iPad never before included a built-in Calculator app because there wasn’t one Steve Jobs felt was worthy of a tablet. That all changes with iPadOS 18, which boasts a new Apple Calculator app that you can write into with Apple Pencil.
Here’s why it’s something Jobs would be proud of.
Why Apple waited so long for an iPad Calculator app
In case you weren’t aware, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs nixed the calculator from the original iPad because it was lame — nothing more than the iPhone app awkwardly blown up to tablet size. And in 2020, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said the company wouldn’t build one into iPadOS until it created something that would make people say, “This is the greatest iPad calculator app.”
That day has arrived.
The basics
Image: Apple
Simply so it doesn’t get overlooked, I have to point out that the Apple Calculator app for iPad includes the usual basic and scientific calculator screens.
I don’t mean to sell these short. They are well-designed, and even display the numbers and operators you just typed in right above the result so you can easily check to be sure you didn’t make a mistake. But you could have gotten the same functionality from a third-party app.
Math Notes makes the Apple iPad Calculator app brilliant
Photo: Apple
Apple didn’t stop there. Switch the iPad Calculator app to Math Notes, pull out your Apple Pencil, and you can handwrite math problems you want answers for. It’s like you’re in second grade again, except you’re attending Magic School so your paper just gives you the answers.
It’s an obvious benefit for small children learning about math. But as an adult, I like it too. When I’m figuring out something complex, like a rate of percentage increase, I generally write out the numbers on a piece of scrap paper before entering them into a calculator. With Math Notes, no paper is needed. I can write everything into the Calculator app with my Apple Pencil, then have the iPad give me the answer.
Steve Jobs would have loved it. It’s the Calculator app that iPad deserves.
Cool and powerful, but don’t miss this limitation
Moving beyond the basics, Math Notes can handle variables. Define a value for X and a value for Y, then you can use these in a formula. You can even ask the Calculator app to draw a graph based on the data and formulas you’ve entered. This seems like something that will be used in science class, rather than something I’ll use in my everyday life. It’s still cool, though.
However, did you notice that when Apple unveiled the iPad Calculator application at WWDC24, it never demoed using it to solve for X? That’s because the app doesn’t do that. You can define a value for X (as noted) and use that in a formula. But you can’t write a formula that uses X as a variable and put “X =” at the end of it and expect an answer. It’s just as well — some kids would never learn anything in algebra class if they could simply write the formulas into the iPad to get the answer.
Also, you can’t enter Math Notes with your finger. You need a stylus, whether an Apple Pencil or a third-party active stylus.
Coming this fall in iPadOS 18
It’s still early days for the iPad Calculator app and Math Notes — currently, it’s only available in the first beta of iPadOS 18 that’s intended for developer testing only. A public beta should arrive in July. But The non-beta version won’t reach regular users until this fall. If you simply cannot wait, you can download the iPadOS 18 developer beta now. The process is essentially the same as getting the iOS 18 beta.
