PSA: you can backspace on the iPhone calculator

May 11, 2017 11:01 AM

You can backspace on the iPhone calculator by swiping the numbers left or right.

This appears to be a longstanding feature, but it blew a lot of people's minds. The tweet by @censoredialogue has nearly 30,000 retweets, several reaction pieces and articles and shares and suchlike, and the perfect follow-up tweet.

posted by Etrigan (36 comments total)

I've had an iPhone since 2009. This is completely new to me!
posted by SansPoint at 11:05 AM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, shaking your iPhone brings up an "Undo Typing" dialog box in places where you write things.
posted by bjrn at 11:10 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've heard tell that you can also find a rather naughty Easter egg if you type in the innocent number 5318008 and flip your phone upside down, but I'm too much of a prude to try it for myself.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:11 AM on May 11, 2017 [40 favorites]

THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION
posted by billiebee at 11:11 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

I kind-of hate how many iOS features are as unfindable as this one — it’s a real drag to have to guess which hand and finger motions do useful things, no things, or the wrong things. Back to the old days of mystery meat navigation.
posted by migurski at 11:12 AM on May 11, 2017 [20 favorites]

Strange Interlude: I've heard tell that you can also find a rather naughty Easter egg if you type in the innocent number 5318008 and flip your phone upside down, but I'm too much of a prude to try it for myself.

There's actually an amusing easter egg in PCalc for iOS, where if you key in 5318008 and flip the phone, it displays a big "CENSORED" stamp over the number display.
posted by SansPoint at 11:17 AM on May 11, 2017 [21 favorites]

Now I'm curious: How big would the iOS manual be if they documented all the features? Would it compete with the multi-volume IBM manuals of yore?
posted by clawsoon at 11:18 AM on May 11, 2017

Another little known feature of the iPhone is you can also walk faster and not annoy the people behind you on the subway stairs if you just put the goddamn thing in your pocket once in a while.
posted by bondcliff at 11:20 AM on May 11, 2017 [46 favorites]

I kind-of hate how many iOS features are as unfindable as this one

See also the entirety of Siri/Google Assistant/Alexa/etc.
posted by jedicus at 11:25 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

im not even on your lawn
posted by billiebee at 11:25 AM on May 11, 2017 [5 favorites]

There's actually an amusing easter egg in PCalc for iOS, where if you key in 5318008 and flip the phone, it displays a big "CENSORED" stamp over the number display.

I hereby resign my post as internet jokesmith, effective at 5 PM Eastern time today. Technology has rendered me obsolete.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:28 AM on May 11, 2017 [9 favorites]

Neat. OK, hidden feature reveal request: Can someone tell me how to get an "ans" button on the android calculator? I just want to be able to calculate one thing, and then use it in the denominator of another thing.
posted by Popular Ethics at 11:37 AM on May 11, 2017

I remember in Grade 7 soon after we were first allowed to use calculators in math class (once we were deemed good enough at basic mental calculations to not need a calculator for them) our teacher, Mr. Simpson, noticed that we were all fooling around with the calculators and pretty much stopped the class and said "Yes! You can write 'boobs', 'bigboobs' and 'boobies' on your calculators. Now let's get back to the lesson".
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:39 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I realized I was An Old when I got my first-gen iPod touch and the instruction booklet was 4 pages long. 1 page for how to turn it on and get internet connected, 2 pages for adding and organizing music, and the final page told me there were lots of other features I could find for myself. ARGGGH if you built a thing tell me how it works and what it can do. I don't have time to figure it out.

Popular Ethics, trying googling for it, and looking around on shitty sites with too many ads where teenagers describe "phone hacks." It's the only way I figured out how to use the iPod Touch.
posted by holyrood at 11:42 AM on May 11, 2017 [5 favorites]

If you hold the A button in Super Mario Bros for the NES when starting a new game, you begin on the first level of whatever World you were on when you died. I know.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:45 AM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

The second controller on Duck Hunt lets you control the ducks.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:48 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just want to be able to calculate one thing, and then use it in the denominator of another thing.

If that's really all you want to do then raise the first answer to the power -1 and multiply that by your numerator.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:48 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

If you hold the reset button down when you turn the system on you can get double bullets in Space Invaders for the Atari 2600.
posted by bondcliff at 11:50 AM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Neat. OK, hidden feature reveal request: Can someone tell me how to get an "ans" button on the android calculator? I just want to be able to calculate one thing, and then use it in the denominator of another thing.

You have to turn to landscape view, then tap the history panel when you get to the appropriate point in inputing your calculation. Tapping on the relevant answer in the history works in the same way as ans.
posted by howfar at 11:52 AM on May 11, 2017

If you press in the power button at the top of an iPhone for long enough, it will eventually offer instructions on how to shut it down.
posted by flabdablet at 11:53 AM on May 11, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's kind of stupid that swiping either left or right is backspace. One of the directions should be "undo" .... say you want to type 9999 but you type 99999, then swipe twice and get 999. You should be able to undo the overswipe.

