Author Topic: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K  (Read 25923 times)

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Offline critor

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New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« on: September 03, 2013, 12:30:25 pm »
In a previous news, we announced you the arrival for back to school 2013 of a new TI-Nspire CX hardware revision. TI-Nspire CX equipped with this new hardware could not properly run system and Boot2 versions 3.1, and thus there was no way to use Ndless or Nlaunch on them.

Next we did teach you, at least for France, how to spot old Ndless/Nlaunch compatible calcultors directly in stores without having to unseal the bundle. ;D

Finally, we made you discover this new hardware.


HW-J calculators reported to us so far had the "P-0313J" or "P-0413J" datestamps on the back at the right of the serial. This meant that they were manufactured in China in March and April 2013.

The Ndless/Nlaunch community hasn't even been able yet to understand exactly which change in the new hardware was responsible for the 3.1 incompatibility, that Texas Instruments has already released a new hardware version, hardware revision K which was reported today on the TI-Planet chat. The "P-0613K" on the back shows us it was manufactured in june 2013.

We don't know yet if HW-K is a minor HW-J revision, or if new protections were added. In their sudden race for the closure and the safety of the TI-Nspire CX it's very likely that Texas Instruments did add some another additional protection again, just to be sure that Ndless and Nlaunch will never come back.



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12913&lang=en
« Last Edit: September 03, 2013, 12:32:02 pm by critor »
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2013, 06:09:44 pm »
That seems suspicious, unless hardware J had some defect and they are releasing an update quick >.<.

Offline Sorunome

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2013, 06:14:48 pm »
Wow, they did indeed release new hardware versions quickley
* Sorunome suspects a bug in HW J

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Offline lkj

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2013, 06:25:59 pm »
A new hardware revision every few months seems quite normal for the CX: after about 3 years we're already at revision K.

Offline critor

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2013, 06:43:49 pm »
It may seem normal yes, and all hardware revisions A-I didn't seem to change anything for the end user.

But if you replace this in the current context, after the big surprise in hardware revision J, it's normal to wonder what kind of other similar surprise might have been packaged with hardware revision K, in case of the Ndless-team managing to deal with hardware revision J.

And in the same logic, I'm starting to fear what's going to come with the next 3.6 OS.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2013, 06:44:35 pm by critor »
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Offline Roboman

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2013, 08:33:18 am »
Why does TI even hate Ndless so much anyways?  Doesn't that make more people buy Nspires and earn them more money? :(
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Offline Lionel Debroux

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2013, 08:38:27 am »
Quote
Doesn't that make more people buy Nspires and earn them more money? :(
This line of thinking, shared by pretty much everyone in the open development community, is a sign of being reasonable, thoughtful and paying attention to history and basic common sense :)
Sadly, the fact is that standardized testing regulation authorities in multiple important countries, and TI EdTech's top-level management, are lacking common sense.
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2013, 08:47:37 am »
Well apparently it's the common thing now that we can only be sad about : none of the recent new big calcs (HP Prime, Casio fx-CP400) offer native coding capabilities. The Nspires were just a bit ahead of their time, I guess ; maybe since TI is the major seller in the US.
It's mainly because the exam institutions require them to lock down the device (or at least make it very safe), and well, TI/HP/Casio just go the hard way by not providing native access on top of PTT.
Especially when we're talking about their flagship product : they certainly don't want troubles with the exam institutions arguing wethere the platform is very secure or not... (and not only that, but they want to keep their main customers (teachers/schools) in trust, saying that protections are effective etc.

We can see the "quick" reaction after nlaunch, and we continue to witness its extent even these days (OS 3.2.4 with now boot2, new HW revisions blocking exploits upstream (since boot2 etc. can't be downgraded) )


And also, I wouldn't think of native programming capability as an sole argument of selling (like "I want to program in ASM so I'll buy a 84+"), but more of a bonus to a choice when buying (like "I'd prefer buying this calc over this one because there is also native coding capabilities"). And since TI customers (more than 99.99%) are not native coders, they (TI) strictly don't care about it.



Edit : by "exam institutions" I mean "standardized testing regulation authorities", thanks Lionel :D
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:10:29 am by adriweb »
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Offline Streetwalrus

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2013, 08:51:42 am »
Sadly, the fact is that standardized testing regulation authorities in multiple important countries
IMO as long as PTT exists and noone tries to hack it they are OK with Ndless (unless someone tries to bring a non-CAS calc with nLaunch to have a CAS OS).

and TI EdTech's top-level management, are lacking common sense.
For these stupid guys I do agree. :P

Offline critor

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #9 on: September 04, 2013, 09:03:07 am »
Sadly, the fact is that standardized testing regulation authorities in multiple important countries
IMO as long as PTT exists and noone tries to hack it they are OK with Ndless (unless someone tries to bring a non-CAS calc with nLaunch to have a CAS OS).

PTT hacking tools released on Omnimaga were immediately moderated.
And I'm sure TI knows about that. So if that's what we get as a thanks...

As far as I know, PTT hacks are currently only available on cncalc.org for registered users with several posts (else, you can't download). And of course, only if you manage to find them in chinese...


Nlaunch purpose was not to bring CAS on non-CAS, but to have Linux and to be able to use Ndless together with OS 3.2. We didn't encourage other uses and nor did the ReadMe.
Who's responsible for fixing Ndless flaws in OS 3.2 ?...
If Ndless could have been easily installed on OS 3.2, would Nlaunch even have existed?...

By permanently fighting against Ndless, they just make people release more and more important hacks.
So, either HW-J/K + OS 3.2.4/3.6 is perfectly secure and TI has allready won the war they've just started...
Either the next hack is going to be a big nightmare for them.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:20:44 am by critor »
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2013, 09:14:04 am »
Also, giving the source of the crucial parts of ndless and nlaunch is making the life easy for TI, I think.
I guess it'd be better if those parts should be only accessible by community members who actually need them for [whatever] purpose.
Of course it's not something that can stop TI's security team, but it would largely make fixes take longer to release for them


Edit : typo
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:31:53 am by adriweb »
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Offline critor

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2013, 09:29:51 am »
So you want the next exploit to be released only as a binary?


Ndless sources have been useful for user contributions, and there has been many of them.

Nlaunch sources were useful in order for us to maintain and slightly improve the tool - remember that the "Nlaunch team" and/or "Nlaunch guy" never came back.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:36:23 am by critor »
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #12 on: September 04, 2013, 09:31:35 am »
So you want the next exploit to be released only as a binary?

I said "crucial parts" ;)
(So, pretty much the exploit(s), I guess)
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:42:19 am by adriweb »
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Offline critor

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2013, 09:37:39 am »
If some of us are able to dissassemble the huge OS/Boot2, TI guys should perfectly be able to disassemble our small tools.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 10:39:54 am by critor »
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: New TI-Nspire CX hardware revision K
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2013, 09:43:32 am »
Perfectly , it's why I said it just would take longer for them to know what/how to fix, which can lead to more survival time for ndless, nlaunch, linux etc.



Edit:  phone typo grrr
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 09:43:52 am by adriweb »
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