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Author Topic: Indie calculators at the horizon?  (Read 15607 times)

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Indie calculators at the horizon?
« on: March 05, 2011, 03:34:57 am »
In response to TI and Casio calculators' low specs for their prices, there were some independent calculator designing projects being started in the past 6 months.

Last Summer, there was OTCalc, which was going to have one lower-end but cheaper model designed to compete against Z80 calcs and an higher end ARM model designed to compete against the TI-Nspire series. Unfortunately, as the project authors are very busy during school time, this project only sees progress during Summer and is still only being planned. However, a forum member nicknamed as Uberspire has recently started his own calculator project too. Like OTCalc, a survey was made to ask members what they want to be included in the calculator and other questions, but his project is in further stages than OTcalc, as a prototype has already been build, despite missing the casing:



Here is an early design mock-up for one of the calc versions below:


According to the author's project information, it features a 533 MHz ARM9 Advance Multimedia processor (H.264 and MPEG hardware decoding), 128 MB of RAM, 1 GB of Flash storage, a SD card slot, and accelerates towards Earth at 9.81 m/s2. Different versions of the calculator are planned, one being aimed primary at developers and the other one meant for school (still with some development capabilities).

You can find more info in the project topic.

Although this is an extremely ambitious project most likely filled with future challenges before it reaches the market and that it will be hard to break TI's monopoly, this still looks interesting nonetheless. We do hope there will be some teacher modes and a way to disable the CAS so it can possibly be approved in some math tests if it comes to fruition.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2011, 11:30:14 am by squidgetx »
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Offline BrownyTCat

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Re: Indie calculator at the horizon?
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2011, 03:36:40 am »
Odd how they suddenly put a ton of processing power and graphical upgrades into calculators.
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Offline broooom

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2011, 08:09:21 am »
Now that looks awesome.
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2011, 08:58:21 am »
This looks great and I can't wait to help with development(If I can)
I am definitely getting one of the developer versionns(SO much I can do)
Math class will never be boring again
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Offline Deep Toaster

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #4 on: March 05, 2011, 09:08:57 am »
Quote from: BrownyTCat on March 05, 2011, 03:36:40 am
Odd how they suddenly put a ton of processing power and graphical upgrades into calculators.

This is an independent project by a member here, so it's meant to be awesome :D
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2011, 09:13:21 am »
There is 2-100x more likelyhood that calcs made by independent developers will be better than the ones made by large companies. The large companies do't care for us poor people who want nice things the are programmabe -glares at TI-
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Offline ralphdspam

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2011, 06:08:59 pm »
This is great, but I don't think my math teacher would let me use one of these, lol. :P
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Offline AngelFish

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2011, 06:14:11 pm »
<heresy>
If nothing else, I could use it for math.
</heresy>
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2011, 07:21:19 pm »
How could you say that?
There is supposed to be a school edition that would be okay to use on standardized tests. I don't think your teacher would be allowed to outlaw(ban) it then. Now the developers one is different ;). tat will be the true uber calc. touch screen and everything
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2011, 12:50:21 am »
Quote from: ruler501 on March 05, 2011, 09:13:21 am
There is 2-100x more likelyhood that calcs made by independent developers will be better than the ones made by large companies. The large companies do't care for us poor people who want nice things the are programmabe -glares at TI-
Well, to be honest, the TI-Nspire has a quite good piece of hardware for a calc, but it's just so locked down and I still think it's a bit overpriced for its hardware.
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Offline z80man

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2011, 01:01:17 am »
I think I will buy the standard edition to use on the math test and the developers edition to use after the math test  ;)
And if uberspire can get the standard edition out on time I might be able to convince my school math department to endorse this calc. I'm in very good standing with the math teachers and my school is thinking of dropping the 84+ line in favor of the nspire. If I can convince them that uberspire's calc is better and train the math teachers on how to use it, then there will be an order for 1800 calcs.  :w00t:
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Offline uberspire

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2011, 04:41:56 am »
Quote from: BrownyTCat on March 05, 2011, 03:36:40 am
Odd how they suddenly put a ton of processing power and graphical upgrades into calculators.
In my opinion, I think the TI-nSpire is overpriced for it's specs. Plus, they don't give you the freedom to do much programming and development. According the survey I gave out for Project Paradise, a lot of people share the same thought. I don't think the problem is whether a calculator is too powerful or not. I think everyone would like a powerful piece of hardware. As DJ said, the TI-nSpire is a good piece of hardware, but if you're gonna place a price on something, it should reflect the value of features the calculator has to offer. I do agree that Project Paradise might seem too much, but for the prices people pay for other calculators on the market, you should be getting something as powerful as Project Paradise with the manufacturing capabilities these companies have. Otherwise, they should lower down their prices. I strongly believe that Project Paradise will have the best features to price ratio out of anything on the market. I know this is an ambitious project, but hopefully people will see this an something more innovative than what Casio and TI have put out. Maybe when Project Paradise starts shipping out, it may finally make TI reconsider how they've been treating the community.

Quote from: z80man on March 06, 2011, 01:01:17 am
If I can convince them that uberspire's calc is better and train the math teachers on how to use it, then there will be an order for 1800 calcs.  :w00t:
Now that would be really awesome. :D By "out on time", do you mean by next school year? Gives more reason why I should get this calculator out there. :)

BTW, thanks DJ for making a news post about this. It's very much appreciated. :)
« Last Edit: March 06, 2011, 04:43:59 am by uberspire »
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Offline jnesselr

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2011, 01:58:52 pm »
For the record, I'm trying to get nerdy people I know to buy one.  I don't know that many nerdy people, that haven't invested their money in other projects, though.
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2011, 02:00:56 pm »
I a nerdy person who will buy one. I might be able to get a few other people to get them also. My school won't because they do not want the new technology. They still have office 2003 no compatibility pack, Ti-82,83+,84+. No Nspires or silver editions. My math teacher would love to be able to get them though if the school let him I believe.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2011, 02:36:48 pm by ruler501 »
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Offline AngelFish

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Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2011, 02:03:27 pm »
Quote from: uberspire on March 06, 2011, 04:41:56 am
I strongly believe that Project Paradise will have the best features to price ratio out of anything on the market.

I don't know. I saw a 99¢ calculator awhile ago that was pretty sweet. It had a full 7 digit display and everything. :P
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