27th November 2010

PCalc 2.3.2 is out now - get it here in both flavours.

Mainly bug fixes, but there's a new option for a fixed four line stack for the RPN mode, with X, Y, Z, T registers. It should be familiar to some I hope!

One thing I should say, I had to remove the coupon that gives a discount on the Mac version. Mainly because I've submitted PCalc to the new Mac App Store, which is launching soon, and Apple doesn't let us use coupon codes there. I have some ideas though, so watch this space.

23rd October 2010

Shipped a quick PCalc Lite 2.3.1 update to fix a problem with the thousands separator and multiple memory options not appearing after the appropriate in-app purchase. No bug in the full version, so no need for an update there.

You can get it here.

15th October 2010

PCalc 2.3 is finally out. You can get it here.

May I request a sidebar?

The biggest change is the addition of a sidebar in the iPad version where you can permanently show the tape or RPN stack. These sections are also now easier to read across all devices, appropriately themed, and quicker to email.

The complete list of what's new is here.

Hope you enjoy this release. Adding or updating a review in iTunes would be a great way of showing support. Well, also buying a copy in the first place of course!

NOTE: Two of the features in the in-app purchase packs inadvertently got switched in PCalc Lite 2.3. The thousands separator option now appears with the Multiple Line Pack, and the multiple memories option appears with the Power User Pack. This doesn't affect the full version, or if you have bought both packs or the full upgrade in Lite.

We'll switch this back in a 2.3.1 shortly, apologies!

11th August 2010

PCalc 2.2.1 is out, in both flavours. You can get them here.

This is just a small bug fix update, mainly to fix a problem in 2.2 with the key click sounds pausing background music, and also to fix an occasional crash in the conversions and constants.

2nd August 2010

Slightly later than anticipated, but PCalc Lite 2.2 was just approved by Apple and should be up on the store shortly. You can download it here.

Enjoy!

30th July 2010

PCalc 2.2 is out now - it's available here. There's also a corresponding PCalc 3.6 for the Mac out today, grab it here.

PCalc Lite 2.2 should be out very shortly - it's still in the hands of Apple's reviewers, but I expect it will appear on the store in the next 24 hours.

Greetings, apps!

Aside from the awesome new glowing theme you can see above - ideal for low light situations and pretending to be Jeff Bridges - there are a number of new features, including lots of improvements to the unit conversions, a volume control for the key click sounds, and a wide variety of power user options.

The full list of new features is here.

Hope you enjoy this release, and please add an appropriately glowing review on iTunes if you do!

1st July 2010

PCalc and PCalc Lite 2.1 have been released, you can get them both here.

Retina Scan

The main changes are support for iOS 4 including fast app switching, and also support for the high resolution Retina display on the iPhone 4. You can see the difference, just in the icons above.

And here is a screenshot showing how the "Flux" theme looks on a Retina display versus a regular display.

I think you can see there's quite a difference!

I'm currently investigating some reports of the PCalc splashscreen appearing occasionally when using fast app switching - I think I know what's happening, and I'm working on a fix. Basically, if you switch apps really fast (like in and out of an app in a few seconds), the OS doesn't have time to save a snapshot of the application's appearance on quit, and so it displays the default image while switching the app in again.

In PCalc's case, that's the splashscreen image, which isn't ideal. It's just cosmetic, as the switching takes exactly the same time, but it does look a bit like the app is being relaunched. I think in normal usage, it won't happen much, but I have some ideas to minimise it further.

Anyway, hope you like PCalc 2.1. If you do, please write a review in iTunes - it's most appreciated! Thanks.

11th June 2010

PCalc and PCalc Lite 2.0.1 are out today, with a few fixes for the forthcoming iOS 4.0. Specifically it fixes a crash in the contants and unit conversions, and addresses a number of cosmetic problems.

You can get them both here!

I am also working on a version that will take full advantage of iOS 4.0, which will hopefully be released nearer the iPhone 4, but it's still a work in progress so I wanted to get this out now.

1st April 2010

PCalc and PCalc Lite 2.0 are out a little earlier than expected, you can get them both here.

PCalc HD

What's new? Well, the short answer is native iPad support! The long answer will take a bit more time, as I haven't had a great deal of sleep this week :)

But basically, PCalc 2.0 is a universal app, with support for iPad and iPhone in one. What that also means is that if you've bought PCalc for iPhone, or any of the in-app purchases in PCalc Lite, they will transfer over to the iPad for free.

Additionally, since the iPad doesn't ship with a calculator, if you are looking for one on Saturday please give PCalc Lite a try and tell your friends...

More shortly!

24th March 2010

PCalc Lite 1.9.2 is finally up, get it here.

It's actually PCalc Lite 1.9.3 when you get it downloaded, with the same fix to the currency conversions as the full version, but iTunes is a little confused!

On the iPad front, I have a PCalc 2.0 all ready to go, and I hope to submit it as a free update to the app store soon, once the path through the bureaucracy is a little clearer...

24th March 2010

PCalc Lite 1.9.2 is finally up, get it here.

It's actually PCalc Lite 1.9.3 when you get it downloaded, with the same fix to the currency conversions as the full version, but iTunes is a little confused!

On the iPad front, I have a PCalc 2.0 all ready to go, and I hope to submit it as a free update to the app store soon, once the path through the bureaucracy is a little clearer...

20th March 2010

A quick PCalc 1.9.3 update has just hit the store, get it here.

It fixes a bug with the currency conversions in some regions - specifically those which use a comma as the decimal separator. Reload the rates if you still see any problems.

