Calculator
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Enhanced Calculator for S60 updated and archived in one fell swoop
Remember that super swank number cruncher that Nokia was working up for the Symbian S60 platform back in August? Welp, she's reached the end of her road, as they say. According to an update on the Beta Labs website, the Enhanced Calculator for S60 has seen its final wave of tweaks which make it fully compatible with the N96 (among other things). Curiously, Nokia is also announcing that the project is being archived (though it's still available for download), noting that it learned that "it wasn't feasible to productize." Instead, Nokia has enlisted a proper R&D team that will eventually "result in an improved built-in calculator for future Nokia devices." Hmm, maybe they're referring to something such as this?
Nokia's Handwriting Calculator makes math cool again
Be honest with yourself -- you loathe math. We mean, you're totally kosher with counting ohms and watts when dealing in DIY projects, but you'll gladly pay a certified accountant to handle your taxes. Chances are, though, that Nokia's new Handwriting Calculator will have you doing calculations you never thought you'd do once you nailed that Calculus IV book shut with a completely respectable B-. It's designed to operate on Nokia's "latest touchscreen devices (read: S60 5th Edition), such as the N800 and the 5800 XpressMusic," and it's being delivered free of charge from the always inventive Beta Labs operation. The greatest part about this is its ability to understand unorthodox symbols such as square roots and the like; too bad most professors outlaw cellphones during testing periods, huh? Video demonstration is after the break.[Via MobileSyrup]
Quick Armory remixes Armory and achievement data with Greasemonkey
Erorus sent us some cool Armory-related tools he's been working on -- you can find them all at QuickArmory.com. Aside from the usual Armory lookup (with a much faster loading design), he's got an Heirloom item tracker (you put in your level and it will show you what the Heirloom items look like throughout the game), an Arena Points calculator, and perhaps most interesting, an Achievement Tracker. That last one actually does something a little different from most Armory sites -- it uses the Greasemonkey Firefox script to have your browser pull information from the Armory rather than Erorus' servers doing it. The output ends up looking more or less the same, but basically his site tells your browser what information to get, and your browser gets the info rather than his server. Interesting way of getting around the problem of stability, though the tradeoff is that you've got to use Firefox and install the addon to use his site.None of the tools provide quite as much functionality as some of the other more specialized Armory sites out there, but Erorus does some new and interesting things with the Armory information, on the Achievement tracker especially. If you can't get enough of your character's stats (and in this case, happen to also use Firefox), they're worth checking out.
GoodEvilPlanet: The best and worst levels we've seen so far
... and by worst we mean "with as little taste as humanly possible" -- but first the best LittleBigPlanet level. A PSN user named Upsilandre, whose brain is at least thrice the size of ours, has created an "electronic" (i.e. not mechanical) 8-bit calculator capable of adding and subtracting any double-digit number. In the video after the break, you see both how to interact with the level and how the whole thing works (spoiler: It's nearly maxes out the complexity meter). It's a shame to think this might disappear once the beta is over.As for the other video -- and please don't let this take away from your awe at the above calculator -- file this under the "unfortunate but bound to happen" category. A couple levels have popped up on the beta based on the September 11 attacks. Remember, folks, you can report offensive levels in-game for Media Molecule to promptly slam. GoodEvilPlanet officially launches October 21.[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
S60 gets a better calculator -- thanks to Series 40
Hey, S60 owners, have you had this nagging sense over the past year or two that you're somehow getting slighted by Nokia, but you haven't been able to put your finger on why? No worries, we've figured it out: it's the calculator. Nokia's mainstream dumbphone platform has featured a far better and more capable built-in calculator app than S60 for a while now, which really doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense; granted, you can get better ones from third-party developers, but the point is you shouldn't have to. Thankfully, Nokia agrees, and they've started to toy around with the idea of replacing the S60 calc with its little brother's -- a relatively easy process, since the latter is written in Java. On one hand, it'd be a shame to see a core S60 app move from native code to Java, but on the other hand, if it's a better app and the JVM is transparent, who really cares? Anyway, the ported app is chilling in Nokia's Beta Labs as we speak, just waiting for customer feedback before the higher-ups make a judgment call on whether to integrate it into future S60 releases. The power's in your hands, people, so you may as well take advantage.
Apple's tasty calculator mistake
In a recent tip, TUAW reader Dr. Drang told us about a bug he found on the iPhone/iPod touch's calculator. According to his research, when you type π × 2 + 5 = into the calculator you get 11.283... (the correct answer). However, when you reverse the Pi and 2, entering 2 × π + 5, the answer given is 7. This error can be demonstrated by entering Pi (3.141592654) manually, instead of using the Pi button -- you will get the correct answer each time. Therefore, this error only shows up when you use the Pi button. So, be sure to read up on this bug from the tipsters website before you use the calculator for anything too important.Update: Reader Vineet writes in the comments to note that he believes this behavior is typical of stack-based calculators and should be considered more of an operator-expectations issue than a true bug. Dr. Drang responds (with a little bit of attitude) to disagree, maintaining that the behavior is a legitimate bug.Thanks for the tip, Dr. Drang!
