TikTok’s national security scrutiny tightens as U.S. Navy reportedly bans popular social app

TikTok may be the fastest-growing social network in the history of the internet, but it is also quickly becoming the fastest-growing security threat and thorn in the side of U.S. China hawks.

The latest, according to a notice published by the U.S. Navy this past week and reported on by Reuters and the South China Morning Post, is that TikTok will no longer be allowed to be installed on service members’ devices, or they may face expulsion from the military service’s intranet.

It’s just the latest example of the challenges facing the extremely popular app. Recently, Congress led by Missouri senator Josh Hawley demanded a national security review of TikTok and its Sequoia-backed parent company ByteDance, along with other tech companies that may share data with foreign governments like China. Concerns over the leaking of confidential communications recently led the U.S. government to demand the unwinding of the acquisition of gay social network app Grindr from its Chinese owner Beijing Kunlun.

The intensity of criticism on both sides of the Pacific has made it increasingly challenging to manage tech companies across the divide. As I recently discussed here on TechCrunch, Shutterstock has actively made it harder and harder to find photos deemed controversial by the Chinese government on its stock photography platform, a play to avoid losing a critical source of revenue.

In wake of Shutterstock’s Chinese censorship, American companies need to relearn American values

We saw similar challenges with Google and its Project Dragonfly China-focused search engine as well as with the NBA.

From the NBA to Sequoia to TikTok and more, a week of national security concerns with China

What’s interesting here though is that companies on both sides are struggling with policy on both sides. Chinese companies like ByteDance are increasingly being targeted and stricken out of the U.S. market, while American companies have long struggled to get a foothold in the Middle Kingdom. That might be a more equal playing field than it has been in the past, but it is certainly a less free market than it could be.

While the trade fight between China and the U.S. continues, the damage will continue to fall on companies that fail to draw within the lines set by policymakers in both countries. Whether any tech company can bridge that divide in the future unfortunately remains to be seen.

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5 Tools to Make Wikipedia Better and Discover Interesting Articles

Wikipedia is a great place to find information about any topic you’re interested in. But it can also be a great place to discover interesting topics you didn’t even know about. These tools help you discover new Wikipedia pieces and track what you want to read.

In case you didn’t already know, Wikipedia’s homepage offers a featured article every day, as well as topics in the news. If you aren’t visiting the homepage, you’re missing one of the best places to get new information every day. You should also consider the benefits of creating a Wikipedia account, so that you can track your interests and save pages for later.

1. Wiki Good Article (Twitter): Daily Random Article Worth Reading

Did you know that Wikipedia has a few criteria for what makes a good article? In fact, it made a list of these “good articles” that you can read. But of course, that would be too much in one day, so follow the Wiki Good Article bot on Twitter, which tweets one random link every day.

The six factors of a good article are that it is well written, verifiable with no original research, broad in its coverage, neutral, stable, and illustrated. There are a few disqualifying factors too, but largely, these six are enough to weed out uninteresting pieces.

Importantly, an entry loses its “good article” status if it becomes one of Wikipedia’s featured articles. So this list becomes a good way to find worthwhile articles that you’d otherwise not come across easily.

2. Copernix (Web): World Map With Wikipedia Entries

Copernix is a mixture of Google Maps and Wikipedia. It is a fascinating way to browse the map of the world and learn new things about it. Whether it’s history, geography, or current events, this is the coolest map-based experience since Google Earth.

The map is filled with pins from interesting Wikipedia articles about any area. But it isn’t based on points of interest alone. That means you don’t need a physical structure there for Copernix to place a pin. The pin is about what’s interesting from that area, whether it’s a person, an event, or anything else.

You’ll see pins like Prophet Muhammed in Saudi Arabia, the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in Ethiopia, and so on. These aren’t landmarks in the physical sense, but they are landmark events in our world’s history, making it worth reading about.

At any point, you can browse a precis of all the pins in a pane on the left. Click a pin to expand its entry and read more about it. And there’s always a link to read the full Wikipedia entry. Fair warning, spend a few minutes on Copernix and you’re bound to go down the rabbit hole.