[I'm pretty sure "Undo the Overswipe" is an R.E.M. song.]
posted by chavenet at 11:56 AM on May 11, 2017 [11 favorites]

If you press the number buttons on the phone keypad in a specific order you can hear my Mum speak.
posted by billiebee at 2:11 PM on May 11, 2017 [31 favorites]

You can play Tetris in emacs. And Pong. And a text adventure called Dunnet.

Emacs is installed on all OS X macs.
posted by leotrotsky at 2:57 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

My favorite dumb iPhone trick used to be getting an emoji menu by way of the Chinese keyboard, but now that that's a separate keyboard it's no fun.

(You can move Tails using the second controller. With consistent timing it's possible to get 3 stars every time in the free-lives roulette game in Super Mario 2.)
posted by neckro23 at 3:51 PM on May 11, 2017

If you hold down the shift and enter keys while typing a comment on Metafilter it makes the whole world dis
posted by goatdog at 4:18 PM on May 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

I think the logic of undocumented features is that the reality of the Internet makes them practically and publicly documented at some early point in the inception of the technology, due to the reality of so many people using a particular thing and talking about it on the Internet. What is interesting about this is when a seemingly easy find actually never gets found, and it's like it was hiding out in the open. It seems statistically improbable that would happen, which leads to minds being blown.
posted by SpacemanStix at 4:39 PM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm old enough to remember when I found Weezer's Buddy Holly music video in Windows 95.
posted by Fizz at 5:22 PM on May 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm just floored by the timing here, because earlier today while trying to come up with an example to explain the Principle of Least Astonishment, I made up the "hypothetical" of an app interpreting horizontal swiping as backspace instead of next/prev, or maybe horizontal scroll. I suppose since the calculator doesn't have a meaningful next/prev item, backspace is an okay-ish function for the gesture.

Still just beautiful timing.
posted by traveler_ at 6:08 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Somewhere there is a front end designer furious stroking him/herself because they they thought of a way to remove a functional operator from the screen.

Sometimes the cleanest and sleekest solution is not the best. If it's a function the user is definitely going to use just put the fucking button there and save the wankery for your own personal time.
posted by dudemanlives at 6:34 PM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wait, this isn't satire?
posted by swift at 8:00 PM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you press the number buttons on the phone keypad in a specific order you can hear my Mum speak.

If you ring the number of a house where you used to live, you can talk to THE PAST VERSION OF YOURSELF

Never tell THE PAST VERSION OF YOURSELF who is calling

Note: anyone who rings you and says "sorry, wrong number" is almost certainly you from the future
posted by flabdablet at 10:52 PM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Swiping left/right on the space bar on the stock Android keyboard (well Gboard, since there are a million different "stock" keyboards) moves the cursor.
posted by markr at 11:02 PM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I kind-of hate how many iOS features are as unfindable as this one

YES. I am so fucking tired of how inscrutable it is and how it gets stupider and more difficult to use with every major system update.

For example: The perfectly serviceable Video app is subsumed into the TV app without notice. Fine. You don't want to download the entire season, just a few episodes for a plane trip and fortunately there's a download button for each episode but each time you push one the episode list jumps to the beginning.

But it's not a simple vertical list, it's fucking columns that are fiddly to swipe and you have to do it EVERY FUCKING TIME and when you've watched the episodes you want to free up space on the phone but there's no button to delete them oh you silly boy you have to go to the new Downloaded section that has suddenly appeared one menu level above the episode list and then long-press the title to reveal the popup Delete menu DAMMIT APPLE WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE GODDAMN MUSIC APP

If it's a function the user is definitely going to use just put the fucking button there and save the wankery for your own personal time.

I wish to subscribe to your newsletter and force every Apple coder to read it over and over in the manner of A Clockwork Orange.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:45 PM on May 11, 2017 [6 favorites]

You can play Tetris in emacs. And Pong.

I used to play Tetris while I ponged, but then I discovered soap and other people.
posted by Grangousier at 2:00 AM on May 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

still lots of people who don't know you can tab through fields so not surprised...
posted by judson at 6:48 AM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

still lots of people who don't know you can tab through fields so not surprised...

I constantly worry about the day when the older style commands for copy, cut, & paste will no longer be supported. My fingers and memory are completely used to: ctrl + insert, shift + insert, and shift + delete. I've never been on board with the shift+ x,c,v.

If it is ever dropped I'll have to re-adapt the entire way I type.
posted by Fizz at 8:44 AM on May 12, 2017