You can backspace on the iPhone calculator

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/05/you-can-backspace-on-the-iphon.html

I’m sorry Steve Jobs.

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only took 7 years to figure that one out :expressionless:

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Nice UI, Apple. Christ.

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Expected to see someone take a hammer to the phone. Was disappointed

Is there finally an instruction manual for this thing. I know experiential learning is important, but…

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This is actually a big deal for me.

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Truly, Apple users are like the Oliver Twists of the smartphone world.

“Please sir, may I have some headphone sockets?”

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Now why isn’t there a calculator on the iPad?

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It’s pretty rare these days for consumer electronics to have particularly useful manuals at all. Professional electronics are a different story, but it seems like consumer electronics companies have largely decided that their products are intuitive enough that people will just figure them out, that if you can’t figure it out you’ll just search online, or that most people wouldn’t bother reading one anyway.

It’s sad, even graphing calculators come without physical instruction manuals. They still exist, thankfully, but only as PDFs that you have to go online and download. I got my first one back in the 90’s and it shipped with a 300+ page manual (in only English, at that) which not only explained every single feature and function of the calculator, it also provided tons of useful examples and tutorials.

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You just have to download the free app from the App Store. It’s the same app, it just doesn’t come pre-loaded.

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This isn’t anything new – it’s been in the iOS calculator for years. It’s of course not intuitive or obvious at all.

Also why in the hell isn’t there a programmer calculator mode?

And I fully agree with @Liam1 about how dumb it is that the iPad doesn’t have a built-in calculator app (or weather, stocks, etc.) Apple always seems to make the most baffling design decisions. I mean, many of Microsoft’s questionable design decisions I can at least understand to some level (even if I completely disagree with them) but things like not having a calculator on the iPad is just O_o.

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Since when? Last I checked there’s 1st party calculator on the iPad (short of typing calculations into Spotlight).

I’ve used the headphones that come with every iteration of my iphone, including the lightning-connected ones. I barely even noticed the change. It return my phone is basically waterproof. yay. :wink:

Now to get to ovenproof. Protip: Never put your phone in your breast pocket when roasting a turkey for holiday dinner, especially when removing said bird from the oven. Guess how I know?

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Feature is described in iPhone User Guide for iOS 10.3:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/iphone-user-guide-for-ios-10-3/id1134772174?mt=11

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I had an amazing Sharp scientific calculator in 1981 with a horizontal form factor and a wide display. It had 10 programmable variable keys and editing keys. You could enter a formula like you would write it, and be able to go back and edit it repeatedly after running it just like a word processor. Guess it was ahead of it’s time 25 years later.

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No kidding! Seeing the iPhone 2 (IIRC) flip into portrait for scientific calculator mode sealed the deal for me. No hyperbole. It was one of the most compelling features of the OS. I still use it hourly.

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Yeah, it’s funny how people get so up in arms about Apple’s largely perceived lack of guidance and documentation when it is, in reality, the os’s ease of use that makes it irrelevant for most users.

Having said that, I am fully aware that Apple will occasionally scrub known issues from their support pages and forums in what seems to be an attempt to obfuscate public awareness. The things they’re dinged for never really seemed unique to them, though. I can’t imagine a multi-billion dollar company not being bastards at some point.

Wait, what? There isn’t?

That is some terrible UX.

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Surely there are other calculator apps you can install, no? Or are you stuck with that shitty calculator?