Is the Prime truly ready for prime time?

[Matt Agajanian]

(03-16-2014 05:16 PM)eried Wrote:  

(03-15-2014 07:53 PM)Matt Agajanian Wrote:  Hello all,

Keep in mind I just returned a TI N-Spire CX after severe frustration & disappointment.

Also, from some posts here, unless I'm mistaken, it seems there are still some kinks and bugs which need to be adjusted on the Prime. In light of these, should I wait on the Prime (presuming HP is committed to Prime development and support) or go with a TI N-Spire CX CAS or a Casio or Sharp model? OR, just stick with my 50G and be done with it?

Thanks

Why the N-Spire disappointed you?

Although it is a capable unit. it should have some level of CAS functionality or something that makes symbolic capabilities available. Frankly, I can't validate why TI made both a CAS and Non-CAS version separately. What would have been better is for TI to make just the CAS model with a preference flag in the settings so that teachers can disable the CAS functionality on their students'
calcs during tests.

The above being said, it seems to me, without the symbolic math/manipulation capabilities, the Non-CAS N-Spire is not as capable/functional as calcs I already own, a 48GX and 50G.

***Okay, here's an example:

I entered the following into my 48GX:

'M^3' [ENTER]
'M^2' [x]

Naturally I got 'M^3xM^2'

Next, I did a [SYMB] ==COLLCT== which produced 'M^5'

But, since the N-Spire CX (non CAS) does not handle symbolic expressions, when I tried this on the CX, it returned 'Variable Not Defined.'

It just seems to me that symbolic manipulation on a calc of the N-Spire's magnitude should be a standard feature.

Plus, when I called TI, they informed me that there was no software or firmware code I could install to update the N-Spire to add CAS functionality.