Calculator
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USB Mouse Calculator ready to calculate how much money you've wasted
There's plenty of mice with integrated keypads out there, but those looking for some more instant gratification with their calculations may want to consider this marvel of technology now being offered by PrezzyBox.com, which packs a full-on calculator into something vaguely resembling a mouse. For other number-intensive tasks, the mouse will also double as a numeric keypad, and it appears to be small enough to pack away with your laptop for some number crunching on the go. If that's what you've been waiting for, you can get your fix now for £15 (or just over $30), which is sure more affordable than Casio's non-mouse USB calculator.[Via Coolest Gadgets]
HP celebrates 35th anniversary of HP-35: launches 35s calculator
Feel that? That's the unexpected stir of nostalgia welling inside your dorktic-loin. Rest easy, you're not alone. In fact, that picture aroused a deeply seeded HP fanboi-ism long obscured by thick slabs of drab computing plastic and opaque printer ink. The 35s marks the 35th anniversary of the industry defining HP-35 pocket scientific calculator (and death of the sliderule) -- a first to offer basic trig and exponential functions. While HP preserved the original's reverse Polish notation, gone is the single-line of red LEDs which illuminated the childhood wonder of so many budding engineers. The new 35s also introduces an algebraic entry mode for those who find RPN entry just a bit too, well, reversed. Of course, it's fully modern with 800 storage registers, 100 built-in functions, and a large 2-line alpha numeric display with adjustable contrast. Better yet, the 35s will only set you back $60 compared to the $395 it cost back in 1972 -- that's a lot more 8-tracks for your swank Ford Mercury Capri, eh Pops?Read -- HP-35 anniversary video Read -- HP 35s
Non-Game Boy: Serious games before they were cool
Since the release of Brain Age in Japan, Nintendo has turned their attention toward casual, nontraditional fare for adult audiences. Much of it, like Brain Age, is casual game material with a slight educational slant, but other successful DS releases, like Cooking Navi and Eigo Zuke, are not games at all, but rather educational aids and tools designed to use the DS's unique interface. They're all doing massive business, which makes it difficult to laugh at them no matter how silly they are. But Nintendo was not the first company to attempt to sell application software on a gaming system, however. That distinction probably falls on BASIC Programming for the Atari 2600. Nintendo wasn't even the first company to sell application software on a Nintendo handheld. In fact, Game Boy non-games appeared in 1991. They didn't change the face of gaming. But they make for an interesting historical footnote now, and isn't that better than selling millions of copies? It is for us!
Mage Spell Calculator shows numbers behind the casting
From a forum post by Jonaleth, we find this nifty little tool that will tell you everything you ever needed to know (ever) and even some things you didn't about how your mage spells push out damage.It takes a while to load, and the site seems pretty rickety (I really hope posting it here doesn't bring it down), but once it loads up, you can realize just how powerful a tool it is. Put your mage talents in, use the checkboxes at the top to fill out info about your gear and situation, and then the tool will show you average hit calculations,damage per mana spent total, and even all of the damage coefficients (up to 2.0.1, so Arctic Winds hasn't changed here yet) on each one of your spells.Pretty incredible tool for mages, especially for those who want to squeeze every possible bit out of their class and spec. Jonaleth uses the guide as proof that frost mages don't get to churn out nearly as much damage as fire mages do. Well, umm, yeah. What else is new?But Jonaleth is right-- this kind of tool does provide a really clear look at what we already know to be true. Now you can see in raw numbers just how crazy powerful Pyroblast is.
IDEA-IN Yuento presents calculator-cum-phone
IDEA-IN presents the YUENTO branded calculator that is shaped and has a similar key layout as a mobile. Clever, huh? The idea behind this molded bit-o-madness is that most human's fingers are rather adept at tapping away on mobile phone keys, so taking that insight a step further produced the "Mobile Calculator". Available in pink, white, yellow, and black. This, ahhh, interesting concept should set you back about $20 bucks if you can find one.[Via Akihabara News]
Modding Apple's calculator widget
Jonas at the MacThemes Forums got tired of looking at the "...old Cartoonish orangy interface" of Apple's calculator Dashboard widget. So, he made his own. It's a simple black affair with recessed buttons. We think it looks sharp. When you install it, you'll be asked if you want to replace the existing Calculator widget. Just say "Yes." (of course, you made a backup first, right?).[Via The Iconfactory]
Homegrown USB-powered calculator synth doubles as pillow
As if the Cushion Control pillows weren't cute enough, here we find a USB-powered, felt-covered calculator synth to ooh and aww over. Artists Kelli Cain and Brian Crabtree were able to conjure up this nifty device at a Felt Circuits workshop held in Los Angeles, and while details are relatively scarce, the creation is essentially a homemade eight- x six-inch calculator constructed from dyed wool that was hand-rubbed into felt. The two also "designed, etched, and populated noise-making circuit boards" which were then put into the contraption, and when connected to a USB port, touching the metal contacts that are sewn on "makes a bunch of noise," which we can causally refer to as abstract music. Unfortunately, there's no sign of these things going on sale, but if you beg the duo hard enough, you might find out if another workshop is in the pipeline.
