Tapbots, most known for the popular Twitter client for Mac and iOS called Tweetbot, is out with a new Mac app that some of its followers may recognize from the iPhone and iPad: Calcbot for Mac. Calcbot is described as a simple and intelligent calculator with a “live-as-you-type expression view” for visualizing your calculation history on a scratch sheet-like tape window. Calcbot also packs in a robust unit conversion tool with a wide range of supported categories. Check below for a closer look at Calcbot for Mac and its Yosemite-ready design.
As you can see above, Calcbot is a simple calculator utility app for the Mac with a look and feel that fits right in with the OS X Yosemite design. The panel view features a translucent material that hints at your desktop background or window behind it, but Tapbots chose a darker material like what you see in Notification Center so it’s not distracting and feels properly weighted.
The calculator buttons feature a mix of dark and light gray numbers and functions as well as friendly blue, red, and orange buttons that add some personality. The tape window closely resembles controls from the latest design of Tweetbot for iPhone.
The tape window can either dock alongside the calculator or detach for using as an independent window. This will display a scrolling list of your calculation history, current calculation expressions, and favorited calculations for quickly parsing later. You can also erase the tape history or email the full list of calculations.
The tape window also allows you to easily fill in expressions or results from your history or favorites. If you want to view a result in what amounts to the span of your display, you can display a large version of that too.
The standard green ‘zoom’ button found on the top left of the Calcbot window will toggle back and forth between a simple standard calculator and a full scientific calculator
You’ll notice, too, that the primary Calcbot window, which is overall rather bright, will darken to the background when its not the current app in use.
What might be easy to miss from Calcbot for Mac is the app’s robust unit conversion tool. Calcbot includes ten categories of unit conversions in total with each conversion category supports its own set of units for converting numbers back and forth. This is similar to the Tapbot iPhone app Convertbot.
Area includes square millimeter, square centimeter, square inch, square foot, square yard, square meter, acre, hectare, square kilometer, and square mile.
Currency includes the Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, New Zealand Dollar, Pound Sterling, Swiss Franc, and US Dollar. This section also features a ‘last updated XX minutes ago’ view so expect more currencies to be added.
Data size includes the bit, byte, kilobyte, megabit, megabyte, gigabit, gigabyte, terabit, and terabyte.
Length includes millimeter, centimeter, inch, foot, yard, meter, kilometer, mile, and nautical mile.
Mass includes milligram, gram, ounce, pound, kilogram, and metric ton.
Speed includes feet/minute, kilometers/hour, feet/second, miles/hour, knots, meters/second, kilometers/minute, and miles/minute.
Temperature includes kelvin, fahrenheit, and celsius.
Time includes nanoseconds, microseconds, milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years.
Volume includes cubic centimeter, milliliter, teaspoon, tablespoon, ounce, cup, pint, quart, liter, and gallon.
Work includes joule, newton meter, foot pound, calorie, kilojoule, BTU, watt hour, MBTU, kilowatt hour, and therm.
Calcbot includes even more categories and units that can be enabled through the app preference menu as well.
(No doubt a lot of foot pounds and newton meters went into supporting the included units.)
That’s Calcbot, the new Mac app teased by Tapbots in September as debuting on Yosemite. As you can see, it ranges from a simple calculator with a visualizer for your calculations to a rather extensive unit converter.
If you’re familiar with other apps from Tapbots, you will appreciate the subtle robotic sound effects throughout the app. Calcbot also includes iCloud syncing for keeping Calcbot up-to-date across multiple Macs; Tapbots says Calcbot for iOS will soon support iCloud syncing as well.
Calcbot for Mac joins Tweetbot and the Pastebot Sync utility on the Mac; you can also find Calcbot and iPhone and iPad on the App Store. Calcbot for Mac is available on the Mac App Store for $4.99.
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Wait. So instead of working on a new version of the archaic Tweetbot for iPad…. they made a calculator for Mac?
ugh, agreed. i guess they got tired of twitter and or hand a new young programmer.
It is irritating that they all but abandoned their iOS version for Calcbot, and now they release it for Mac. I won’t be buying this for Mac, because their track record for providing updates on iOS is not good. I would love to continue using Calcbot on my iPhone 6, but it wasn’t even updated for the iPhone 5 much less the 6.
If you go to their website for Calcbot for Mac (http://tapbots.com/software/calcbot/mac/) and then go all the way down to the bottom of the page, it says “Calcbot 2 for iOS coming soon.”
I am sure that Calcbot 2 for iOS will be a paid upgrade. Normally, I can understand this type of model for indie developers. However, I don’t feel that there have been sufficient updates to the original Calcbot to justify buying it again. This is coming from someone who has bought Tweetbot on every platform.
What about Tweetbot for iPad and ConvertBot for iOS? Seems like you can figure they will have one actively developed app at a time, with the rest being (effectively) abandonware.
I’m so glad I paid a premium for all three Tweetbot apps to help the company provide prompt support and fast updates… /s
I’ve got PCalc and that’s hard to beat. I’m gonna hold out those $$$ for Tweetbot iPad and Mac.
Actually they have lots more currencies, and other conversions, you just need to activate them in Preferences.
Missed all those, thanks.
I still think that powerful calculator app should not look like a “real” calculator on desktop OS. In my opinion, it’s just not comfortable.
I use Soulver by Acqualia: less known app; doesn’t looks like a calculator, but has all calculation functions.
It’s still a mystery anyone wastes money on some stripped down 10-key calculator.
I agree with @AaronBrown; lack of updates/support to the iOS version doesn’t encourage buying this one. And, btw, who would need to have their “tape” synced across multiple machines??