If a graduate student getting an advanced degree in mathematics can use this, $50 is actually worth it.
Christina Warren
· 1 month ago
Absolutely. I really think math and science students are some of the people that would get the most real-world use out of the app, and for what it does, the price is actually pretty fair.
dineshv
· 1 month ago
O totally agree with you.
nateritter
· 1 month ago
I fully disagree. Sorry. Unless it actually IS a TI calculator it's not worth it.
martinbeauchamp
· 1 month ago
Totally with you on that. Serious pocket power!
Anderson Mccutcheon
· 1 month ago
These are not advanced mathematics.
bsloane
· 1 month ago
"It’s a high end graphing calculator (that supports discrete number theory, Calculus derivative and plotting of functions), an almanac, a currency/unit converter and a pretty sophisticated stock analysis tool."
Can't you do all of these on the mobile website as well? I tried a couple of the examples in the article on the mobile website and they all show the same results as the screenshots. I still don't understand what the app does that the site doesn't....aside from a little bit of a simpler interface.
Christina Warren
· 1 month ago
Right, so according to WA, about 15% of the app is new/unique to the mobile safari or straight web version. For instance, geolocation data, tie-ins to Google Maps and Google Earth and your current location for queries.
It'll show you a history of your queries, let you save queries as favorites and it supports horizontal/vertical display (which is good when looking at charts).
It's much, much faster in the app than it is on the mobile website. However, what is probably the killer feature for anyone who is using it for math or science purposes is that it has a scientific keyboard for entering stuff in. Otherwise, you'll kill yourself trying to put in curve data with the regular iPhone keyboard.
Tim
· 1 month ago
This is why iPhone apps will die quickly...think back to the days where we thought AOL was the internet. Android and other OS and browsers will make this download fee obsolete. Doubt this? Think wikapedia, freeware.com, google apps, and all the other free applications out there that are simple free utilities. Knowledge is power and folks like craigslist show how it can be done for $0.
sulimon
· 1 month ago
Wolfram is a company that successfully creates products that nobody else has the expertise to create. They successfully charge thousands of dollars for their Mathematica program, which is something that would cost millions of dollars in research to replicate. This app as well has some barrier to entry until someone comes out with an open source program for doing integrals analytically (numerically there are plenty)/
I agree with you in the long run, but I think there is a market for a $50 dollar app for turning your iPhone into a super calculator. I agree that market will be larger if Wolfram figures out some more that they should offer.
Dave
· 1 month ago
Wolfram Alpha ist absolutely great. No doubt on that. But I too don't see why I sould pay 50 $ for the app. Everything can be done via the web page too (directly on the iPhone) - what for do I need the app?
Flowsion Shekar
· 1 month ago
For $50 it better make me breakfast too.
facebook-1831232416
· 1 month ago
lol wouldnt that be nice ya 50 is too expensive i will just type wolfa.com into my iphone browser and use wolframalpha's free mobile site
WOW. Color me majorly disappointed. This was the last thing I expected.
Part of me thought it would be free, but knowing it's power I expected it to be a paid app. But $50?! No way, not interested.
I understand it's powerful and can do a lot of things... but I think it's a big mistake making this so expensive. $14.99 sounds about right for it.
Oh well, I'll pass. Hopefully since their is an API someone will put out a cheaper 3rd party alternative.
Dara Walsh
· 1 month ago
Interesting..quite niche, will be interesting to see what other apps hit the app store using the API, it sounds almost like being able to harness the intelligence of the common knowledge out there on the internet and return it in a meaningful way to power applications etc. one to watch...
Michael Moore-Jones
· 1 month ago
This is just absolutely incredible! I don't see what's so high about the $50 tag for all that information at your fingertips. Thanks for the full review @Mashable!
Andre G.
· 1 month ago
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would gladly pay $50 for that App merely for the financial analysis it offers.
Andre G.
· 1 month ago
On second though, I would never pay $50 for that crap.
After reviewing their site and running a few searches on popular stocks, they are WAYYY OFFF with their search returns.
The fundamentals W.A gave me for Citigroup are off by Billions (we're talking more than 80 billion). That's huge.