3. Weeklypedia (Web): Weekly List of Major Changes in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a good indicator of important happenings. When any major event takes place in the world, editors hop on to related articles about that event and start updating it. The number of changes in an article thus points to what you need to pay attention to.

These changes are available through Wikipedia’s open-source tools. Weeklypedia tracks the changes and lists the 20 most edited articles in any week, turning them into a newsletter. It’s like a digest of what’s happening around the world, dropped into your inbox. The interesting part is that the changed articles aren’t always news-related.

Along with the 20 most edited articles, Weeklypedia also tracks other activity on Wikipedia. The top five Discussions, where editors talk about hotly debated topics and what to say or not say about them, is a great place to see all sides of an argument unfolding. And the top 10 new articles created in the week is like a little news bulletin.

There is simply no reason not to subscribe to Weeklypedia. Think of it as some leisure reading, as and when you want it.

4. WikiTweaks (Chrome): Better Looking Wikipedia and History Tracking

As amazing as Wikipedia is, its design could be far better. The amount of wasted space on any page doesn’t seem optimized for reading, especially when there are tables, charts, or images.

The Chrome extension WikiTweaks makes a few cosmetic changes to Wikipedia that use space more efficiently, making a better reading experience. It’s an old extension that also adds previews if you hover over any link, but that’s not needed now that Wikipedia has made that an official feature.

WikiTweaks also tracks your Wikipedia history, which is an invaluable tool for those who have a habit of falling down the rabbit hole. Click the extension icon and you’ll see the last Wikipedia pages you visited, instantly reminding you how you landed up on the page you’re reading.

Download: WikiTweaks for Chrome (Free)

5. EpubPress (Chrome, Firefox): Create an Ebook of Multiple Wikipedia Links

Once you’ve got your topics, you should be able to read them anywhere, even offline. Wikipedia offers its own tool to create and download a PDF of multiple links. But currently, the Book Creator tool is undergoing changes and you can’t get these PDFs.

EpubPress is a great alternative to Wikipedia Book Creator, and much simpler to use. Install the extension in your browser, and open browse Wikipedia as you would. At any point, click the extension to see a list of all open tabs. Choose which ones you want to add to the ebook. Give it a name and a description, and download. It takes some time for the tool to finish downloading and compiling all pages, but it’s worth the wait.

The only restriction is that your final file is in ePub format, not in PDF. But that’s not a worry as most readers will support ePub. Alternately, you can always convert the ePub to PDF or any other file format with free online tools.

Download: EpubPress for Chrome | Firefox (Free)

Wikipedia Alternatives and Improvements

Wikipedia is unquestioningly the biggest user-edited encyclopedia in the world, but it isn’t the only resource you should trust. It’s in your best interest to look at alternatives, and also try to improve it as much as possible.

For starters, check out these five Wikipedia alternatives and tools for a better encyclopedia. You should especially try out Qikipedia, which gives Wikipedia previews anywhere on the web when you select some text.

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The Worst Passwords of 2019 Have Been Revealed

The worst passwords of 2019 have been revealed, and the list shows that some people will never learn. These are the most commonly used passwords from recent data breaches. Which makes them both really common and easily broken. So, avoid at all costs.

Are Passwords Still Effective in 2019?

Passwords are slowly but surely being revealed to be a mediocre method of securing your online accounts. There have been so many data breaches now that a lot of passwords have been exposed to hackers and cybercriminals, rendering them ineffective.

Every year, SplashData, makers of several password managers, curates a list of the worst passwords of the year. The worst passwords of 2018 saw Donald Trump, Top Gun, Star Wars, and Harley Quinn inspire new (bad) passwords. So, what has happened in 2019?

The Worst Passwords of 2019, Revealed

SplashData has compiled its list of the worst passwords of 2019. There are 100 passwords listed in all, and there’s a mix of the usual suspects as well as some new entries. You can see the full list on the TeamsID website, but here are the Top 10 to give you a flavor.

