20th December 2012

PCalc is twenty years old this Sunday! I'll let that sink it a bit...

Yes, the first version of PCalc 1.0 was released for the Mac on the 23rd of December 1992. I'm willing to bet it's older than some of the people using it now... I went back and installed a (virtual) Mac with a fresh copy of System 7 and tried to find the very first version online to install. The closest I could come was 1.0.2 from March 1993, but that's good enough to take some screenshots at least :)

I've written up a brief history of the app here - I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane.

The Mac version is here, and the iOS version is here.

10th December 2012

PCalc 2.7 is ready to download here. And PCalc Lite 2.7.1, but that's a long story.

Ticker-tape Parade

This release adds an optional ticker-tape to show recent caculations underneath the main display, a slew of new unit conversions, and improves the keyboard with multi-touch input for better accuracy and responsiveness. There's also a new basic horizontal layout, seen above, optimised for quick thumb typing.

The full list of changes is here. Let me know what you think!

2nd October 2012

PCalc 2.6.1 is out now, here.

Don't let the small version number change fool you, this is a big update. It adds support for the tall 4" screens on the iPhone 5 and the new iPod touch, as well as general support for iOS 6. "Ready on day one" is our motto!

The Tall Guy

There's also a proper Retina update on the "Rough Draft" theme, and I finally fixed things so the background grid always lines up properly - that one was really bugging me!

One downside - the new version requires iOS 4.3 or later. I wish I didn't have to, but Apple's latest developer tools dropped support for all earlier systems, so there wasn't really a choice if I wanted to support iOS 6 and the new devices. Sorry about that folks.

Anyway, I really hope you like this update, and enjoy your new phone if you're getting one!

3rd July 2012

PCalc 2.6 is out now, here.

This is a pretty big update. As well as adding the number one request of user constants - they automatically sync across all your devices using iCloud, and can be exported via email - I've also added all the functions from the Mac version, including the complex numbers and financial categories.

Some very useful user constants, and the categories for the new function section.

Eight-line display

The list of changes is here.

If you come up with any useful sets of constants, and want to share them, please send them over via the "Export" command and I'll include them with a future version. Thanks!

9th April 2012

PCalc 2.5.1 is out, you can get it here.

This is a small update to improve support for the new iPad, but the speed improvements should benefit everybody. I changed the way the display is drawn, and it should make number entry much more responsive, especially on an iPad with multiple lines showing. And it's fast enough now that I could bring back the glow effect for the "Flynn" theme which was missing on the new iPad!

There's also now a useful indicator on the display (when there's space) to show if you are in Scientific or Engineering mode. Tap the indicator to switch mode.

The full list of changes is here.

16th March 2012

PCalc 2.5 is out, you can get it here.

The most obvious feature is support for the Retina screen on the new iPad - just made it to the store on day one!

Brains and...

You can see a full-sized screenshot of the new "Brawn" theme running on a new iPad by clicking the above image. It's pretty big.

The full list of other changes is here.

Hope you like this update!

28th October 2011

Somewhat unexpectedly, PCalc 2.4.3 is out today - you can download it here.

PCalc 2.4.2 had a number of UI problems on older devices such as the iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G - most notably a bar across the display in landscape mode, and the settings not displaying correctly. These should all now be fixed.

Apologies to those who were affected!

For those curious about the technical reasons why it happened, the problem was caused by the latest 4.2 version of Apple's Xcode developer tools. The included llvm 3.0 compiler for these older armv6-based devices has an optimisation bug which can lead to code accessing the wrong fields of CGRect and CGSize variables. The workaround for now is to specify -mno-thumb in the C flags when building. If you are a developer, and you have built your app for armv6 with 4.2, you really should test your app on an old device asap.

21st October 2011

PCalc 2.4.2 is available here.

This is just a bug fix release for a few problems on iOS 5 - the most notable being a horizonal line that appeared across the iPad screen if you had the split keyboard mode enabled in other apps. Enjoy!

5th August 2011

PCalc 2.4.1 is out now - you can get it here.

This is a small update, but adds the number one requested feature - support for external hardware keyboards! This requires iOS 3.2 or later but should work with most bluetooth or other keyboards you can connect to your device.

The keyboard shortcuts are pretty much identical to those of PCalc for Mac OS. There is a list of all the supported shortcuts in the Help section of the Settings under (i). If there are some others you would like to see added, let me know. And if there is enough demand, I'll add an editor.

If you like this release, please add a review to the App Store. Thanks!

13th May 2011

Well, this has been a very interesting day so far. However, PCalc 2.4 is out now - you can get it here.

This release add quick fraction entry, new unit conversions including a lighting section, and a variety of improvements all across the app. I hope you enjoy it!

I'm somewhat busy today, so I apologise for the lack of in-depth release notes!

28th January 2011

PCalc 2.3.3 has been released - you can find it here.

This is just a small update to fix a bug which may have caused exponents to stop working in a future iOS release. Better safe than sorry!

6th January 2011

Happy New Year! A new version of PCalc for the Mac is now available as part of the Mac App Store.

We've nearly halved the price down to $9.99, the same as the iOS version, and the Dashboard Widget is now distributed separately and for free. You can find out more here.

If you like PCalc for iOS and you have a Mac, check it out!

Older news is here.