Good call! It looks like the real-time trading data is correct but the other info might either be old or not computed the right way. Nice catch!
barringtonarch
· 1 month ago
if you were paying $50, you'd hope they could 'compute' it a bit more accurately.
Name
· 1 month ago
Why doesn't someone ask Wolfram Alpha to work out how much the iPhone app should cost?
Michelle
· 1 month ago
it's funny you say we should ask it how much the iphone app should costs.. i can only imagine something similar to http://www.wolfa.com/input/?i=how+much+does+wol... will be added for the iphone app which says the same thing "if you have to ask... you can't afford it" ha
Schoeller Porter
· 1 month ago
Andre G. -- Nice catch.
We work very hard to ensure our data is as correct and reliable as is humanly possible, but once in a while things slip through the cracks. The community is an important part of keeping us honest.
It appears that for this particular issue the upstream provider for some of our financial information missed a change in shares outstanding for Citigroup from September.
This should be fixed now.
Brian Hd
· 1 month ago
As of 28/10 the results are still massively wrong on WA. The market cap given is $4bn off from Bloomberg's computation! Not to mention WA is quoting the dividend yield as 18% vs Bloomberg's 4%.
Clearly your data team merely scrubbed one data error but failed to put in place a QA process to capture future errors. And this is the standard of work at WA that you're asking people to pay $50 for? You lot wouldn't last a minute as back office clerks serving a trading floor!
Sawant
· 1 month ago
This is more or less the same functionality as offered on the web version of Wolfram Alpha. Or if there is anything different, you have missed pointing that out in this review. What does the Wolfram Alpha iPhone app has different than the Wolfram Alpha web?
If iPhone makes it more mobile, then why not just browse to WA website (using Safari, on iPhone) and compute any kind of analysis? Why pay $50?
If the iPhone app has no additional functionality than the web-based version, then the Wolfram Alpha guys have screwed up in pricing/functionality.
And if it's just a proof-of-concept thing, well then ... I would rather spend my $50 on something better ... and stick to using Wolfram Alpha, if need be, through Safari! ;)
Wow, that's really expensive for an app. What does it even offers what I don't have on the website already? I really prefer simple, free services. Stuff like twitter, RTM or our service tymelie.com
Just dead simple and to the point. Wolfram Alpha is rather a mess... (a very useful, powerfull mess... ;) )
iTbay
· 1 month ago
unreal app
kachingkaching
· 1 month ago
not interested with math? well this is not for you
Wow their program is really going to blast off and their site!
Jeff
· 1 month ago
lollol Graphing Calculator
What math professor will let you whip out your iPhone?
sulimon
· 1 month ago
Calculators usually aren't used in my physics and math exams in college. Plotting programs and calculators are extremely useful for the learning experience out-side the classroom. Math people who use Mathematica and have iPhones will definitely buy this app. The hardware for all of a student's calculation needs is already on the iPhone, it's about time someone made it mobile...and Wolfram are the ones to do it
Jeff
· 1 month ago
Really? I used calculator all the time. TI-86....I would of never finished my Linear Algebra test without calculator.
Its so much work by hand if you dont have one.
sulimon
· 1 month ago
I guess my experience isn't as good of an example as I thought. I am a physics and math double major and I don't use a TI (I never had a prof that gave problems that needed a calculator on an exam). I have Mathematica on my computer and I only use it for verification of HW and for just trying things out and learning.
a.student
· 1 month ago
currently in a major, prestigious university and devices such as this aren't allowed on exams. current policy is to not just silence all electronic devices but to actually turn them off. in fact, if one's cell phone vibrates and this individual is identified, an automatic F grade will be given for the exam and, in some cases, the student will be reported for academic integrity violations.
in chemistry, biology, and physics classes at the same university, professors recommend a "cheapo" $15 solar powered scientific calculator. absolutely no calculators with the ability to store "alphanumeric" input are allowed, much less a stripped down version of a computer algebra system (CAS).
