47 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Graphing calculators are so expensive and their price have been stable for so much time that some people are proposing they should be the new gold standard.
  
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  none
Buttons by iYk6 · 2012-11-29 23:01 · Score: 2

Buttons. It's touchscreen, but still has buttons 0-9 and others you'd expect on a calculator.
Its like 2 steam car manufacturers... by Viol8 · 2012-11-29 23:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

...trying to outcompete each other without noticing that a 3rd party has created internal combustion engine.
Re:Massive? by DiamondGeezer · 2012-11-29 23:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

It has more mass.

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Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
I don't get the point of color screen calculators by Lord+Lode · 2012-11-29 23:57 · Score: 4, Insightful

The thing that defines a calculator useful, imho, is that you don't really need to care about its battery life and it starts up fast.
If you want something with a color touch screen, can't you just install a calculator app on your phone? What's the difference? Why do you need a specialized device for that?
Nothing by Overzeetop · 2012-11-30 00:15 · Score: 2

Oh, be honest. Nothing will make you switch from your HP48. Oh, you might get one, but actually switch? Never!

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Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
You'll have to pull my HP-16C from my cold... by mykepredko · 2012-11-30 01:01 · Score: 2

Seriously.
Where are the great programmer's calculators? My HP-16C allows me to work through essentially all the arithmetic binary operations (in decimal, hex & binary) and has been invaluable as a debug tool when the numbers just don't seem to be right.
Along with that are great feeling of keys (I hate my daughter's TI-83+ mushy keys) and nice solid plastic body. Oh, did I mention it takes 3x LR44 batteries that last 8+ YEARS?
In other news, kids have been told to get off my lawn, but the quality of my code has never been better,
myke

--
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Why? by stonecypher · 2012-11-30 07:45 · Score: 2

Why would anyone buy a graphing calculator when a tablet is 1/3 the price for so much more hardware, and can have some equivalent calculator software installed for a dollar or two?
This is a market propped up by the expectations of out of date teachers. These devices have no natural sales anymore.

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StoneCypher is Full of BS
Re:Wow by Viol8 · 2012-11-30 07:59 · Score: 2

Ok , its just a lot easier to turn my wrist 90 degrees than unzip a pocket pull out a phone, wake it up and check the time on that.