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So, why aren't they just phone apps these days? I mean, I understand why education wants these calculators, to control the students during tests. But after you

So, why aren't they just phone apps these days? I mean, I understand why education wants these calculators, to control the students during tests. But after you leave school, why haven't calculator phone apps taken their place? Or is it because that once you leave school and you really need to do calculations, you turn to R, Matlab, or Python instead? Also, I'm surprised nobody has quoted xkcd yet: https://xkcd.com/768/ https://xkcd.com/768/ Edit: I know phone apps exist. I am just wondering why they don't seem to be more popular. Or are they gaining popularity I'm not seeing?

himandey 9y ago
If you have an android phone you can download Graph 89 Free for a fully functioning ti-89 emulator. All you need is the ROM provided by Ti and you're golden!
tonyztan 9y ago
Wabbitemu allows you to emulate certain TI calculators (including the TI-84) on your Android device. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wabbitemu https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wa...
justinclift 9y ago
Desmos does have iOS and Android versions: • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desmos-graphing-calculator/id653517540 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desmos-graphing-calculator/i... • https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desmos.calculator https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desmos.cal... The article probably should have mentioned that. :)
misingnoglic 9y ago
The problem with phones is policing cheating and goofing off.
pwg 9y ago
> So, why aren't they just phone apps these days? Some are: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.hp15c15&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.hp15c15... But the "magic" with the TI-84 series was not the calculator itself. It was TI's excellent marketing where (nearly) every school district, plus the SAT group, were all convinced that this particular calculator was "ok" and all others were "not ok". With the end result of a guaranteed market for TI for this calculator, without having to compete with any other manufacturers. I.e., they (TI) managed to create a 'legal' monopoly by convincing the govt. agencies to only allow this one calculator in class and during tests.
tzs 9y ago
If I need graphing, I'll go to my computer and use Mathematica or gnuplot. Where a handheld calculator comes in handy is when doing something on paper that needs some arithmetic or trig/exp/log/roots. For that I find a physical calculator nicer than a phone calculator. First, with the physical calculator it is easier to operate it without looking because of the physical buttons. Second, the physical calculator doesn't go to sleep as often and wakes up faster (and doesn't require authentication). An example of a calculator that is almost perfect in my opinion is the HP-15C [1]. Note the dimensions: 128 × 79 × 15 mm (5" x 3.1" x 0.6"). This makes it small enough to work with even if you are working off on a sheet of letter-sized or A4 paper on a clipboard, or out of a spiral-bound notebook, and it easily fits in a shirt pocket. In 2012 HP brought this back into production in a limited edition that sold for about $140. I grabbed one so that I would have two, since my original from 1982 can't last forever. It should be possible to make a "calculator case" or "calculator overlay" for a phone that would put physical buttons for a calculator over the touch screen. There are materials that "conduct" touch. It should be possible to incorporate that into the button design so that when not pressed the touch conductive material not touching the screen, and when pressed fully it touches both the screen and the finger that is pressing the button. Maybe even get fancy, and incorporate a small eInk display on each button to display the labels for the keys, and include an app that can change the labels to match the needs of whatever app you are using the buttons with. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-15C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-15C

himandey 9y ago

If you have an android phone you can download Graph 89 Free for a fully functioning ti-89 emulator. All you need is the ROM provided by Ti and you're golden!

tonyztan 9y ago

Wabbitemu allows you to emulate certain TI calculators (including the TI-84) on your Android device. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wabbitemu https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Revsoft.Wa...

justinclift 9y ago

Desmos does have iOS and Android versions: • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desmos-graphing-calculator/id653517540 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desmos-graphing-calculator/i... • https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desmos.calculator https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desmos.cal... The article probably should have mentioned that. :)

misingnoglic 9y ago

The problem with phones is policing cheating and goofing off.

pwg 9y ago

> So, why aren't they just phone apps these days? Some are: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.hp15c15&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.hp15c15... But the "magic" with the TI-84 series was not the calculator itself. It was TI's excellent marketing where (nearly) every school district, plus the SAT group, were all convinced that this particular calculator was "ok" and all others were "not ok". With the end result of a guaranteed market for TI for this calculator, without having to compete with any other manufacturers. I.e., they (TI) managed to create a 'legal' monopoly by convincing the govt. agencies to only allow this one calculator in class and during tests.

tzs 9y ago

If I need graphing, I'll go to my computer and use Mathematica or gnuplot. Where a handheld calculator comes in handy is when doing something on paper that needs some arithmetic or trig/exp/log/roots. For that I find a physical calculator nicer than a phone calculator. First, with the physical calculator it is easier to operate it without looking because of the physical buttons. Second, the physical calculator doesn't go to sleep as often and wakes up faster (and doesn't require authentication). An example of a calculator that is almost perfect in my opinion is the HP-15C [1]. Note the dimensions: 128 × 79 × 15 mm (5" x 3.1" x 0.6"). This makes it small enough to work with even if you are working off on a sheet of letter-sized or A4 paper on a clipboard, or out of a spiral-bound notebook, and it easily fits in a shirt pocket. In 2012 HP brought this back into production in a limited edition that sold for about $140. I grabbed one so that I would have two, since my original from 1982 can't last forever. It should be possible to make a "calculator case" or "calculator overlay" for a phone that would put physical buttons for a calculator over the touch screen. There are materials that "conduct" touch. It should be possible to incorporate that into the button design so that when not pressed the touch conductive material not touching the screen, and when pressed fully it touches both the screen and the finger that is pressing the button. Maybe even get fancy, and incorporate a small eInk display on each button to display the labels for the keys, and include an app that can change the labels to match the needs of whatever app you are using the buttons with. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-15C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-15C