Author Topic: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator  (Read 77652 times)

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Offline JosJuice

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #165 on: April 01, 2011, 12:38:11 pm »
Is the U in UberGraphX supposed to be pronounced like the English letter U, or is it supposed to be more like the Ü in über?

Offline uberspire

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #166 on: April 02, 2011, 05:45:37 pm »
Ok, so I was aware that after I wrote my last post, a couple of hours later the site went down. :-[ My host provider is switching servers and they hadn't copied over the files with rsync. So I waited a while to see if they would get around to transferring the files, but it started taking a while and they judges for the innovation's contest might look at the site since I referenced it back in the application form. That wouldn't look good, so I just uploaded my copy of the site back up. Hopefully, everything should be working fine now. When they do get around to copying the files, there shouldn't be any harm since the files would be exactly the same.

is the "posts must be approved by a moderator" requirement going to be permanent?
That should be gone now. I forgot to turn it off.

One thing I'm still wondering about: Is UberGraphX (awesome name btw) going to be able to run Java/JLWGL-based programs? I'm pretty sure some of you know why I'm asking this question. :P
Java: absolutely. As for JLWGL, I know for sure that OpenGL works on the device, but the rendering is done through software (as of right now). It might take some work getting a working X11 OpenGL driver for the PowerVR SGX 540 to take advantage of hardware graphics acceleration. When the first batches of the device get released, it should be a priority to work on the OpenGL driver. Drivers already exists for this device for video acceleration (720p @ 30fps) though.

Honestly, there is no way to describe how epic these images look...
so just fill the following space whit the praise of your dreams ;)
...
Btw. whats the Alt key for? Because I don't see any keys which aren't covered by Shift or Alpha.
Thanks for your comment. I wanted the Alt key because it may be useful in certain instances where you don't have a touchscreen and it increases compatibility/versatility. On Linux or Windows, pressing the Alt key gives you access to the menu of a program (like Alt+F to get to the File menu). Say you had the Standard Edition which has no touchscreen or you lost your stylus, you would use Alt to navigate through the menus. Also, the Alt key might come in handy when you want to emulate a system/software (like running Microsoft Windows on the UberGraphX) that needs an Alt key. Since the UberGraphX is also powerful enough to emulate any other calculator on the market, the Alt key could also be used to create key combos for keys that the UberGraphX lacks on it's keypad.

Is the U in UberGraphX supposed to be pronounced like the English letter U, or is it supposed to be more like the Ü in über?
I can't seem to tell the difference from the German and the American English pronunciation. They both sound fine to me. Almost everyone I know pronounces uber as "oooo-ber". However, I know that in English the letter U could phonetically sound like "oooo" (like in uber), "uhhhh" (like in umbrella) or "you" (as in U-boat) with the choice of sound depending on the origin of the word. Uber originated from German (über), so it should sound like "oooo-ber".
« Last Edit: April 02, 2011, 05:47:52 pm by uberspire »

Offline Eeems

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #167 on: April 02, 2011, 06:01:35 pm »
I'm quite excited to see more updates :) This is for sure on my wishlist :)
The new site looks great, quite professional indeed. One thing I would like to mention though is that your Contact Us page should have some sort of Captcha to keep spambot abuse from happening.
Can't wait to see this progress farther along :)
/e

Offline jnesselr

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #168 on: April 02, 2011, 07:22:08 pm »
Has the price estimates changed at all?

Offline Binder News

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #169 on: April 02, 2011, 10:29:53 pm »
I don't think so. $150 for Student Version, $180-$200 for Proffesional
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Offline willrandship

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #170 on: April 03, 2011, 12:20:43 am »
@JosJuice I guess it depends on if you're English or German-speaking :P It's not like anyone will hunt you down ;)

Edit: Also, if you're using Octave or Maple, or somethin similar for math, consider writing a GUI around it so that it is easier for a newbie to use. Sure, their commands are simple once you know them, and fairly easy to use, but people want the newbie-common-sense input to just work.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2011, 12:25:21 am by willrandship »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #171 on: April 03, 2011, 12:23:59 am »
Yeah yesterday I checked the site and it was down again. X.x I'm glad it's back up.

I'm gonna check more stuff there soon. I really can't wait to see more updates and especially the prototype. :D

EDIT: Btw despite the new forum on your site, are you still planning to post updates here too in the future?
« Last Edit: April 03, 2011, 12:26:28 am by DJ_O »

Offline fb39ca4

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #172 on: April 03, 2011, 07:49:27 am »
Looks great!
What do you think the battery life will be? And when using the 3d accelerator?

