In 2006-2007, Texas Instruments evaluated the TI-Nspire CAS+ in some pilot classes, a prototype whose first known development traces take us back to December 2005 with the TI-Phoenix 1 development board.

'P1 / Phoenix 1' is the internal code name of the TI-Nspire CAS +, while the production TI-Nspire CAS ClickPad we know have the internal code 'P1R2 / Phoenix 1 Release 2'.

The latest TI-Nspire CAS + produced to our knowledge were manufactured in October 2006. After that, we have a time gap before the first TI-Nspire ClickPad prototypes from February 2007. During this gap many things have changed, including the processor which did migrate from the OMAP Technology to ASIC technology, the OS interface and the keypad.


Texas Instruments has never provided any support for prototype TI-Nspire CAS after the launch of the TI-Nspire in April 2007. So, users have remained for years without the possibility of updating their handheld or simply repairing it after removing the OS or the Boot2.

Fortunately, most of the TI-Planet team, together with prominent members of the international TI community have worked very hard to develop tools for dumping as many different versions of the OS, boot1 and boot2 as possible, and have rebuilt at last installable OS files for those handhelds!



All this would never have been possible without the discoveries from Adriweb, Jimbauwens and myself for the TI-Planet team, and Bsl and Goplat for the international TI community, showing again that together we are strong!

In this context, we would like to thank all those who have given or loaned TI-Nspire CAS+ prototypes to us, but also those who 'dumped' some versions for us: the Datamath museum and some Omnimaga and cnCalc members.



After all this work in a previous news, Goplat finally offered you a version of his Nspire emulator supporting the TI-Nspire CAS +!



And thanks to this emulator, Bsl grants you tonight with a new Ndless version, Ndless+ which brings assembly to TI-Nspire CAS+ running OS 1.0.529 and 1.0.554!

Now, the TI-Nspire CAS + can therefore, after a simple recompile most often, benefit from all allready released Ndless tools and games!



Source & download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11163&lang=en

Hi everyone,

Today, TI (finally) officially announced its new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, after its leak by the community, originally on Cemetech.

Texas Instruments Adds Color to Math and Science Learning with
New TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition Graphing Calculator

DALLAS (January 2013) – Texas Instruments, the most trusted brand in graphing calculator technology, announces a colorful addition to the TI-84 family of graphing calculators—the new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition graphing calculator, featuring full-color capabilities, a high-resolution, back-lit screen, rechargeable battery and updated operating system. 

The TI-84 Plus C graphing calculator is designed to include features that will improve math and science learning, such as the ability to import photos and overlay graphs to connect concepts to the real world.  The rechargeable battery reduces frequent battery replacement purchases.  This new product addition keeps the same key placement, navigation and menus as the TI-84 Plus family, so educators can transition while continuing to use their current classroom activities. The TI-84 Plus C graphing calculator is also permitted on standardized tests, including the SAT*, ACT*, PSAT*/NMSQT, AP*, Praxis. 
Melendy Lovett, president of Texas Instruments Education Technology, said “We are excited about this new addition to the TI-84 Plus product line and for the opportunity to bring this new technology to loyal educators who have relied on TI-84 products over the years to help them improve math and science teaching and learning.”   


TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition Specifications and Features
•   Screen resolution: 140 DPI, 16-bit color
•   Screen size: 320x240 pixels (2.8” diagonal)
•   TI Rechargeable Battery
•   3.5 MB FLASH ROM memory for data archive and Apps storage
•   USB unit-to-unit cable included for communication with TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition
•   Supports TI Basic and ASM programming


Availability
The TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition graphing calculator will be priced comparably to the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and will be available for purchase beginning in spring 2013. For information on availability, please visit http://education.ti.com/84c


For more information about Texas Instruments:
•   http://twitter.com/TICalculators 
•   http://facebook.com/TICalculators 
•   http://youtube.com/user/TexasInstrumentsCalc
•   http://education.ti.com 


About Texas Instruments
Education Technology, a business of Texas Instruments, provides a wide range of tools connecting the classroom experience with real-world applications, helping students and teachers to explore mathematics and science interactively. TI’s products and services are tested vigorously against recognized third-party research, which shows that the effective use of graphing calculators improves the mathematical skills of students and their attitudes toward mathematics. For more information, visit http://www.education.ti.com.

Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through manufacturing, design and sales operations in more than 30 countries. For more information, visit http://www.ti.com.


*AP and SAT are registered trademarks of the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. ACT is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. Praxis is a trademark of the Educational Testing Service. None was involved in the production of nor endorses TI products. Policies are subject to change. Visit http://www.collegeboard.com and http://www.act.org.

Let's note that an official PDF was made available on Underwood Distributing, comparing the 84+CSE and the 84+SE. As well as another PDF about its features.



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=11132&lang=en

The TI-Nspire starts in 3 steps:

• Boot1
• Boot2
• OS

In this security model, each software component ensures the integrity of the next one.

Since last year, it became possible to reprogram the boot1 on prototypes TI-Nspire ClickPad from Q1 2007, permanently transforming these into production models accepting the latest OS released on TI website.
Indeed, these prototypes were using an external read-write Flash-NOR chip.

But this is not limited to prototypes!
We already knew that the TI-Nspire TouchPad had their Flash NOR chip moved into the ASIC chip. So so far, that chip is out of our reach.
We noticed in a previous news that TI-Nspire ClickPad Hardware Revision C and later had their Flash NOR chip incorporated into the ASIC chip too.

We do not know about hardware revisions B, but the very first production TI-Nspire released in 2007 and their hardware revision A have a motherboard similar to the prototypes with the same external Flash NOR chip!

The only problem is that their Flash NOR chip is physically set to read-only through a difference in the pinout:

But a tiny hardware modification was enough to make that chip rewriteable, as presented in a previous news for non-CAS TI-Nspire:

After a first successful test of a Boot1 reflashing in a previous news, I'm honored to present you today the lastest achievment of the TI community, Boot1 1.1.9999!


This is a patch for the Boot1 1.1.8916 coming with all production TI-Nspire ClickPad and TouchPad, which will allow you to install and run:

• production Boot2
• development Boot2
• modified Boot2
• production Diagnostics
• development diagnostis
• modified diagnostics

Meaning that is does accept modified images which don't pass the RSA signature check!  :crazy:

For example, here is a TI-Nspire with Boot1 1.1.9999, running on a 1.4.1571 Boot2 whose version string has been patched to 1.4.9999:



The possibilities are simply huge!

On the one hand, this is a feat far greater than in a nLaunch previous news.

Ndless was taking control of your TI-Nspire inside the OS 3.1.

nLaunch was allready one step above as it was taking control of your TI-Nspire inside the Boot2 1.4, meaning that you could do everything with the OS.

And now, we're taking full control of the hardware inside the Boot1 1.1.8916, meaning that we can do everything with the Boot2 and Diagnostics software, and by extension with the OS.


Everything is now possible, just be inspired and imagine:

• using development Diagnostics softares which much more interesting options ;D
  
• have our own diagnostics software or maintenance menu with much more options ;D
  
• using U-Boot to start Linux directly without having to go through the OS 3.1 and Ndless ;D
  
• having a boot menu to choose the OS to launch within a multi-boot ;D
  
• using a modified Boot2 that does not check the signatures of the OS to launch, the mode ID or CAS / non-CAS type
• programming and running all this in the Diags area which, unlike the Boot2 area, is not checked/reprogrammed after installing a new OS
  
• ...

As a bonus for you, here is the historical video of the live first flashing of Boot1 1.1.9999!



