I see you used the Diamond operator there a Java exclusive, so methinks.  I think I might as well explain that too

Java uses the diamond operator for generics, which came from C++'s usage of the diamond operator for templates. Perl also has a diamond operator, however it's used differently.

The screen is still a 4.3 inch display with 480x272 pixel resolution and 24-bit color. You can't get the HD experience on the LCD since the resolution is not high enough, but I'm planning on swapping out the TV RCA jack on the previous prototypes for an HDMI port. I'll have to look into the costs just to make sure before I can fully promise on that feature. Potential educational uses for HDMI is that it might make it easier for some teachers to plug it in to TVs or classroom projectors that have HD capability, so it can be pretty useful. So this actually might be the very first HD calculator.

@Eems, thanks. That's how I really feel about calc development and why companies shouldn't be crippling or prohibiting community development.

@graphmastur: I'm pretty sure others could help fund the project before summer starts. You can order one at the end of the year if you'd like then. Also, I read that part you quoted from their FAQ. That's why I kind of was thinking the site aims for art or film projects.

Anyways, I decided to postpone submitting my to Kickstarter. I don't think it would be fair to have you guys place money down to wait for something 2 or 3 months away. I think it would just be better if I focused in the next month or two on a full blown prototype (near to production model with casing and finalized hardware) and try to find a way to get it funded myself. I've been lucky getting the last two prototypes to work, but this time I need to shrink down the board which requires the PCB to be rerouted and add in the lithium-ion charging circuitry. This will require another prototype to be made.

In the meantime, we also need to discuss about the software, especially for the Standard Edition. For now temporary discussion about all the technical details (programming and software development) happening in the development of the ubercalculator will be concentrated here: http://uberspire.com/. The domain is temporary until an official name is given to Project Paradise and it gets trademarked.

I've also considered about getting other communities (besides just the calc communities) interested in the device. The Developers Edition is essentially a compact Linux computer. People can find many uses. Some I imagine:

• Portable gaming
• Portable media player
• Portable web browsing
• Note-taking device
• Portable computing for various hobbies (programming PICs or AVRS, controlling robots, etc.)
• Data logger and sensor interfacing
• PDA (keep track of contacts, meetings, appointments, etc.)
• Cheap and compact alternative to netbooks
• All-in-one supercalculator (Emulate any other calculator on the market: HP-50g, TI-nSpire, TI-8x series, Casio Prizm, etc.)
• On the fly text and speech translation for traveling
• Much, much, more

So you might have a friend who's not interested in graphing calculators, but maybe something on this list might pique their interest.

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.

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. 

Now that would be really awesome. 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.

Holy... Is that thing running Crysis? 

I wasn't actually planning on buying one, but since it could probably replace my computer...

Heh, sorry no. It's just a video of the intro to Crysis. It was just to demonstrate that this calculator has hardware accelerated video decoding.

The only suggestion would be to maybe redesign the GUI to offer more screen space for browsing and other stuff, else it kinda looks weird if the GUY takes over half of the screen. Other than that, great job so far.

Good point, I believe that can be done. Some of the apps need to be reworked (like Firefox and GIAC) to accommodate the screen.

I say go $155 on the standard. That way you a least make a little bit.

The diagram is showing how much it'll probably take to manufacture the first batch. After the first couple of batches get made and shipped off, the manufacturing costs should go done since there will be left over parts from the first batches. Also, the manufacturing costs for the TI-nSpire in that diagram are based on estimates and typical prices around in the industry assuming that TI built TI-nSpire's in batches of 1,000 units. That's probably unlikely and instead they probably build them in batches of 10,000 or even in the millions, meaning that it's very likely that they make much more profit than what my diagram shows and are ripping the students off. It is typical for products made by big companies to be sold at 3-5 times more than what it costs to make it.

Project Paradise can also be considerably way cheaper, but I'm aiming to build them in batches of maybe 100 (or by miracle and we're really lucky maybe 200). If I were to build a clone of TI-nSpire's and sell them myself, I'm certain they could be sold for $100 max and I'd still be making more profit than from Project Paradise. Someone else could try doing that if they wish since that's not the purpose of this project. Main goals for Project Paradise:
* Build a calculator that's technologically superior to anything TI, Casio and HP could make for the next 5-10 years
* Pack in 5-10 times more powerful hardware
* Be within the price ranges of other calculators on the market
* Be the ultimate electronic device for scientific and mathematical education - I believe Project Paradise can effectively engage students way better in education. Ironically, TI sees calculator only as a tool for computation and that's why they want to lock it down. However, computation is only a part of the solving process in mathematics. What's more important is the ability to set up, describe and model the problem. Computers will always be faster and more accurate at computation than humans, but they're not smart enough to set up the problem to get the solution. This is what separates Project Paradise from the other calculators on the market. With it's programming and hardware capabilities, students can write programs to model those problems and get quick solutions. This effectively makes Project Paradise more better for education than anything TI can put out, even though ironically they may claim otherwise. A good TedTalk video elaborates more on how programming and computers can teach mathematics better by Wolfram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60OVlfAUPJg
* Be more free and open to community development - If you bought a car, shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want with it? Why should a calculator be any different?

Are the prices according to the batch assembly or one by one assembly?

Batch assembly in batches of 100 units.

That is awesome!  Although I'm still not sure about the name uberspire as it is kinda Nspire-ish, and people might think "oh, it's a TI calc".  also, the dev version comes with a keypad, right?

