Our Verdict
When I look back PCalc 1.0.2 back in 2008 , it was my preferred iPhone scientific figurer , offering all the features I ’d ever need with an interface that actually bettered the excellent Mac version . In the intervening year and a half , TLA Systems has dramatically improved the iPhone app , and with rendering 2.0,PCalcnow includes an iPad - aboriginal user interface in the same package . Given those improvements , and the fact that Apple mysteriously omitted a calculator app from the iPad , PCalc and and its free sibling , PCalc Lite , are more likeable than ever .
The current version of PCalc includes all the number - crunching good of the variant we go over back in 2008 . You get all the stock scientific - calculator menu , including inverse , roots , exponents , trigonometric function , nested surgical process , anRPN ( Reverse Polish Notation ) mode , and more . There ’s a time - stamp virtual tape for revisit ( or even e - mailing ) your calculations , as well as a register ( called the push-down list in RPN mode ) that expose memory content and decimal- , hex- , octal- , and binary - al-Qa’ida variation of the current issue .
But TLA Systems has updated PCalc more than a dozen times since our original review , and in addition to various numerical and in operation tweaks and improvements — many of which plow minor complaints I had with edition 1.0.2 — those updates have provided an impressive amount of extra functionality . For example , you could now choose from among nine optic themes and a slew of dissimilar fundamental layouts — three vertical and three horizontal on the iPad , and seven perpendicular and eight horizontal on the iPhone . ( The iPad ’s larger screen lodge more key , so there ’s less need for dissimilar key layout with differing subset of possible key . ) you could also pick out one of six ( on the iPhone ) or five ( on the iPad ) font trend for the “ LCD , ” and any of six fundamental - click sounds .
Convert It: PCalc provides more than 150 conversion functions, easily accessible on the iPad via a pop-over.
Thanks to iPhone OS 3 , you’re able to now copy result from the display , and glue number into the showing for use in calculations . you could also undo and redo multiple natural process : on an iPad , you get dedicated Undo and Redo buttons , and on all devices , you could sway to undo or simply swipe your digit across the covert — right to undo or left to refashion ( although these gesture strike me as backward ) .
you’re able to also now interchange the telephone number of occupation in PCalc ’s display — more lines are particularly useful in RPN way . you’re able to have up to four lines , and the onscreen keys shrink or grow to gibe the pick out video display size of it . While you could make such accommodation by turn over into the app ’s setting screens , the light elbow room is , again , to cabbage : down the display to sum up a line , or up to remove a line . Brilliant .
PCalc continues to provide convenient admittance to commonly used scientific and mathematical constants ( include , of course , the Ultimate Answer ) , as well as a conversion feature that lets you rapidly convert the current number using mark of functions , in categories lay out from slant to fuel efficiency to weight . Since our original review , TLA Systems has added many young spiritual rebirth within existing categories , as well as raw currency and cooking categories . In totality , there are nearly double the number of conversions as before , and the Conversions and Constants menu now handily expose late used options at the top .
Convert It : PCalc provides more than 150 rebirth role , easily approachable on the iPad via a pop - over .
For iPad owners , the most - welcome alteration in version 2.0 is likely reinforcement for the iPad ’s larger screen . In addition to being capable to display more keys ( including the dedicated undo and redo buttons mention above ) , the iPad ’s orotund cover grant keys to be significantly larger . PCalc on the iPad also takes advantage of iPhone OS ’s new crop up - over user interface elements , letting you access configurations , constants , and conversions without having to switch to a different silver screen . The overall result : good layouts and an port that ’s easygoing to utilise than on the iPhone . Which points to the only drawback to PCalc ’s iPad user interface : It have PCalc on the iPhone seem belittled and — with a few of the key layouts , such as Engineering and Programming — a spot crowded .
Of of course , not everyone needs all these feature , nor does everyone want to spend $ 10 on an iPhone / iPad calculating machine . So TLA Systems also providesPCalc Lite , a gratuitous version that include both the iPhone- and iPad - optimized port , but give you only a subset of the full version ’s features , constants , and conversions . For many people , PCalc Lite will be more than sufficient , and it ’s a no - brainer download if you just wish Apple had include a introductory calculator with the iPad .
But here ’s the twist : If you just wantsomeof the extra features of the full version , you may purchase them a la card fromwithinPCalc Lite . For lesson , you’re able to buy the $ 1 topic Pack , which give you the additional theme , digit styles , and click sounds of the full translation . Other options , uncommitted for either $ 1 or $ 3 , include the Conversion Pack ( additional conversions and constants ) , the Engineer Pack ( additional layout and the paper tape ) , the Programmer Pack ( additional layouts and support for hex , octal , and binary ) , the Multiple Line Pack ( multiple computer memory and display lines ) , and the Power User Pack ( a bunch of setting for fine - tuning how PCalc influence ) . Purchaseallthe inner circle and you end up with the full version of PCalc and — don’t tell TLA Systems — you pay only $ 9.94 .
( talk of closed book : If you ’re curious how much costless RAM you have on your iPad , iPhone , or iPod spot , approach PCalc ’s Help presentation , then tap About PCalc , then wiretap the PCalc logo ; the amount of complimentary RAM will be paste into the figurer ’s exhibit . Neat . )
What ’s perhaps most impressive about PCalc is that TLA Systems has managed to squeeze so much functionality into the program without reach it clumsy ; rather , it ’s positively fun to use — at least to this calculator geek — particularly on the iPad . And the full version of PCalc includes a discount computer code for $ 9 off the price of the Mac version of PCalc ; if you were thinking of corrupt the Mac version , this basically gets you the iPhone / iPad edition for a buck . By my calculations , that ’s a steal .
[ fourth-year editor in chief Dan Frakes critique depleted - cost Mac software for the Mac Gems blog . ]