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. qwerty
4. password
5. 1234567
6. 12345678
7. 12345
8. iloveyou
9. 111111
10. 123123

So far, so familiar. All of these passwords appeared in the 2018 list, and most of them near the top. Using “password” as a password is particularly dumb, so it’s heartening to see that lose the top spot. However, millions of people are clearly still using it.

The idea of using a sequence of numbers is also still prevalent, and continues all the way through the Top 100. As for interesting entries, “dragon” is new in at #23, “liverpool” appears at #31, “ginger” makes it to #51, and “trustno1” comes in at #94.

Always Enable Two-Factor Authentication

This paints a depressing picture of people’s attitudes to passwords. However, it’s important to remember that these only represent a fraction of commonly used passwords. So, we can assume that most people are taking their online security more seriously.

If you’re only now realizing how bad your passwords are, there are things you can do. For one, enable two-factor authentication wherever it’s available. You should also consider using a password manager, and here are the best password managers for every occasion.

Read the full article: The Worst Passwords of 2019 Have Been Revealed

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Vape lung is on the decline as CDC report fixes blame on oily additive

The CDC has issued a set of reports showing that the lung disease associated with vaping seems to be declining from peak rates, and that Vitamin E acetate seems — as speculated early on — to be the prime suspect for the epidemic. The affliction has cost at least 54 lives and affected 2,506 people across the nation.

The condition now officially known as EVALI (E-cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use-Associated Lung Injury) appeared over the summer, with hundreds of people reporting chest pains, shortness of breath and other symptoms. When state medical authorities and the CDC began comparing notes, it became clear that vaping was the common theme between the cases — especially using THC products.

Before long the CDC recommended ceasing all vape product usage and was collating reports and soliciting samples from around the country. Their medical authorities have now issued several reports on the disease. The most significant finding echoes earlier indications that Vitamin E acetate, an oily substance that was apparently being used as a cutting agent in low-quality vaping cartridges, is at the very least a major contributor to the condition:

Building upon a previous study, CDC analyzed bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from a larger number of EVALI patients from 16 states and compared them to BAL fluid from healthy people. Vitamin E acetate, also found in product samples tested by the FDA and state laboratories, was identified in BAL fluid from 48 of 51 EVALI patients and was not found in any of the BAL fluids of healthy people.

That’s pretty clear cut, but importantly it does not exonerate any other, perhaps even worse additives that may not have been so widespread. It seems clear that vaping product producers will need to reestablish trust in the wake of this fatal blunder, and part of that will have to be transparency and regulation.

Vaping rose to prominence quickly and has proven difficult to effectively regulate. The shady companies that were selling stamped-on cartridges filled with what would prove to be a lethal adulterant have probably already picked up and moved on to the next scam.

The good news is the scale of the epidemic seems to have reached its maximum. There are still cases coming in, but the number of new patients is not rising sharply every month. Perhaps this indicates that people are taking the CDC’s advice and not vaping as much or at all, or perhaps the products using the additive have been quietly slipped off the market.

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ALBERT: A Lite BERT for Self-Supervised Learning of Language Representations

Posted by Radu Soricut and Zhenzhong Lan, Research Scientists, Google Research

Ever since the advent of BERT a year ago, natural language research has embraced a new paradigm, leveraging large amounts of existing text to pretrain a model’s parameters using self-supervision, with no data annotation required. So, rather than needing to train a machine-learning model for natural language processing (NLP) from scratch, one can start from a model primed with knowledge of a language. But, in order to improve upon this new approach to NLP, one must develop an understanding of what, exactly, is contributing to language-understanding performance — the network’s height (i.e., number of layers), its width (size of the hidden layer representations), the learning criteria for self-supervision, or something else entirely?