PCalc Lite 1.9.2 is still in review limbo with Apple, but I hope it will show up soon! It has the fix from the full 1.9.3 already. Meanwhile, I am still working on the iPad version, and I hope to have more news on that front soon...

18th March 2010

PCalc 1.9.2 has just been approved! You can download it here. PCalc Lite should follow along in the next few days, once Apple gives it the ok.

"I look at a hundred deals a day. I pick one."

The main new feature is the long awaited addition of currency to the conversions section. The full list of new features is here.

These are not the iPad compatible versions that I've also been working on - actually they are, but with one line changed to disabled the work-in-progress iPad code! I'm working out my plans in that regard just now - the iPad doesn't officially launch in the UK until the end of April, so I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to get mine. Naturally, I don't want to release anything until I've tried it out on a real device!

Certainly, I'm planning to make a universal iPhone / iPad build of PCalc available as a free update. I'll let you know when I can tell you more...

27th January 2010

Clearly, nobody will hear me today, but PCalc Lite 1.9.1 was just approved! You can get it here.

To answer the obvious iPad questions in the meantime...

• I will definitely make updated versions of PCalc/PCalc Lite for the iPad.
• The existing 1.9.x versions should work fine on the iPad (with black borders or pixel-doubled).
• I would hope that I can make a PCalc 2.0 release which supports both the iPad and iPhone with a single binary.
• If so, I would also hope that I can make it a free upgrade.

These are currently just hopes - I'm downloading the iPad SDK as I type this, so I don't know the answers to my questions yet, and the SDK is going to be under NDA for a while so I can't discuss all of them here.

I'll say what I can though - watch this space!

26th January 2010

A number of small updates today - there's a 3.5.2 update to the Mac version, and an equivalent 1.9.1 update to the iPhone version. Get it here.

I think PCalc Lite is likely to follow along in a couple of days - it seems to take slightly longer now to get approval from Apple due to the in-app purchase feature.

Both fix some small bugs in the core code, and add a couple of minor features including the ability to avoid clearing the tape when you hit "AC", and full support for the standard system "shake to undo" gesture.

Oh, and needless to say, if there's an Apple tablet announced tomorrow, I'll make sure there's a version of PCalc available for it soon!

15th December 2009

A bit quicker than expected, PCalc Lite 1.9 is up on the App Store now! You can download it here.

"On Wednesdays I go shopping..."

Now, the secret feature of PCalc Lite 1.9 can be revealed... The PCalc Store! You can now purchase all the extra features from the full version of PCalc directly inside PCalc Lite.

Buy them individually, or buy everything.

There's now a "PCalc Store" item inside the Settings - tap on it, and you'll be taken to the screen above. Select what you'd like to buy, and - by the magic of in-app purchase - the new features will be instantly unlocked.

I've divided the features up into six separate packs:

• Theme Pack - adds seven new calculator themes, as well as additional digit styles and click sounds. PCalc has never looked better!
• Conversion Pack - add dozens of extra unit conversions with this pack. Includes a bonus set of scientific constants too.
• Engineer Pack - a collection of powerful calculator layouts designed for engineers and students. Also adds a virtual paper tape.
• Programmer Pack - a set of advanced layouts with support for hex, octal, and binary calculations, and a variety of bitwise operators.
• Multiple Line Pack - adds comprehensive multi-line support for the display, along with the bonus feature of multiple memories.
• Power User Pack - get detailed control over all aspects of PCalc with this pack. Advanced settings for display, RPN mode, and much more.

There's also the Complete Pack which lets you buy all the extra features for PCalc in one step. The cost, and functionality, is exactly the same as the regular app.

There's nothing new here if you've already bought the full version - the idea is that people who haven't now have more choice. The regular version will continue to get updates exactly as this version does - they both share 99.9% of the same code now except for which features are unlocked at the beginning. I'm not planning to make anybody pay twice for anything.

Really, this is an investigation to see how people would like to buy iPhone software. Do you want a great free app with in-app purchase of extra functionality, or do you want to buy the whole thing outright from the beginning?

I don't know the answer to that yet, but it will be very interesting to find out... Let me know what you think.

12th December 2009

PCalc 1.9 is up on the App Store now! You can download it here.

141.622272 km/h

Well, kind of.

Apple's servers are having some problems today and some people are getting 1.8.1 again when they download the update, and some people who manage to get 1.9 are being told to download it again repeatedly. I'm hoping the problems sort themselves out over the next 24 hours, but apologies if it's not working for you at the moment. Right now, all I can do is report the problems to Apple unfortunately.

Also, PCalc Lite 1.9 has been held up too, I suspect because I've added a big new feature to it (which will be unveiled soon). Apple approved the full app in record time, but I think it will be a week or two more for the lite one to show. Hopefully just in time for Christmas!

Anyway, when you do get it, what can you expect? The main changes are:

• I've added a new calculator theme "Flux" which you can see above.
• You can now customize the decimal and thousands separators in the advanced settings.
• I've added options to automatically copy and paste when PCalc is closed and reopened.
• When using multiple memories, the memory keys now highlight to show which memories have values stored in them.

The full list is here. Most of the code that's changed in 1.9 is actually for low level changes in PCalc Lite 1.9. But more about that (hopefully) soon... The hint is that there are only seven lines of code which are different between the two apps now.

PCalc now requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later - it was getting difficult to support the older systems while continuing to add new features. Let me know if that causes anybody problems.

Enjoy!

19th October 2009

PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.8.1 are up on the App Store now. You can download them both here.

This is a small update to fix a particular bug in 1.8 with calculator buttons not always taking presses. It should be more responsive again now.