The name can be changed by the time the first units start shipping out. And yes, the Developers Edition comes with a keypad.

1. Are you going to have a repository like github for easy sharing of apps and programs?

and 2. Is there going to be an on calc IDE and compiler?

Yes, their will be a repository where you can download software packages. With the Developer's Edition, you should be able to download them through WiFi. With Standard Edition, you'll have to download them on your computer, save them to SD card and then manually installing each package one by one.

And an on calc IDE, you guys could put whatever you want. GCC and javac seem to run fine if you want to program in C or java, a bit slow, but it's totally possible. Lua and Python interpreters are there if you want that too. For Basic, I was thinking that as a community we could write a program that will interpret every other variant of Basic that exists for every calculator on the market. That way Project Paradise can run any Basic program written for a calculator. It'll be easy then for students to transition and get into Paradise.

Well I'd be more than happy to help start up a repo for the project paradise. Well the IDE can be any ide, and compiler just use like GCC or G++ and compile for ARM.

Do you mean a developer's repo or the package repository? If you could host the repo, that'll be cool.

I wonder if you can use something like netbeans as an IDE, if it is only bundled with the languages C/C++ and Java it's around 50 MB.  and it's cross platform and will work on linux.

On the calculator or for developing apps on the PC? I don't know if NetBeans would work on Paradise. There's a slight possibility it might run on Paradise (it's written in Java right?), but it'll be very slow, require a lot of memory and the interface of NetBeans would take up a lot of space on the screen.

The developer version was the only one supposed that came with the touchscreen. The other one was supposed to be acceptable for standardized test I thought.

Yes, Standard Edition won't have touchscreen and it'll be compatible with the ACT and SAT testing. I've gone over their calculator requirements and this is likely what's going to happen with Project Paradise: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ak__vzlDSwNadHBQN25xSThlbklTMXhRcUphaEdyRkE&hl=en&authkey=CM2a3fEK

As you can see there is no more Professional Edition as it has been consolidated into the Developers Edition. Initially I thought the WiFi module and battery packs would be very expensive, but I think I have found good deals on pricing for those parts. The Standard Edition will come in two versions: one with CAS and another without. CAS is not allowed on the ACT. Standard Edition will have a modified bootloader that will only accept OS'es signed by me to enforce that and on the casing there will be distinctive markings behind the screen indicating what model. Both Standard and Developers will be in a clamshell case that will fit into your pocket like in the mock up (clamshells seem to be allowed on both ACT and SAT testing). I think it's best for it to be a clamshell, since the LCD alone is as wide as the widest length of the TI-nSpire. It would look kind of fat and chubby having it in the traditional calculator form since it would be 5 inches wide then (imagine 5-5.5 inch wide TI-nSpire).

Both ACT and the College Board explicitly state they don't want a QWERTY keyboard. So technically, I can bypass that by having the Standard version use a DVORAK keyboard.

Also, I mentioned before that I was trying to use the Blanview LCDs used in the Casio Prizm, the advantage of them being that they consume only 1/6 to 1/3 the power of the LCD I'm using right now, drastically improving the battery life (that's why the Prizm has a long battery life). I'd tried getting the 480x272 Blanview, but they seem to be generally $100 per screen, which would then make the calculator too expensive then.

Oh that could be an idea, but I thought a video of it in action would be even cooler, since it might interest people even more. Does he have a camera?

Ah ok. When the board comes, I'll show a demonstration of the hardware. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone here in college who has a camera.

Wow, I just read this thread and saw the awesome pics. Gave input on the survey, I would definitely pre order if it was around $200

Looking over the survey data (and again thanks for all of you guys input), the average price is $180, which I strongly believe I can hit on target. This calculator, looking at how much the parts currently cost, will definitely be under $200.

You work fast... 

I had a good feeling TI might come out with something over the summer ->

Too bad TI might be releasing the Nspire CX. As you said, it might very well have been a ripoff of this

I'm not too worried:

Choose wisely!

(The TI-nSpire CX pricing comes from the pricing TI placed for their classroom set which they say is valued at $5400 and since a typical US classroom has 30 students, $5400/30 = $180)

"The TI-Nspire handheld CX features a full-color, backlit screen, thin and sleek design includes TI-Nspire rechargeable battery. Use your own images Including photos. Explore real-world concepts Using The handheld's Notes, Graphs, Geometry, Data & Statistics and apps questions. TI-Nspire Teacher Sofware gold student TI-Nspire software IS required to add images Into TI-Nspire documents. Graph and rotate 3D functions. Change the color of wire gold surface your 3D graph. Clam shell."

Clamshell? Thin sleek design? WiFi? It sounds like they totally ripped off this: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=5b6bf375350b7e6c85243e20f6cebcba&topic=6318.msg119800#msg119800. I should go sue them.

Seeing that it's only $150, it seems it'll just be a Prizm clone then. We will see just how good this new Nspire really is...

I'm surprised though that the Datamath Museum doesn't have something to say about this, as they usually get a hold on a prototype before TI announces something.

Thanks guys for input. It's very much appreciated. I'll be taking a look into the data over the weekend when I have the time.

Note, as soon as somebody gets a prototype and can show it in a video this is easily going to the news section.

I just found out z80man lives 2-3 miles away from my hometown. Right now I'm in college, but I'll be going back home sometime in late March. I can bring the prototype (provided that it works) with me and z80man can vouch that there indeed does exists an ubercalculator.