Soulver "plain English" calculator
Just yesterday we posted on the bc command line calculator. Well on the other end of the UI spectrum is Soulver from Acqualia Software. Its authors claim that Soulver is a "plain English" calculator in that you can actually type in certain (in fact very limited) phrases and get answers, as you see above. In general, though, you'll use Soulver as a normal sort of calculator, but with a pleasing, easy to read interface. The expressions to be evaluated go on in the left column and the answers appear in the right, all in a nice clean list. As you can see, you can also open a couple of palettes with conversions and statistics on the entire column. Perhaps ironically, the actual number crunching power under the pretty GUI is the same bc mentioned above. Soulver is not meant to be a particularly sophisticated scientific calculator (though you can define variables, for instance), but rather a kind of "back of the envelope" replacement. It's an unusual concept, but once you get your mind around the idea of it not looking like a stand-alone calculator, I actually think the paradigm works well (and I put my own money where my mouth is on this one).Soulver is $17.95 and a demo is available.
Texas Instruments finally gets fresh, unveils TI-Nspire calculators
We're not exactly sure if Texas Instruments' widely utilized TI-83 / TI-84 line of calculators have reached the same success as Casio (but it's fairly safe to assume a "yes"), but the firm is finally throwing out a substantial update to the graphing calculators that you, your folks, and probably your grandparents all used throughout high school. The TI-Nspire lineup maintains the same relative form factor, but offers up a few swank advancements such as multiple representations, "grab-and-move" functionality, resizing, dynamic linking, and of course, the oh-so-sweet ability to save and edit in-progress work (shown after the jump) right on the device. Additionally, Windows / OS X software will be available to mimic the on-screen abilities of the handhelds, which means those days of viewing the monochrome display via an overhead projector are long gone, and for those who just aren't willing to make the transition, TI is even including a snap-in TI-83 / TI-84 Plus keypad so you can upgrade your machine without relearning keystrokes. The TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire CAS are both slated to hit instructional dealers this Fall for educators (commercially available by Fall 2008), so we'd suggest pinching those pennies now in back-to-school anticipation.
Virtual Console cost calculator
According to the poll results we posted earlier today, 70% of our readers think Nintendo's Virtual Console pricing is way too expensive. If you're anything like us, however, you didn't let that get in the way of purchasing a few retro games anyway. Gunstar Heroes? The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? Overpriced or not, how are we supposed to pass on that?We spotted an online calculator that adds up the total amount of Wii points you've spent or can expect to spend on the current Virtual Console lineup (Sorry, North American releases only!). If you have some Wii points saved up, the application will even display how much more points you will have left or will need to buy. So how much has Nintendo robbed you of so far? How many more Wii points will you have to shell out in order to complete your dream collection? Drop a line in our comments and let us know![Via The Tanooki]
Warlock DPS calculator
Ybrith, of Rajaxx (Eu), has put together a lovely piece of theorycrafting apparatus. This warlock DPS calculator takes your stats and talent information, the length of the fights you're interested in, and a few strategy parameters, and comes up with your DPS over the length of the fight, as well as how fast you would be losing life. It seems to be geared towards the end-game, as it's based on level 70 spells and also not suited for calculating things like mana efficiency, which is important in leveling.Still, for a number-head like me this thing is amazing. I've learned that with the default stats (since I have no clue what a warlock's gear is like at 70), my current leveling build (41/20/0) would do 1035 DPS, whereas sample Destro builds I threw together get 1190 (0/21/40) or 1174 (21/0/40) DPS. It's interesting to me that Aff and Destro are so close; I don't think this would have been the case pre-BC.So, Warlocks in the crowd: what do you think? Does this thing look relatively accurate? And how do you stack up?
