I know that Betteridge's Law states that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered with a "no", but I believe this may be one exception. I noticed in the footer of a marketing email sent by TI to teachers last week a small pronouncement to "Inform your students that the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition replaces the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition in stores." Although we certainly have seen consumers' overwhelming adoption of the color-screen TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition in download statistics and video views this Back-to-School season, it comes as a surprise to hear (official?) word that the TI-84+SE and presumably its sibling the TI-84+ are being phased out. It is not officially listed as discontinued in TI's Knowledge Base, which does list the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, TI-89, and TI-Nspire Clickpads as discontinued.

Ti83+ SE for life!

In all seriousness, I think this could be good because of the considerably higher resolution graph screen. I wish they'd have either had more effecient font rendering or a faster processor for home screen and programming stuff. On the other hand, the TI-XS multiview thingy is still available as a cheap solution for at least the basic math you'ld do on the homescreen.


The main text there is 12pt italicized Arial, in case anybody else has fun additions.
Aren't they still selling the normal 83+?
tifreak8x wrote:
Aren't they still selling the normal 83+?
That list doesn't list the TI-83 Plus as discontinued, although it seems reasonable to assume that if the TI-84+SE is discontinued, that the TI-83+ will be as well. Note that this is phrased specifically as replaced in stores; it doesn't say anything about the calculator itself being no longer manufactured, even though that's a logical conclusion. I'm most sad about the fact that this means monochrome program downloads are going to drop precipitously, and the bulk of our years or decades of programs will no longer be relevant to current students.
They're still selling the normal 83, even, in some markets. (And there's now an 82+, which everyone else calls an 83+, and an 83+.fr, which is an 84+SE everywhere else.)

The US TI Education site shows the calculators stacked in descending order, on the homepage:

TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition
TI-Nspire CX
TI-Nspire CX CAS
TI-84 Plus
TI-89 Titanium

So, I'm thinking the 84+ isn't going away, as a lower-cost option is still needed. And, the 83+ still seems to be kicking around, for even lower cost.
I think that when the Ti 84+ CSE finally replaces the monochrome calculators, ticalc.org and here, cemetech, should archive all the programs into a 7z or something and have that available for download.
..why? We've never done anything like that for other machines that are actually discontinued (85, 86...).

Merth's contribution to "mucking with the text on that graphic":
Tari wrote:
..why? We've never done anything like that for other machines that are actually discontinued (85, 86...).
I have to say I equally fail to see the point, even ignoring the number of licenses that would violate. I think the current structured file archives we have here and at ticalc.org are still a sane way to navigate the available options.
*bump* In a recent tweet, @TICalculators added more fuel to the fire; the phrase "in stores" is now missing as well:

Whoa, all that rainbow makes me feel very 80's, like back when they were advertising color computers and TVs.

I don't care if they phase out the b&w models. It was fun while it lasted, but in this day, and thanks to color competition from Casio and HP, it couldn't last forever. I only wish they didn't operate so objectionably slowly.
The biggest regret I have about it is that all of the monochrome projects we've built over the years will very quickly become obsolete, and only the new color programs will remain relevant. I guess that's inevitable anyway, and we've had a good long run with the monochrome z80 calculators.
I think it will be a little more agreeable to later after they do a couple of OS updates, so they don't run so slow. I think that the 83 and 84 are still majorly used most places. It's TI's fault for making them last soooo long... (stupid well built hardware devices Razz)
I think the CSE is still a little too new to be switching over to use on them.
Unless they decide to upgrade the ASIC to use an ez80 IP at some point, and/or an LCD with hardware graphics acceleration, I think it's unlikely that the calculator will get markedly faster. I think that it would help to get a lot of the bugs we've mentioned in our Big Bad Bundle of TI-84+CSE Bugs fixed to make the experience for the power user a bit smoother.
Well, this is saddening news Sad

Still, a 10 year shelf life for an electronics product is pretty rare, as this article illustrates.

As a platform, though, the 84+ will still have a place in my heart. It's played a pivotal role in my programming education. I'm just somewhat miffed that I've owned my 84+ SE for a little over 2 years now and it's obsolete. Such is technology, I guess.
I might buy a couple 84+SEs now as backup devices in case anything happens to my trusty friend.
  
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