this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Privacy

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Google is somehow the only company that is able to completely ruin a calculator app. Even before installing, Google outs themselves with how much data they collect:

  • App info and performance: Crash logs and Diagnostics
  • Personal info: Email address
  • Device or other IDs
  • App activity: App interactions

And of course the encouraging message:

Data can’t be deleted

The developer doesn’t provide a way for you to request that your data be deleted

As soon as you try to install it, the app requests network access. I'm glad to be using GrapheneOS where this can be restricted.

The app doesn't crash on launch, which is a new concept for Google, since most of their apps won't even start without Google Play Services installed. Maybe that means the calculator app can calculate 1+1 without requiring installing the most invasive software known to man, right?

Of course it can't. It crashes the moment you press the plus sign. Thank you, Google, for requiring Google Play Services for your calculator app to do basic addition. You know what calculator doesn't require Google Play services to do math?

In all seriousness, OpenCalc is a near 1:1 match to Google Calculator, so I suggest anyone use that instead.

The cherry on top is Google's calculator app is bundled with a privacy policy, which on its own is a treat to read through: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Congratulations, Google, you can spy on math now.

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[–] phantomwise@lemmy.ml 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

rofi-calc is awesome. It's so convenient to just press a keyboard shortcut you have defined and instantly being able to type or paste your equation, no having to wait for a complicated GUI to load, no clicking required. You can just pop it in whenever you need. Also it does unit conversions, instead of a math equation you can just type 10 inches to cm or 10 eur to usd or 100 celsius to fahrenheit or 100 to binary which is a huge time saver.

https://github.com/svenstaro/rofi-calc

Besides, it's rofi and rofi rules 😎

[–] Are_Euclidding_Me@hexbear.net 1 points 9 hours ago

I didn't know about this! I already use rofi for a few different things, so I'm going to get rofi-calc working too, it'll fit perfectly into my workflow. Thanks!

[–] liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Rofi is cool but don't forget about qalculate (the backend)

[–] pereputty@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

wow, great program! I've been using bc for some simple calculations before, but this just replaced it!