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Texas Instruments makes it harder to run programs on its calculators
Texas Instruments has pulled the support for assembly-based programs on its graphing calculators -- it's meant to fight cheating, but also hurts hobbyists.
Mod turns your graphing calculator into a selfie camera
Your graphing calculator may not be getting much use these days now that other mobile devices can do the job, but it still has a few tricks up its sleeve if you're willing to do some tinkering. Christopher Mitchell's latest project, ArTICam, lets you turn a TI-83 Plus or TI-84 Plus calculator into a selfie-oriented camera. The mod mostly requires a Game Boy Camera and a programmable Arduino board like the Uno. After a little bit of wiring and some (thankfully ready-made) code, you can snap self-portraits with a calculator command. The 128 x 123 grayscale pictures you take won't win photography awards, but that's not the point -- this is more about having fun with gadgets that might otherwise sit in the closet gathering dust. Hit the source link if you have the gear and want to give ArTICam a whirl. [Thanks, Christopher]
Forget quadratic equations, play 'Super Smash Bros.' on your TI-83
The geniuses that guided Rosetta's lander onto a freaking comet no doubt put their TI-83 programmable calculators to good use, but you know what the rest of us were doing with them? Yeah, playing Wolfenstein. Now you can misspend physics class with another game: Super Smash Bros. Programmer Hayleia managed to port it over to the TI-83/84, and even left the code open for anyone to modify. It has a great zoom effect to make better use of that low-res screen, though for now you've only got Fox and Falco to play with. Yes, yes, we know that there are brand new versions of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U (soon) with over 40 playable characters each, and you should totally try those. Meanwhile, you've got something to do (while appearing productive) when your trig prof hits a new level of boredom.
Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus review
The year was 1999. I was pondering all too carefully what kind of threads I'd be wearing come the new school year. But all I could really think about was exactly how much of my styling budget would be blown on some antediluvian piece of technology that -- in my mind -- was no longer necessary due to the invention of the internet. That hunk was Texas Instruments' TI-83 Plus. So far as I could understand it, the "Plus" meant that it had a few extra megabytes of RAM; why you needed loads of RAM in a graphing calculator, I had no idea. At $119.99, it was the most expensive purchase I made leaving middle school, and now that I've had well over a decade to toy with it, it's about time I sat down and gave it a proper review. Join me after the break, won't you?
Retro gadget orchestra nails House of the Rising Sun, puts your garage band to shame (video)
YouTube user BD594, also known as James Cochrane, is no stranger to pushing retro tech to its musical limits. Back in 2009 he coaxed a scanner, an Atari 800XL and a host of other antiquated gadgets to perform Bohemian Rhapsody. The results, while certainly enjoyable, were a tad tone deaf. Well, in the years since he's tweaking his "musicians" and his orchestra has just issued its second single -- a stunning rendition of House of the Rising Sun, in the style of the Animals. Seriously, this staple of '60s high school rockstar wannabes is absolutely nailed by the assortment of hard drives, oscilloscopes and the scanner. Cochrane isn't alone in his quest to turn obsolete tech into musical magic. Christopher Mitchell managed to hack a Ti graphing calculator and floppy-disk drive into a monophonic media player. While his accomplishment is impressive, he loses this round for wasting his skills on the saccharin stylings of Cold Play. Check out both videos after the break.
Graphing calculator web browser lets you visit your favorite sine wave fan sites (video)
Graphing calculators: essential tools for math education or low-res Game Boys? The debate rages on. Advocates of non-mathematical applications for the devices have scored a major victory with the introduction of Gossamer, a new web browser for various TI graphing calculators, which lets users visit some very basic versions of webpages, using the CALCnet and globalCALCnet protocols. The 1.0 version can request, display, and scroll pages. Logging in will bring you to a portal with links -- the application's developer has promised to add the ability to directly enter URLs in a future version, however. There's a demo video after the break, though you may want to wait until after math class to check it out.
TI-Nspire graphing calculator gets a new touchpad, nerds swoon world o'er
Texas Instruments has been making graphing calculators for twenty years now, and things look pretty much the same as they were in that bygone era of Amy Grant and C&C Music Factory. The company's latest, TI-Nspire with Touchpad, features -- you guessed it! -- a touchpad above the keypad for scrollin' around, as well as a letterpad (apparently they had to forgo QWERTY to make this compliant with tests like SAT and ACT). And, like its precursors, it comes with a snap-in TI-84 Plus keypad so your old dog won't have to learn any keystrokes. Available now from your fave e-tailer, look to pay around $140.
Texas Instruments finally gets fresh, unveils TI-Nspire calculators
We're not exactly sure if Texas Instruments' widely utilized TI-83 / TI-84 line of calculators have reached the same success as Casio (but it's fairly safe to assume a "yes"), but the firm is finally throwing out a substantial update to the graphing calculators that you, your folks, and probably your grandparents all used throughout high school. The TI-Nspire lineup maintains the same relative form factor, but offers up a few swank advancements such as multiple representations, "grab-and-move" functionality, resizing, dynamic linking, and of course, the oh-so-sweet ability to save and edit in-progress work (shown after the jump) right on the device. Additionally, Windows / OS X software will be available to mimic the on-screen abilities of the handhelds, which means those days of viewing the monochrome display via an overhead projector are long gone, and for those who just aren't willing to make the transition, TI is even including a snap-in TI-83 / TI-84 Plus keypad so you can upgrade your machine without relearning keystrokes. The TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS are both slated to hit instructional dealers this Fall for educators (commercially available by Fall 2008), so we'd suggest pinching those pennies now in back-to-school anticipation.