Wowhead releases Wrath talent calculators
For some of you, it may strike you as a little early to be thinking about your level 80 talent builds - especially given that Wrath is still in alpha and everything we think we know about it may change - but I say, it's never too early to theorycraft. That is why I'm pleased to report that Wowhead, having gotten a chance to play some Wrath at WWI, made talent calculators for the Wrath alpha talents, including Death Knights. Now we can play with our shiny new builds to our hearts' content. Paladins and Hunters have not had their talents implemented in the beta yet, so you won't find them there, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Inveterate priest fan that I am, the first thing I did when I got my hands on this was make a build for my holy priest, and this is what I came up with: 14/57/0. Yes, I'm finally excited enough about Holy to spec away from Improved Divine Spirit; Guardian Spirit just looks too good to pass up, at least in its current form. As far as my Rogue goes, it depends on how Murder Spree ends up working, but I'm thinking either 21/50/0 (Cold Blood combat, yay!) or 20/51/0. Death Knights I still can't quite get my head around, but it sure is fun to play with their talents.
HP's Quick Calc can't fool us
Nice try HP, trying to pull a fast one on us with this here Quick Calc. Turns out there's a calculator inside our computer, so we don't need none of your fancy Quick Calc shenanigans to spell "boobless" and cheat on our long division homework anymore -- we forked over good money for this beige tower PC, even went in for that "multimedia" package, and we're going to put it to good use.[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]
iPhone Calculator gets scientific in 2.0
It probably wasn't the most consequential update of the day, but we did get one big question answered from the iPhone SDK event in February: why the iPhone's calculator icon got changed from round buttons to square ones. Apple apparently had a lot of requests for a scientific version of the calculator, and so in iPhone 2.0, you'll be able to rotate the calc to landscape mode for a sci calc, including squares and square roots, sin, cos, and tan, factorials, and everything else you use to use the old TI-85 for back in the lab.As we noted, probably not a huge sales point for people planning to pick up a new iPhone (which, at $199 for the 8gb, is pretty much everybody), but the added functionality will be a nice bonus for those of us require a calculator for every little bit of math that needs doing.
AoC feats calculator released into the wilds
World of Warcraft's various talent calculating applications have always been an essential item in every player's toolbox. An empty talent tree is rife with possibilities; who do you want to be, and how might you become that awesome person? Most importantly: how much longer will you have to grind before you finally get Silencing Shot? Talent calculators helped you figure all that out.We don't doubt that a similar tool will be just as important for players of Age of Conan. Neither did Ten Ton Hammer; that's why the folks there released a fully functional feats calculator to coincide with with AoC's public launch. All the classes are there, everything seems accurate, and the interface is pretty good; it's a great tool. Go forth, fledgling barbarians, and calculate your paths to greatness!
Character planning in World of Warcraft
The building of a character in World of Warcraft can be just as painful as balancing a budget by hand without a spreadsheet. The number-crunching side of the game where you have to figure out hit ratings and mana regeneration rates and dodge percentages is something that few people can say they really enjoy. This is especially true when you are nearing the end-game in WoW and you can't just count on your fingers anymore. What if there was a tool that let you play "what if" games with your character (or your planned character) to see how different combinations of gear, talent points, gems, enchants, and even buffs would affect your character? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that day is here.Chardev.org is not only a fantastic web application, it also has a gorgeous user interface that is simple to use. You can either build a character from scratch or import your existing character from the Armory. Once you've made it that far, it's as simple as pointing-and-clicking to swap out gear, switch gems, redistribute talent points and add or remove buff effects. The display of thirty-five essential statistics remains fixed on the left side of your screen during most phases of editing process. At the present time, it only supports gear from level thirty and up but that's no real drawback. There are way too many customization options on this site to describe every one. You really need to experience it for yourself.The Chardev site is a dream-come-true for people who enjoy playing with numbers, but hate doing the math. Check it out!
DIY'er crafts scientific calculator watch, TI-30 is like "what?"
Calculator watches, a staple of the average's geek wardrobe since before your grandmother was born, have been called out, as David Jones' own homegrown version totally trumps anything out there on the pre-fabricated market today. The cleverly-titled µWatch was born after a Casio CFX-400 bit the dust after years upon years of telling time and determining averages, and while it seems as though a bona fide front panel is still in the works, we're personally hoping that currently unoccupied Design & Construction portal gets updated with a how-to guide. Check out the read link for a few more shots of the early prototype and the current build.[Via OhGizmo]
Math geeks can get their fix through the DS
No longer must you resort to watching the copy of Revenge of the Nerds you have sitting on your iPod or running out to the backseat of your car to fondle your old Apple II while on break at work. Now, you can get a good helping of geek by booting up your DS!The significant bit of news here seems to be that someone has made it possible to run a computer algebra system on the DS, allowing the user to perform calculus on polynomials and solve and simplify equations. We won't lie, our absolute worst subject back in school was math, but luckily our post-school report card has high marks in searching on Wikipedia. The application that makes this all possible is called Mathomatic.Mathomatic itself has been available for quite some time now, however we've just gotten hip to the whole thing. So, we apologize if this is an old and dusty hat you're being forced to wear right now. For the rest of you, geek out!
