What do you do when you drop your expensive graphing calculator on the floor, irreparably damaging the outer housing? Well since it’s not made of recycled paper like a certain alarm clock, you can either buy a new one or salvage and install the innards in a replacement housing made from custom milled aluminum. That’s exactly what University of Iowa industrial engineering student ‘Howard C.’ did, which cost him $50. And even though the calculator’s new housing might be a bit bulkier and heavier than the original, rest assured the next time it’s knocked to the floor the only think breaking will be Howard’s toes.

[ Hack a Day - Indestructible TI-89 ]

By Evan Ackerman

Everything, everything is better if, in addition to whatever its primary purpose is, it can also be used to a.) hit people and b.) take naps. This calculator may do fancy stuff with numbers (also known as witchcraft), but most importantly, it’s soft and squishy. And being solar powered, it’s Earth friendly, too! Yaaayyy!

Someone really needs to hack this thing with an accelerometer so that you can throw it at people and have it actually do stuff. Like, gentle toss is add, spinning toss is subtract, and severe beatdown is multiply. Let’s get multiplyin’!

The Solar Plush Calculator is $20 from a website called Silly Dilly Tot Spot, which also happens to be a kid’s TV show on the BBC.

[ Plush Calculator ] VIA [ Make ]

By Evan Ackerman

Sometimes, for chronic computer users like myself, it’s hard to differentiate between the digital world and reality. If you’ve ever done something really really stupid and then noticed your fingers unconsciously pressing control + z, you know what I’m talking about. This issue is made substantially more complicated by these calculators, which are modeled on the little calculator apps that come with your operating system unless you use something cooler like Linux.

These calculators are currently a concept from Mintpass, and their designer rightly points out that the chances of them ever getting produced is rather slim considering who owns the actual designs, but he envisions them being made as trade show handouts or something… We’ll let you know if we see any at CES in January. And I just have to wonder what, exactly, is supposed to happen when you press that bright red button in the upper right corner… If it’s as faithful a reproduction as it looks, it probably causes the calculator to self destruct.

[ Mintpass ] VIA [ Likecool ]

Sharp has just launched their EL-T100W calculator which they refer to as the ‘Brain Trainer’ since it includes “fun” drills and quizzes that are designed to measure your brain age just like the games available for the Nintendo DS do. As a calculator the EL-T100W is pretty basic though, with a simple 10-digit LCD display and a basic numeric keypad, but that’s probably why it has a price tag of just over $21. And while it’s not specified in the press release, I have to wonder if the calculator can be used to cheat on those brain measuring math quizzes…

[ PR - Test your brain age with the Sharp ‘Brain Trainer’ ] VIA [ Electricpig ]

And speaking of calculators, what better way is there to take advantage of that powerful graphing calculator you bought for university than by installing Bill Nagel’s custom Super Mario game. It’s not a port of any of the actual Super Mario games from Nintendo, but a recreation that includes 13 unique enemies, 64 unique background tiles, fast scrolling, power-ups like a growth mushroom and fire flowers and even a “somewhat-challenging” boss.

The game can be downloaded from ticalc.org, and if you need instructions on how to install it on your own calculator head on over to Brown-Eyed Albino’s Blog for a brief write-up and a link to a YouTube video.

[ ticalc.org - Super Mario v1.2 ] VIA [ MAKE: Blog ]

Well, you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so Sharp must be flattering the hell out of Apple with their new EL-N802 digital solar calculator. Hopefully that body is made out of actual aluminum, and not just plastic painted gray, but for just $25 from Amazon.co.jp, I’m not keeping my hopes up. FYI, it’s also available in an all black and all hot-pink color scheme.

[ Akihabara News - EL-N802, Sharp’s Stylish Calculator ]