Texas Instruments removes support for popular side-loaded apps and games

Texas Instruments has long made graphing calculators beloved by school-goers and programmers alike. The calculators are simple, compact computing systems, and entire communities have formed over the years to celebrate the devices' broad programming capabilities.

All that's about to change. Texas Instruments is pulling support for C-based and assembly-based programs on both the TI-84 Plus CE - the most popular calculator for sideloading - and the TI-83 Premium CE, its French sibling. The latest firmware for each completely removes the capability and leaves users with no way to roll back to previous versions of the firmware.

Way back when I was in high school, I used to write my own TI-83 programs to... Well, to cheat on tests. These devices were a brand new addition to the education system at the time, and teachers had no clue what we as students were doing with them. One of my best friends and I also bought a communication cable for them so we could share stuff and play multiplayer games together in the back of class.

Removing stuff like this is a terrible idea.