Ever since the iPad launched in 2010, we’ve always been puzzled by the lack of a calculator. Every other staple iPhone app is there—Notes, Safari, Files, Mail, Messages, Stocks, even Clock—but if we want to add or multiply we need to turn to a third-party app.
There are plenty of good ones in the App Store, but few have what we’re looking for: a simple interface that loads instantly and doesn’t have any unnecessary features. You know, like the iPhone app that should have been ported to the iPad a decade ago. Thankfully, Google has made an excellent calculator for ChromeOS that works any browser. You can find it at https://calculator.apps.chrome and save it to your home screen by tapping the Share button. Or you can just bookmark it in Safari or Chrome.
Granted this calculator is made by Google so it doesn’t have Apple’s design language, but it still looks good. And since it’s a progressive web app, it’s fully functional offline as long as it’s already loaded in the browser. So you can use it like you would a native app.
Maybe Apple will finally release an iPad calculator app in iOS 16, but after 12 years, we’ve not holding our breath. Until then, Google’s is the next best thing.
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.
