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Couple of minor niggles about the iPad

parish

parish

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 14, 2009
1,082
2
Wilts., UK
1) why the hell isn't the calculator included in the iPad version of the iPhone OS? It's a great little calculator that I use a lot (although I could do with it supporting binary and hex too) :confused:

2) why haven't Apple made more use of the additional real estate in the status bar on the iPad? An obvious one would be to display the date as well as the time.
 
1) I'm guessing Apple decided that there are better alternatives available on the App Store. I wouldn't be surprised to see if they're removed from iPhones when the OS 4 update comes out.

2) Good question. Who knows, maybe as the platform evolves we'll see more possibilities in all areas of the iPad. Multi-touch is still in its infancy, remember. If it's this good now, most of the kinks (and undoubtably more features) should be solved in the coming revisions over the next several years.
 
When I got my iPad, I spent a while in the settings screen trying to find the setting to enable the date in the menu bar. Turns out it wasn't there..... lol. Maybe it will come in an update.
 
ziggyonice said:
1) I'm guessing Apple decided that there are better alternatives available on the App Store. I wouldn't be surprised to see if they're removed from iPhones when the OS 4 update comes out.
Click to expand...

With the clock at least it can do things that app store apps can't, namely maintain an alarm without needing the app active.

I've been wondering about this the last few days, these are all "widget" like apps that wouldn't scale version well to full screen on the iPad, we haven't seen any of the 4.0 features that are iPad only yet, the iPad update will be months after the iPhone version and the keyboard dock has a totally blank button which does nothing so I'm wondering if 4.0 might see some sort of dashboard like interface which will be launched with that key (although not sure yet how you'd launch it on the iPad itself)
 
Stardotboy said:
On your second point, the date is displayed via the calendar icon.
Click to expand...

That's only visible on the main screen which makes it essentially useless if you're actually doing something with your device! There's loads of space for the full date to be displayed on the iPad.
 
parish said:
True, but that's not much use when browsing a website for example.
Click to expand...

I guess, though in the odd cases when you've forgotten today's date and are browsing a website, a reasonable workaround is pressing the home button to be instantly reminded of the date.

Not saying that they couldn't add it to the bar of the top of the screen, but as niggles go this is scraping the bottom of the barrel somewhat.
 
Stardotboy said:
I guess, though in the odd cases when you've forgotten today's date and are browsing a website, a reasonable workaround is pressing the home button to be instantly reminded of the date.

Not saying that they couldn't add it to the bar of the top of the screen, but as niggles go this is scraping the bottom of the barrel somewhat.
Click to expand...

Apple's supposed to be about considering the little details so it seems to be a bit of a blooper to miss that one!
 
Stardotboy said:
I guess, though in the odd cases when you've forgotten today's date and are browsing a website, a reasonable workaround is pressing the home button to be instantly reminded of the date.

Not saying that they couldn't add it to the bar of the top of the screen, but as niggles go this is scraping the bottom of the barrel somewhat.
Click to expand...

That is of course assuming the calendar is on the same screen as the app you at exiting, otherwise you have to press home, find calendar and then find the app you were using again
 
parish said:
1) why the hell isn't the calculator included in the iPad version of the iPhone OS? It's a great little calculator that I use a lot (although I could do with it supporting binary and hex too) :confused:

2) why haven't Apple made more use of the additional real estate in the status bar on the iPad? An obvious one would be to display the date as well as the time.
Click to expand...

1. I pondered this too considering the iPad is using a slightly updated iPhone OS 3.2 Firmware, plus both the iPhone and iPod come with the calculator standard. Additionally despite the iPad including a microphone, no voice recorder app which is again standard on the iPod touch and iPhone, was included. Maybe they have left these till OS 4 for the iPad. One niggling thing about the calculator was that in portrait mode no "%" was visible.

2. I agree there should be an option to display the date and time as there is plenty of space as it currently looks a bit baron.

Has anyone else noticed the usual green battery charging icon no longer stays visible even when the iPad is locked and charging. It only appears briefly when the power plus is plugged into the iPad either when locked or unlocked.
 
For a good iPad calculator check out PCalc Lite. Free app with alot of good functions. If you need more you can expand the functionality with in app purchases. It's a universal app to so it works with iPhone as well (if you've got one).

Hope this is helpful.
 
ziggyonice said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see if they're removed from iPhones when the OS 4 update comes out.
Click to expand...

I would.

There are plenty of calculators in the app store for the iPhone, even though Apple supplies their own calculator.

Apple really doesn't keep applications out of the App Store for no good reason.
 
parish said:
2) why haven't Apple made more use of the additional real estate in the status bar on the iPad? An obvious one would be to display the date as well as the time.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing because once they put it there, if removed there would be howls of resistance. There's not all that much room, and lots of things would be useful up there. Yes, I agree the date is one of those things, but other things too like: Notifications for email, IMs, appointment calender, your user name if they implement user accounts, bluetooth status, one space for an app to customize, etc. I know they have the audible notification for the appointments, but there are deaf people too.
 
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