Author Topic: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !  (Read 31001 times)

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2013, 12:17:05 am »
Oh ok. Maybe there was some misunderstanding from TI-Planet (or Adriweb) part. If he got the information from Texas Instruments France, there might be a possibility that they weren't clear on when it can be announced, but it can't be timezone confusion since it's still only 6:18 AM in France.

(Note that I mention TI-Planet since every news by Adriweb and Critor posted on Omni are actually TI-Planet news translated in English)
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 12:22:37 am by DJ_O »

Offline KermMartian

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2013, 12:22:53 am »
One of my TI contacts just got back to me that it's ok to post this now.



Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2013, 12:24:46 am »
Ah ok, thanks :). I was considering moving the topic in the Editor sub-forum (or let a staff do it) in case.

Offline Hayleia

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2013, 01:10:22 am »
open to third party applications
Are we talking about the same Apple company ?
On the contrary, I would think they only released it on iPad and not on Android so we have more difficulties to do whatever we want on it (even though nothing is impossible).
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Offline Lionel Debroux

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2013, 01:32:59 am »
@Kerm: there was indeed an embargo on the piece of information... but Apple's own app store broke it more than half a day earlier than you had the right to ;)
When someone leaks embargoed information, it's usually fair game to talk about it - as your TI contacts have now confirmed to you anyway :)

And yes, the iPad is clearly more of a closed platform than the Android-based platforms are - even though some people would probably consider it more open than the Nspire platform is, which is a damning testimony to the amount of closed-mindedness in the Nspire ^^
TI will probably have to provide an Android version soon, as Android-based platforms' market share for smartphones has exploded in 2012 and are here to stay ( http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/strategy-analytics-android-70-percent-share/ ), and Android-based tablet sales have started to make a dent in the iPad sales ( http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/4951/20121105/apple-ipad-market-share-eroding-idc-tablet.htm ). TI may not create apps for other smartphone/tablet platforms, though: the sum of non-iOS, non-Android sales is a pitiful, fragmented market share.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 01:40:53 am by Lionel Debroux »
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #20 on: February 07, 2013, 01:37:15 am »
Haha I didn't realize they did XD. Anyway I wonder if there will be an Android version at one point, since a lot of people can't afford an iPad? In a few years, most phones will most likely be as powerful as an iPad, so maybe this will be available on every mobile device. I hope this doesn't mark the beginning of the end of actual calcs, though x.x

Offline Lionel Debroux

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #21 on: February 07, 2013, 02:01:34 am »
Quote
I hope this doesn't mark the beginning of the end of actual calcs, though x.x
I think it does, at least for some market segments.
Without rehashing once again the specifics of what I wrote many times over the last few months (even though I didn't know TI was working on an iPad app), it's safe to say that calculators are severely underpowered / severely overpriced (there's a huge mismatch between functionality and price tag). A $199 / €199 Nexus 7 so thoroughly trashes even the Nspire CX series in terms of functionality and versatility, for less than twice the price tag, that it isn't funny :)

The price tag of $29.99 for the iPad app is sane enough, though probably too high as well. At least, it shows the direction TI should, IMO, be heading in: slashing the prices of their entire calculator roster, and somehow forcing resellers to slash their margins as well. For its performance and functionality level, compared to a Nexus 7, the CX might stand a chance in the marketplace if it were, say, $50 for the consumer. The TI-68k series should be $35-$40, the TI-Z80 series $25-$35, and the scientific calculators < $20.
Maybe the distribution chains are too long.
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #22 on: February 07, 2013, 02:12:22 am »
@Kerm and DJ_O: Yeah in fact, the PR text itself was under embargo (and still is at the time of this post ?!), and the news also, I guess, but in fact they planned a release on Feb. 7th, and this... happens at different time in the world. When I saw that Australia already had the app (for a while !), I of course thought the news itself could be released (TI agreed anyway :P), and that the release in Europe and US would just be done a few hours later (which indeed was the case).

edit : ah well, I didn't see Lionel's post in which he told that :P
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 02:14:28 am by adriweb »
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Offline critor

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #23 on: February 07, 2013, 04:21:21 am »
Kerm, I don't know what kind of NDA you've signed, but when the information under embargo leaks publicly the embargo dies at the same time.
At least, that's what's written in my NDA.