30th September 2009

PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.8 are up on the App Store now. You can download them both here.

It also improves on the multi-line support - you can set the number of lines displayed independantly for the horizontal and vertical modes, and can swipe vertically on the LCD screen to add or remove lines. I've also added a mod function to some of the layouts, and undo/redo now persists across closing and opening PCalc.

PCalc Lite just gets some minor improvements and bug fixes.

The full list of changes is here. I hope you like them!

13th August 2009

There's a new version 3.5 of PCalc for the Mac available here. I've moved many the recent features from the iPhone version back to the Mac, including:

• A "2nd" key to show additional functions.
• New functions like hyperbolic trig, hypotenuse, gamma, delta percentage, memory / stack clear, and last x.
• Multiple-memory support.
• Optional HP48-style RPN behaviour.
• Key click sounds.
• Support for regions that use a quote as the thousands separator.

Basically, if you like PCalc on the iPhone, the Mac version should now feel a bit more like home!

18th July 2009

If you can see this message, you don't have a 3GS.

Both PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.7 for the iPhone are now available. You can download them here.

This is a big update with lots of features I've been working on since before the 3.0 iPhone OS release. I think many people will be happy. Changes to the full version include:

• Faster startup! The number one most-requested feature. You'll notice it most on the second launch of 1.7, as I now cache things on quit for the next startup. On a 3GS or iPod touch 2G, it's practically instant - so much so that I sadly don't have time to display the little loading messages like the one above.
• Three and four-line display modes, including complete control over what appears on each line.
• Multiple-memory support.
• Optional HP48-style RPN behaviour.
• Much nicer number display with the "Easier To Read" digits option. It's now actually easier to read!

The free PCalc Lite just gets the speed increases and the digit improvements. Full details of all the changes are here. Enjoy!

15th June 2009

PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.6 for the iPhone are now available on the App Store. You can download them here.

They both support the forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0 release, and feature copy and paste support when running on iPhones and iPod touches with the new OS installed. These releases still run on the older 2.2.x OS of course, you just don't get to play with the 3.0 stuff yet.

In addition to 3.0 support, I've also added two new full-featured vertical layouts, one geared towards engineering and one to programming. Now you don't need to rotate the calculator to get at all the advanced functions!

Full details of all the changes here.

I was just about to post some screenshots showing off copy and paste, but technically I'm not allowed to post any pictures of iPhone OS 3.0 in action until it is officially released on the 19th. So I'll be waiting a little while longer just so Apple doesn't get annoyed! But when you do get the new OS, or even a new 3GS phone, you'll see how it all works.

The NDA is now lifted, so have a picture :)

Hope you like them!

11th May 2009

I'm currently working away on a new version of PCalc for the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS with support for copy and paste amongst other things.

In the meantime, since that's keeping me really busy, we're doing a special half-price sale on PCalc, starting today. It's available now on the App Store for $4.99. The new release of PCalc I'm working on will be a free upgrade too, so now would be a really good time to grab it before the price goes back up!

Have you read my developer blog? If you want to see some of the behind-the-scenes here, it's worth a look. You can also follow me as @jamesthomson on Twitter.

25th March 2009

New Model, Original Parts

Two new releases to celebrate today. Firstly, PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.5 for the iPhone are both now available on the App Store. You can download them here.

PCalc gets a new optional engineering layout, as shown above, with hyperbolic trig functions, hypotenuse and leg, gamma, delta percent and more. You can also see a classic theme taken from PCalc on Mac OS X. What you can't hear are the six new key click sounds you can choose from too.

PCalc Lite gets two of the click sounds, and some other small improvements. PCalc Lite is completely free. If you want to get a feel for how the full PCalc works, just try it.

Full details of all the changes here.

Secondly, a new version of PCalc for Mac OS X can also be found here. Hope you like them both!

Have you read my developer blog? If you want to see some of the behind-the-scenes here, it's worth a look. You can also follow me as @jamesthomson on Twitter.

22nd January 2009

Saving Your Fingers, One Tap At A Time

PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.4 are now available on the App Store. You can download them both here.

The main new feature for 1.4 is a reworked conversions section. As well as adding lots of new conversions, it now lists your most recent selections - overall, and in each category - for quicker access. Same goes for the constants in fact.

There's also a new set of digit styles you can choose from, it has a much nicer startup without any visible theme switching, and there's some general performance improvements too. Full details here.

PCalc Lite also gets the recent conversion support and an option to turn off the key clicks. As always, PCalc Lite is completely free. If you want to get a feel for how PCalc works, just go ahead and check it out.

Enjoy!

20th December 2008

Surprise! Well, it's a surprise to me anyway... The full PCalc 1.3 release is also now available today on the App Store. You can get it here.

This update has the new "Twilight" theme from yesterday's free PCalc Lite as well as performance improvements and some other small changes. Enjoy them both.

19th December 2008

Fewer Calories, Same Great Taste

Available for a limited time only, PCalc Lite is a fully functional and free taste of our popular scientific calculator for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download it from the App Store here.

It includes an optional RPN mode, multiple undo and redo, unit conversions and constants, as well as two stylish themes and our highly praised design.

If you like what you see, the full version has many more settings and themes, a paper tape, engineering and scientific notation, and full support for hexadecimal, octal and binary calculations.

In the continuing absence of demos or trial periods in the App Store, the idea behind PCalc Lite is to provide something useful and free that's better than the Apple calculator, but which will also drive interest in our full version. PCalc Lite is a great calculator, but PCalc is even better!

I hope you like it.