Engadget plays with iPhone 2.0
Our lucky friends at Engadget somehow got to play with the iPhone 1.2/2.0 beta (no word on if they'll send it along to Erica anytime soon), and they confirmed a lot of things we'd guessed at previously.Exchange support works as smoothly as Scott and Mike had hoped, but there's still no two-pane Mail client. The multiple mail message selection works, however, and we finally found out why the Calculator button has changed -- apparently there are a ton of new features in there, including a sideways scientific calcalculator. There are a number of other fun features and improvements as well, although the main event, the App Store, only functions enough to give an error that it can't connect.June can't come any faster, as far as we're concerned. Bring on the iPhone version 2.0! Gallery: iPhone firmware 2.0 hands-on
New icons for iTunes and Calculator on the iPhone 2.0
We did catch this during our liveblog of the SDK talk on Thursday, but just in case you hadn't seen them yet, it seems both the iTunes WiFi store and the calculator will be getting new icons in the iPhone's 2.0 patch. Of course, the App Store will apparently have its own icon as well, and we would assume, at this point, that each app will be able to take its own place on the home screen.But while the Calculator icon change is kind of a strange one (does this mean the Calc buttons will also be square?), the iTunes change definitely makes sense. That will be the place to download music, while the App Store will be the place to download everything else.
Hisgadgetoric: The Curta mechanical calculator peppers our eyes with nostalgia
Look, we know that the Curta Calculator is old. 1948 old in fact, after it was first conceived by Curt Herzstark while imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Still, why not introduce the post HP35 generation to what was widely hailed as the best portable calculator of its time? Besides, with that WWII intrigue and satisfying mechanical grind, what's not to love? See it in action after the break. [Via HighTech]
Leopard Love: Apple boosts Calculator
OS X's Calculator application is something I basically ignore. Between Spotlight and Terminal's bc, I rarely if ever use it. So it was a pleasant and welcome surprise when TUAW reader Roberto Mateu gave us a heads up that Leopard's calculator was updated with better RPN support. Calculator has done RPN for some time--if you're still running Tiger, you can see the old version by selecting View > RPN for any of the three calculator types. Under Tiger, the = button changed to Enter and that was about it. Leopard has updated the RPN calculator by adding multi-line entry so you can see your stack as it grows. It's a much nicer way to use RPN and TUAW heartily approves. %Gallery-11570%
Coming in iPhone 1.1.1. probably
Eagle-eyed reader Travis (thanks!) went over Engadget's photos of the O2 iPhone announced yesterday morning, and sussed out every little feature and update he saw on their iPhones that current owners don't have. We can only believe that the iPhones shown must have already been updated to 1.1.1, and that US iPhones, via Software Update, will receive these features soon. Now Playing controls everywhere! Double clicking the home screen goes to Favorites or iPod, similar to what the iPod touch can do now. The iTunes WiFi Store (well duh) Closed captioning, and the already leaked support for Video Out. New Calculator icon-- to match the iPod touch as well International keyboards Network setup with VPN support and EDGE disabling A "Carrier" menu, but your guess is as good as ours on that one. This could simply be a European thing, as their rules may not match American regulations. I really don't think AT&T would like to see Apple give the ability to unlock iPhones from their service in the next major software update. Not listed: the disabling of ringtones, and a rollback of all the open source hacks so far. Ha, I'm kidding! Ok, maybe only about 50% kidding. Otherwise, looks like a nice update.
A new online reputation calculator
There isn't much to say about this, other than to be very grateful it exists. I never saw the original web-based reputation calculator, but I'm told there were sporadic problems with US realms. Grumbles writes and says that he was waiting for the EU calculator to come back online and to support US realms again, when he decided to just write his own. I wish I had that kind of talent. Visiting wowreputationcalculator.com prompts you to enter your name, server, and whether it's a US or EU server. I presume it then reads your reputation information from the Armory and then processes it in a plain but functional way that shows you how many turn-ins and/or quests you need to reach the next level with most of the key Burning Crusade factions. Let me tell you, I'm bookmarking this puppy right now, even if I'm a little disappointed to suddenly realize how long it's going to take me to get exalted with the Kurenai. This is a very handy tool for reputation grinding. I've seen some add-ons in the past that will count quest items for you, but this is a really excellent resource. Thanks to Grumbles for making it happen for the US players!
The Chocolator: if Hershey controlled Skynet
Mmm mm, what could be finer than the aroma of solar powered, "delux" chocolate while punching a stack of numbers? And just look at the separation between the Chocolator's skin and solar panel. Quality man, quality. Then again, you're not buying this 5.5 Design calculator for performance reasons are you?