One of my TI contacts just got back to me that it's ok to post this now.

So you contacted TI imediately about Adriweb's news?
Whare were you trying to achieve?...
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 04:23:54 am by critor »
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #24 on: February 07, 2013, 06:46:35 am »
More discoveries :

Here are some changes in the Lua API (dump of _G, so, we don't know if there are any more events like on.xxxxx)

- a new platform.apiLevel : "2.2"
- a new table, touch :  touch = { enabled, xppi, ppi, isKeyboardVisible, isKeyboardAvailable, yppi, showKeyboard } --these are all functions to call
- a new function in the platform object : platform.isTabletModeRendering -- self explanatory.

API Dump :
Spoiler For Spoiler:
Code: [Select]
--_G
string
split
match
gmatch
upper
gsub
format
lower
sub
usub
gfind
find
len
char
dump
uSub
reverse
byte
uchar
uChar
rep
xpcall
package
loaded
string - table: 0x1e91bdb0
package - table: 0x1e91f1c0
_G - table: 0x1e91a850
cursor
show
hide
set
locale
name
image
copy
height
rotate
new
width
clipboard
getText
addText
math
log
ldexp
evalStr
rad
cosh
random
getEvalSettings
frexp
tanh
floor
max
sqrt
modf
huge - 8
setEvalSettings
pow
atan
tan
cos
log10
eval
acos
abs
pi - 3.1415926535898
sinh
asin
min
deg
fmod
randomseed
atan2
ceil
sin
exp
coroutine
resume
yield
status
wrap
create
running
platform
hw
window
invalidate
setFocus
setScrollHeight
getScrollHeight
height
__index - table: 0x1e91c470
__newindex
width
isTabletModeRendering
registerErrorHandler
isDeviceModeRendering
withGC
isColorDisplay
toolpalette
enableCopy
enablePaste
enableCut
register
enable
D2Editor
setMainFont
registerFilter
createChemBox
setBorder
hasFocus
getText
setWordWrapWidth
setExpression
setVisible
resize
setTextColor
setTextChangeListener
newRichText
move
setFontSize
setSizeChangeListener
setText
setDisable2DinRT
setBorderColor
getExpression
getExpressionSelection
setFocus
setSelectable
setColorable
isVisible
setReadOnly
createMathBox
touch
enabled
xppi
ppi
isKeyboardVisible
isKeyboardAvailable
yppi
showKeyboard
timer
start
getMilliSecCounter
stop
var
monitor
recallAt
storeAt
makeNumericList
store
list
recallstr
unmonitor
recall
recallStr
table
setn
insert
getn
foreachi
maxn
foreach
concat
sort
remove
document
markChanged
loaders
1
tostring
print
image - table: 0x1e91df10
unpack
require
getfenv
touch - table: 0x1e920700
setmetatable
next
assert
tonumber
rawequal
DDDONE - table: 0x1e8adec0
collectgarbage
getmetatable
document - table: 0x1e91e240
coroutine - table: 0x1e91b6e0
load
gcinfo
_VERSION - Lua 5.1
rawset
table - table: 0x1e91b8e0
timer - table: 0x1e91f920
locale - table: 0x1e91e920
platform - table: 0x1e91f550
Widget - table: 0x1e91c470
var - table: 0x1e91ed40
math - table: 0x1e91c3d0
cursor - table: 0x1e91e9e0
pcall
clipboard - table: 0x1e91e720
class
type
toolpalette - table: 0x1e920360
D2Editor - table: 0x1e91faa0
select
_G - table: 0x1e91a850
on
rawget
loadstring
dump
newproxy
setfenv
pairs
ipairs
error
add -

Further (detailed) changes will be exposed here : http://wiki.inspired-lua.org/Changes_in_OS_3.4


(from http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=135452#p135452)



EDIT :
Got this from TI : "The App has been temporarily pulled this morning due to a security issue in the final build. We are working to get it fixed, but we don’t have an ETA on when it will be back up for download – might be a few days. It was just pulled in the past 30 minutes."
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 07:20:17 am by adriweb »
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Offline critor

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2013, 07:36:27 am »
EDIT :
Got this from TI : "The App has been temporarily pulled this morning due to a security issue in the final build. We are working to get it fixed, but we don’t have an ETA on when it will be back up for download – might be a few days. It was just pulled in the past 30 minutes."