Offline uberspire

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #173 on: April 03, 2011, 11:13:43 pm »
Has the price estimates changed at all?
No, they still have stayed the same. Changes in the pricing might change however when manufacturing actually does start to happen. Either the pricing for the parts (I haven't actually stocked the parts yet) will decrease from now till summer, or there turns out to be a huge demand in pre-orders which will lower down the manufacturing costs (that reminds me, does anyone live in Ontario, Canada? The company that will assemble the PCBs resides there. It might be cool having someone who could go over there and check out what's happening when the boards get manufactured). I will promise however that the whatever the price turns out to be, it'll be more fair than anything else on the market (compare a $150 TI-nSpire CX to the $150 UberGraphX). I've been doing fine on my own financially before I started this project and making huge profits would be unrealistic and is not my goal. In fact, I'm quite disgusted that TI makes over a half billion US dollars each year in revenue selling calculators by ripping off students and cheating them of functionality (like programming capabilities or math features such as 3D graphing and especially the fact the the TI-nSpire CX and Touchpad lack dedicated sin, cos and tan buttons, which is highly essential in educational courses for trigonometry and calculus). All I ask is enough profit to cover the costs spent into prototyping, developing, filing the trademark, patenting and FCC/CE certification costs for the product.

Edit: Also, if you're using Octave or Maple, or somethin similar for math, consider writing a GUI around it so that it is easier for a newbie to use. Sure, their commands are simple once you know them, and fairly easy to use, but people want the newbie-common-sense input to just work.
I don't really use Octave (I actually use Mathematica), so does a GUI frontend exists for Octave? Would it be possible to modify it for our use?

What do you think the battery life will be? And when using the 3d accelerator?
I'm expecting to use a 4400mAh polymer lithium ion battery, which I estimate would give around 15-20 hours of typical usage. The hours would vary depending on what you're doing on the calculator, it might last longer. It's expected to give at least 10 hours of usage on full load with every peripheral turned on, which should be enough to last through the whole school day and go back home to charge it using your PC through USB.

EDIT: Btw despite the new forum on your site, are you still planning to post updates here too in the future?
Yeah, I'll still post updates here. :) I actually do read the forums frequently, but I'm coy in posting. I don't really like to write a lot of posts without having something to show, because I'm afraid it would make people impatient or lose interest for those who are waiting for the this calculator to come out. The next couple of months should be pretty exciting though. Just need to double check the designs for the board and sign it off for manufacturing. When that happens, I'll notify you guys and tell you how the board comes out. Also, I need to go over and check the geometry of the casing (at least the framing part), then get it prototyped via 3D printing. I'll post pictures of the frame when it comes out as soon as I can.

EDIT:
Crossposting this, because it may end confusion and is important:
Quote
Uberspire is the planned name of the startup to manufacture the UberGraphX under. I was kind of hesitant in announcing this, because we haven't actually trademarked the name yet. :oops: So, we can't get in trouble with Texas Instrument's, since they use "spire" with a product, whereas we use it as a company name. However, the name was indirectly influenced in that TI named their product TI-nSpire to con-notate that it's inspiring, where in reality it absolutely isn't (lack of programming, overpriced hardware, etc.) But if TI gets to claim that their product is "inspiring", then our product is way "above inspiring", hence the name Uberspire. If you were wondering where I got the name, that's how it came to be.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2011, 11:39:27 pm by uberspire »

Offline jnesselr

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #174 on: April 04, 2011, 07:31:13 am »
I like when you make posts.  Do you think we'll have issues with the name at some point?

Offline shrear

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #175 on: April 04, 2011, 01:13:08 pm »
Especially the fact the the TI-nSpire CX and Touchpad lack dedicated sin, cos and tan buttons, which is highly essential in educational courses for trigonometry and calculus).
You also are missing an essential button: ? !
joking ;D (not that I would be angry if you add it ;) )

Btw. Thx. for your explanation about the alt key.

Offline mikehill2003

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #176 on: April 04, 2011, 01:39:35 pm »
NICE! If I can afford one when they come out, I'll get the pro model. I'd love to make a decent FPS for this platform. Aside from the keyboard, are there any other input methods (like something analog) or extension ports (USB) planned?

Will it be using the SGX540 as the GPU?

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #177 on: April 04, 2011, 01:46:37 pm »
Woah the Nspire has no Sin/Cos/Tan buttons? I sure hope it has such features, though... all scientific calcs, even the cheapest ones, got them X.x

But yeah I am so impatient in seeing that calc prototype in action at one point. XD It just looks so great and I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goal.

Offline JosJuice

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #178 on: April 04, 2011, 02:23:43 pm »
Aside from the keyboard, are there any other input methods (like something analog) or extension ports (USB) planned?
I'm pretty sure it has a touch screen and supports USB devices such as a mouse! (But I don't think the Standard Version has all of that...)

Offline Jim Bauwens

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Re: UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
« Reply #179 on: April 04, 2011, 03:50:37 pm »
I have a little question: Will you stick with that Armstrong gui, or will you switch to another one?