Source & downloads:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11102&lang=en

If you follow us, you know you can safely optimize the free space on your TI-Nspire with 2 different ways :

• by removing useless boot2 files and the examples present in the non-signed part of the OS install file, which is possible on the computer before the installation, with TNOC for all the OSes or on the calculator after the installation, with the ndless program nTNOC
• By removing the useless resources the Nspire OS uncompresses in the filesystem duing its installation like the TI-84 ROM, ths skins, or again languages, which is possible on the calculator using the ndless program nCleaner

On recent OSes, TNOC/nTNOC allows you to gain 3MB of free space.

nCleaner however only existing as an Ndless program, it was only possible to combine it with nTNOC under the OS 3.1 for an additional saving and an extraordinary free space available:

FYI, the records so far are :

• 19.7MB of free space with OS 3.1 on the Nspire (TNOC + nCleaner)
• 20.3MB of free space with OS 3.1 on the TI-Nspire CAS (TNOC + nCleaner)
• 16.1MB of free space with OS 3.2 on the TI-Nspire (TNOC)
• 18.4MB of free space with OS 3.2 on the TI-Nspire CAS (TNOC)

As you can see, because of the absence of a Ndless version compatible with OS 3.2, this OS couldn't be as optimized as 3.1

But thanks to nLaunch, these times are over !

Indeed, nLaunch is an OS Launcher for the TI-Nspire ClickPad/TouchPad, which even accepts modified OSes ! 
It comes with a computer tool, "BuildOS", which allows you to "rebuild" an Nspire OS install file from its extracted resources.

So, instead of removing the unwanted resources once extracted in the filesystem, let's remove them all beforehand, on the computer, in the file itself !

As a bonus, it actually makes twice the free space because this OS file, not only not extracting useless resources, will be lighter !

So, this is feasible on any OS, whatever their Ndless support, so, as much on the 3.1 than on 3.2


So, let me now present to you the new world record for the CAS 3.1 OS which previously peaked at 20.3MB of free space...

And this time, it's different, since even the 3.2 OS can benefit from this extra free space !



Unfortunately, for obvious legal reasons of copyright etc., we cannot publish such modified OS.

On the other hand, before using BuildOS, you'll have to correctly  uncompress/decrypt the Nspire OSes. Some tool was available years ago for that but hasn't been publicly updated for OS 3.X.

Fortunately, Excale found a workaroung using only nspire_emu!
Thus, you too can modify your TI-Nspire OS! You can either remove useless resource, or craft extraordinary patches!


Source with the OS nspire_emu decryption tutorial:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11026&lang=en

This is definitely *the* event of January 1, 2013 : nLaunch , the tool that nobody expected, which appeared today in the community.

nLaunch is a utility program that is an OS launcher for the TI-Nspire ClickPad/TouchPad, as was the deceased OSlauncher.

nLaunch can launch two types of OS:

• TI-Nspire OSes
• Linux OS through its launcher

But unlike its predecessor, the difference is that... nLaunch works !

OSlauncher had experienced trouble. Being a Ndless program, it was necessary that the original OS, here meaning OS 3.1, was already running in order to run the new OS on top of it - that is called "hot-launch" . In addition, OSlauncher could only start OS which versions number were identical or almost identical. But since version 3.1, the TI-Nspire OS seems to have various protections against hot-launches, locking the whole process while in the grey loading screen.

How is nLaunch working, then? Well, it's not an Ndless program !
nLaunch makes it way by directly attacking the boot2, actually its version 1.4.1571, which contains a "loophole" for running third-party code:

To use nLaunch, you must therefore begin by reprogramming your boot2 to version 1.4.1571, which is now very simple  with nsNandMgr that came out not so long ago.



Regarding the TI-Nspire OSes, nLaunch seems to load them ignoring pretty much all official security checks. It is possible to install and run:

• either a development or production OS (the RSA signature is ignored)
  
• accordingly, any modified official OS
• either a CAS or non-CAS OS (bits indicating the type of model are ignored)
  
• an OS whose version number is earlier than the minimum version normally installable, written before the beginning of the NAND filesystem (the anti-downgrade protection is ignored)

As a bonus, nLaunch automatically installs Ndless 3.1 in the case of OS 3.1, if the resource file is present on the calculator! ;D

The new possibilities offered by nLaunch are, simply put, enormous, because this time the door is well open : nothing is forbidden.



