[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: Tipulator for iPhone here

[distortedloop]

Okay, i'll admit to having a tip calculator program on my iPhone ever since the first jailbreak app for it showed up, but it never saw the light of the day after a few novelty sessions with it.

I mean, seriously, c'mon, how hard is it to calculate a tip in your head? It's basic mathematics, simple division and addition.

In Los Angeles, where the sales tax is 8.25%, the rule of thumb with most I know is to just double the tax. Wow, that requires a calculator, doesn't it?

For 15%, divide the check by 10 and add half. Dividing by 10's as easy as just dropping the last number.

For 20%, drop the last number and double what's left.

How hard is that? It's scary that so many people in this country need a calculator or fancy program for something so simple, but I'm not going to be too snobby about it and say something pedantic like "I weep for the future." ;-)

[Stormchild]

Indeed. This is a solution to a more or less non-existent problem. I can't remember the last time I even grabbed a calculator to figure out the tip.

[mcheung]

I think its even sadder that its suggested that this may stop arguments and fights between friends.

[daiya]

There is a different app that lets you split the totals for food and for alcohol separately, so that it can handle the share when some people drink and others don't. Slightly more useful, but I forget which one.
I live in a college town, and the servers are extremely helpful about bringing per-person checks. We each run our own credit card and leave our own tip. Works great.

[daiya]

Also, a comparative review that assessed the differences among some of the many tipping applications would have been a very useful service to your readers.
So would setting up reviews such as "as the screenshots make clear....but here's the things you only know from installing it..."

[byronchurch]

When there's 5-10 of us after a good meal and some drinking , to split up $736.72 ! I get dizzy counting the people ! For a buck ? I'll have one in my arsenal !

[jamito]

Free alternative: CheckPlease

[moose_n_squirrel]

I looked at those dials for number entry and thought, "...sigh...form over function."

Then I started thinking...has anybody come up with an app that lets you dial telephone numbers on the iPhone with a big old virtual rotary dial? The reactions would be priceless!

[distortedloop]

moose

I looked at those dials for number entry and thought, "...sigh...form over function."

Then I started thinking...has anybody come up with an app that lets you dial telephone numbers on the iPhone with a big old virtual rotary dial? The reactions would be priceless!

Yes, they have. It was on the old jailbreak app installer, and now it's iTunes for free along with a paid for version. Check out these links: http://phobos.apple....ups&term=rotary

But honestly, having used a rotary phone the first twenty years of my life, I don't know why anyone would want to...especially on a non-tactile feedback touchscreen device.

[Jim Heid]

The late, great Charles Seiter, a fellow contributing editor of Macworld and one of my best friends, wrote the best tip calculator ever in his brilliant book, "Everyday Math for Dummies."
For check totals under $100:
1. Look at the first digit in the total on the check.
2. Multiply by two.
For check totals over $100:
1. Look at the first digit of the check's total.
2. That's how many $20 bills to leave.
With these rules, you'll almost always tip between 15 and 20 percent.
The "tipping" chapter of his book has similarly easy rules for divvying up the check among multiple diners.
No iPhone app required!
Jim Heid, Senior Contributor

[distortedloop]

Jim Heid said:

For check totals under $100:
1. Look at the first digit in the total on the check.
2. Multiply by two.

For check totals over $100:
1. Look at the first digit of the check's total.
2. That's how many $20 bills to leave.

Nice set of rules of thumb, but for under $10, they don't work. You'd leave an $18 tip for a $9 check? LOL. Also, for a bill in the high rand of over $100, you'd really be short tipping, example, $190 check, 15% would be $28, but this rule of thumb you would leave only $20.

[Jim Heid]

Good points, distortedloop!

I forgot to mention the first rule was for totals between $10 and $100 -- for those rare meals whose total is under $10 and involved a waitstaff! :-)

As for the "over $100" rule, Charles points out that at there are "edge cases" where you simply throw a few extra bucks down. Hey, I can't give away his entire book here! :-)

Charles also wrote about the "double the sales tax" rule that you shared earlier.

Jim Heid, Senior Contributor

[redenbacher]

ITIPSMART!!! This ones the best.