16th December 2008

Hmm... What is this? It's like the regular PCalc icon, but lighter...

Actually, what it is isn't a big secret if you've been reading my blog or Twitter feed. But I'll maintain the illusion of surprise for now. I've also just submitted PCalc 1.3 to the App Store, so it should hopefully show up sometime before the 25th!

More soon...

17th November 2008

PCalc 1.2 is finally available from the App Store! Click here to download it.

No. There Is Another.

Changes include an optional two-line display for use with RPN mode, and the two stylish calculator themes seen below. The full list is here.

As usual, this is a free update if you've already bought the iPhone version. I hope you like it!

If you haven't seen it already, check out my new developer blog. You can also follow me on Twitter.

11th November 2008

A quick tease for PCalc 1.2, which is in the hands on my beta testers now. You can see the optional two-line display for RPN folk, and one of the two new themes. It should be submitted to the App Store in the next few days, and will probably show up on the store week after. More soon!

14th October 2008

PCalc 1.1 is now available from the App Store. This is a big update!

This One Goes To Eleven

The two main new features are multiple layouts and themes. Above, you can see the new "Retro Scientific" horizontal layout, coupled with the "High Power" theme. Below, you can see the new "Retro" vertical layout in a variety of themes - click any of them for a bigger view.

The theme engine is actually the same powerful theme code from DragThing on Mac OS X, running pretty much unmodified on the iPhone. So, anything I can do with themes there, I can now do in PCalc. Which I personally think is pretty cool! You can look forward to some new themes soon anyway...

The full list of changes in this release is here - of course, this is a free update. Do let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas for new layouts or themes you'd like to see in the next version.

Enjoy!

8th October 2008

PCalc 1.1 has been submitted to the App Store - it should be available there in about a week, if everything goes to plan.

4th September 2008

A new version of PCalc for Mac OS X is now available - you can download version 3.3 here.

It has a lot of the improvements from PCalc for the iPhone, especially in the RPN department. It should now feel the same as the iPhone version to use. Hope you like it!

27th August 2008

PCalc 1.0.2 is now available from the App Store.

Marty McFly

The main changes are:

• Added multiple undo and redo. Just flick the LCD to the right and left to reveal the past and future.
• You can now change the colors of the LCD display and digits.
• Made the operator buttons more readable.
• Reversed the order of the operator buttons to match other calculators.
• More improvements to the RPN mode.
• Fixed a problem displaying large hex numbers on the tape.

The undo support is pretty cool, you just flick the LCD in the direction you want to go and it animates in the old value. Very "iPhone" even if I say so myself!

Hope you like it! Oh, and check out the PCalc fan page if you are on Facebook - become a fan to tell your friends!

20th August 2008

PCalc 1.0.2 has now been submitted to the App Store - it will probably take around a week to show up, assuming everything goes smoothly with Apple's vetting.

I'll let you know when it's available for download.

17th August 2008

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to PCalc 1.0.2 - it's got a number of cool new features, most notably the multiple undo and redo support. I won't spoil exactly how it works yet, but I think it came together really well.

I expect the new version will get submitted early next week when my beta testers are happy with it, and hopefully it will turn up on the store soon. I'll let you know.

In the meantime, if you really like PCalc, why not become a fan? I've set up a fan page on Facebook which you can get to here. Click the "Become a Fan" link at the top right of the page to help spread the word.

Thanks!

30th July 2008

PCalc 1.0.1 is now live on the iPhone App Store here. Enjoy!

24th July 2008

PCalc 1.0.1 has been submitted to the iPhone App Store!

I've heard that updates are taking a while to show up, indeed some developers haven't seen any of their new versions appear yet since the store opened. But hopefully it will turn up soon.

The changes are in this release are:

• You can now email the contents of the tape and the display.
• Changed the RPN Drop behaviour to match HP calculators.
• Rearranged layout slightly to show "Del" button in RPN mode.
• Added some fuel efficiency conversions.
• Added display of ASCII / UTF-8 / UTF-16 values.
• Added a Help section to the Settings.
• Now correctly disable the "8" button in octal mode.
• Fixed the RPN "Roll" button in horizontal mode.
• Fixed a couple of memory leaks.

I'll post again when it shows up on the store.

18th July 2009

PCalc 1.7 for iPhone is now released - lots of significant improvements including faster startup and a four-line display mode. Get it here.

I plan to move the new features back to the Mac soon!

15th June 2009

PCalc 1.6 for iPhone is now released with OS 3.0 support including copy and paste. Get it here.

25th March 2009

There was a display problem on 10.4 with some of the new layouts, so I've made a very small 3.4.1 release to fix it.

You can get it here.

24th March 2009

Congratulations, it's twins!

Two new releases to celebrate today - PCalc 3.4 for Mac OS X and PCalc 1.5 for iPhone. They have more code in common, and now have exactly the same graphics engine as you can see above.

You can download PCalc 3.4 here, and PCalc 1.5 for iPhone here.

PCalc 3.4 features a wide selection of new themes and unit conversions taken directly from the iPhone version as well as an updated Dashboard widget. The full list of changes is here.

Don't forget, if you want a free scientific RPN calculator for the iPhone, you should check out our PCalc Lite.

You can follow me as @jamesthomson on Twitter and I also have a developer blog.

22nd January 2009

PCalc and PCalc Lite 1.4 for the iPhone and iPod touch are now available on the App Store. You can download them both here.

I'm currently working away on a new PCalc 3.4 release for the Mac as well, which will incorporate the calculator themes from the iPhone version, as well as other improvements. More soon.