How far did you get? [update 1]
Sure, one could plow through Twiiight Princess in perhaps a mere 35 hours or so, eschewing all side-quests, collectables, and exploration. But we here at the Fanboy believe that those facets are crucial to the overall Zelda experience, just as important as those silly temples. But how about you? How many golden bugs did you collect; how many heart pieces have you yet to find?The convenient "Complete Calculator" for Twilight Princess will track your vital stats, brave warriors, and return to you a percentage of how much of the game you've completed. Did any of you guys pick up a true 100%? Has your social life been destroyed as a consequence?[via Digg][Update 1: Old link appeared to contain an IE 8.0 page-spoof. Link altered to a happy page of naught but HTML.]
Casio sells its one billionth calculator
Just as broadcast radio was turning one hundred, Casio was selling its one billionth calculator, as the company reportedly announced that this past December held the milestone purchase. The firm's first electronic calculator, dubbed the 001, hit the market in 1965, and played a big part in the development of the chip industry by generating demand for LSI chips. The pocket-sized renditions the company is so well known for started in 1972 with the Casio Mini, only to be followed by the graphing scientific version in 1985. These monochrome graphing editions will always hold a special spot in our hearts, as there was just nothing like kicking back during class and crushing your previous Tetris record while the instructor gave you kudos for focusing so intently on your work, and of course, that wasn't the only game to ever get ported to the small screen. So here's to Casio for hitting the big 1 billion, but we've got to admit, it looks like TI is the current champ in terms of universal acceptability, but we can't argue too much with a figure like that.
A few of my favorite Widgets
When my machine was a rickety little 800 MHz iBook, crusted with too many hacks, apps and utilities, I just gave up on Widgets. Dashboard was a system hog on an already dog-slow machine, and I just killed it off. My MacBook Pro is another story. While I've eschewed the volume of Widgets a true power-user may install, I have my fair share. Of course, until we're able to safely and securely swap our sets of Widgets around, I just keep a certain set loaded. Yes, I've tried MultiDash, primarily to swap around when I plug in to my 24" external monitor. I would have included a link to the MultiDash page, but going there today either crashed Firefox or made Safari eat up processor. Gotta love that...Anyway, as a Widget, it was too wonky for production use, so here's what I've settled on for daily use: Apple's own calendar, weather, iTunes, calculator, and search Widgets (Dictionary, White Pages, Yellow Pages, and Address Book). The unit converter is tucked behind the sticky note Google search-- pretty much never use it since Google is built-in to every browser but Flock, although sometimes I use the Blogger one too Radar-in-Motion-- massive kudos to the poor developer who makes this, as NOAA keeps changing the protocols, formats, etc. I love this thing, but I love weather. WeatherBug-- this one has a bunch more features, but ironically doesn't work as well as R-i-M iClipLite-- what would I do without this? Very handy for storing form letters, the very ones I use every day iStat nano-- surely everyone is using this or its older sibling by now, right? Often I use it to check my IP address, but I really wish I could have it quit bugging me about updates, that is really annoying Slothcam-- I have it always tuned to the TGIFriday's camera in Times Square, great for people-watching! (You will see me on there once in a while too) Web Translator widget (uses Google)-- handy for quick language lookups, as my Spanish vocab stinks sometimes Airport Radar-- handy for checking signal strength PackageTracker-- from Monkey Labs, where they make a terrible TV Tracker... only terrible because every week they want me to update it, but it never gets faster or better, yet PackageTracker never bugs me about it iCalEvents-- super-fantastic for glancing at my hard schedule for the day Backpack widget-- from Chipt.com, this Widget has saved me so many times it is scary. If you are a serious GTD nut, you must have a Backpack widget for simple ticklers, and this does the job better than almost anything. Plus, I can access my Backpack reminders from anywhere via web, so I have a constant backup. Combined with floating reminders via Growl, and you can really tame your to-do list. an obligatory digg widget-- because I'm addicted, I'll admit (where's that Netscape widget?) Veronica Belmont-- she's not a Widget, but a spunky tech pundit for CNet and of course, I have a TUAW widget! So what's in your Dashboard?
Widget Watch: iPodage song calculator
Remember that iPod storage calculator iLounge released? It seems Christian Chladek, maker of such other widgets as the Morse Code Translator, was inspired to provide an iPod calculator in widget form. iPodage allows you to pick your iPod model and adjust all the vital settings to do some quick and dirty math on just how many tunes you can cram into your pocket for the road. For bonus points, the widget can even shrink out of your way should you need to reclaim some Dashboard space.iPodage is donationware and available from Christian's site.