on a personal note, sorry wolfram...don't see the point of this app, especially at its price point. maybe $10 or $12. chances are that any student who needs a CAS would just use a school-provided (or cost-reduced) copy of mathematica (or, more likely, maple). and students/instructors who need to research other data such as those from financial markets would use whatever industry-standard tools are available. since schools often take several years to absorb technologies and tend to adopt mostly "open" platforms or locked hardware manufacturers (such as mass spectrometry instruments) that are extremely responsive to educators needs, i'm guessing that their tools of choice will not be a $50 wolfram iphone app, or most anything on the iphone/ipod devices for that matter.
though recently, my university has deployed an iphone app to provide directory services, bus schedules, course information, and campus news to the students. so maybe schools are moving closer to iphone/ipod adoption for more general purposes. if anything, however, class policies prohibiting the use of these devices (even on homework assignments) is getting more strict rather than less.
Jeff
· 1 month ago
And you can easily send messages on the iPhone, so yeah I dont see professors allowing it at all.
Unless Texas Instrument comes out with a Wifi calculator that becomes a standard calculator.
Miguel
· 1 month ago
If I used this app in school, for tests, I would only have to learn 10% of the stuff, which isn't good. Great app but too expensive, I'll pay $5.00 at most.
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
Trust me, you should not be interested in "learning", as it simply means memorizing lots of formulas that are wasting you brain's capacity to be creative and flexible. As far as the educational systems let you do it, use the brain to be creative and you will solve lots of more problems. That's a key to success and wealth in many ways :) Alejandro
Sascha A. Carlin
· 1 month ago
Should we be discussing what "curated data" actually means?
Susheel Varma
· 1 month ago
Not too clever for an app with a brain the size of a planet.
Shively
· 1 month ago
@anderson, you're right, the examples above aren't advanced math to you and a large number of people. But there is a certain sample of the population that has never even worked through a Taylor Series or other college math examples.
If this app has a fraction of the power of Mathematica it is a great deal. (okay, obviously it has "some" fraction of the power...)
Fifty dollars is peanuts if you are a professional and if it will save you time. Even if you are a student this is nothing if you are permitted to use it in labs and lectures.
Some software takes a lot of time/money to develop and the population that has the need and ability to use it productively is small. A similar application is Madymo. Licenses used to cost us $25,000 / year. It still saved us money and they sold a lot of seats of it. Are these good apps for consumers? Nada.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you haven't tried it, how can you pan it and expect anyone to believe in your credibility?
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
I add myself to this declaration. +1
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
First examples point to the fact that Wolfram Alpha is also a pretty good "business intelligence" mini-tool for entrepreneurs.
Sure, a pretty good "business intelligence" mini-tool ... if you have no skin in the game on the answers actually being correct. It doesn't matter how smart the engine is, Garbage In = Garbage Out every time! (if you don't know what I'm talking about see the poss about the Citigroup data it returned vs Bloomberg's results further up the thread.
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
Yes, im following the comments and I start changing my point of view.
Im a bit worried about this, because WA lessens its value severely and their effort to manage that issue has not convinced anyone.
I want WA to actually prosper, but Im a bit worried about the facts, which make pointless to pay for the app (in the business intelligence context, I mean)
Expecting some new WA intervention, here.
Name
· 1 month ago
over priced and worth 99 cents like the rest of them
fahrulazmi
· 1 month ago
great app for math-related students.
nateritter
· 1 month ago
No app is worth $50 unless it makes me money.
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
Dont you think it actually can? Correct information at correct time is always a great asset. Other question is if the safari version can do the same for free :D
Brian Hd
· 1 month ago
hahaha ... they say a fool and his money are quickly parted - sounds like you've been parted from $50 of yourmoney ...
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
A spanish internet marketer like me doesnt actually need an app like that. I'm just trying to understand and defense the WA's point of view. BUT the thing is that some severe flaws have been proven in the comments, leaving WA in a bad position so Im starting to change my mind (unfortunately)
Monik Pamecha
· 1 month ago
Seems like a good option to students though. But $50 is way too much.
veronica
· 1 month ago
This tool is so good and helpful to my maths problem:) But as a student $50 is not too reasonable unless my lots friends shared the price to use it, haha...
