from what I can tell, the cradle will have 2 minis and one regular to somehow support communications with those lab thingies while simultaneoulsy connecting with a compy or another calc.

just a theory.

Also, it appears you can get the operating system as a program for Mac/PCs instead of as a separate calculator

they should have just given it a wifi card

<SARCASM>I'm sure the teachers would love that...</SARCASM>

that's what would be nice about IR just put a piece of opaque tape over the window.

accually, teachers could monitor what you're doing on the calc (such as cheating) and teachers could even send you math problems to work out during class.

But WiFi is *really* overkill for that - some simple nonstandard wireless protocol like with TI-Navigator would be a lot cheaper and a lot easier for them to make.

Good luck trying to do that if there's a program on both calculators putting up an encrypted ad-hoc connection and the SSID isn't broadcasted.

It's got my attention.

From the looks of it, it seems that Ti thought the Casio Classpad 300 to be a big enough threat to make a competitor to it. the mockups look like their pulling a lot of stops to put the classpad down.

Programming wise, if it has a programming language and abilities similar to the 89/92 series then this calc is going to be very hard to beat, Especially if it retains all the 89/92 features, has native Grayscale sizeable pictures, more ram, and faster speed.

why would they even bother making a new calc if it didnt have all the features, plus more, of the 89/92?

^^ good point. the 89T was good enoungh for me, but if i could choose some improvements :
1. native grascale(no color cause then i might aswell get a pda)
2. twice or more ram(for gb68k(I can't play pokemon*sad*))
3. expansion slot and/or(more importantly) native support for flash drives
4. sanctioned(and usefull) flash and/or C/ASM SDK
5. more built in equations(for college math:) and a processor that can handle said equations
*unrealistic dream* 6. x86 processor with native support of 3rd party os upgrade ie: Linux

Regarding number 6: why x86? Linux can run on many different processors, not just x86. It can run on ARM processors, which would be good choice for a new calculator. It can even run on 68k, which is in the 89/92 calcs (other things limit Linux from running on them, though, especially RAM and no MMU).

they did it with the 83+ even though the 85/86 had more features and capabilities. In fact they basicially killed off the 85 line and focused hard on the better selling 82 line.

Yeah, I never really understood why they did that...

actually the 85 does not have better features than the 83. The 86 has the good parts of the 83 like the matrix editor and more tibasic commands + the 85s menu system.

One question. How many people have you seen with a Casio Classpad? And how many people have you seen with an 89/89 Titanium? Right...

Why would popularity matter to TI in this situation? I was the only person in my County let alone my school to have a Ti-92 (this is when it was first released mind you) while everyone else had casio's and 82's. does that mean that Ti should have stopped work on the 89 because no one was buying the 92?

All TI knows is that the Casio Classpad and the now cancelled HP XPander are touch screen calcs and do powerful things with the added interface. They also know that Palm's with graphing programs are trying to muscle in on their calc business too. The NSpire gives them the ability to compete with the touch screen calcs as well as with the PDA's.

i totally agree w/ you. i got an old pda just like a week ago, and its abilities are amazing, not just the touch screen, but an ON BOARD C COMPILER, but the c code gets WAY too complicated so im gunna stick to calcs

i've never seen anybody w/ either, since Casios are garbage, and 89T's are a little overkill for the math class i'm in right now.

I have received word from a reliable source that it will have 32 Megabytes of RAM.

hmm wha/who was the source? and if that is true, then it is really becoming more pda-like by the second. My first pocket pc had 32 megs of ram.

The source was "mr_calc", a mysterious member on my forum. He posted a thread talking about a "TI Pen-Based Calculator". I trusted him and he PMed me and I PMed him and whatnot. What affiliation he has with Texas Instruments is classified (but I know...).

He provided me with a link to the patent office (which is circulating throughout this news article). Now, it seems that ticalc.org has posted an article about this (although I emailed them a month ago, with no response). Therefore, I have come to believe that his information is true.

hmm... an undisclosed person with an undisclosed link to TI. sounds like some sort of mystery or something.

I read about this too. The screenshots at ticalcs.net though don't match the one at ticalc.org.