To install an Nspire OS with nLaunch, one must already remove its boot2 file with TNOC.
Indeed, otherwise, the first startup of the newly installed OS, there will be a boot2 update to version 3.0.1 removing the loophole nLaunch exploits to run.

Then just rename the OS file to 'phoenix.tns' and put it in the 'nlaunch' folder on the calculator:

The TI-Nspire will then restart twice, once to install the OS and once to load it, and indeed at each boot, nLaunch takes over at the boot2:



Since the OS installation is now as easy with a simple copy or rename files, we can start to dream ... Dream of a dual boot Ndless / Nspire 3.2 or Linux ... Or the release of a change to OS 3.2 to reintroduce vulnerabilities to install Ndless 3.1!  :w00t:



Although reboot-proof, there is apparently no desire to explicitly harm Texas Instruments, specifically with the examinations where the use of CAS calculators is prohibited. Indeed, apparently nLaunch can be uninstalled by simply sending a new OS, which can be done massively on a wired or wireless, Nspire Navigator network.

This is clearly developed with a view of openness, and the possibility of launching a CAS OS is not even explicitly mentioned in the documentation, and it seems to be just a side effect of protections breaking, but not the purpose of the tool.



nLaunch is signed by the 'nLaunch Team , totally unknown to this day. The source code very consistent, released under the GPL license, and it clearly took some time to create. It seems much more advanced than the various tools that we have seen so far.
Could it be newcomers to the community? Perhaps, since the documentation includes messages for authors of Ndless and the Linux port.






Source and download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11018

Let's play a game tonight - instead of giving you the news and the photos inside it, I give you the photo - try to guess what the news could be!



So a fullscreen image on a TI-Nspire Color prototype, which should be stuck to development OSes.

Here is the original image:




Question: how did I do?

Announced in a previous news, the new 0.70 version of nspire_emu by Goplat has finally been released tonight - a great Christmas present for everybody!

As promised, you now get TI-Nspire CAS+ emulation!

In addition, it is now possible to virtually send files over RS232!
This is very useful for the TI-Nspire CAS+!
But it is also useful to implement a more realistic behavior in different boot menus, and to extend the possibilities of development and testing of boot tools on emulator!
(no need to take a real calculator and your RS232 interface until the final tests anymore)

The improved support of unaligned memory access now lets gpSP directly work in the emulator!



Download:
http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6763.0;attach=14364

Topic:
http://ourl.ca/9360/330734

Today, Dec. 12, 2012, just some minutes ago, TI released the new TI-Nspire OS 3.2.3.1233.
This seems to be a very minor update.

Indeed, on the one hand the 3.1.0.392 version is still installable and as a consequence Ndless is not completely blocked yet, and secondly the Arabic language, the next great TI-Nspire OS innovation is not yet available.
There is no significant increase in the size of the OS files either.
Finally, the previous version being 3.2.0.1219, there have been only 14 recompilations of the OS since June 2012, which would be extremely low.

Indeed, the official changelog confirms:

• Additional iterations were added to solve specific logistic regressions
• Fixed bug: Changes to the initial term of a sequence are not stored in the document
• The performance of the program when using the DISP command has been improved

That's it.

There is no new boot2 update with these 3.2.3 OSes.
OS for TI-Nspire ClickPad / TouchPad still comes with Boot2 3.0.1 and OSes for TI-Nspire CX with boot2 3.1.0.



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=133514&lang=en

Links:
OS 3.2.3.1233 for TI-Nspire CX CAS
OS 3.2.3.1233 for TI-Nspire CX
OS 3.2.3.1233 for TI-Nspire CAS
OS 3.2.3.1233 for TI-Nspire

The TI-Nspire softwares and TI-Nspire CM are staying with version 3.2.0 for now.