clear
October 18, 2024 7:03 AM Subscribe
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 [atlantic]
How annoying. Maybe you can “unlock” it by signing in with your Google ID or maybe there’s a subscription option? Is this calculator enshittification?
This is one of those things that makes me feel profoundly conservative, in the sense that I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to my child. “Back in the old days, you bought a calculator once and then you had it - including all its functionality - forever until it broke!” “Ok, old lady, was that back when phones were ATTACHED TO THE WALL??” (rolls eyes)
posted by Vatnesine at 7:48 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
This is one of those things that makes me feel profoundly conservative, in the sense that I don’t know how I’m going to explain it to my child. “Back in the old days, you bought a calculator once and then you had it - including all its functionality - forever until it broke!” “Ok, old lady, was that back when phones were ATTACHED TO THE WALL??” (rolls eyes)
posted by Vatnesine at 7:48 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
I'm still on ios 17. So what happens when you hold the backspace button? Does it clear the current entry like the C/AC button did?
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 7:53 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 7:53 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
The original skeumorphic calculator had issues with conceptual leakage around the edges of the C button. Apple tried to address those with a gasket upgrade included in the first round of the "flat" UI design language, but it never really worked 100% unless you were religious about holding the phone in the recommended fashion.
The best part is no part, or so they say; this new design should prove quite a lot more reliable.
posted by flabdablet at 7:55 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
The best part is no part, or so they say; this new design should prove quite a lot more reliable.
posted by flabdablet at 7:55 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
… I’m having some conceptual leakage myself here. Flabdablet, what does your comment mean?
posted by Vatnesine at 8:03 AM on October 18 [3 favorites]
posted by Vatnesine at 8:03 AM on October 18 [3 favorites]
I'm still on ios 17. So what happens when you hold the backspace button? Does it clear the current entry like the C/AC button did?
Yes. But otherwise it lets you delete a typo at the end of a long entry in a kind of useful way. This is the weirdest goddamn beanplating ever, but it is Apple and Metafilter, so feel free to get your 10 minute hate on MeFi does.
posted by Kyol at 8:07 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
Yes. But otherwise it lets you delete a typo at the end of a long entry in a kind of useful way. This is the weirdest goddamn beanplating ever, but it is Apple and Metafilter, so feel free to get your 10 minute hate on MeFi does.
posted by Kyol at 8:07 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
I am in normal mode. It says AC and clears. In scientific mode it still says AC and clicking does erase the last one while holding onto it for a split second does a normal clear. iOS 18.1
posted by geoff. at 8:14 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
posted by geoff. at 8:14 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
TFA author lost me with "I will never know what a centimeter is." Are we going to relitigate losing ADB now? Or having to take your right hand off the keyboard to use that crazy gadget that they're calling a "mouse"?
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:21 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:21 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
I’ve been using PCalc for years on my iPhone and iPad. It has a far more important button - Enter. As in, I’m a rabid user of RPN calculators since my first one, an HP 25 in the 70’s. PCalc also has a C, an AC, and an MC key. The C key has a distinct semantics - Clear the entry. Backspace, which is a typewriter holdover, requires multiple hits to do the same job. Whoever decided to remove it is not a calculator user.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:26 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 8:26 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
Can I admit even though I theoretically understand the difference between C and AC, I've never trusted a calculator to correctly do that one 'clear' transaction correctly in a long calculation?
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:38 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:38 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]
RPN jeez.
posted by whatevernot at 8:45 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 8:45 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
Not an ios person. Have they also eliminated the Clear Entry (CE) key? On my Android devices, a long push (as opposed to repeated taps) of the backspace key is often interpreted as a "clear entry" request, in most places where input is required.
Anyway I just confirmed that this Android tablet's calculator still has a C key (he added smugly).
posted by Artful Codger at 8:47 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
Anyway I just confirmed that this Android tablet's calculator still has a C key (he added smugly).
posted by Artful Codger at 8:47 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
One thing I appreciate as people around me get older is how much cost there is to UI changes in software products. This change (and the article) are a great example.