In “ALBERT: A Lite BERT for Self-supervised Learning of Language Representations”, accepted at ICLR 2020, we present an upgrade to BERT that advances the state-of-the-art performance on 12 NLP tasks, including the competitive Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD v2.0) and the SAT-style reading comprehension RACE benchmark. ALBERT is being released as an open-source implementation on top of TensorFlow, and includes a number of ready-to-use ALBERT pre-trained language representation models.

What Contributes to NLP Performance?
Identifying the dominant driver of NLP performance is complex — some settings are more important than others, and, as our study reveals, a simple, one-at-a-time exploration of these settings would not yield the correct answers.

The key to optimizing performance, captured in the design of ALBERT, is to allocate the model’s capacity more efficiently. Input-level embeddings (words, sub-tokens, etc.) need to learn context-independent representations, a representation for the word “bank”, for example. In contrast, hidden-layer embeddings need to refine that into context-dependent representations, e.g., a representation for “bank” in the context of financial transactions, and a different representation for “bank” in the context of river-flow management.

This is achieved by factorization of the embedding parametrization — the embedding matrix is split between input-level embeddings with a relatively-low dimension (e.g., 128), while the hidden-layer embeddings use higher dimensionalities (768 as in the BERT case, or more). With this step alone, ALBERT achieves an 80% reduction in the parameters of the projection block, at the expense of only a minor drop in performance — 80.3 SQuAD2.0 score, down from 80.4; or 67.9 on RACE, down from 68.2 — with all other conditions the same as for BERT.

Another critical design decision for ALBERT stems from a different observation that examines redundancy. Transformer-based neural network architectures (such as BERT, XLNet, and RoBERTa) rely on independent layers stacked on top of each other. However, we observed that the network often learned to perform similar operations at various layers, using different parameters of the network. This possible redundancy is eliminated in ALBERT by parameter-sharing across the layers, i.e., the same layer is applied on top of each other. This approach slightly diminishes the accuracy, but the more compact size is well worth the tradeoff. Parameter sharing achieves a 90% parameter reduction for the attention-feedforward block (a 70% reduction overall), which, when applied in addition to the factorization of the embedding parameterization, incur a slight performance drop of -0.3 on SQuAD2.0 to 80.0, and a larger drop of -3.9 on RACE score to 64.0.

Implementing these two design changes together yields an ALBERT-base model that has only 12M parameters, an 89% parameter reduction compared to the BERT-base model, yet still achieves respectable performance across the benchmarks considered. But this parameter-size reduction provides the opportunity to scale up the model again. Assuming that memory size allows, one can scale up the size of the hidden-layer embeddings by 10-20x. With a hidden-size of 4096, the ALBERT-xxlarge configuration achieves both an overall 30% parameter reduction compared to the BERT-large model, and, more importantly, significant performance gains: +4.2 on SQuAD2.0 (88.1, up from 83.9), and +8.5 on RACE (82.3, up from 73.8).

These results indicate that accurate language understanding depends on developing robust, high-capacity contextual representations. The context, modeled in the hidden-layer embeddings, captures the meaning of the words, which in turn drives the overall understanding, as directly measured by model performance on standard benchmarks.

Optimized Model Performance with the RACE Dataset
To evaluate the language understanding capability of a model, one can administer a reading comprehension test (e.g., similar to the SAT Reading Test). This can be done with the RACE dataset (2017), the largest publicly available resource for this purpose. Computer performance on this reading comprehension challenge mirrors well the language modeling advances of the last few years: a model pre-trained with only context-independent word representations scores poorly on this test (45.9; left-most bar), while BERT, with context-dependent language knowledge, scores relatively well with a 72.0. Refined BERT models, such as XLNet and RoBERTa, set the bar even higher, in the 82-83 score range. The ALBERT-xxlarge configuration mentioned above yields a RACE score in the same range (82.3), when trained on the base BERT dataset (Wikipedia and Books). However, when trained on the same larger dataset as XLNet and RoBERTa, it significantly outperforms all other approaches to date, and establishes a new state-of-the-art score at 89.4.

