TI Releases New iPad Graphing and Algebraic Calculator Apps

inspireI am jealous of kids nowadays. They have iPads, iPhones, and access to incredibly useful apps like Texas Instruments’ new TI-Nspire apps for students. When I was still in math classes, I had to make do with big, bulky TI calculators, but these apps have all of the functionality with none of the bulk and a fraction of the cost.

Priced at $29.99 each, the TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS iPad apps are designed to act as all-in-one math learning tools, and were developed as part of a collaboration between both researchers and classroom teachers.

“The apps fill a critical need for an all-in-one math teaching and learning tool designed specifically for the iPad,” said Melendy Lovett, president of Texas Instruments Education Technology. “TI’s goals are to provide educators with the most powerful math apps for the iPad and to engage students while helping them reach a deeper conceptual understanding of math.”

These apps are designed for students in 7th grade through college, offering all-in-one functionality for performing calculations in math notation, graphing and exploring functions, equations and inequalities, constructing and exploring geometric figures, and creating, plotting, and analyzing data in lists and spreadsheets.


Students will find that an interactive keyboard that toggles between math notation and QWERTY makes it easy to enter data and equations, and linked multiple representations of problems will help students to develop connections by observing how equations change as they interact with objects on the screen.

There’s even a function that allows students to take photos, import them into the app, and overlay graphs and equations in order to illustrate mathematic principles in the real world. How cool is that?


The TI-Nspire CAS app, which is the more advanced of the two, features a built-in Computer Algebra System that allows students to symbolically solve equations, factor and expand variable expressions, find derivatives, and more.

Both the TI-Nspire app and the TI-Nspire CAS app cost $29.99 and can be downloaded from the App Store.

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