There was a way to install Ndless 3.1 ? :P
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2013, 07:42:59 am »
That would be too good :P
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Offline TIfanx1999

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2013, 07:44:11 am »
EDIT :
Got this from TI : "The App has been temporarily pulled this morning due to a security issue in the final build. We are working to get it fixed, but we don’t have an ETA on when it will be back up for download – might be a few days. It was just pulled in the past 30 minutes."

There was a way to install Ndless 3.1 ? :P
Lmao, now that would be funny. ;D

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2013, 09:24:13 am »
LOL fail on their part. XD But again I don't recall Apple-related security stuff being good in the past. My account was hacked numerous times there even with a strong password before, especially by Koreans who wanted to buy gold for some random RPGs.

It would definitively be funny if they leaked a version that ran Ndless 3.1, though.
Quote
I hope this doesn't mark the beginning of the end of actual calcs, though x.x
I think it does, at least for some market segments.
Without rehashing once again the specifics of what I wrote many times over the last few months (even though I didn't know TI was working on an iPad app), it's safe to say that calculators are severely underpowered / severely overpriced (there's a huge mismatch between functionality and price tag). A $199 / €199 Nexus 7 so thoroughly trashes even the Nspire CX series in terms of functionality and versatility, for less than twice the price tag, that it isn't funny :)

The price tag of $29.99 for the iPad app is sane enough, though probably too high as well. At least, it shows the direction TI should, IMO, be heading in: slashing the prices of their entire calculator roster, and somehow forcing resellers to slash their margins as well. For its performance and functionality level, compared to a Nexus 7, the CX might stand a chance in the marketplace if it were, say, $50 for the consumer. The TI-68k series should be $35-$40, the TI-Z80 series $25-$35, and the scientific calculators < $20.
Maybe the distribution chains are too long.
IMO the price is not too bad, but the issue is that the iPad itself costs $499.99 and higher. I think real calcs still have a chance to thrive as long as the majority of tablets remains at higher price than calcs or that those apps are not released on cheap mobile phones as well. And even then the phones lack a PTT mode.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 09:27:53 am by DJ_O »

Offline Lionel Debroux

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Re: TI launches the official TI-Nspire iPad application !
« Reply #29 on: February 07, 2013, 09:37:23 am »
AFAWCT, the iPad app is a Nspire simulator, like TINCS is. It does not attempt to emulate the calculator's hardware faithfully, it's just the same back-end code compiled for another platform (well, certainly - they didn't port all of their C code to Obj-C) and a different, platform-specific front-end code (Java for TINCS, Obj-C for the iPad app, and presumably a different Java flavour for the Android app TI ought to be making sooner rather than later IMO).
IOW, there's no chance the iPad app can run Ndless ;)

Pulling an app and indicating that the cause is security-related isn't necessarily very smart a move for Apple / TI. Differential code analysis, should anyone undertake it, could pinpoint the problem and hint for attack vectors.

Quote
IMO the price is not too bad, but the issue is that the iPad itself costs $499.99 and higher.
It's both, as both calculators and the iPad are way too expensive for their specs :)
I remember reading about the $900 iPad costing no more than $200 to produce.

Quote
I think real calcs still have a chance to thrive as long as the majority of tablets remains at higher price than calcs or that those apps are not released on cheap mobile phones as well.
The price of tablets keeps decreasing for ever increasing functionality, driven by companies whose business model is less hell-bent on milking customers through overly high prices than Apple is. Apple will have to slash the iP* prices to cope with fierce competition in the marketplace, otherwise their market shares will dwindle even further than they already have (see one of my previous posts)...

Quote
And even then the phones lack a PTT mode.
I take it that it could be added easily :)
Not that I think it's a morally satisfying solution (making exams less disconnected from real-world usage would be better), but it's technically feasible.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 09:45:46 am by Lionel Debroux »
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