‘Didn’t know this was a thing’: Apple customer issues warning for people who use calculator on their iPhones
Did you know that iPhone keeps a history of the math you do on your calculator?
That's great if you're trying to recall an equation you did pertaining to, say, the tips you made in a certain week. It's not great, however, if you're doing math too basic to be doing on a calculator.
That's the premise of a TikTok video on the @jeffersonjohn14 account, going up on Dec. 13 and getting more than 650,000 views since.
The short video clip shows a person's forehead underneath a long caption, with some comic music accompanying it.
That caption reads, "Y'all please remember to clear your CALCULATOR history every once in a while ... my BF just saw mine and I would rather have him go through my internet history."
The caption accompanying the video reads, "3+8??????"
How do I pull it up?
If you have iOS 18, just open the Calculator app and tap the hamburger menu in the upper left corner of your phone. That should bring up all the calculations you've done so far.
For example, this author was trying to figure out how many people are represented by each electoral vote in California and Wyoming several weeks ago in a pique of post-election angst.
The history includes 38,965,193 (California's population) divided by 54 (the Golden State's electoral votes, leaving a total of 721,577.648. The same calculation for Wyoming produces 584,057 divided by three, equaling 194,685.667, proving that not all electoral votes carry equal weight.
WikiHow, shedding some additional light on that functionality, notes, "Tapping and holding one of your previous calculations will bring up a new menu. Select from Copy Expression (which will copy the expression you entered to do the calculation), Copy Result (to copy just the answer), or Delete."
It also noted, "If you want to delete multiple past calculations, tap Edit at the top right corner of the main history menu. Select any results you want to delete, or tap Delete All at the bottom to completely clear your history. Tap Done when you’re finished."
'Mine really said 18-3'
The video brought forth reactions from viewers.
"This is how I found out there is a calculator history," said one. "Nobody needs to see that, thank you."
"Damn mine really said 18-3," shared another.
"3+3 the other day," shared another.
"63-10," someone else marveled. "What was wrong with me 4 days?"
That led the creator to respond, "When your brain is done working for the day itssss DONE."
@jeffersonjohn14 3+8??????
♬ Comedy Scenes - Comical, stupid, odd, lovely (Drumless)(1441321) - Ponetto
The Daily Dot has reached out to Apple via email and to the creator via TikTok direct message.
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