Calculator App Issues in iOS 18

PLandersFl wrote:

As many others have said before, the calculator is only useful if you are 7 or younger.

Well, I'm 62 and find it quite useful. And yes, I have an "adult" job at a university that involves numbers and budgets.

[Edited by Moderator]

PLandersFl wrote:

I absolutely HATE the new calculator on iOS 18. It is unusable. As many others have said before, the calculator is only useful if you are 7 or younger. This is the worst thing Apple has ever done. The only way Apple can save themselves is if they give back the functionality of the original version of Calculator for those who are over the age of seven. I will not use this Calculator ever again unless it is fixed and most likely I will delete this app from my phone if possible because it is so absolutely, utterly useless.

What’s interesting is that a huge number of users HATED the old calculator, which is why it was changed. Showing that there are differences of opinion in the world. Just because you personally don’t like something it does not mean that everyone must dislike it.

I’m indifferent because I’ve never used it for more than quickie calculations. For anything financial I use an HP-12C emulator, and for scientific an HP-15C emulator.

I guess I’ll have to get an app that calculates at the adult level.

That’s exactly what Apple wants you to do; they make money when you buy from the App Store. So that is hardly a threat.

Michael Jarosz1 wrote:

I can't believe that this is still not fixed.

This was one of the dumbest changes in iOS 18 and seems to have been made by someone who has never used a real calculator in their life.

As you haven’t read the thread you just added to, let me point out AGAIN that the change was in request to thousands or millions of users who HATED the old calculator, and told Apple. Calling it one if the dumbest changes it accusing millions of users of being idiots.

"the change was in request to thousands or millions of users who HATED the old calculator:"

What's your source for this? I'm genuinely curious.

Because while looking for information on what happened to the calculator in iOS 18, I couldn't find any complaints about the original behaviour. This was/is standard calculator behaviour around the world that's not unique to Apple. Anyone who learned how to use a calculator in school should be familiar with what repeated presses of the equal button does.

And if Apple suddenly wants to deviate from the norm, it should at least be a setting that can be toggled.

RWGilday wrote:

Fully agree just started doing an invoice and “we are showing our math now?? A joke of a calculator now!

Absolutely! It’s a very valuable feature, because it lets the user check that the intended numbers were entered.

Agreed, this app was obviously developed by young computer kids that have never seriously used a calculator before. There was a swipe backspace that worked just fine. Why "add" a button. Really take away a button.

APPLE , PLEASE RESTORE the calculator app BACK TO IT'S ORIGINAL FORMAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have literally ruined a perfectly functioning tool and turned it into garbage.

This plus your new apple music change over ???

STARTING TO CONSIDER A CHANGE OF PHONE TO

This calculator update is awful. I prefer to clear my mistakes like how a normal calculator does it, hit clear once to go back, twice to start all over. The backspace button needs to be an add on, not replace the AC button altogether. Is there a way to go back to the previous version?

So, Idris, those words: “…if you had read the previous posts…” - was that you every time? - may not be the kind of guidance you would like them to be. I accidentally clicked on whatever got me into the daily notification queue for this discussion, and curiosity has led me to check on it when I get an email about it.

the thing is, I’ve been surprised and annoyed that the thread does not appear to stay organized in a linear fashion. Statements or queries that reply to a specific comment are separated from that comment by pages and do not evidence any attachment to the antecedent comment; items that I read on Tuesday end up migrating to Saturday in the sequence; etc. I’m reading on an ipad and sometimes in the proto-browser that Safari insists on inserting between Gmail and any URL found in an email message. So it’s possible that folks who are following on a Mac or (shudder) PC or remembering to push through the fake browser into a real one are fed a somewhat different version. But reading from page one to page six doesn’t necessarily result in a smooth easy-to-follow sequence of questions and answers.

Just FYI

Frwebb wrote:

the thing is, I’ve been surprised and annoyed that the thread does not appear to stay organized in a linear fashion.

Change the "Sort by" order (just under the bottom right of the original post) to something chronological.

But even without that, you could have read through the posts instead of asking a question that has been answered repeatedly.

I am devastated that I can not use my calculator to write my monthly bills and monthly bank statement balancing!! WHY?? I logically go through my math adding - subtracting my usual process in keep a balance after each transaction and I can no longer perform the simplest bookkeeping transactions. This is absurd! PLEASE FIX THIS!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE.

Kvan1223 wrote:

I am devastated that I can not use my calculator to write my monthly bills and monthly bank statement balancing!! WHY?? I logically go through my math adding - subtracting my usual process in keep a balance after each transaction and I can no longer perform the simplest bookkeeping transactions. This is absurd! PLEASE FIX THIS!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE.

That is not a function for a calculator; that is much more easily done in a spreadsheet such as Numbers or MS Excel. And that way you can more easily find your errors, because you have a list of all transactions. I’ve been using Numbers for reconciliation for about 5 years now. And I also do cash flow projections in a different tab by entering anticipated expenses for the current and next month.

However, this latest calculator is to FIX a problem that users have been complaining about for many years. So it has been fixed for the way many other users use the calculator, just not the way you use it. And why should Apple single out your need, rather than the needs of thousands of other users?

Of all of the inevitable (and often petty) user-specific grievances regarding UI/UX changes with any major interface update on any device/platform, this is the first one I’ve ever commented upon. We need answers here: what specific user data/feedback/IP considerations led you to disallow users from “using the calculator to keep hitting the equals sign to calculate compounding interest”?

Apple,

Please go back to the original function. I use this every day to keep track of my bank transactions. Having to hit = every time I calculate an equations is time consuming and costly should you forget. Why did you install this change?! What was the benefit?!

Lawrence Finch wrote:

::sigh:: Doesn’t ANYONE ever read what has already been posted in a thread before posting, anymore?

Oh, you silly person! ;-)

I really wish the default sort order would be one of the chronological options. It would save everyone a lot of grief.