Machine performance on the RACE challenge (SAT-like reading comprehension). A random-guess baseline score is 25.0. The maximum possible score is 95.0.

The success of ALBERT demonstrates the importance of identifying the aspects of a model that give rise to powerful contextual representations. By focusing improvement efforts on these aspects of the model architecture, it is possible to greatly improve both the model efficiency and performance on a wide range of NLP tasks. To facilitate further advances in the field of NLP, we are open-sourcing ALBERT to the research community.

Coral raises $4.3M to build an at-home manicure machine

Coral is a company that wants to “simplify the personal care space through smart automation,” and they’ve raised $4.3 million to get it done. Their first goal? An at-home, fully automated machine for painting your nails. Stick a finger in, press down, wait a few seconds and you’ve got a fully painted and dried nail. More than once in our conversations, the team referred to the idea as a “Keurig coffee machine, but for nails.”

It’s still early days for the company. While they’ve got a functional machine (pictured above), they’re quite clear about it being a prototype.

As such, they’re still staying pretty hush hush about the details, declining to say much about how it actually works. They did tell me that it paints one finger at a time, taking about 10 minutes to go from bare nails to all fingers painted and dried. To speed up drying time while ensuring a durable paint job, it’ll require Coral’s proprietary nail polish — so don’t expect to be able to pop open a bottle of nail polish and pour it in. Coral’s polish will come in pods (so the Keurig comparison is particularly fitting), which the user will be able to buy individually or get via subscription. Under the hood is a camera and some proprietary computer vision algorithms, allowing the machine to paint the nail accurately without requiring manual nail cleanup from the user after the fact.

Also still under wraps — or, more accurately, not determined yet — is the price. While Coral co-founder Ramya Venkateswaran tells me that she expects it to be a “premium device,” they haven’t nailed down an exact price just yet.

While we’ve seen all sorts of nail painting machines over the years (including ones that can do all kinds of wild art, like this one we saw at CES earlier this year), Coral says its system is the only one that works without requiring the user to first prime their nails with a base coat or clear coat it after. All you need here is a bare fingernail.

Coral’s team is currently made up of eight people — mostly mechanical, chemical and software engineers. Both co-founders, meanwhile, have backgrounds in hardware; Venkateswaran previously worked as a product strategy manager at Dolby, where she helped launch the Dolby Conference Phone. Her co-founder, Bradley Leong, raised around $800,000 on Kickstarter to ship Brydge (one of the earliest takes on a laptop-style iPad keyboard) back in 2012 before becoming a partner at the seed-stage venture fund Tandem Capital. It was during some industrial hardware research there, he tells me, when he found “the innovation that this machine is based off of.”

Vankateswaran tells me the team has raised $4.3 million to date from CrossLink Capital, Root Ventures, Tandem Capital and Y Combinator. The company is part of Y Combinator’s ongoing Winter 2020 class, so I’d expect to hear more about them as this batch’s demo day approaches in March of next year.

So what’s next? They’ll be working on turning the prototype into a consumer-ready device, and plan to spend the next few months running a small beta program (which you can sign up for here.)

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Is Your Mac Running Slow? 10 Simple Tips to Speed It Up

It’s well known that all computers, including Macs, slow down over time. This drop in performance can be frustrating, and it’s easy to think that you need to splash out on extra RAM—or even buy a new machine—sooner than you’d like.

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But there are a number of easy tweaks that can boost your computer’s performance and speed up that slow Mac, and they won’t cost you a penny.

First: Mistakes That Make Your Mac Run Slow

We’ve previously covered some causes of a slow Mac when we looked at common mistakes that slow down your Mac. Before continuing, you should go through that guide so you know what not to do.

It covers quick fixes like closing demanding programs and clearing your caches which bring immediate performance improvements in your Mac. But if your computer still isn’t performing as you’d like, continue with the tips below.

1. Upgrade macOS

Many people still believe the myth that operating system upgrades always slow down your machine. And while they can sometimes have performance issues on really old computers, these updates usually do more good than harm. They include bug fixes, patches, and improvements that often increase the speed of your Mac.