The Shockwave
· 1 month ago
This thing so doesn't make sense to me. Why is it $50 if it needs an internet connection to do most of the stuff? Guess what, I just tested it and everything that this review does using the app works using the iPhone's Safari browser! Cool, now someone give me $50.
vegas
· 1 month ago
Can't you just use their website? The app needs internet to work and so does the website. Only thing is that one of them doesn't cost you 50 bucks.
Alejandro Amo
· 1 month ago
the only factor that will answer this question is the case that you need the extra features of the app (that are not extremely detailed in Christina's post, but there are some basic examples) I whink we should learn more about their differences in order for each one of us to make a decision.
The 99% of the comments in this post come from non-targeted people, anyway :)
ralphm
· 1 month ago
Excellent product. I use mathematica since 1990 and this iPhone app brings up the little nerd in me LOL.
But....installed it and immediately found a large bug. Not a big deal though, but pretty annoying when you just pad 40 euro and find out that for every empty search result the app is crashing....
But..kudoos to the Wolfram team.
William McCamment
· 1 month ago
I love stuff like this! I have absolutely no real need to have it on my iPhone, but I love it just the same. Since it would just be a toy for me, I can't really justify the $50 price tag---but, I'm tempted.
I might just have this before the day is out. Let's see if I can resist blowing my money on it.
1stworldshoppingcenter
· 1 month ago
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whab
· 1 month ago
$50 is quite a steal for an app that requires an active internet connection, and that does not provide much more than the web version... Actually there are several graphing calculator apps for the iPhone that cost 10 times less and able to provide at least 95% of the needs for a graphing calculator, eg: the 4.99$ "Math Graphing" app (http://iphone.kybervision.com/mathgraphing/) looks more useful for students than Wolfram Alpha.
Name
· 1 month ago
You are right whab.
There is no way that software is worth as much as a PS3 cartridge or a date with your favorite significant other. This is our iphones we're talking about!
Stephen Wolfram must be a high school dropout or something. Look at all of us here that are so much more highly educated and successful than he. We all know that he is destined to fail with this product, just like he has with every other project he has attempted.
Let's start naming our products that are more successful than his. You go first...
I am somewhat innumerate. Would someone please explain "ten times less"?
All Comments
Can't you do all of these on the mobile website as well? I tried a couple of the examples in the article on the mobile website and they all show the same results as the screenshots. I still don't understand what the app does that the site doesn't....aside from a little bit of a simpler interface.
It'll show you a history of your queries, let you save queries as favorites and it supports horizontal/vertical display (which is good when looking at charts).
It's much, much faster in the app than it is on the mobile website. However, what is probably the killer feature for anyone who is using it for math or science purposes is that it has a scientific keyboard for entering stuff in. Otherwise, you'll kill yourself trying to put in curve data with the regular iPhone keyboard.
I agree with you in the long run, but I think there is a market for a $50 dollar app for turning your iPhone into a super calculator. I agree that market will be larger if Wolfram figures out some more that they should offer.
Part of me thought it would be free, but knowing it's power I expected it to be a paid app. But $50?! No way, not interested.
I understand it's powerful and can do a lot of things... but I think it's a big mistake making this so expensive. $14.99 sounds about right for it.
Oh well, I'll pass. Hopefully since their is an API someone will put out a cheaper 3rd party alternative.
After reviewing their site and running a few searches on popular stocks, they are WAYYY OFFF with their search returns.
The fundamentals W.A gave me for Citigroup are off by Billions (we're talking more than 80 billion). That's huge.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=citigroup
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=c
We work very hard to ensure our data is as correct and reliable as is humanly possible, but once in a while things slip through the cracks. The community is an important part of keeping us honest.
It appears that for this particular issue the upstream provider for some of our financial information missed a change in shares outstanding for Citigroup from September.
This should be fixed now.
Clearly your data team merely scrubbed one data error but failed to put in place a QA process to capture future errors. And this is the standard of work at WA that you're asking people to pay $50 for? You lot wouldn't last a minute as back office clerks serving a trading floor!
If iPhone makes it more mobile, then why not just browse to WA website (using Safari, on iPhone) and compute any kind of analysis? Why pay $50?
