Hey everyone!

So my brother just recently got a Ti 84 + CE, after he jumped for an opportunity he'd been waiting for for a while. However, I'm not sure if it came with OS 5.5.1 or higher.

Here are my questions I hope you guys can answer:
- Did TI start shipping calculators with the new OS?
- Is there any way to tell the date/model of a calculator without taking it out of the packaging?
- The calculator looks the same as mine, an older one shipped with OS 5.3.x, are there any serial numbers/model numbers on the box?
- Does the 2019 copyright date say it all? Or is that just the date they changed the packaging?

Thanks everyone, I've included some pictures down below. I hope he can return this if it has OS 5.5.1.
(Sorry the images are so big, I'm not very good with BBCode)

You're fine, that looks like an older "new packaging" (blue), Also, the 84+CE-T Python Edition are going to be the first one coming built-in with 5.6 and they are just about to be ready.
So that 84+CE is also just fine.

BTW, OS 5.5.1 is for the 83 Premium CE. OS 5.6 is for the 84+CE.

Depending on the sticker etc. you can sometimes see the LCD with a very low angle. You'll need to press pretty hard on the plastic to actually press the keys though.

Moreover, it's not that much of a big deal, "jailbreaks" are likely to exist relatively soon after 5.6's release (and the equivalent for the 83?) just like there's Ndless on the Nspire.

Thanks very much!

Sorry about the OS thing, just got them mixed up. (Thanks for informing me about that, I thought it was the other way around!)

Ok thanks. I knew there were jailbreaks and exploits in the works from the wording in TheLastMillennial's youtube video about the situation, but knew they probably aren't going to be publicly available for a while.

Thanks for your speedy help!

How would you be able to jailbreak a calculator since you could only run Basic and Python? Would one have to tamper with a compiled ASM/C/ICE program's code to bypass the ASM-prohibition? Or would you have to use a 3rd-party-software that reads a calculator being plugged in to jailbreak (like one would for an iOS device)?

The OS is written in assembly, so you would have to find a bug in the OS that causes it to treat something that you control (most likely an appvar or a program) like an assembly routine.
This is, broadly speaking, the same way that iPhone jailbreaks work.

Of course, that isn't super difficult - there are many bugs in the OS, since nobody's bothered to look for them so far because we already can run assembly programs.

I feel like if the OS is written in assembly, some internal subroutines that the OS itself uses for certain things (like QuadReg for example, or sending an OS) would be off-limits without exploiting bugs due to all forms of assembly being cut off from the user in OS 5.6.

Well, assembly (or, more accurately, ez80 machine language) is just the language that the calculator's CPU executes. It's impossible for the calculator to do anything at all without running assembly. The boot code, OS, and even the TI-BASIC interpreter are all written in or compiled to assembly.

The 5.5 (and 5.6) update only disables the feature of executing user-supplied assembly out of a program. All other forms of running custom assembly code are either bugs (e.g. arbitrary code execution bugs) or protected from access using a signing key that's basically impossible for anyone besides TI to use (e.g. OS updates, apps).

So, while your calculator will still run assembly code after the update, bugs aside you won't have any control over which assembly code it's running - only TI can decide what code can be installed.

OK, that's useful and enlightening. Despite the fact that upcoming oversights in OS 5.6 would be kept private from the entirety of TI Planet (since they protect against exam cheaters), I would be interested in when and how you all manage to exploit a flaw in this new OS so that ASM can be executable, again.

All of the community's main sites, not just TI-Planet, would have to take down the now inevitable attacks on the TI-eZ80 series' exam mode (or incur TI's legal wrath), if such attacks were to be uploaded to the main sites, which is unlikely: the hosting possibilities which do not involve any of the community's main sites are endless.
However, all of the user-caring sites - i.e. all of the community's main sites - will widely feature the "jailbreak" giving back the ability to execute arbitrary ASM programs, equivalent of Ndless on the Nspire series, and the possibilities it opens. Users on these sites will help other users use the jailbreak infrastructure, and none of the sites' respective staff members will object (some, probably most will clearly help), because using the hardware we own (or are lent) however we see fit is a fundamental user right.

In order to maximize damage for TI's reputation, the attacks on exam mode will presumably be released several weeks before the main exams the exam mode is targeting, i.e. around May.
Instead of that stupid exam mode, the only way to provide non-insignificant protection for the fantasized exam security has always been to reflash all calculators with exam-tailored software in the exam rooms, right before the exams (and even such a method is clearly not bulletproof, think e.g. divulgation of exam OS by privileged insiders, etc.). The alternative is of course to forbid calculators altogether... which is probably what's going to happen to TI-eZ80 calculators facing a powerful exam mode exploit shortly before the standardized tests

Probably because the people who regulate exams are too stupid, TI pulled a PS3 on its users, despite TI EdTech high-level management being warned years ago, by yours truly, about how bad that was, and how bad the highly predictable consequences would be. TI has far more to lose than users have.


FTR, in the past, in order to write the official announcements on TI-Planet of new releases of Ndless, announcements which were posted at the same time as upstream announcements, it can be easily deducted that TI-Planet staff had access to new releases of Ndless before the general public had. So, while it's entirely possible to withhold exploits from us TI-Planet staff, having more testing, feature requests and resulting bugfixes / improvements isn't a bad thing, so withholding exploits from TI-Planet staff is unlikely to be doing a service to users

It will probably take some time before the calcs with the bad OS arrive in store. I, for one, just bought a new 84-plus-ce-t in Flanders (the Dutch/Flemish-speaking part of belgium) yesterday and for sure it still has 5.3.1.0058.

Ah thanks, that makes me feel better. I still just don't understand how ti could do this...
Oh well! That's a relief. But that calc was completely fine.

TI can do whatever they want. It's their hardware/software. That being said, just because they can do something doesn't mean they should... it may not be best for their users or their bottom line. And we don't have to play nicely when it comes to hosting exploits/jailbreaks, or what calculator brand we promote.

They really care more about feedback from their Boards of Education, not their backbone of their integrity (Community at tiplanet). (Source: TheLastMillennial's 2nd recent video) The teachers and such would have to plead them to re-enable ASM, C, and Ice programming for educational purposes in order for TI's decision to be reversed.