Have you read my developer blog? If you want to see some of the behind-the-scenes here, it's worth a look. You can also follow me as @jamesthomson on Twitter.

19th December 2008

Available for a limited time only, PCalc Lite is a fully functional and free taste of our popular scientific calculator for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download it from the App Store here.

The latest PCalc 1.3 for iPhone is also available here.

17th November 2008

Version 1.2 of PCalc for the iPhone is now available on the App Store. Now with an optional two-line display, and two stylish new calculator themes.

Also, if you haven't seen it already, check out my new developer blog. You can also follow me on Twitter.

15th October 2008

As promised, PCalc 3.3.1 for Mac OS X is now available to download, with many of the improvements from PCalc 1.1 for the iPhone.

A full list of the changes is here. My goal is to try and keep the two in sync as closely as possible from now on, and flow fixes and new features from one version to the other. The core maths code in the two is very similar, but all of the user interface code is completely different. I'd like to get the themes and layouts from the iPhone back into the desktop app though.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

14th October 2008

Version 1.1 of PCalc for the iPhone is now available on the App Store. Now with multiple layouts and themes!

This One Goes To Eleven

I'm going to bring the enhancements I made to the maths engine back to PCalc for Mac OS X very soon. Longer term, I hope to bring the new theme and layout engine back too. Watch this space!

4th September 2008

The Best Of Both Worlds

PCalc 3.3 has been released!

Yes, it's been almost exactly two years since the last big PCalc release (on the desktop anyway), but it's time for another one. I've taken many of the improvements made to the code for the iPhone and brought them back to the Mac, given everything a fresh lick of paint, and here's the result. A full list of the changes is here.

This is a free upgrade for all registered users of the Mac OS X version, as a thank you for waiting so long!

Any comments or suggestion to the address below, post them on the forums, or on the Facebook page.

I hope you like it!

27th August 2008

Marty McFly

Version 1.0.2 of PCalc for the iPhone is now available on the App Store. It's got cool multiple undo and redo support, which you can see in action above.

But you want to hear about PCalc for Mac OS X, right? Well, I'm happy to say that I'm currently working on the long awaited new version, 3.3, which is already looking good and is in the hands of my beta testers now.

It's going to be a free upgrade, and will hopefully be ready for release in the next week or two. More details to follow shortly.

Oh, and if you are on Facebook, check out the PCalc fan page - become a fan to tell your friends!

20th August 2008

What? What?! WHAT?

Wait, that's not an iPhone app! Surely it couldn't be a new PCalc update for the Mac, incorporating all the code changes and improvements from PCalc for the iPhone?

Oh, James, you are such a tease.

10th July 2008

A Touch of Class

PCalc is now available to buy for the iPhone and iPod touch on the iPhone App Store! You can find out more details here. Let me know what you think at the usual address!

2nd July 2008

PCalc In Your Pocket

So I can finally talk a bit about what I've been working on for the last six months!

PCalc for the iPhone (and iPod touch) is now ready for release, and has been submitted to the iPhone App Store this afternoon. All being well, it should be available immediately when the store opens for business.

Apple has asked us not to show any screenshots from iPhone apps until after the store goes live, so I will respect their wishes (and mighty legal teams) and not put anything up here yet.

But I can still tell you some details.

LIke the desktop app, PCalc for the iPhone includes an extensive set of unit conversions, constants, a paper tape, an RPN mode, engineering and scientific notation, as well as support for hexadecimal, octal and binary calculations. It has been redesigned from the ground up with the handheld experience in mind. It looks great too!

It's going to cost $9.99 in the US - pricing will vary in other countries, but in that range.

More details to follow soon. I hope you like it!

3rd April 2008

PCalc At Your Fingertips

A very small tease for now :)

7th March 2008

The short answer is yes, I am working on a version of PCalc for the iPhone / iPod touch!

I expect to have it ready for the introduction of Apple's new application store in June, but at this point I'm still digesting all the details of the SDK announcement. More to follow!

1st January 2008

Happy New Year! Thanks to everybody who has helped support us in 2007!

29th November 2007

Ok, so where did the last year go?

Just wanted to reassure people that I haven't forgotten about PCalc, despite the lack of updates here. DragThing has needed a lot of work for Leopard compatibility, and I've been focusing my efforts there of late. And PCalc works just fine on Leopard!

If you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see in a future release, let me know on the forums or at the following address:

Thanks!

8th January 2007

A slightly late Happy New Year!

If you haven't seen it already, and were wondering why things were a little quiet here, I have been working hard on DragThing for the last couple of months - you can see the latest version 5.7.1 with dock themes here.

I'll get back to PCalc soon!

22nd September 2006

PCalc 3.2 is now released!

"6.65245873e-29"

A number of neat things in this version:

• Firstly, in anticipation of the great new speech in Leopard, I've added full speech support to the application. PCalc can now read your actions and results back to you, as well as speak the current number being displayed. It's still very usable on Tiger of course.

• Secondly, I've added two new extra large calculator styles with big buttons and displays. I've had many requests from people who wanted bigger calculators, and I think these certainly qualify! In addition, I've greatly improved the support for VoiceOver and other accessibility software. Hopefully, these changes - as well as the speech support - will make PCalc more useful to a wider group of people than before.

• Thirdly, there's support for an unlimited number of constants. 3.2 ships with around thirty new scientific constants built-in and more can be added by means of simple to create plug-ins. The constants menu is now hierarchical, with the constants grouped by subject area.

• Lastly, this version also improves support for international users, especially those who use a comma as decimal separator rather than a dot.

There's a full list of all the changes here. Go get it on the Download Page and let me know what you think.

