Live data from Hacker News

iPadOS

techcrunch.com

241–250 of 337 posts

Re: iPadOS

#241
post #239

Finger cross this includes a first class calculator...

Just buy PCalc and support an awesome indie developer.

Are there any other options? Pcalc actually has many people complaining about lack of features.

Re: iPadOS

#242
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really such a big issue though? There are hundreds of free calculator apps you can download through the app store.

The one you want is PCalc. It isn't free, but it's not expensive either.

[deleted]

Re: iPadOS

#243
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how to ask this without it sounding anything other than genuinely curious, but it is: why would you spend money on a calculator app? What does it offer that other (free) calculator apps don't? Are free apps just so crippled that you need to pay for something full-featured and/or without something like ads? I'm not familiar with the iOS/iPadOS ecosystem.

You could ask a similar question to physical calculators, I think. Why would you pay for an advanced calculator when you can get the cheap-o solar powered calculators for free in many many places? Because you want a quality product with some thought put in to it.

Physical calculators have the tactile feedback that allows you to use them at 10x the speed AND without looking at the screen all the time.

Re: iPadOS

#244
post #221
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A paid calculator app might be better designed than a free one. A very bold claim - there are many paid-for calc apps that just use plain floating point math and don't attempt to mimic a proper calculator at all. There are also free calc apps that DO put the work in to be a proper useful calculator.

I don't think it's bold at all to say one _might_ be, as I purposefully did. I'd think that'd be pretty obvious, actually.

My point is that 'it costs money' is sadly not a way to gauge good calculators on ios, and a lot of the 'costs money' ones don't even have a free option to test/check-the-precision.

Re: iPadOS

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the inability to split the keyboard - on iPad sized devices, trying to thumb type without a split keyboard is a huge pain in the ass.

I’ve used split keyboards in iPads since I bought them 3 yrs ago. Split keyboards were there forever.

iPads Pro, at least the largest one, don’t have the feature for some inexplicable reason.

Re: iPadOS

#246
post #241
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just buy PCalc and support an awesome indie developer.

Are there any other options? Pcalc actually has many people complaining about lack of features.

It's an untraditional calculator, but I love Soulver from Acqualia. It is always one of the first things I install on a new iPhone or Mac.

https://www.acqualia.com/soulver/iphone/

Re: iPadOS

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how to ask this without it sounding anything other than genuinely curious, but it is: why would you spend money on a calculator app? What does it offer that other (free) calculator apps don't? Are free apps just so crippled that you need to pay for something full-featured and/or without something like ads? I'm not familiar with the iOS/iPadOS ecosystem.

It's super configurable and does everything I need, especially when I'm using a keyboard. It's very well documented [1]. It was $10 which feels like a fair and sustainable price for something like this. It's nice to understand the business model. That said, there are lots of free calculators available. [1]: https://s3.amazonaws.com/tlasystems/PCalc-Manual.pdf

I spent, what, $50 or more on a calculator toolkit for the Mac about 25 years ago, just because it was such cool software. Never got any value out of it, just fun.

We are absolutely spoiled by low software prices, and they’re literally spoiling the market.

Re: iPadOS

#248
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any other options? Pcalc actually has many people complaining about lack of features.

It's an untraditional calculator, but I love Soulver from Acqualia. It is always one of the first things I install on a new iPhone or Mac. https://www.acqualia.com/soulver/iphone/

Soulver is amazing, and totally changes the way you use a calculator.

Re: iPadOS

#249

I am nervous this means Apple will hold back features from iOS to get people to buy an iPad. For example, they announced the new Files app with iPadOS but there is no reason that shouldn't all be available on an iPhone.

Bigger issues to me are the inabilities of iPads compared to iPhones: no watch pairing, no phone call or sms support, et c.

Re: iPadOS

#250
> Apple Pencil latency is dropping from 20ms to 9ms,

This is why I respect Apple. Most tech forums would have been flooded people whinging about how mere humans can’t perceive such low latencies and how improving them is a waste. Meanwhile Apple knows not to leave anything on the table for UX.

Post reply on HN