The Ladies Chained

iPhone 2.0, Numeracy 0.0

Even though I don’t have an iPhone and I can’t upgrade my iPod Touch’s firmware yet, I’ve been poking around the new iPhone app store to see what apps are in store for iPhone app store users. One of the first things I found, thanks to the alphabetical ordering of apps, is ACTGratuity from Houdah Software. It’s a $0.99 app that basically calculates the tip for you.

Before we lament how people can’t do a simple “what’s 20% of x” calculation in their heads, let me remind you that the iPhone comes with a nice, built-in calculator software. In fact, one of the nice things about iPhone 2.0 is the fact that its calculator has improved! So, basically, this is a one-dollar piece of software that, according to the company, “minimized the number of taps” because it “calculates as you type”. Sure, there is some value there. If you were going to use the iPhone to calculate a tip, five taps is probably better than ten. The scary fact, though, is that there are probably people who need it. What are we doing wrong? What can we do to fix this? Can we blame Bush and No Child Left Behind? Blah blah blah. Insert standard “our kids don’t know math” cried here.

Their other iPhone product, ACTCurrency, which does currency conversion, is a much better reason for automation. However, there are plenty of free alternatives to that on the iPhone store but thanks to the app store’s sorting algorithm they appear much later on the page.

One final iPhone-numeracy-related thing: before ACTGratuity comes the app Abacus. There’s just something very, very wrong with the fact that you can turn your iPhone into an abacus for merely 99 cents. What’s next? iPhone sand that you can do geometry on?

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