My partner is 78, a software engineer himself, been using computers for 50+ years. He's fully capable. But he's got less patience and energy for learning new stuff. Every time a UI changes, like this calculator, there's a big sigh as he realizes he has to figure out something new just to do the same old thing he always does.
For something this simple he'd figure it out. The iPhone camera app has been a bigger problem, he's constantly accidentally putting it into the wrong mode or can't find the way to turn off the flash in a new version. I finally set him up with Simple Camera, a third party app. But its UI has changed and gotten more complex over time too. And when big things change sometimes he just gives up. Web site authentication is a particular problem. He only sort of understands how to use 1Password (I've tried to help him) and anytime a website changes the login flow, often adding 2FA, it's 50/50 whether he'll bother figuring it out. His online world is getting smaller.
I have another friend in his 80s now and has a lot of health problems but a clearly functioning mind. When WordPress.com switched to the Block editor it damn near killed him. I'm not exaggerating. He was having severe health problems and his one joy in life was writing long detailed blog posts: half academic, half delightfully sexually explicit gay stuff. One day he logs in to write something and poof it's all different, he can't figure out how to use any of it. And he was not going to be able to figure it out. Again, no exaggeration, he shared with his close friends that he figured he might as well just die now and his health was so bad I was worried that might actually be the thing that pushed him over. Fortunately a friend was able to go to his house and help configure WordPress to use the old editor. He's still using it, I think, and I wonder what will happen if they ever stop supporting it.
Product changes are often improvements: the C button is superfluous, cameras are more capable, the block editor is an improvement. But these improvements are only incremental. And young computer interface experts don't appreciate enough how much cost US changes impose on their users. I keep hoping people put more effort into simplified systems, particularly for older people. There are a few (like the Jitterbug phones) but it's not a big enough product category to get much development.
posted by Nelson at 8:51 AM on October 18 [13 favorites]
My partner is 78, a software engineer himself, been using computers for 50+ years. He's fully capable. But he's got less patience and energy for learning new stuff. Every time a UI changes, like this calculator, there's a big sigh as he realizes he has to figure out something new just to do the same old thing he always does.
For something this simple he'd figure it out. The iPhone camera app has been a bigger problem, he's constantly accidentally putting it into the wrong mode or can't find the way to turn off the flash in a new version. I finally set him up with Simple Camera, a third party app. But its UI has changed and gotten more complex over time too. And when big things change sometimes he just gives up. Web site authentication is a particular problem. He only sort of understands how to use 1Password (I've tried to help him) and anytime a website changes the login flow, often adding 2FA, it's 50/50 whether he'll bother figuring it out. His online world is getting smaller.
I have another friend in his 80s now and has a lot of health problems but a clearly functioning mind. When WordPress.com switched to the Block editor it damn near killed him. I'm not exaggerating. He was having severe health problems and his one joy in life was writing long detailed blog posts: half academic, half delightfully sexually explicit gay stuff. One day he logs in to write something and poof it's all different, he can't figure out how to use any of it. And he was not going to be able to figure it out. Again, no exaggeration, he shared with his close friends that he figured he might as well just die now and his health was so bad I was worried that might actually be the thing that pushed him over. Fortunately a friend was able to go to his house and help configure WordPress to use the old editor. He's still using it, I think, and I wonder what will happen if they ever stop supporting it.
Product changes are often improvements: the C button is superfluous, cameras are more capable, the block editor is an improvement. But these improvements are only incremental. And young computer interface experts don't appreciate enough how much cost US changes impose on their users. I keep hoping people put more effort into simplified systems, particularly for older people. There are a few (like the Jitterbug phones) but it's not a big enough product category to get much development.
posted by Nelson at 8:51 AM on October 18 [13 favorites]
The current display of 14+37+99.2+8 is nice, and being able backspace makes it more approachable to people that aren't used to how AC/C buttons worked on calculators.