These OS update files can be pretty large, though. So if you’re running low on hard drive space, you’ll likely want to free that up first (see step 2, below).

To update your OS, make sure your laptop is connected to a power outlet, and back up your Mac first in case anything goes wrong. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and go to About This Mac > Software Updates.

If a software upgrade is available, you’ll see an Upgrade Now button. Click that and the download will start.

After a while, your computer will restart itself, and you’ll walk through the installation process. This update process will update not just the operating system, but also many of the default apps from Apple.

2. Free Up Hard Disk Space

As your storage drive reaches its capacity, performance drops off rapidly. Large files have been shown to have more of a negative effect on your Mac’s speed than small files. It’s thus always wise to keep at least 25% of your disk space free if possible.

To check how much free space you have on your hard drive, go to Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage.

If you’re running low on space, as shown in the image above, it’s worth going through our guide on how to free up space on your Mac. That takes you through how to do each of the following step-by-step:

• Empty the trash
• Uninstall apps you don’t use
• Find and delete large files
• Delete iTunes files and iOS backups
• Take a look at cloud storage apps
• Optimize storage in the photos app
• Store your Desktop and Documents folders in the cloud

In addition, we’d also recommend moving your photos and music libraries over to an external hard drive, as they can take up a huge amount of space. Make at least two copies (or back up with a cloud provider) in case one of your drives fails.

After working through the steps in that guide, I freed up an additional 34GB of hard drive space.

3. Remove Startup Items

To help your Mac boot up faster, you should minimize the number of background processes that load each time you restart. To do this:

1. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and select your account name on the left sidebar.
2. Click Login Items.
3. Select the items you no longer wish to load at startup.
4. Remove these by clicking the minus button.

4. Delete Unnecessary Widgets

Having a bunch of widgets running in the background can also have an impact on your Mac’s speed. To remove some of these:

1. Open the Notification Center by clicking the button at the top-right corner of the screen.
2. Go to the Today tab.
3. Click Edit at the bottom of the Notification Center.
4. Click the red delete button to remove any widgets that are unnecessary.

5. Rebuild the Spotlight Index

If Spotlight has stopped returning the results you’d expect, or is running particularly slow, rebuilding the Spotlight index should help. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
2. Click the Plus button and select the drive or folders that you want to reindex.
3. Confirm that you want to (temporarily) exclude these from Spotlight.
4. Select the same drive or folder, and click the minus button to remove these again.

 

This will force Spotlight to reindex that drive or folder, which should make searching run more smoothly. This can take some time, so be patient if Spotlight seems finicky at first.

6. Turn Off Visual Effects

The barely-noticed visual effects of macOS can impact your computer performance more than you think. To disable these:

1. Go to System Preferences > Dock.
2. Untick Animate opening applications.
3. Set the Minimize windows using option to Scale effect.

Then:

1. Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display,
2. Select Reduce Transparency.

7. Don’t Sync Too Much Cloud Data at Once

If you’re attempting to sync large folders to the cloud using services such as iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox, this will likely slow everything down. Be sure to routinely review which files and folders are uploading to the cloud to ensure you’re not sending too much at once.

You can review and adjust which data backs up to iCloud by going to System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud.

To manage which folders sync with other cloud storage providers, you’ll generally need to go to the Preferences panel of the specific app that you use (like Dropbox or Google Drive). Try to avoid syncing folders that change frequently.

8. Set a Default Finder Folder

Each time you open Finder, it needs to load the folder set as its default. If this is a large folder, that can take more time than you’d like (such as if you have tons of items on your desktop). Instead, you should change this to a smaller, less demanding folder so that Finder can load faster:

1. Open Finder.
2. Go to the menu bar and click Finder > Preferences.
3. In the General tab, go to the New Finder windows show dropdown, and select a new default folder.

9. Remove Browser Add-ons

Since so much of most people’s computer work these days is done within a browser, it can be easy to mistake a slow browser for a slow Mac. The easiest fix here is to remove unneeded and bulky add-ons/extensions from whichever browser you use.

