Literally $150 for a fucking calculator

>literally $150 for a fucking calculator

When will Drumpf break up this monopoly?

Texas is a shithole country. OH WAIT, IT'S NOT A COUNTRY BECAUSE IT FAILED AT SECEDING AFTER OBAMA'S SECOND TERM KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

I never understood those Texas Instruments calculators, can someone explain the hype for me?

It's literally a monopoly dude.

>school sends home supply list saying you must have this particular one because teachers too brainlet/lazy to teach how to use different ones
>everyone buys it
That's it

the share holders need to be disowned and the company put under state control.

Why won't a different company make similar ones?

hp makes excellent calculators as well.

it's a microprocessor manufacturer like intel or ARM

texas instruments pays schools to use their calculators. if you cant beat their deal youre not going to sell anything.

There's an app for that.

I paid 300 for one

> mom and dad too lazy and son too retarded to figure it all out without a smartphone or calculator

Casio sells good calculators, and I like them better after using both.

It was a breakthrough thing when teachers used to say "You can't have a calculator with you for the rest of your life you idiot so study algebra"

Now you can have an app (photomath I think?) that can scan a math problem via the camera and give you step-by-step solutions like Wolfram Alpha.

tl;dr TI is retarded and overpriced and Wolfram Alpha is far more powerful except you can't pocket WA. Unless you're allowed to use your phone.

Which you are not.

Welcome to the Akrham Asylum, population: you.

He can't they literally own him

Or you could be a volunteer for retinal implants that DARPA is surely trying out since they absorbed the company that had some success with it - non-stupid google glass thing in a lens

And here I am still using the one my father bought when they first came out

Dumb students and incompetent teachers are both incapable of learning / teaching the underlying theories and mechanics behind higher maths. As a result the general teaching method for it here is just rote memorization. If the layout of keys is different between every student's calculator the method wouldn't work. As a result happens and teachers only allow the one brand of calculator. If you're good enough to self study and actually learn things, the teachers don't usually care if you're not using a TI80 series.

It really is absurd how hard of a lock TI got on the market by getting in early. The hardware has to cost less than $20 to produce from start to finish these days. The things use tech that was cutting edge in the 80s.

be glad we dont charge more

t Texas

Even if you can, the teacher will just fail you (participation points) if you don't buy whatever stupid bullshit the school is pushing like this calculator. Taken a college class recently? In order to stop you from buying the book 2nd hand or downloading it for free, they put one time use "course codes" in there that you have to put on the publishers website to access pre made tests. A lot of teachers will just straight up fail you because you didn't go out and buy a $100+ dollar access code because they get paid by the publishers to push the shit. Academia is just a money making scheme, not about learning.

>all forms of american standardized tests have lists of "acceptable" calculators
>99% of them are made by texas instrument, with the rest being token casios

just download the app...

The microchip was invited by Texas. Japs are honorary Texans ever since they didn't turn tail and run at the first sight of Marines in the great W W two. Pay up, math nerds.

Exactly. I had no idea these things were still being made.

Lol, I remember when they were $150 when that wasn't pocket change! But yeah, it's still messed up.

Teacher here, they're losing market control. When I was studying, EVERYONE had a TI calculator. It was the only thing out there. Over a decade later, there's a number of brands out there, and our textbooks are now accommodating it by including the instructions for other brands alongside the TI ones. It's somewhat of a bitch because before you were able to help the whole class at once through any tech issues, and now there's a lot of Googling mid class to see how to get one students calculator to do shit.

Smartphones would never be allowed in tests, especially standardized tests, and as said, there are only so many calculators models that have been approved.

My 6 year old TI still works like new. The numbers have not even faded and I've been using it since.

The hardware doesn't cost that much but you are paying for the software too. If you have a laptop you can always just get something like Mathematica or Maple instead which both do way more powerful things. There are also iPhone/Android apps with graphing calculator like functionality.