Little Professor Calc for Android

…with a REAL computer inside!

Before the Speak 'n' Spell, which became an official 80s icon by its inclusion in the movie E.T., there was the Little Professor Calculator that was invented by one-time computing powerhouse, Texas Instruments, in order to finally bring a happier, friendly face to the blood-sucking horror that is modern mathematics. Oh I know that math has brought us countless innovations from toasters that enhance our breakfasts to the latest and greatest supercomputers that spend all day planning military strategies, but let's face it, most kids find it pretty boring. Luckily for rich Western children, TI introduced this educational calculator dressed up as a cartoon professor back in 1976, which was born from the (then) dream that through the use of technology, the human condition could be improved upon and utopia would finally be within mankind's reach. So people started cramming microchips into everything they could get their hands on and now here we are today.
Aside from the kiddy artwork that adorned the casing, the Little Professor was a fairly standard calculator except that it also functioned as a basic quiz game, randomly generating simple equations to which the operator would presumably input the correct answer, resulting in hours and hours of fun and learning. For example: 6 x 9 = ? And the answer is 42. "ERROR!" The Professor would then shame you with stark computer-speak displayed on its LED screen and then give you another chance to enter the correct answer. At the end of a round of questions you got to see your total score which let you know if you were going to be a Humanities student or not.
For those of you old enough to remember this little gem and who perhaps would enjoy sharing childhood memories with your own modern iPad/Netflix electro-children of the 21st century, you can now pick up an app-ified version for your Android device from the Google Play store and (as far as I can tell) it's free. Check out the video demo below and then click the link to visit Google Play and pick it up. Enjoy!

THE LITTLE PROFESSOR CALCULATOR APP FOR ANDROID

Forever Classic

Folks, the word "classic" gets thrown around quite a bit these days, and it gets applied to everything from failed soft drinks to disposable diapers. But once in a great while, a true classic turns up in my Google search results, a sturdy icon of its age blessed with the wherewithal to transcend both style and fashion and yes, even time itself - and that classic is the Casio Databank CA53W-1 watch, available now from selected online retailers. Casio's calculator/PDA-styled series of watches was introduced in 1983 with the Databank CD-40, one of the first watches of the 80s that allowed its user to store information. While later incarnations of the device eventually added PDA functions and increased memory capacity, the modern-day CA-53W-1 is not much different from the original standard calculator version and succeeds at capturing that classic Casio style in every rubberized micro-button. Here are the specs:


• 8-Digit Calculator
• Constants for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Water Resistant
• Dual Time
• Daily Alarm
• 1/100 second stopwatch
• Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times
• Hourly Time Signal
• Auto Calendar (pre-programmed until the year 2079)
• Approx. battery life: 5 years

So for less than 25 bones you can have the computing-equivalent of a Timex Sinclair 1000 (there's a post for a later time) strapped to your wrist and let me tell you, if you were seen at the mall in 1983 wearing one of these badboys you felt like you were in friggin' Star Trek! Most gnarly!


To go to directly to Casio's product page click HERE. Then you'll be able to finish your Marty McFly costume just in time for Halloween!