We’ve shown how to clean up your browser extensions the easy way. If you need more specific info, check out these official help pages:

• How to manage extensions in Safari
• Managing extensions in Chrome
• How to remove Firefox add-ons

10. Keep Your Apps Up to Date

Outdated apps that haven’t been optimized for the latest macOS update can cause your Mac to feel slower than it really is. It’s therefore always worthwhile to keep the software on your computer up to date.

To do this, go to App Store > Updates. If any app updates are available, you’ll see them listed. Either click to update each app individually, or choose Update All in the top-right corner to install all available updates at once.

Mac Running Slow? Not Anymore!

With these simple tips, you should see a noticeable improvement in your Mac’s speed. However, if your machine still isn’t working at a speed that’s acceptable, there are a couple more extreme (or expensive) options.

If your computer is really old, you may be best off buying a refurbished Mac to save some cash. For a less expensive option, if your model is old enough, you might be able to upgrade the RAM in your Mac.

Failing either of these, you can completely reinstall macOS, without or without erasing your storage disk entirely. Doing so essentially restores your Mac to its factory settings. Hopefully it won’t come to this, though, and these tips will get you plenty more use out of your Mac.

Read the full article: Is Your Mac Running Slow? 10 Simple Tips to Speed It Up

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The Top 7 Calculator Apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch

The iPad still doesn’t have a calculator, and Apple’s basic iPhone calculator is a bit… basic. It’s fine for solving simple problems (and even has a handful of scientific functions) but there are a large number of alternatives on the App Store that offer more features and options.

Maybe you’re in need of advanced scientific functions, are looking for unique ways to help complete your homework, or you’re simply bored of the way Apple’s calculator looks and feels. You might even have reached a stage in your education where you want the best calculator available to you.

Whatever your (math) problem, the App Store can help solve it. Take a look at some of the best calculator apps for the iPhone, iPad, and even Apple Watch.

Your iPhone’s Basic Calculator

Unless you’re an iPad user, the default Apple calculator app is probably all you need for day-to-day problem-solving. Whether you’re splitting a bill, working out an IOU, or wondering how much you spent on rent in the last year, simply flick up to reveal Control Center and hit the Calculator icon.

You’ll see basic numerals and operators in portrait mode; turn your phone sideways to get access to the scientific functions. These are basic but useful, including operators like sin/cos/tan, support for brackets, constants like Pi, and a random number generator.

Unfortunately, this calculator suffers from a lack of graphing features, limited history logging, and a rigidly restrictive calculation view. And on the iPad, the app is completely absent. Luckily, there are lots of alternative calculators to choose from.

1. Calzy

It’s hard to go wrong with Calzy. This offering is a great calculator app for your iPhone, along with the iPad and even Apple Watch. One of the best features of the app is the Memory Area that allows you to store multiple values to reuse across any session with a drag-and-drop gesture.

You can also bookmark a calculation with date and time to view anytime. Another great feature is the ability to spell out calculations in English and 65 other languages.

When you want to switch between a basic and scientific calculator, you can make the switch with a long press on the screen instead of having to rotate to landscape mode. There are also many other buttons that offer Haptic Touch to quickly access additional features.

For a more complete custom experience, you can also rearrange keypad buttons to better suit your taste. And thanks to the app’s widget, you can make a quick calculation by heading to the Today View on your iPhone or iPad. If you love this, make sure to also take a look at some of the best iPhone widgets.

Download: Calzy ($2.99)

2. PCalc

PCalc describes itself as the App Store’s “best calculator,” with a price tag to match. If $10 seems a bit steep for a math app, consider the cost of a scientific calculator that does everything PCalc can do.

It works on both the iPhone and iPad, with an optional Apple Watch app to boot. The app is aimed at “scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature-rich calculator.” If the reviews are anything to go by, this is the gold standard for calculators on the App Store.

