"We have to keep evolving on this platform, but it can’t be innovation for the sake of innovation,” said Peter Balyta, president of Texas Instruments’ calculator division. “While it’s tempting for us to build in WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, a camera, a whole bunch of things, we could do, but teachers don’t want us to. And it’s because we want to have a tool that kids can use in a classroom, on their way home, at home when they’re doing homework and also a tool they can bring in during their most important exam.”<p>What a bunch of crap. They could make it more powerful, less bulky, add rechargeable batteries, or drop the price. No one is asking for a camera or audio.
I still use my TI-83+ pretty often.<p>All the years of using it with physics homework and statistics homework and whatnot has wired its usage into my brain.<p>Sure, I could use R or Python, but when all I need to do is some simple math the calculator is always faster. It has tactile buttons I can operate with one hand, a clear readable screen, and a battery that lasts long. And it's simple.<p>If mine broke I'd buy another one.
This is a repost (from 18 hours ago): <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8260038" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8260038</a>
One thing that was the "killer app" for graphing calculators, at least through college in the last decade (even with wifi), was the fact that there were apps.<p>Graphing calculators were the first mass market mobile computers under $200 with what you could almost refer to as an app store, via ticalc.org (oh how many hours I spent on there). The interfaces had to be easy to use with low resolution screens and usually four directional buttons. Apps had to be about content. Games were pretty fun.<p>My TI-89 has survived 11 years. It's survived bike falls, being thrown across the room several times (when I was too quick to grab it and it went flying out of the cover). I use it infrequently but the batteries haven't been changed in over a year. I still have more screen real estate when I am typing on it than I do with my iPhone 5 (both in vertical and landscape). It has actual buttons and I have muscle memory so I don't even have to look at it when I type in numbers and symbols.<p>I have a periodic table app on my TI-89 that has been on there since 2003. The information someone in chemistry or physics needs is quicker to access than <a href="http://www.ptable.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.ptable.com</a> or wikipedia. I'm sure there are apps on an iPod that are probably better now, but an iPod's batteries don't last months.<p>What could usurp it? Something in the same form factor that can last 48+ hours and take AA or AAA batteries. Something that provides temporary instructor override, allowing an instructor to enforce a policy temporarily (i.e. disable the CAS). Something that might integrate well with tools from TI that are out there. Something that's useful from middle school up to engineering/chemistry/physics.<p>Maybe something e-ink (and/or e-ink buttons), plastic, ARM or Atmel, Linux, python and some sort of CAS (Mathematica/Maple branded) by default, with an App store/ecosystem. Something $50-$75. WiFi only, but off by default. Something that probably looks a bit like a nokia n800 or blackberry. I think that would be reasonable.
In high school I programmed a mini-RPG on a TI-85. It actually was quite a lot of fun (the programming, not so much the game). In our last year I think we could also buy either a TI-89 or TI-92 (which was quite the behemoth). In our school the math teachers were free to choose between TI and HP calculators, so we had some other classes / groups that had to calculate with reverse polish notation. At that time I laughed at this idea, thinking why would anyone choose this over infix notation. Then years later, after learning LISP and prefix notation, I laughed at my dumb younger self.<p>Incredible that TI still reigns supreme.
I've got a TI 92+ which was, in my mind, the pinnacle of the calculator era. As I recall the 83 was Z80 based and the 92 was 68000 based, but what really made the 92 something I needed to keep was that it did pretty much everything Mathematica could do on a Sun-2 Workstation back in the day.<p>As far as disrupting goes, I use TyDig on my iPad as my most often used "calculator" these days. The 92 doesn't come out much. But for the market (high school) it is hard to beat the combination of features and cost that a calculator brings to the table.
There are worse monopolies, I guess. The 83+/84+ has good software and is neigh indestructible. The physical interface is very good and beats a touch screen.<p>A TI calculator fast enough to run NumPy to build simulations and interactive gizmos would be super cool though. Allowing students to build colorful mathematical animations and physics simulations using simple building blocks would be awesome. Of course that can all be done with laptops but having things in the palm of your hand shouldn't be underestimated.
