I plan to purchase the CAS version of the TI-Nspire (not the one with the snap-in TI 84 keyboard). I realize that this is a Casio forum, but there is also interest here in new developments in the calculator world, no matter what the brand, so I'll ask this-
Is anyone interested in my impressions of this machine? If so, I'll post here, but if not, I'll just stick to the TI forums.
I'm interested to compare notes, but if you don't have it yet, what impressions? Based on specs alone?
Here are some of my early impressions (only had it for about a week). Rather than paying for OS v3, for the same money, I ended up having a new (and, sorry to say, possibly more exciting) calc.
The (off-beat looking) keyboard is actually very easy to use and (contrary to my pre-sale concerns) I have yet to press the wrong key (and without trying to be extra careful). The CAS is basically the same as that of the TI-89 Titanium, but there are also minor (?) differences. Many CTRL shortcuts are available (all the common ones are there, CTRL-S [Save], CTRL-C [Copy], CTRL-V [Paste], etc.)
A major difference from the TI89/T: No 3-D graphs.
Battery life is as good as that of the TI-89/T, because I read some false comment about the battery dying in only a few (about 3.5 was quoted) hours. Not so. Many hours/day of operation for about a week now, and the battery indication still says 100% full.
Firmware upgrade is fully automatic (directly from the Internet) using the Link software and a
standard USB cable.
There are as many similarities with the TI-89/T as there are differences. The 'document' concept (different from Classpad's eActivity, yet similar in principle) is very helpful, in that you keep complete multi-page calculator sessions, separate.
eActivities are in a separate environment, while 'documents' are always there, everything you do is part of a document. No limit to how many pages you can have in a document, AFAIK.
Programming is inline (no separate program editor). Just define the program or function on the regular calculator entry screen, and the definition even takes a place in the history screen, just like all calculations. So, you can easily call it back, change it, and re-submit it (ENTER) to change the function or program.
Screen is great (like the TI-89's but higher resolution). 3 font sizes with mild differences among them.
Speed is great.
Graph is like the TI-89/T's, only with a better UI.
Geometry works along with Graph (on the same screen) and takes a little getting used to (you probably need to read the manual about how to use the pointer and grab stuff, it won't come naturally how to perform some of the actions). But, once you understand the philosophy is quite simple.
Possibly the most intuitive List/Statistics screen I've seen.
The manual needs some work. A lot of topics are not covered well, or at all (e.g., function is covered, program isn't, but it turns out to be same).
Variable recall is very simple (a single button will bring a pop-up list with all defined variables, functions, etc. sorted alphabetically to pick from). Too bad they didn't think to delete a variable right there by pressing DEL.
Another nice difference from the TI-89/T (and I believe Classpad, too) is that both opening and closing parentheses are automatically matched. So, you can 2+3)/2 ENTER, or sin(3 ENTER. It even shows the assumed parentheses in lighter greyed font.
I'll write more specific details if there is interest. Especially, as to how it compares to the Classpad if you need to keep it on-topic.
: TI-Nspire CAS. Look at some of it's features:
