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Texas Instruments Makes It Harder to Run Programs on Its Calculators
The TI-84 Plus is one of Texas Instruments' best-selling calculators.
Texas Instruments' graphing calculators have a reputation as hobbyist devices given their program support, but they just lost some of their appeal. TI is pulling support for assembly- and C-based programs on the TI-84 Plus CE and its French counterpart, the TI-83 Premium CE. Install the latest firmware for both (OS 5.6 and OS 5.5 respectively) and you'll not only lose access to those apps, but won't have a way to roll back.
The company explained the move as an effort to "prioritize learning and minimize any security risks." Put another way, it's to reduce cheating.
While this could please teachers worried that students will use apps to cheat during exams, enthusiasts are unsurprisingly mad. This reduces the amount of control programmers have over their calculator apps. Some have already found ways to bypass the calculators' Exam Mode.
From Engadget
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