Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Henry — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:06:04 -0000

awesome product.
we should learn more about their differences in order to make a decision.
thanks for the sharing

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Kathryn Cramer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:43:12 -0000

wolfa.com is not wolframalpha.com. It is an illegal mirror site.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Alejandro Amo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:20:26 -0000

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)

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Alejandro Amo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:12:20 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Brian Hd — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:29:05 -0000

hahaha ... they say a fool and his money are quickly parted - sounds like you've been parted from $50 of yourmoney ...

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Brian Hd — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:27:50 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Brian Hd — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:16:18 -0000

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!

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Xamar — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:44:11 -0000

FYI there's an Android application for the same purpose for just 1.5 euros.

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

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Michelle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:23:51 -0000

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/... will be added for the iphone app which says the same thing "if you have to ask... you can't afford it" ha

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

disqus_nympwrk0MH — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:36:07 -0000

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

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

a.student — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:05:48 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Name — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:01:42 -0000

Someone`s getting a cut from this Commercial >_>

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Mark Cohen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:13:58 -0000

Their iphone web interface is free.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Schoeller Porter — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:00:46 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

sulimon — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:00:51 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

deancollins — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:33 -0000

Top 10 requested iPhone features. :)

http://bit.ly/26vxIL

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Name — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:19:37 -0000

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"?

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

whab — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:51:01 -0000

$50 is quite a steal for an app that requires an active internet connection, and that does not provide much more than the web version... Actually there are several graphing calculator apps for the iPhone that cost 10 times less and able to provide at least 95% of the needs for a graphing calculator, eg: the 4.99$ "Math Graphing" app (http://iphone.kybervision.c... looks more useful for students than Wolfram Alpha.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

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Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Name — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:08:14 -0000

Why doesn't someone ask Wolfram Alpha to work out how much the iPhone app should cost?

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:56:30 -0000

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?

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

William McCamment — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:52:29 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Jeff — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:50:05 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

Jeff — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:44:07 -0000

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.

Re: Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App

ralphm — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:39:16 -0000

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.