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The Calculator App on macOS Sequoia is a Mess!

Upon installing the fifteenth iteration of the OS build, your Mac will be greeted with a slew of intriguing goodies, including the likes of iPhone mirroring, updates to Safari, Window tiling, a new Passwords app, and Apple Intelligence. However, there are a few questionable and borderline ridiculous decisions that the Cupertino giant has taken as well. But none could come close to the one that they have done with its Calculator app.

The Calculator App on macOS Sequoia is a Mess!

For ages, users were yearning for one of the most basic features that every calculator app in the world has- a delete button. While it finally added that option [an eternity too late], but it took away one of the most important features- the continuity calculation- because how can they keep their consumer base satisfied all the time, right? Anyways, coming back to the point, what exactly is continuity calculation?

calculator macos sequoia

Well, let’s say you performed an addition of 2+2, then upon pressing the Enter key, it will give you the result as 4. Then if you keep on pressing the Enter key, it will keep on adding 2 to the result. So for each press of Enter, you’ll get the subsequent results as 6,8,10, and so on. Unfortunately, now, this is no longer possible because for some reason Apple didn’t find it useful enough! And that isn’t the only issue we have with this new redesigned Calculator app.

It’s Even Removed from the Touch Bar

Adding to the long list of weird decision-making from the Cupertino giant is the removal of the Calculator app from the touch bar. To be fair, this used to be one of the very few apps that actually made excellent use of the Touch Bar. Moreover, having the calculator function keys directly above the numbers spelled out the ease of convenience. But since these words [ease of convenience] don’t belong to Apple’s dictionary, we can’t really blame them for taking this action, or can we?

Its Small Size is Equally Bewildering!

Let’s talk about its size, shall we? It has been shrunk to such a small dimension that finding it on your Mac could prove to be one of the most challenging tasks! Even carrying out basic calculations is proving to be quite difficult as the buttons are now so close together that you will end up pressing the incorrect key if you prefer doing calculations via your mouse.

Initially, we assumed that we would be able to increase its size by dragging its corners or via the options present at the top left. But the former is not supported and the latter is greyed out! All in all, the tech giant is trying its best to persuade users to move away from its offering and give a shot at some other alternatives, which brings us to the next question- how to address this issue?

How to “Fix” the Calculator App on macOS Sequoia?

calculator macos sequoia

Well, there are two approaches that you can take. First off, use the Calculator app from Sonoma, or secondly, use a third-party one. Let’s have a look at both these alternatives. If you are planning to use the Sonoma Calculator app, then download that firmware, extract it, and get hold of the Calculator app via the below commands:

chmod +x /path/to/app/calculator.app
xattr - cr /path/to/app/calculator.app
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/app/calculator.app

Then try pasting the app on your Mac running Sequoia. This has given mixed results, while some were able to install it successfully, others were greeted with the “dyld_path_missing” error. So this then brings us to our next fix- using a third-party Calculator app. Upon doing some digging in the App Store, we found out the iCalc app manages to checkmark all our prerequisites with ease.

However, it is paid and costs $10. While that’s not a heavy amount, but having to shell out bucks from our bucks due to absurd decision-making from Apple doesn’t justify this decision. Unfortunately, we aren’t left with any other choice, and having to lighten our pockets a little bit might be our best course of action for now.

So on that note, we end this rant. What are your views about these two changes incorporated in the Calculator app in macOS Sequoia? Feel free to share your valuable opinions in the comments section below. Until Apple ruins another of its app, this is it from us.


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