If the iPhone app has no additional functionality than the web-based version, then the Wolfram Alpha guys have screwed up in pricing/functionality.
And if it's just a proof-of-concept thing, well then ... I would rather spend my $50 on something better ... and stick to using Wolfram Alpha, if need be, through Safari! ;)
-- Sawant
http://twitter.com/sawant
Just dead simple and to the point. Wolfram Alpha is rather a mess... (a very useful, powerfull mess... ;) )
http://kachingkaching.com/kachingkaching
http://blastoffpress.com
http://evolvhealthy.com
What math professor will let you whip out your iPhone?
Its so much work by hand if you dont have one.
in chemistry, biology, and physics classes at the same university, professors recommend a "cheapo" $15 solar powered scientific calculator. absolutely no calculators with the ability to store "alphanumeric" input are allowed, much less a stripped down version of a computer algebra system (CAS).
on a personal note, sorry wolfram...don't see the point of this app, especially at its price point. maybe $10 or $12. chances are that any student who needs a CAS would just use a school-provided (or cost-reduced) copy of mathematica (or, more likely, maple). and students/instructors who need to research other data such as those from financial markets would use whatever industry-standard tools are available. since schools often take several years to absorb technologies and tend to adopt mostly "open" platforms or locked hardware manufacturers (such as mass spectrometry instruments) that are extremely responsive to educators needs, i'm guessing that their tools of choice will not be a $50 wolfram iphone app, or most anything on the iphone/ipod devices for that matter.
though recently, my university has deployed an iphone app to provide directory services, bus schedules, course information, and campus news to the students. so maybe schools are moving closer to iphone/ipod adoption for more general purposes. if anything, however, class policies prohibiting the use of these devices (even on homework assignments) is getting more strict rather than less.
Unless Texas Instrument comes out with a Wifi calculator that becomes a standard calculator.
As far as the educational systems let you do it, use the brain to be creative and you will solve lots of more problems.
That's a key to success and wealth in many ways :)
Alejandro
If this app has a fraction of the power of Mathematica it is a great deal. (okay, obviously it has "some" fraction of the power...)
Fifty dollars is peanuts if you are a professional and if it will save you time. Even if you are a student this is nothing if you are permitted to use it in labs and lectures.
Some software takes a lot of time/money to develop and the population that has the need and ability to use it productively is small. A similar application is Madymo. Licenses used to cost us $25,000 / year. It still saved us money and they sold a lot of seats of it. Are these good apps for consumers? Nada.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you haven't tried it, how can you pan it and expect anyone to believe in your credibility?
+1
only 50 bucks? Totally worth.
Nice post, Christina!
PS.: '82 generation rockz! :D
Alejandro Amo
http://Twitter.com/AlejandroAmo
Im a bit worried about this, because WA lessens its value severely and their effort to manage that issue has not convinced anyone.
I want WA to actually prosper, but Im a bit worried about the facts, which make pointless to pay for the app (in the business intelligence context, I mean)
Expecting some new WA intervention, here.
Other question is if the safari version can do the same for free :D
I whink we should learn more about their differences in order for each one of us to make a decision.
The 99% of the comments in this post come from non-targeted people, anyway :)
But....installed it and immediately found a large bug. Not a big deal though, but pretty annoying when you just pad 40 euro and find out that for every empty search result the app is crashing....
But..kudoos to the Wolfram team.
I might just have this before the day is out. Let's see if I can resist blowing my money on it.
There is no way that software is worth as much as a PS3 cartridge or a date with your favorite significant other. This is our iphones we're talking about!
Stephen Wolfram must be a high school dropout or something. Look at all of us here that are so much more highly educated and successful than he. We all know that he is destined to fail with this product, just like he has with every other project he has attempted.
Let's start naming our products that are more successful than his. You go first...
I am somewhat innumerate. Would someone please explain "ten times less"?
http://bit.ly/26vxIL
It's not as polished as this one, and its been working time before the API existed. It works by parsing the website.
http://knowledge.r4t.es
we should learn more about their differences in order to make a decision.
thanks for the sharing