It goes completely unnoticed till you need it. Then, in a meeting where the math is just a touch beyond what you can do in your head, you discover the iPad doesn’t come with a simple built in calculator! The iPhone does, so naturally, you would assume… and as they say that would make you and us wrong.
The missing app isn’t the end of the world, and in fact really opened up the world for developers to fill. A quick search on the iTunes store results in what seems like a never ending list of calculator options. Most of the geniuses around the office have their favorites, for the rest of us, we just need a super simple ‘FREE’ solution that lets us get an answer and move on. The folks in Finance and the Rocket Designers in the crowd all chuckle at us, but only need what we need!
We have played with many of the ‘for pay’ solutions that either go light or toss in cuteness that isn’t needed. Last week, someone discovered Calculator LCD and it spread like wild fire amongst those needing to keep it simple. The free app has the option of changing the display background from retro yellowish to white and back again. And… there is the addition of Tax, not sure where that came from but we are in a Tax charging state so it might be handy. Otherwise, we add, subtract and divide our way to the end of another meeting where we are asked if the quantities add up as our whiteboard quick math showed us. Not once did someone ask for the circumference of the table over the arch of the legs to find the size of a mat to go under it!
