Wednesday, October 23, 2024

A Calculator's Most Important Button Has Been Removed

I worry that the calculator we've known and loved is not long for this Earth. This month, when I upgraded my iPhone to the latest operating system, iOS 18, it came with a refreshed Calculator app.

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More from the article...

... The update offered some improvements! I appreciated the vertical orientation of its scientific mode, because turning your phone sideways is so 2009; the continuing display of each operation (e.g., 217 4 + 8) on the screen until I asked for the result; the unit-conversion mode, because I will never know what a centimeter is.

But there also was a startling omission: The calculator's "C" button -- the one that clears input -- was gone. The "C" itself had been cleared. ...



#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-22 12:14 AM

Yeah, Apple does this.

Back in the day, when Apple iTunes first appeared on the scene, I pondered converting my home PC infrastructure from Windows to Apple.

I purchased an iMac, and started to move everything over. I also purchased an AppleTV box to show my music on the TV.

I soon found out the error of my ways.

For starters, the iTunes software in both the iMac and the AppleTV boxen could not play the FLAC files I had in my music reservoir.

And, it went downhill from there.

So, now, I am back to Windows (for better or worse) for the main PC client here, though I am typing this comment on Linux Mint (worth a look, imho. Far better than what Apple offered to me.)

Long story short, Apple's Walled Garden (i.e., the restrictions that Apple seems to impost upon its customers) were not something I wanted to support.


YMMV.


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-22 12:23 AM

Any Debian variant is better than Win/Mac...

For the corporate culture where you need interopability though, Mac is a nice Linux cousin on the command line

#3 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2024-10-22 09:54 AM

You bought an iPhone. That's on you, pal.

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-10-22 04:37 PM

iPhone, AppleTV, Mac, iPad here,
Along with my PC for consulting.
My linux for "hobby" work.

The calculator on the iPhone has the "C" button. It appears when you enter a number. Not sure what the issue is for the author of this piece?

#5 | Posted by YAV at 2024-10-22 04:49 PM

Typically I don't use the built-in calculators that are provided by the OS.

I strongly prefer a RPN-based calculator.

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-23 02:45 PM

They're just wrong. The delete button is better.

#7 | Posted by DarkVader at 2024-10-23 07:31 PM

I'll be ok. I still know how to use one of these. en.wikipedia.org

#8 | Posted by Miranda7 at 2024-10-23 10:59 PM

@#8 ... I still know how to use one of these. ...

I still have the slide rule that helped me through my years in Engineering school.

OK, let me go get it so I can identify it properly, ...

...

...

I'm back from that expedition. :)

OK,slide rules.

Yeah.

I remember my freshman year Engineering lab. my experiments accumulated so much data that I had to spend over 24 hours (no exaggeration) using a slide rule to produce results from the experiment.

Doing standard deviations on a slide rule. {ugh} That just gives me shivers when I remember doing that.

But to your point of slide rules...

I went into the depths of storage here, and pulled out my old (half--century old) slide rule.

It looks like a Keuffel & Esser Co. 4081-3 LOG LOG DUPLEX DECITRIG Slide Rule

Keuffel & Esser 4081-3 Log Log Decitrig Duplex Slide Rule
americanhistory.si.edu

Looking in the box that contained that slide rule, I also found my old HP 35 calculator.

Wow, that HP-35 cost over $300 back in the early 70's, back when the minimum wage was circa $1.25.

Thank-you Miranda7 for encouraging me to go back into that box of old stuff. :)


I've smiles on my face.


:)



#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-10-23 11:25 PM

"Long story short, Apple's Walled Garden (i.e., the restrictions that Apple seems to impost upon its customers) were not something I wanted to support."

Apple only has one clear advantage over Windows, which is connectivity. I have supported both OSs for many years in my life and man I love when I am using Apple and everything just works. I tested one time and used an old set of ear buds, 2 old printers, and a tablet (Samsung) and tested to see which OS would seamlessly connect all of them with the smallest amount of effort and Apple won hands down. I was blown away because the ear buds were over 5 years old and one of the printers was older than that (don't remember when I had gotten it). And the Mac just rocked all of those devices. I was able to get them all to work on Windows but for people who haven't been in IT their whole lives, they would never have been able to do it.

Other than that, Windows holds all other advantages (yes, even inherent security).

#10 | Posted by humtake at 2024-10-24 12:16 PM

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