Calculator Widget is an application that adds a Calculator to your SBSettings toggles. I honestly delayed on checking this on out because it didn’t seem too exciting but, once I checked it out, I realized that this could be a very helpful widget!

Once installed, you will need to go into SBSettings, the More option and then the Set Toggles option and turn on the Calculator. When you select the Calculator “toggle” in SBSetting, it will open a calculator. It is not the stock calculator it is a much more simple calculator. However, there is one thing I really like about this widget. If you tap the Home Button when you have the calculator open, it will go back to your SpringBoard however, you can then tap the Status Bar and it will bring the calculator back up. This is nice if you are in an email or Safari or your notes and trying to do some calculations…it allows you to quickly switch back and forth!

If you want to complete close the calculator just tap on the calculator’s screen and it will go back to SBSettings. You can get this simple, yet useful toggles via the BigBoss source. Have I told you that I just love SBSettings!! Well, if not….I just love SBSettings!

ScreenShots

As a math and science teacher, I do a fair share of tutoring to make some additional income. I often carry my trusty TI-83 Plus (special edition blue, baby!) with me, but there have been several times when all I had was my iPhone. I will admit that the included iPhone calculator makes for a pretty decent substitute, and I get my scientific calculator functions when I rotate to landscape mode. However, there remained some functionality that was to be desired, and having a one-line display seems to remind me of the difference between a TI-30 and its bigger cousin, TI-83.

When sitting side to side with my TI-83 Plus, Numerus clearly has fewer buttons and no graphing capabilities. However, the app does pack in a decent number of buttons and their corresponding math functions. Numerus offers a multi-line display so you can see previous calculations right above your current calculation. All of the regular calculator functions along with those normally found on a standard scientific calculator are displayed on the iPhone screen in portrait mode. Different modes (degrees, radians, grad), along with a catalog of math functions exist. A “2nd” button allows you to choose other functions that don’t have a dedicated button, similar to what you would see on any commercial scientific calculator.

As mentioned above, Numerus contains most if not all of the functions that I would use while tutoring. It is equivalent to a $15 scientific calculator, but so is the built-in iPhone scientific calculator. What separates Numerus is that it works in portrait mode and has a multi-line display. The multi-line display is a big plus when compared to the built-in calculator. I love being able to see prior calculations, and the scroll function is a nice feature. Once loaded (there is a 3-4 second delay when starting the program, Numerus is very fast, and I like that it saved the last viewable calculations that you made should you leave the program. An interesting feature is the option to email your calculation history, which I did with ease, so this was kind of nice. Unfortunately, not all was squeaky-clean, as the application did not respond well when I pressed a button multiple times, and during one trial, the app would not start up again until I reinstalled it entirely. Not even a hard reset seemed to fix the problem.

Numerus can best be described as a promising application that has the potential to displace the native scientific calculator. With graphing capabilities (I picked up the nicely designed Graphing Calculator for free awhile ago…), Numerus could have been a contender for the calculator app of choice. Unfortunately, it seems that some stability issues and a lack of frequent updates could ultimately doom this app. Should the developer release an update and add more functions, a brighter design, and graphing options, this app might be worth its $1.99 price tag. Until then, I would recommend other free or $0.99 options that seem to be more complete at this time.

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Personally, I’m not huge on calculator mods. I actually use my calculator quite frequently so, I’m not sure why I’m not big on modding it. However, every once and a while I find a decent mod. Calculator-White is a mod that gives your calculator a white theme and give the buttons more of a handwritten look. One thing I like is that it also mods the extended calculator (when you turn your iPhone to landscape mode while in the Calculator application). Calculator-White is activated/deactivated via WinterBoard and is available via the Apple-News.fr source. Screenshots below.

ScreenShots

Below are a few WinterBoard mods. The first is a theme, iBLOB (via iSpazio), is a very clean theme. It basically mods the wallpaper, dock and icons…it contains 70 icons. The second theme, Elegance (via ModMyi), is very similar to the A8stract Theme. I actually prefer some of the icons from the A8stract Theme a little better. Also, if you like the Elegance theme, you are going to have to do a little work. Most of the stock icons are in Italian and need to be renamed to English in order to work. But, if you don’t mind SSH’ing it just takes a little time to get them right. The next two mods are transparent mods.