Ultimate list of TIFF homebrew games
Remember when TIFF games were all the rage? They were simple games that just needed to be placed in the PSP's PHOTO folder in order to work. One of the great things about TIFF homebrew was that almost anyone could use it, without any complicated ELOADERs and what-not. Another plus? It worked on homebrew with firmware as high as 2.80.Milad, from the Playstation forums, has created a huge list of TIFF programs that may catch your fancy. Here's a small sampling of what's available: Magic 8-Ball Calculator TNT Dude (homebrew game) Unstuck (stuck pixel remover) FileAssistant (awesome PSP file management utility)
iLounge unveils iPod Storage Calculator
Apple offers their own advertising-friendly estimation of how many songs each model of iPod can hold, but those numbers are based on fairly unrealistic standards of 128Kbps AAC songs that are a mere 4 minutes long. Toss in a few tracks from Phish or Beethoven's 5th, and you can easily hurl this song estimation into the realm of 'anyone's guess.'Enter iLounge's iPod Storage Calculator, a handy little web tool (what, no widget?) that lets everyone from newbies to demanding audiophiles perform some quick calculations to figure out just how many songs, even at varying bitrates, their iPod can hold. As a matter of fact, the only thing about this calculator that makes it iPod-specific is the handy pull-down menu offering one-click access to every storage capacity the iPod has ever packed; in other words - anyone can use this tool to get an idea of how many songs they can bring along.Thanks Josh
The BenQ-Siemens Black Box concept phone that never was
You know, it's too bad that BenQ-Siemens' European operations had to go under before it managed to get this slick handset out the door. From what we can make out based on these photos spotted on a Czech website, BenQ-Siemens had developed a "Black Box concept phone," which took home some Chinese design award earlier this year. The idea apparently is to turn the phone into one large screen, and change function depending on whatever application you need at the time: a calculator, an FM radio, the phone itself (duh), and something that looks like a game involving a goldfish and possibly a bathtub drain (we're not really sure). You know, this reminds us a lot of that possible iPhone patent we spotted earlier this month -- hopefully Apple can pick up where BenQ-Siemens left off?[Via Slashphone]
The interactive Wii cost calculator [update 2]
Let's face it: the true "price" of the Wii is nowhere close to two hundred and fifty dollars. It varies wildly from person to person, dependent on launch titles, extra controllers, and virtual console points. That's why some clever folks at N-sider.com have put together a lovely calculator for you, to determine how much you'll be spending come November. It gives accurate descriptions of all confirmed launch titles, and takes into account just about everything you could possibly desire ... except, unfortunately, an SD card. Still, with the limited number of Virtual Console titles at launch, the chances that you'll be needing a additional storage immediately are pretty slim. Check below for the entire Wii Fanboy staff's expected costs!Jason Wishnov - $476.94Extra controller w/nunchuk, classic controllerZelda: Twilight Princess, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz2000 Virtual Console pointsDavid Hinkle - $667.70Extra controller w/nunchukElebits, Excite Truck, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Red Steel, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center: Second Opinion2000 Virtual Console pointsAlisha Karabinus - $635.90Extra controller w/nunchuk, classic controllerExcite Truck, Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Zelda: Twilight Princess2000 Virtual Console pointsNikki Inderlied - $558.99Extra controller w/nunchuk, classic controllerZelda: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel, Rayman Raving Rabbids500 Virtual Console pointsWhat are you guys spending? Let us know![Update 1: Added in Alisha's projected costs.][Update 2: Added in Nikki's projected costs.]
Uni-Creation's All-in-1 memory card reading calculator
Aside from the typical mathematical applications obviously associated with your average calculator, we've seen some pretty nifty implementations that took advantage of the not-exactly-advertised features hidden beneath the number pad. But Uni-Creation has taken the reverse approach here by stuffing a tabulation machine on top of a multi-format memory card reader. The All-in-1 pocket-sized conglomerate handles your checkbook balancing with ease, but it seems the primary duty of this contraption is to read just about every memory card format we've ever heard of (and some we haven't). Just check out this impressive list of cards it can digest: SMC, XD, SD, MMC, MMC???, RS-MMC, miniSD, CF, CF???, MicroDrive, MS, MS Pro, MediaGate, MediaGate Pro, MS Duo, MS MediaGate Duo, MS Pro Duo, MS MediaGate Pro Duo, and to top it all off, its fully compliant with the "UTMA Fish Card," whatever that may be. While you may assume that managing all those formats would be "all-inclusive" enough, the device goes an extra mile by sporting a calendar, alarm clock (with 8 monophonic tones to wake you), and even stores world times for 16 international locales (you know, since this is presumably the perfect travel accessory). Since we're hard pressed to think of a scenario where having a calculator and card reader on hand would be essential to your well being -- especially considering that handy "Calculator" app that comes pre-loaded on most every computer these days -- it's difficult to postulate when this awkward combination of gadgets would actually come in handy.[Via Red Ferret]