Of note is the app’s customizability and ability to handle fast number input. There are a huge number of operators, constants, functions, support for graphs, and more. Calculator nerds rejoice: this is the one you’ve been looking for. It even does Reverse Polish Notation (RPN).

Download: PCalc ($9.99)

3. Photomath

Photomath takes a different approach to the rest of the apps on this list. It works on both the iPhone and iPad, and through your device’s camera allows you to take a picture of your math problem to instantly see the solution.

The app really comes into its own as a learning tool, since it provides step-by-step instructions on how the result was achieved. There’s a slight danger that it will make your homework a little too easy, but used in the right context it could be an invaluable learning tool.

In addition to handwriting recognition via the camera, Photomath includes a regular old calculator that can handle arithmetic, trigonometry, fractions, decimals, roots, quadratic equations, and more. It even includes a graphing tool to boot.

Download: Photomath (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Calcbot 2

Calcbot is an “intelligent calculator” app from Tapbots, which also makes the highly respected Twitter app Tweetbot. Now on its second version, Calcbot 2 is a free download with two notable features hidden behind an in-app purchase: unit conversion (including live currency rates) and the ability to add your own custom scientific constants.

Beyond that, the app is free to use and exudes the clean and visually-pleasing design seen in Tapbots’s other applications. Small design flourishes, like a history tape that records all your calculations, elevate it above Apple’s basic iOS calculator in terms of functionality too.

Simplicity is key, with an “expression view” for displaying everything you’ve typed on one screen, the ability to save favorite calculations, and iCloud sync between devices to keep your history tape current. It’s also worth noting that it looks and feels slick, with custom animations and one-tap actions for results.

Download: Calcbot 2 (Free, in-app purchases available)

5. Tydlig

Tydlig is a different kind of calculator app for iPhone and iPad. The app starts with just a blank canvas, and you can add the different components that suit your needs. When editing any number on a canvas, all the various results will automatically update instead of having to adjust each one individually.

Select a result to make a link on the line below. It’s also possible to drag a result from anywhere on the canvas to make a link. The results below will then automatically update. To help make better sense of your calculations, you can also add text labels to any number. When it’s time to graph, select any number and use the slider to see how the results change. The graph will also automatically update.

And this calculator app isn’t just for simple math. You can long-press any number on a canvas to make “X,” then tap the graph action to make a graph.

Download: Tydlig ($1.99)

6. Archimedes Calculator

Archimedes Calculator brings a graphing calculator experience to the iPhone and iPad. The calculator app automatically calculates the answer in both the numeric and exact form. Switch between both options by simply swiping horizontally.

The app also saves your calculation history. Scroll up to see previous answers. If the calculations were chained together, all the other calculations will automatically change when modifying the original. Automatic unit conversion and constants are also built-in. Archimedes Calculator supports both the metric and imperial measurement systems.

An in-app upgrade will unlock an integrated formula library, automatic unit handling, and the ability to directly interact with plots by just dragging your fingers across the screen.

Download: Archimedes Calculator (Free, premium version available)

7. Calcularium

There are multiple ways to interact with Calcularium. Along with using the keypad, you can take a photo of the problem, use Siri, or even write it in script. The design of the app is based on tokens with the same structure. The left part shows an element type, while the right shows the result or an entered value with its name on top. Pure numbers and math operators are additional components, along with tokens.

When a calculation is complete, you can Haptic Touch on the total and share the solution as plain text, an image, or styled text.

A subscription brings an ad-free environment, unlimited functions/constants, more script and photo math scans, and unit/currency conversion.

Download: Calcularium (Free, subscription available)

The Best Calculator Apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch

While the built-in calculator on the iPhone is great for basic day-to-day use, it’s definitely lacking when you need to do more complex work. And you’re completely out of luck when using an iPad. But these calculator apps offer a plethora of unique features for almost any type of task.

Are you interested in other types of calculators too? These online calculators are about more than math.

Read the full article: The Top 7 Calculator Apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch

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