I've owned 4 (!) different TI graphing calculators throughout the years. I believe it started with the TI-85 in the mid-90s, followed by the 86, then the 92, and finally culminating with the TI-89 in 1999. I don't think they've really surpassed the 89 in terms of functionality. I ended up selling the 92, as it was replaced with the functionally-equivalent 89 (in the familiar TI form-factor), and gave the 85 to my sister, so today all that remains is the 89 and the 86. I have fond memories of playing games and writing small programs on TI graphing calcs (ticalc.org still exists, apparently). At first only BASIC programs were supported, but then some folks figured out how to hack the 85 to run assembly, which continued on the other models. TI fought it at first, but later reluctantly supported assembly programs. Some enterprising hackers managed to implement rudimentary audio support via the data port, which I thought was quite impressive. The 84 Plus is essentially the old TI-82 platform iterated a number of times (TI-82, TI-83, 83 Plus, 83 Plus Silver, etc.)<p>I've been waiting for years for TI to make a graphing calc smartphone app, but with margins such as those described in the article, why would they? It'll likely take a major shift in the testing standards (i.e. allowing mobile devices) for this situation to change. Test proctors might have to become more vigilant, but I imagine if airplane mode was strictly enforced, then smartphones might be allowed. Seems that the communications features (which can facilitate cheating) are the primary concern.
Relevant XCKD: <a href="http://xkcd.com/768/" rel="nofollow">http://xkcd.com/768/</a><p>If TI is such an incumbent, why haven't they been disrupted? Could someone come in and make a better calculator for a cheaper price (like Casio, in the article. Not sure if it's a better calculator though)?<p>The other problem is, even if they did, no one would buy it because it wouldn't be available for the SAT/ACT.<p>Edit: Casio in the article competes on price.
From the article:<p>"Apple sells an iPod touch for $199 that comes with 16 gigabytes of memory"<p>I tend to let it slide when people get memory and storage confused, but I hold journalists to a higher standard. This isn't even a semantic error; this came right after describing the RAM capacity of a TI-84 Plus C Silver. Nothing Matt McFarland wrote in this article was <i>wrong</i>, but it certainly wasn't highly-informed either...<p>Comparing TI calculators to consumer electronics is a rather moot point. It's better to compare against the plummeting costs of microcomputers in general. The Raspberry Pi is better proof that TI is marking their products up 1000%+! Nobody needs a calculator with a 1GHz processor and 512GB of RAM, and 8-128GB of flash storage, so why are we paying for even more than what that would cost?
Oh the one hand, TI calcs were a wonderful tool and toy for the yound math needs -- i lusted for the 81 and 85. Maybe the 84+ is perfect for its job. On the other hand, it must have less than $15 wholesale unit cost now, and has no right to enforce a proprietary OS/software lockdown.
I have fond memories of the TI-89 - all the power of a TI-92, but the same form factor as the TI-83/84, so it wouldn't raise much attention.<p>Having a computer algebra system in my handheld calculator got me all the way from pre-algebra to intro diff eq in high school. It's hard to say whether it was unfair, but being able to try algebra and calculus things out on the CAS really helped me explore and understand concepts.
So in US teachers get to decide the calculator to use? That's crazy.<p>When I was in junior high (in France) it was about 50/50 between TI and Casio. In high school a few kids had an HP48. The rare time there was something specific to do with the calculator (eg. calculating sequences) the teacher would ask one geek from each camp to explain to the class how to do it with calculators of that brand.
Here's a link for anyone who wants a TI simulation on their phones: <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wabbitemu&hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wa...</a>
>"While it’s tempting for us to build in WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, a camera ... "<p>How about a bigger screen, more memory and a faster chip? I get that there still exists a calculator niche, but come on, it doesn't mean you just don't even try!
The TI-83 is more in the textbook market than the electronics or calculator market. Once you realize this, the price doesn't seem so surprising. At least, it doesn't seem any more surprising than textbook prices.
I still have mine from high school statistics class. The best part was being able to side-load apps and play that spaceship game (phoenix something?) in class while looking like you were mad calculating some P Value.
You'd be better with an Open Pandora running R to do any kind of Science work at school in a portable format. These calculators are completely ancient.