The first transparent mod is, Transparent Calc (via modmyi), which changes your Calculator so that it is transparent. This allows you to see a wallpaper behind the calculator. If you put the Transparent Calc mod above your theme in WinterBoard, you will see the wallpaper that comes with the transparent Calc mod…which can be changed by adding a new wallpaper in the Library/Themes/Transparent Calc.theme folder. Or, you can move the Transparent Calc below your theme in WinterBoard and it will display the wallpaper from your theme behind the calculator. The second transparent mod is the Transparent Keyboard (via modmyi). This will do just that, make your keyboard transparent.

The last two mods are dialer mods. Red Carbon Dialer and Blue Carbon Dialer (via BigBoss) will change your dialer keypad. Below are screenshots for all the mods…all of which are activated via WinterBoard.

Screenshots:

EasyLoan is an application that allows you to quickly calculate monthly payments based on loan information that you enter into the application. When you open EasyLoan, you will be on the main screen. Here it will display; Amount of Loan, Annual Interest Rate, Number of Years, Monthly Payment, Amortization Schedule, First Payment and Calculate Monthly Payment. In order to calculate a monthly payment, you will need to fill out the first three blanks (Amount of Loan, Annual Interest Rate and Number of Years). Once you have entered the information for those three things, you can select Calculate Monthly Payment at the bottom of the screen.

It will then calculate what the monthly payment will be and add it to the Monthly Payment blank. You are also able to view the Amortization Schedule for the loan. To do so, select Yes next to the Amortization Schedule and then select Calculate Monthly Payment at the bottom of the screen. This will bring you to a screen that displays what your payment will go towards each month. This includes how much of the payment is going toward the Principal, how much is Interest and what the remaining balance of the loan is. It will display this information for the entire duration of the loan (10 year, 30 years…). The only issue I have with the Amortization Schedule is that you can not get back to your loan information. You have to select New Loan and then enter all of the information again. It would be nice if there was a back button.

Overall, the application is simple and does what it is supposed to!

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HPCalc is basically the craziest calculator application I have seen yet. And, as with all my calculator reviews, I will do my best to describe it! I probably only understand about 5% of this application so those of you who are like calculator gurus, go easy on me! When you open the application, it will open to a landscape calculator. As if that calculator wasn’t enough, you can select the HP icon in the upper right corner and get quite a few more options. On the main options menu you have the options; Select Calculator, Preferences, Constants and Unit Conversion.

If you select the Select Calculator option you will see that there are four calculators to choose from; HP 11C, HP 12C, HP 15C and HP 16C. In the Preferences option, you have the ability to; Turn keyclick on, Send Feedback and learn more about the application (though, the About option just crashes the app for me). In the Constants option you will find; Astronomical, Atomic, Electromagnetic, Physiochemical and Universal. Each of those five options have even more options within them. Back on the main menu, the Unit Conversion option allows you to conversion units of Temperature or Length. I personally can not tell you if the calculator works as it should since it took me like five minutes to even figure out how to type anything into it (you have to turn in on first!). So, you guys will have to let me know in the comments if you like this application and if it works as it should.

CheckPlease is the only free tip calculator/bill splitting application in the App Store (as of right now). This type of application is one that I like to have available on my iPhone. It is so much easier to type in a few numbers and have it spit out the totals than it is to sit around trying to guesstimate what everyone’s share of the bill is! When you open CheckPlease, you can enter the Check Total and the Tax Amount (in dollars). To enter a number just tap in the box in which you would like to enter the number and a keyboard will pop-up. When you are done typing in the amount, select Done in the lower right corner. It will automatically generate your Subtotal.

To figure out the tip amount, slide the star until it is where you would like it on the tip% bar. The tip percentage options range from 0% to 30%. Once you have the tip% where you would like it, the application will automatically generate your Grand Total. You can then choose how many people you would like to split the bill between by moving the smiley face along the bar. The bar starts at 1 and goes to 20. Once you are finished, how much each person owes is displayed at the bottom of the screen in the $ per Person option. You will also notice a i icon in the lower right corner of the app. This will bring you to the Settings where you have the options to set a default Tax % and Tip Rate. I did take a few times using the app before I was totally comfortable with it. But, it does what it is supposed to do and it does it for free.

A8stract Calculator Skin:

Calculator Skin – Blue:


Calculator Skin – Green: