The Voyage [ "2000" ] of my Dreams ...
From all the Calculators I still very proudly own, one particular model the [ TI Voyage 200 ] was one that provided me with my Best overall Experience, due to its rather innovative interface design, with QWERT integrated Keyboard and Larger Screen display offered at that time.
It seems clear from the discussions on this post, that if Calculator manufacturers were to still compete with other forms of Portable computational devices like Tablets or Smartphones, that they should re-invent themselves, providing future Calculators with some attractive features, already available on the other portable devices, like TouchScreen, among other desirable resources.
What actually turn a Calculator distinct from a Tablet or TouchScreen Smartphone, is that All calculators ( even Casio CP-400 ) provides at least an [ Integrated ] Physical Keyboard, which surelly Tablets or today ( purelly TouchScreen ) Smartphones do Not ... ( at least not factory integrated on the device ).
From that perspective, TI Voyage 200, and its very inovative predecessors the TI-92 and 92-Plus, offered at that time a Real "Computer" like appeal, with the inclusion of a complete QWERT keyboard, like the ones available on past BASIC Portable Computers from Casio, Sharp and RadioShack.
If Texas Instruments were to seek some sort of atractiveness to a future launching of a TI Nspire sucessor, it surelly must seek back to what previous features provided their users with the Best Experience ...
Clearly due to Standard Examination restrictions a QWERT keyboard nowadays would mean the banishment from part of the
examinations, but some clever re-interpretation of the rules as the one provided by TI Nspire with an ABCDEF keyboard, might have bypassed the QWERT restriction ... still providing a complete alphabetic keyboard ( just on a nonstandard displacement of Keys ).
If such were the examination restraints, Texas should think about still adopting the same ABCDEF approach from Nspire to their futurelly released models.
The point in question would be what design format should be more appropriate, a traditional Portrait or a rather unusual but plenty more effective Landscape displacement like Voyage 200, TI-92 and 92-Plus ...
I personally think that a 21st century Voyage "2000" should adopt the Landscape design, and include all successfull features from TI Nspire like its Operating System and Software Base, but on a new [ Thiner ] Landscape ( Tablet or Ultrabook like ) casing, but still keeping a Physical ABCDEF keyboard ( plus standard math related multi Keys with at least 2 colors like HP, plus Shift, Ctrl, Esc ), an Enlarged Color TouchScreen display ( keeping an eventual Touchpad integrated on the Large 4 arrows key adopted by Nspire ), with some extra desirable resources like MicroSD and OTG USB port support, HDMI and Wireless DLNA Output, and eventually a Free of cost ( Windows platform ) or affordable ( Android / IOS ) emulators.
That hypothetical Hybrid machine, could still be called a [ Calculator ], but with plenty revigorated features, so as to keep future generations still Wandering about new launching of such Gadgets ...
Another point that Texas Instruments could improve, on New OS releases even for the TI Nspire, is the Back [ Scrolling ] of Past expressions ...
The extremely slow, character by character scroll approach adopted on Nspire, without another option of quickier scrolling [ Review ] method like the ones provided by past TI models like Voyage 200 or TI-89, where the hole expression was shifted by some screen amount while Reviewing past expressions, was one of the reasons for me to consider the purchase of another Calculator, like HP Prime, which simply Excells on past expressions Scrolling, due to its TouchScreen interface.
Well, if someone could effectively "reach" Texas Instruments, it would be very interesting to suggest the inclusion of a New optional feature, like a simple [ View ] or [ Review ] menu option or [ Shortcut ] Key combination like Ctrl + some key, allowing the [ Fast ] scrolling of Hole past expressions through the Screen ( bypassing the arkward character by character expression review approach now available on TI Nspire ).
For HP a suggestion for a future model release, would be a Prime "Plus", with a Larger Portrait Screen and few essential Keys ( like Casio CP-400 ), or a definitive real Tablet Like format, with at least a row of Special Keys, like Esc, Ctrl, Shift, 2nd Functions and Virtual Keyboard invocation.
From the slow pace of innovations on the Calculator arena, the unnanswered questions would be "when" to expect effective New releases, and "what" to expect from them ...
From all the Calculators I still very proudly own, one particular model the [ TI Voyage 200 ] was one that provided me with my Best overall Experience, due to its rather innovative interface design, with QWERT integrated Keyboard and Larger Screen display offered at that time.
It seems clear from the discussions on this post, that if Calculator manufacturers were to still compete with other forms of Portable computational devices like Tablets or Smartphones, that they should re-invent themselves, providing future Calculators with some attractive features, already available on the other portable devices, like TouchScreen, among other desirable resources.
What actually turn a Calculator distinct from a Tablet or TouchScreen Smartphone, is that All calculators ( even Casio CP-400 ) provides at least an [ Integrated ] Physical Keyboard, which surelly Tablets or today ( purelly TouchScreen ) Smartphones do Not ... ( at least not factory integrated on the device ).
From that perspective, TI Voyage 200, and its very inovative predecessors the TI-92 and 92-Plus, offered at that time a Real "Computer" like appeal, with the inclusion of a complete QWERT keyboard, like the ones available on past BASIC Portable Computers from Casio, Sharp and RadioShack.
If Texas Instruments were to seek some sort of atractiveness to a future launching of a TI Nspire sucessor, it surelly must seek back to what previous features provided their users with the Best Experience ...
Clearly due to Standard Examination restrictions a QWERT keyboard nowadays would mean the banishment from part of the
examinations, but some clever re-interpretation of the rules as the one provided by TI Nspire with an ABCDEF keyboard, might have bypassed the QWERT restriction ... still providing a complete alphabetic keyboard ( just on a nonstandard displacement of Keys ).
If such were the examination restraints, Texas should think about still adopting the same ABCDEF approach from Nspire to their futurelly released models.
The point in question would be what design format should be more appropriate, a traditional Portrait or a rather unusual but plenty more effective Landscape displacement like Voyage 200, TI-92 and 92-Plus ...
I personally think that a 21st century Voyage "2000" should adopt the Landscape design, and include all successfull features from TI Nspire like its Operating System and Software Base, but on a new [ Thiner ] Landscape ( Tablet or Ultrabook like ) casing, but still keeping a Physical ABCDEF keyboard ( plus standard math related multi Keys with at least 2 colors like HP, plus Shift, Ctrl, Esc ), an Enlarged Color TouchScreen display ( keeping an eventual Touchpad integrated on the Large 4 arrows key adopted by Nspire ), with some extra desirable resources like MicroSD and OTG USB port support, HDMI and Wireless DLNA Output, and eventually a Free of cost ( Windows platform ) or affordable ( Android / IOS ) emulators.
That hypothetical Hybrid machine, could still be called a [ Calculator ], but with plenty revigorated features, so as to keep future generations still Wandering about new launching of such Gadgets ...
Another point that Texas Instruments could improve, on New OS releases even for the TI Nspire, is the Back [ Scrolling ] of Past expressions ...
The extremely slow, character by character scroll approach adopted on Nspire, without another option of quickier scrolling [ Review ] method like the ones provided by past TI models like Voyage 200 or TI-89, where the hole expression was shifted by some screen amount while Reviewing past expressions, was one of the reasons for me to consider the purchase of another Calculator, like HP Prime, which simply Excells on past expressions Scrolling, due to its TouchScreen interface.
Well, if someone could effectively "reach" Texas Instruments, it would be very interesting to suggest the inclusion of a New optional feature, like a simple [ View ] or [ Review ] menu option or [ Shortcut ] Key combination like Ctrl + some key, allowing the [ Fast ] scrolling of Hole past expressions through the Screen ( bypassing the arkward character by character expression review approach now available on TI Nspire ).
For HP a suggestion for a future model release, would be a Prime "Plus", with a Larger Portrait Screen and few essential Keys ( like Casio CP-400 ), or a definitive real Tablet Like format, with at least a row of Special Keys, like Esc, Ctrl, Shift, 2nd Functions and Virtual Keyboard invocation.
From the slow pace of innovations on the Calculator arena, the unnanswered questions would be "when" to expect effective New releases, and "what" to expect from them ...