Oh, and needless to say, this is a free upgrade for registered users. For everybody else, check out the DragThing / PCalc special offer that's currently running on the Kagi order page...

Enjoy!

13th September 2006

The next PCalc release is likely to be a small 3.2 update which adds full speech support and various other accessibility features. When I was at WWDC last month, I was really impressed by the new speech in Leopard, and I wanted to experiment with it.

In the meantime, I've started a new promotion on our Kagi order page.

From today, if you buy PCalc and DragThing together, you can get them both for $34, saving $14 on the previous total price. Look for the "PCalc 3 & DragThing 5 bundle" special offer at the top of the order page.

You can look at it as getting DragThing for nearly half-price when you buy PCalc, or getting PCalc for a mere $5 when you buy DragThing. Your choice!

28th July 2006

I've just released a small PCalc 3.1.1 update.

This version fixes a display problem with the Engineering Notation support that was added in 3.1.

20th July 2006

PCalc 3.1 is now released!

Toy Surprise

Three notable additions:

• Firstly, and most importantly, I've added extensive AppleScript support to the application. Not only is PCalc itself fully scriptable, but you can now write your own functions and conversions in AppleScript instead of the old PCalc code. Functions can do anything that is possible with AppleScript, including displaying dialogs, calling scripting additions, and talking to other applications.

• Secondly, I've added Engineering Notation support to the application and also to the Dashboard widget (the widget also gains Scientific Notation support). Hopefully this will be appreciated by the engineer types out there.

• Thirdly - and purely for some eye-candy I'll admit - I've added a new calculator style to the application which looks just like the PCalc Dashboard widget. This was one of the most common feature requests after the original release of PCalc 3!

There's a full list of all the changes here.

Of course, this is a free upgrade if you've already paid for PCalc 2 or 3. So go and grab a copy from the Download Page right now and enjoy.

On a personal note, this release marks my return to coding, after a longer than expected period of illness and recovery. Thanks to everybody who helped me through it!

29th May 2006

Just wanted to give people another quick update on my health. Things seem to be generally okay now. I've been healing a little bit slower than the doctors expected, but it doesn't sound like I need an operation thankfully. I'm still a little tender, but mostly back to normal. I'm off all the painkillers, so at least my brain is working again!

Anyway, many apologies for the lack of updates and thanks again for your patience and support while I got better. Normal service will be resumed shortly!

21st March 2006

A quick update on my health for those who were worried!

The good news is that I seem to be improving - I came off the antibiotics nearly three weeks ago, and things haven't got any worse since then. That's a hopeful sign that the underlying infection has been dealt with, and I won't need to go back into hospital for an operation. I'm still on a lot of painkillers, but I'm slowly reducing them.

I'm not allowed to work yet, but I think I'll be able to start doing things again sometime next month. Saskia has been answering all the support emails and watching the forums in the meantime.

Generally, I'm feeling a lot better than I was, but I've still got a way to go. Thanks for all your patience and good wishes!

28th February 2006

Just a quick post to let people know what's been happening.

I've been rather ill recently - I just spent 16 days in hospital due to a nasty abdominal abscess (around 5cm in diameter) which has been pushing all my internal organs around. It's not exactly pleasant, but not life threatening.

Due to the position, the doctors don't want to operate for fear of damaging things in the process, and so were treating me around the clock with IV antibiotics to reduce the size as well as giving me lots of pain killers. If things don't work out with the antibiotics, I could still end up back in hospital again for an operation.

They think it started with a mild appendicitis which led to the abscess forming from the appendix. All I can tell you is that it hurts! I did convince them to let me examine the CT scans out of curiosity, but to my non-medically-trained eyes, it was just a big black blob next to some lighter blobs.

Anyway, as of last week, I'm back home again. The doctors say I have a three month recovery period ahead of me until I'm entirely well, and with the pain killers and antibiotics I don't have a lot of energy or lucidity during the day. So, I'm not going to be checking my mail or reading the forums too regularly, answering messages even less, and I'm certainly not allowed to be working! I'm hoping that it won't take me that length of time to get back into things, but I can't make any promises, and my focus at the moment has to be on getting better.

Saskia has assumed all the support duties for TLA Systems in the meantime, and I'm just in recovery mode for now. If you send us an email, we'll do our best to reply as soon as possible, but please be patient if it takes a little while longer than normal, or we don't have a fix ready right away.

Thanks for your understanding!

James

12th January 2006

Ready on day one!

Yes, PCalc 3 is a Universal Binary, and includes full support for the new Intel based Macs announced at Macworld. You can download the latest version here.

5th January 2006

PCalc 3.0.3 is now released!

A quick change of clothes

The main point of this release is to improve the Intel processor support in preparation for Macworld next week, as well as fix some bugs. But I've also added some new styles to the PCalc Dashboard Widget, including wood, metal, and a number of colours.

This is a free upgrade if you've already paid for PCalc 2 or 3. You can get it from the Download Page now. I've also released a new version of DragThing today.

Enjoy!

22nd December 2005

A little teaser.

I'm currently working on small - free - updates to both PCalc and DragThing which may well become quite relevant on the 10th of January. As well as the main feature of those releases, I'm going to try and sneak something fun I was playing with into the PCalc widget…

29th October 2005

This one was a surprise to me too - it's PCalc 3.0.2!

Thanks to Michel Couture for spotting a mistake in the nautical mile unit conversions yesterday. Since I didn't want anybody to sail to the wrong place this weekend, I thought I should do an update to fix the problem as soon as possible.

