[phireph0x]

I've owned 4 (!) different TI graphing calculators throughout the years. I believe it started with the TI-85 in the mid-90s, followed by the 86, then the 92, and finally culminating with the TI-89 in 1999. I don't think they've really surpassed the 89 in terms of functionality. I ended up selling the 92, as it was replaced with the functionally-equivalent 89 (in the familiar TI form-factor), and gave the 85 to my sister, so today all that remains is the 89 and the 86. I have fond memories of playing games and writing small programs on TI graphing calcs (ticalc.org still exists, apparently). At first only BASIC programs were supported, but then some folks figured out how to hack the 85 to run assembly, which continued on the other models. TI fought it at first, but later reluctantly supported assembly programs. Some enterprising hackers managed to implement rudimentary audio support via the data port, which I thought was quite impressive. The 84 Plus is essentially the old TI-82 platform iterated a number of times (TI-82, TI-83, 83 Plus, 83 Plus Silver, etc.)

I've been waiting for years for TI to make a graphing calc smartphone app, but with margins such as those described in the article, why would they? It'll likely take a major shift in the testing standards (i.e. allowing mobile devices) for this situation to change. Test proctors might have to become more vigilant, but I imagine if airplane mode was strictly enforced, then smartphones might be allowed. Seems that the communications features (which can facilitate cheating) are the primary concern.