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Presumably: that you are allowed to use it during exams in the USA. That's what has kept TI's offerings competitive.

The hardware has an "exam mode" that it is non-trivial to get out of (https://www.numworks.com/resources/faq/)

I do expect that to be hacked, though. The FAQ says:

"How to exit the exam mode?

Simply plug your device to a computer using the supplied USB cable. you will then be prompted to exit the exam mode."

It wouldn't surprised if one could fake that computer by powering a USB plug with a small battery. If not, the OS source is available, so a backdoor for leaving exam mode likely isn't far away.

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> Presumably: that you are allowed to use it during exams in the USA.

Nope, this calculator is not allowed on any of the major standardized tests.

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-tes...

https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/takingtheexam/exam-polici...

http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-c...

And many -- perhaps most -- high school teachers have a similar "white list based" policy because they're unable or unwilling to a) admit that any graphing calculator makes cheating basically impossible to prevent without extremely careful proctoring; and/or b) emphasize learning even at the expense of weakening the signaling value of credentials.

IMO tests should be designed sot that calculators aren't necessary. I can't ever remember using a calculator in university, and that's really the only place I actually learned any mathematics in a classroom setting.

From the website¹:

> The NumWorks Graphing Calculator matches all the requirements of the ACT calculator policy and is permitted for use on that test. It is currently under review by the College Board for use on the SAT.

¹https://www.numworks.com

Until this calculator is listed on the ACT website, I wouldn't risk using it. You will be turned away if you show up with an unapproved calculator.

Hacked TIs with "fake memory clear" and other clever tricks were/are pretty common too.

But the most impressive I've seen were some calculators I saw in Shenzhen a few years ago which looked like simple solar-powered 4-function ones, but were actually programmable and had several tens of KB of memory. Trying to use that functionality with a 8-digit 7-segment display, however, was quite challenging.

If you ever stumble on old or further information about these 4-function calculators, I would love to learn more. That sounds amazing.

Did the solar panel actually power it, or was there a hidden battery?

heh, i remember writing a fake "memory clear" program on my TI back in 1994/1995 (i don't remember the exact model).

I wonder if this use case is what motivated the choice of a license that does not allow distribution of derivatives.

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