I also went through all of the remaining 479 unit conversions and found a few things that needed correcting (notably the names of the UK and US tons had been swapped round), so I'd recommend that everybody updates to 3.0.2.

Apologies.

27th October 2005

As previously hinted, PCalc 3.0.1 is now released!

Can you spot the difference?

One complaint I heard after the PCalc 3.0 release was that it still wasn't supporting parentheses some thirteen years after the original release of PCalc 1.0. Not wanting to give anybody an excuse not to register, I decided it was time to remedy that.

Go and grab a copy of 3.0.1 from the Download Page. I'll wait.

Here's what's new:

• Added support for using parentheses while entering expressions.
• Added an option to show thousands separators in the Dashboard Widget.
• Added comma key to the default keyboard shortcuts.
• Improved keyboard handling in the Dashboard Widget.
• Now display a warning if you choose a keyboard shortcut which is already in use.
• Fixed a problem setting certain keyboard shortcuts.
• Fixed a problem displaying negative hexadecimal numbers in the Info drawer.
• Fixed a problem saving the full state of the calculators.

This is a free upgrade if you've already paid for PCalc 2 or 3.

For new users, PCalc costs US $19 for a single-user license. A special upgrade price of US $10 is available for those people who got PCalc 2.2.3 included with their Macs. Five and ten packs are available for US $64 and US $99 respectively.

This release still requires Mac OS X 10.4.2 or later. I've looked into supporting older systems, and unfortunately I don't think it's feasible. Even some of the simple things I'm using like the lists in the Preferences and Conversion windows don't work properly on 10.3.

And now a quick message for developer types. Regular users, avert your eyes!

Developers with Intel-based hardware should note that there is a known bug in the long double maths libraries of the current pre-release Mac OS X 10.4.x seed which stops PCalc 3 from working correctly. PCalc 3 works fine on the previous 10.4.2 seeds, and I'm reliably informed this problem is already fixed in later builds inside Apple. So hopefully a fix will show up soon. In the meantime, you might want to set PCalc to run under Rosetta in the Finder Get Info window. PowerPC-based Macs are completely unaffected of course.

Okay, you can look again.

19th October 2005

Regular readers of dragthing.com know how much I like my teaser images… Not sure when this will be ready for release, but hopefully soon.

(What could this mean?)

13th October 2005

Hey, a shiny new website! What could it mean? Surely, it couldn't be… a new version? After five years?

Yes, PCalc 3 is finally released! It's available now from the Download Page.

PCalc The Dashboard Widget

Here's a taste of what's changed:

• Completely rewritten to take advantage of Mac OS X Tiger.
• Includes a companion PCalc Dashboard Widget for quick calculations.
• More accurate maths engine.
• Brand new unit conversion mechanism including many new supported units.
• Editable keyboard shortcuts for all actions, including functions and unit conversions.
• New calculator styles including Metal and Basic.
• Support for adding third-party calculator styles, functions, and unit conversions.
• Enhanced RPN mode.
• Multiple undo and redo.
• Single icon drag install.
• Built-in software update mechanism.
• Universal Binary with support for both Intel and PowerPC processors.
• Lots more!

PCalc 3 is a free upgrade for registered users who previously bought PCalc 2, and existing serial numbers will continue to work. A special upgrade price of US $10 is available for those people who got PCalc 2.2.3 included with their Macs.

For new users, PCalc costs US $19 for a single-user license. Five and ten packs are also now available for US $64 and US $99 respectively.

Please note that PCalc 3 requires Mac OS X 10.4.2 or later and won't run on earlier versions of Mac OS. PCalc 2 is still available for those with older systems. This release only includes English language support at the moment. Other languages will follow.

I've put a lot of work into PCalc 3, so I hope you like it. Visit the new PCalc section of the DragThing Forums and let me know what you think, or send me an email to:

Of course, if you like PCalc, don't forget to check out my alternative dock application DragThing.

26th September 2005

Believe it or not, I'm currently working on a brand new version of PCalc!

More information to follow very soon... In the meantime, here's a list of some of the new features:

• Completely rewritten to take advantage of Mac OS X Tiger.
• More accurate maths engine.
• Brand new unit conversion mechanism.
• Editable keyboard shortcuts for all actions, including functions and unit conversions.
• New calculator styles including Metal and Basic.
• Support for adding third-party calculator styles, functions. and unit conversions.
• Enhanced RPN mode.
• Multiple undo and redo.
• Single icon drag install.
• Built-in software update mechanism.
• Universal Binary with support for both Intel and PowerPC processors.

And perhaps the best news. PCalc 3 will be a free upgrade for registered users who previously bought PCalc 2, and existing serial numbers will continue to work.

26th May 2003

So, people have been asking - "You haven't released a new version of PCalc in quite a while, are you still working on it?".

Well, it's true that I've mainly been concentrating on DragThing recently, but I haven't given up on PCalc either. No promises when the next release will be, but if you've got any suggestions for features you'd like to see, send them to the address below:

10th September 2002

Well, it was nice while it lasted!

Mac OS 10.2 has a new calculator (which I didn't have anything to do with, I should add), so Apple has stopped including PCalc with Macs sold in the US.

Their new calculator doesn't do RPN, Hexadecimal/Octal/Binary, user functions, or many of the other things PCalc does, so if you are looking for a more powerful alternative to the Apple calculator, please check out PCalc!

Also, in an effort to cut down the amount of spam I'm getting, I've removed all the links containing my email address from this site. Of course, you can still email me directly at the following address:

But hopefully that will stop spammers from getting this address quite as easily.

