Brett Kelly notes a trend in the App Store
“The number of tip calculator apps for iPhone is quickly becoming absurd.”
He’s right. In a few seconds, I found
- Tiptap
- Check Please
- iTip
- Tips (here’s the lucky bastard who got the name everyone wanted)
- mTip
- Tipulator
- BigTipper
These range in price from free to $1.99. The worst part is how darn easy it is to figure a tip in the first place. If the bill is $20.00, you move the decimal one place to the left to figure 10% ($2.00), cut that in half for 5% ($1.00) and then add the two together to get the 15% tip — three bucks.
Really, people. This is 3rd grade math.
10 Comments
The most ridiculous thing ever was a tip calculator in the form Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X.
For, you know, when you crack open your laptop at the local Applebee’s.
I think there should be a contest for the best and worst names for tipping calculator. Clearly the people naming these things are frustrated greeting card writers. Or 12 years old.
Let’s go:
1. Big Tips
2. Tippecanoe & iPhone 2
3. Tipple
4. Show Me Your Tips
5. Tip for Tat
6. Tipping Point
7. TipsR4Kids
8. Gratuitous
How about “Ritz to Tipz”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7xgiO_NdkQ
p.s. what if your bill is $3.23 and you want to give an 18% tip?
“p.s. what if your bill is $3.23 and you want to give an 18% tip?”
Yep, that extra 9.69 cents is going to change that server’s life…
Double the bill, move the decimal to the left, giving 20%, then move the decimal again and subtract (20%-2%=18%).
In your example, 64.6 cents, minus 6.46 cents. Since you can’t give a fourteen-hundreths of a cent tip, that leaves you with 58 cents as your tip.
Go get’em big spender!
I am a fan of Jim Hill’s number 4 and 5.
“4. Show Me Your Tips
5. Tip for Tat”
They would make great movie titles too.
“One man, one bill. 20% stands between life and death. Can he figure the tip?”
I’m a drywaller who basically rounds things off to the nearest 1/4 “, usually. I had it ’splained to me once how to figure 10%. I usually tip 20%, which is 10 X 2. Figured that out myself. It’s when the service is really bad and things need to be set straight. How can you tip less than zero?
but seriously I have less than third grade math skills but know how to respect.
Don’t forget, some folks like to tip on the total before sales tax is added. That can make it a bit trickier, especially if you’re splitting the bill amongst several friends.
Unless the service is crappy - because of the waitron, tip 20%. Nobody working at a restaurant is getting rich.
I like Bob’s theory (drywaller). It’s simple to calculate 10% and 20%, I use those two figures to “gauge” the service level and find a figure in between.
One point I’d like to bring out is when you’re splitting the bill between a group, everyone has their own method of finding the tip and calculating the split. One nice thing about having your iPhone app is that it helps eliminate any questioning about the calculation or errors in math. It’s a simple elegant way of saying “your share is…, and our share is…” Having said that, you should really still be comfortable with your math skills to do this out loud. But it is a good tool for eliminated that shock factor of “Wow, I have to put in that much?” or the person that says “I’ll put in $50, that should cover my/our share of the tip” (when it barely covers the tax).
BTW, I use the iPhone calculator for my tips
Fastest tool that everyone can trust…
The key feature I use in my favorite tip program (Tipulator) is splitting the bill among several people. I was looking for something that loaded quickly, easy to enter data in without too much typing, and able to split the bill among a group of people. Tipulator works great for all those things. Would love to see the next version add a way to split the bill between those who ordered alcohol and those who didn’t. No one wants to pay for drinks they didn’t have.
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[...] 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 [...]
[...] 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 [...]