[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Many of you may have already heard of Texas Instruments’ excellent calculators; most importantly, the (currently) top-of-the line TI-89/92 and, for high school students, the most recommended TI-84 series.

These calculators can be much more powerful than native Windows Mobile calculators

They are free (as opposed to some commercial Windows Mobile calculators), assuming, of course, you have the original device

while there are some excellent unit conversion apps for Windows Mobile (for example, Burr Oak Software's Conversions In Hand, Fann Software's ConverterCE Pro or TranCreative's MxConverter Comprehensive Edition for Pocket PC), the built-in unit conversion capabilities of these calculators are excellent (example screenshot HERE (accessible after pressing 2nd + 3 on a TI-89) and HERE)

may already be well-known to you if you’ve actively been using them in real life (no need to learn the interface of a new calculator software – you can just go on with your already well-known one)

have GREAT third-party software add-on support (as far as the newer models, manufactured in the last 14-15 years, are concerned)

This means it might be far more advantageous to check them out instead of trying to find a native Windows Mobile implementation. In this review, I scrutinize all the available solutions, going back in time. That is, at first, I review the most up-to-date emulators and, then, go back in time to discuss emulators of other (less powerful / capable) calculators. This means the first part of the review will be of interest to anyone wanting to get some decent calculator software or just doesn’t want to keep her or his calculator around when the Windows Mobile handheld is capable of doing (almost) the same. Latter chapters of this roundup will mostly please people like me – that is, classic for example LED calculators, which have long been dwarfed with more recent models.

Please also consult the linked-in Wiki pages on the original calculators themselves. Here, I will only elaborate on stuff directly connected to Windows Mobile-based emulation and the like – that is, stuff completely missing from the original Wiki articles. You may also want to follow ticalc.org’s calculator pages.

Before embarking on listing the available (with special emphasis on current) models, let me point out that higher model / series number doesn’t correspond to being newer. That is, for example, the TI-84 series, while considerably newer than the TI-89 series, have a lower number. Also worth mentioning is the fact that TI has several (graphing) models, all targeted to different market segment. For example, a high school student doesn’t necessarily need derivation / integration capabilities (dunno if high schools in the States do teach these subjects for regular high school students – here in Europe, these are only taught in specialized high schools) – it’d be an overkill for her or him to pay extra for a calculator that offers these advanced capabilities. That is, instead of the most advanced (and expensive) TI-89/92/V200 series, a high school student will most probably want to get a cheaper TI-84 Plus (SE) (or, if she or he is cost conscious, their direct, compatible predecessor, the TI-83 (Plus)).

Let me also mention that this tutorial is

the first in the row of my forthcoming series on Windows Mobile calculators. In the following installment, I’ll discuss the emulators existing for HP’s calculators and, then, the native calculator programs

as usual, widely needed. The official manual of the best desktop Windows emulator, VTI, is very hard for a beginner to understand, and the same stands for the official TI-89 manual. In addition, the Windows Mobile version has absolutely no documentation / tips / descriptions of in what way it’s different from the desktop version. That is, this tutorial is undoubtedly the best tutorial available for TI-89 newbies wanting to get up to speed as soon as possible without having to read hundreds of TI-89 manual pages.

So, the current (and future) TI calculator models are as follows. (Note that the Comparison & Feature Chart also has a quick summary of these devices, along with a lot of information.) Also note that, in general, TI uses the “Plus” to refer to the second edition of a given model (except for the TI-84 Plus, which doesn’t have a non-Plus device). “Silver Edition” (abbreviated as SE; not to be mistaken for “Second Edition”!) and “Titanium” generally refers to the third (and, therefore, most advanced) model in a given series. That is, always try to get a SE / Titanium model if possible.

1.1 TI-Nspire

This model hasn’t been released yet; therefore, no emulators exist (let alone Windows Mobile ones).

1.2 TI-84 Plus (Silver Edition)

These two, pretty new (released in 2004) and, according to the poll HERE, most popular TI series high school calculator (in the poll, the TI-89 was placed second; don't forget, though, that the TI-84 series is aimed at high school students, while the TI-89's are aimed at more serious university students or graduated folks) models (the enhanced versions of the TI-83 Plus (Silver Edition)) are still not emulated under WM (or, for that matter, the desktop Windows) either. Not that it’d be a problem – after all, these models don’t have any advanced functionality compared to their predecessor (the TI-83 Plus), “only” a faster CP and more RAM / ROM.