23rd January 2002

I'm very proud to announce that, thanks to Apple, PCalc is shipping as standard on the new Macs, at least in the US. It's a great way to celebrate PCalc's tenth birthday!

The version included is PCalc 2.2.3, which is a special release I made for Apple. Aside from being pre-registered, and using US English spellings, it is the same as the regular PCalc 2.2.2 available for download here, so you aren't missing any new features or bug fixes.

Needless to say, you should still register your copy if you didn't get it included with a new Mac - PCalc remains shareware, and the 2.2.3 version shouldn't be distributed at all except by Apple. Let me know if you find anybody else who does!

I'm hoping to get PCalc included with Macs in other countries in the future when I have more localised versions.

Thanks again to everybody at Apple, and to my beta testers, who made this possible.

14th May 2001

Here's another small update to PCalc - version 2.2.2 is now available on the download page. This is another small bug-fix release, primarily to fix some issues on Mac OS X, but it also brings the code it shares with DragThing up to date and adds a few new functions.

As you might have seen, I've been very busy with the DragThing 4 release over the last couple of months, but don't think I've forgotten PCalc! I've got a lot of things planned so keep checking this page for the latest news. If you have any suggestions for things to add, please let me know.

Also, I thought I should note the passing of Douglas Adams who died last weekend. Given the numerous references to 42 in PCalc, you can probably guess I was a fan of his work, but I also had the chance to meet him a few years back and get to know him a little bit through email. He'll be missed.

5th January 2001

Happy new year everybody!

The French version of 2.2.1 is now available on the download page. Since this was just a bug fix release, and no text was changed, I didn't need Philippe Bonnaure to help this time - but thanks to him anyway! And thanks to Sylvain-Pierre Dobrzynski for the French website updates.

29th December 2000

PCalc is now listed on the Apple Mac OS X Downloads page! Pretty cool, as it's listed next to Oni in the "New cool, hip, and just plain rad applications" section at the top. Thanks Apple!

I also just wanted to say thanks to everybody who has registered their copies of PCalc and DragThing, and wish everyone a good new year!

See you in 2001!

21st December 2000

The French language version of PCalc 2.2 is now available! Many thanks to Philippe Bonnaure.

Thanks also to Carlo Notarianni for finding a bug today which could cause PCalc to freeze during certain calculations when set to display 14 decimal places.

I've fixed it now and decided to release a small 2.2.1 update, just in case anybody else runs into this problem. In fact, it turns out it has been there since the original release of 2.0, so it's not as likely to happen as I first thought, but better to be on the safe side.

You can get PCalc 2.2.1 from the download page now. I'll update the French release again soon.

14th December 2000

The latest PCalc 2.2 release is now available from the download page!

The main new feature is support for Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) calculations. This was the most requested feature from registered PCalc users. I hope you like it.

Here's the full list of what's new in 2.2:

• Added support for Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) calculations.
• Added support for octal numbers.
• Added option to display thousands separators in the LCD.
• Added option to quit PCalc when closing the last calculator window.
• Fixed a number of function related bugs.
• Fixed a problem with displaying large numbers.
• Fixed a problem pasting certain numbers.
• Fixed a crash when closing a PCalc Classic style window using the close box.
• More OS X and Aqua fixes.

If you have any comments, or suggestions for things you'd like to see in future releases, please let me know.

20th November 2000

The next release of PCalc will finally have an RPN mode! It's working now and I'm just putting the finishing touches to it, so I expect I'll have a new version in a couple of weeks. Also included is support for octal numbers.

As always, if you register now you'll get the upgrade for free.

31st October 2000

Something regular readers of the DragThing home page will be familiar with - the top ten countries I've had PCalc registrations from so far (or twelve in this case, as there was a tie for second and tenth place):

An interesting comparison to similar figures for DragThing I think... Of course there is less than a month of data for PCalc at the moment.

27th October 2000

The French language version of PCalc 2.1 is now available! Many thanks to Philippe Bonnaure.

26th October 2000

As promised, PCalc 2.1 is now available from the download page!

I've added a number of new features that were frequently requested, including a tape window which becomes available when 2.1 is registered, extra hex buttons, and many more conversion functions.

• Significant speed increases over 2.0, especially on older machines.
• Added tape window showing calculation history, for registered users.
• Added information window showing register contents.
• Added cube and cube root buttons.
• Added round and percentage buttons.
• Added more bit shifting buttons in binary and hex mode.
• Option to auto-minimise the calculators in the background.
• All binary operations now work in hex mode.
• Many new functions and constants, courtesy of Roland B. Wassenberg.
• Fixed a number of drawing bugs under Aqua.

I hope you will like this new release! Let me know if you have any comments. RPN mode is still in the pipeline, but I decided I should get 2.1 out first.

15th October 2000

I'm working away on a little update for PCalc - I've added a tape window, and a have a few other things in the pipeline like an RPN mode. Let me know if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see added.

And thanks to Sylvain-Pierre Dobrzynski for the French language version of this site which is now online!

10th October 2000

With the usual thanks to Philippe Bonnaure, the French language version of PCalc is now available! You can download it here.

5th October 2000

PCalc 2.0 is released! The last update was back in 1993 so I figured it was about time that I released a new version.

PCalc is now shareware, and a mere US $10. You can download it and try it out for free, but if you like it you should register via Kagi.

I am now working full time writing shareware for my company TLA Systems Ltd., so if you use PCalc please do register your copy so I can afford to keep developing cool software.

If you like PCalc, check out another cool TLA Systems product, my dock application DragThing.

If you have any comments about PCalc, please get in touch and let me know what you think.