I am amused by 2+2x6=14 in this app. This is not how an adding machine would have done it...
posted by advicepig at 8:57 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
I am amused by 2+2x6=14 in this app. This is not how an adding machine would have done it...
posted by advicepig at 8:57 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
I am amused by 2+2x6=14 in this app. This is not how an adding machine would have done it...
Which is why as a programmer, I got into the habit of explicitly defining my order of operations, and not relying on the guy who wrote the compiler agreeing with me.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:02 AM on October 18 [6 favorites]
Which is why as a programmer, I got into the habit of explicitly defining my order of operations, and not relying on the guy who wrote the compiler agreeing with me.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:02 AM on October 18 [6 favorites]
I have yet to hear anyone say good things about iOS 18 (or the iPad version for that matter), and I worry it's going to be the Windows 11 of iPhones. Fortunately I treat the C/AC button like it has dangerous magical properties best left unexplored, so this change will not particularly affect me, but I'm kinda scared of other changes.
posted by mittens at 9:30 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
posted by mittens at 9:30 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
what does your comment mean?
achieving synergy with corporate objectives
posted by HearHere at 9:47 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
achieving synergy with corporate objectives
posted by HearHere at 9:47 AM on October 18 [2 favorites]
the rugged Hewlett-Packard that you swiped off Dad’s desk so you could make its display read BOOBIES upside-down (5318008).I’m a rabid user of RPN calculators since my first one, an HP 25 in the 70’s
If you really want to bite your thumb at calculator modernity, I commend unto you nonpareil, a glorious monument to obstinance, anachronism, and calculator fandom.
Nonpareil is a high-fidelity simulator for calculators. It currently supports many HP calculators models introduced between 1972 and 1982. Simulation fidelity is achieved through the use of the actual microcode of the calculators, thus in most cases the simulation behavior exactly matches that of the real calculator. In particular, numerical results will be identical, because the simulator is using the BCD arithmetic algorithms from the calculator.For MacOS, the easiest starting point is probably Mark Shin's Nonpareil Voyager Series, prebuilt macOS Universal Binaries that emulate the Voyager calculators at Retina resolution.
posted by zamboni at 9:50 AM on October 18
Hold the backspace button to clear the entire entry. Press it once to only delete one character. I guess they don't make The Atlantic writers like they used to.
Somebody at Apple just won a bucket of brownie points...
We actually get six figures RSU refreshers and haven't had to worry about a layoff since Steve got back in '97. As a bonus, we get to see curmudgeon whine about our products improving, but that's more an added bonus on top of our actual bonuses.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 10:05 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
Somebody at Apple just won a bucket of brownie points...
We actually get six figures RSU refreshers and haven't had to worry about a layoff since Steve got back in '97. As a bonus, we get to see curmudgeon whine about our products improving, but that's more an added bonus on top of our actual bonuses.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 10:05 AM on October 18 [1 favorite]
I have yet to hear anyone say good things about iOS 18
There are a lot of good things about it, including a new Passwords app, more privacy and security options, a much improved Photos app, easier conversions in the Calculator app, messages via satellite (in the US and Canada, when out of cell service range), new hiking routes and the option to add notes to locations in Maps, much more home screen and Control Center customization options...
Some new emoji and Message options too, plus RCS support for messaging with Android users.
There's a lot of other stuff, too--it's a big update--but those are some things that I've noticed and liked.
posted by box at 10:09 AM on October 18
There are a lot of good things about it, including a new Passwords app, more privacy and security options, a much improved Photos app, easier conversions in the Calculator app, messages via satellite (in the US and Canada, when out of cell service range), new hiking routes and the option to add notes to locations in Maps, much more home screen and Control Center customization options...
Some new emoji and Message options too, plus RCS support for messaging with Android users.
There's a lot of other stuff, too--it's a big update--but those are some things that I've noticed and liked.
posted by box at 10:09 AM on October 18
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