Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store
2Chicks1Mac - Tip Applications: Hot? or Not?
Christina Warren. Erica Sadun. Two Women. Two Opinions. One love of all things Macintosh. This week, it's all about iPhone Tip Calculators. Are they a waste of Apple's time and resources, along with all those Sudoko games and Flashlights, or a clever and creative way for App developers to offer a useful product?
Tell us what you think... then read on for C vs. E in the tip-top battle royale.
Erica. Tip Calculators. Not everyone is quick on the mental math especially when we've been celebrating with friends. Why argue about check splits and tip percentages when there are handy tools around. It's not just about multiplying by 2 (or for the cheapskates, dividing by 2 and adding) -- a good tip calculator helps split the check while making sure the server gets their due.
And the tip calc win doesn't stop with the actual use. Sure there are tons of really ugly calculators out there but writing one is great experience. Simple apps help get your foot in the door, especially for first-time devs. Utilities allow programmers to learn about the AppStore submission process and get a handle on user reviews. The guy writing "Tip Me Over" today (yes, I made that name up) might be the author of the next Koi Pond, Tap Tap Revolution, or Trism.
The "too many tip apps" problem doesn't bother me. It's easy enough for poor programs to fall to the bottom of the AppStore search, fertilizing the ground for new growth. And should any tip calculator prove itself both novel and innovative (note how I'm not holding my breath), it can set itself apart in the top apps rating system.
So cheers for tip calculators. I'm voting "Hot".
Christina. I completely agree that writing a tip calculator is a great programming exercise, especially when you are just becoming acquainted with a language. I also agree that the calculators can be handy for some users, though I don't know how much more convenient they are than just multiplying the total by .15 or .20 in the regular calculator.
But I have to disagree with the notion that a good programming exercise, even if the underlying concept is useful for some users, is also a good enough to actually try to publish in the App Store. Look, for the first wave of iPhone applications, it was one thing. Even then, at least three tip calculators were available the first day. But it is September, let's move on to submitting something else as your "first" app.Not only is telling the difference between these basic applications difficult for the user, the over-saturation of these programs is a real negative for the App Store as a whole. It just builds-on the notion that the store is full of crap. And every tip calculator submitted just dilutes the value of the concept that much more. For every Koi Pond, there are several more "random number generators" and other applications taken straight out of a programming 101 book. I think programming these types of apps is great practice, and a great learning experience. But let's leave the actual submitted apps to something with more promise -- and without 100 other look-alikes.
I'm voting "Not."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
AP said 8:15PM on 9-05-2008
I'm going to go with Christina on this one. Mostly because she's hotter than Erica :P
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GF said 3:01PM on 9-06-2008
Where are the pictures??
Ben Goetting said 8:27PM on 9-05-2008
i mean... really? cheapskates can double the tax normal people can move the decimal to the left and double it. People who complain about not being able to "figure out" a tip are the same people who get "all messed up" from daylight savings time.
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Harrison said 3:53AM on 9-06-2008
good thing we have no sales tax in oregon! :D
chuck said 5:25PM on 9-06-2008
when you live in chicago and the sales tax is 10.25%, doubling the sales tax results in a larger tip than moving the decimal to the left and doubling it. many other major cities have sales taxes that are around 8-9%, which would result in a 16-18% tip, which shouldn't classify them as a cheapskate.
anyone who needs help figuring out a tip of roughly 20% needs to go to a basic math class. whipping out any sort of electronic device to determine a tip is never hot.
Joe said 6:00PM on 9-07-2008
Chuck, don't forget that doubling the tax doesn't give you exactly twice that percentage as a tip, since you're still adding the tax to the total. In other words, if your subtotal is $20 and sales tax is 10.5% ($2.10), then doubling the tax as a tip would give you $4.20, which is 19% of the $22.10 total. If you were to move the decimal to the right and double it, you get $2.21 x 2 = $4.42.
Where I live the sales tax is 8.25%, which leads to a 15.25% tip if you double the tax.
Not that it is a big difference, whether you tip 19%, 20%, or 21%, but you can see from the above misconception that you may not be tipping as much as you think.
My question is, do any of these tip calculators double as check splitters? When you've got a table of 8 and you live someplace where it's considered somewhat rude or inconsiderate to split the check (such as where I live), this would be handy to have.
E said 8:28PM on 9-05-2008
These articles are a waste of time. This one in particular sucks. Also, worst name ever for a running feature.
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dan said 10:37AM on 9-06-2008
Yeah TUAW has really gone downhill. Thanks AOL!
Martin said 12:55PM on 9-06-2008
Agreed all around. Worst name for a series, worst picture, and worst author. I know we have an iPhone-free TUAW feed now ... can I get an Erica Sadun-free feed as well?
dylan said 4:13PM on 9-06-2008
I agree, Erica-Sudan-free-tuaw feed would be great! Erica, can you program that in for us? :)
seriously.
Fernando said 8:33PM on 9-05-2008
This post series CONFUSES AND ENRAGES ME!!!1
Especially the name, and the picture's awful :P
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JD said 9:05PM on 9-05-2008
Do any of the tip calculators automatically choose whatever tip between 15% and 20% will make the total bill (or the total for each payer) a rounded dollar amount, without extraneous cents? That I might use.
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MacTipper said 10:07PM on 9-05-2008
Great idea!
Additionally, this would benefit the people you're giving the tip to, which isn't the worst thing....
Chris said 11:17AM on 9-06-2008
The tip program that I have called "Tip" will. Its one of the free ones. I downloaded it for the sake of it being free and actually used it a couple times with friends who are cheap and try to jerk around about how much their share of the bill is.
JD said 4:20PM on 9-06-2008
"Tip" appears to no longer be free, and I guess was only free for a brief while. I really hate it when developers do that; it feels really sleazy, regardless of how low the new price is.
SuperMac said 9:07PM on 9-05-2008
Can't you use the iPhone's (or iPod Touch's) built in calculator? Isn't it easier than downloading a program to multiply by .15?
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totoro said 9:08PM on 9-05-2008
"But I have to disagree with the notion that a good programming exercise, even if the underlying concept is useful for some users, is also a good enough to actually try to publish in the App Store."
Exactly. The App Store shouldn't be some dumping ground for every fledgling programming experiment.
Isn't that what those jailbroken iPhone app repositories are best for? More democratic, freedom to do whatever you want, yadda.
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buck said 1:31AM on 9-06-2008
And yet, Cydia isn't flooded with tip calculators. All the homebrew stuff is pretty good. Even the flashlight app is better--it has the ability to turn up the brightness.
Secret Asian Man said 9:15PM on 9-05-2008
Figuring out a tip is not that hard. How can you NOT figure out 15% or 20% of anything?
15% = 10% of total + half of that 10%.
ex: Total = $37.49. 10% of that would be $3.75. You can figure that out by moving decimal to the left one digit and rounding to the hundredth. You then add half of that 10% which would be $1.87, so $3.75+$1.87= $5.62 That's the tip.
Often, if you just round things, it's easier to do in your head. Again: $37.49, rounded to $37.50, 10% is $3.75, round that to $3.80. Half of that is easily determined to be $1.90. $3.80+$1.90 = $5.70
Figuring out a 20% tip is even easier as mentioned by Ben.
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Big John said 9:36PM on 9-05-2008
Better yet... who cares?
Seriously, why do tip applications get so much fucking attention?
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