Soulver: Your Questions Answered
Apple November 28th, 2006
Rarely do I come across a piece of software which wow’s me as much as Soulver has. Why has Soulver astounded me? Because of it’s innovation and the way it uses a technology as a feature in a way no other application has before.
Soulver is a new kind of calculator application which allows you to do maths using plain English phrases. Yes, you read that correctly. You can type normal phrases and words into Soulver and it will work your questions out as if you had use mathematic terms and symbols.
Soulver is an insanely smart application. If you look at the screenshot above you will realize that Soulver let’s you enter words and number on the left side of the screen, and it provides the output on the right.
It’s very hard to explain how everything works within Soulver, but essentially it let’s you do things such as one one line, write “iMac = $3855″, and on the next line do something such as “If I buy 5 imac computers, how much will it cost me?” Soulver outputs the answer as $19,275.00 in the left window. Smart? You guessed it.
The Universal Application Soulver 1.4 costs $13.95, and is available from Acqualia Software.
November 28th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Yeah, Soulver is amazing. I got it through MacHeist. In fact, this is an example where MacHeist is really a good thing. I would never use it if it hadn’t been for MacHeist. Now I love it!
November 28th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
I never really tried it out like that.
I got it through MacHeist too.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Yeah, you can get this for free through MacHeist.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Wow, I had no idea the app was that advanced. Got it from MacHeist but put it on the backburner. Gonna have to check it out now.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Man that is like a super sweet program. I will have to get to a mac and try it out, lol i hate being stuck in the PC world :’(. I will be getting a mac mini hopefully soon!
November 28th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Man, all i need now is a mac os for my watch to run this on, great for exams HAHAHAHHAHAA (ok jokes guys i dont wear a giant PC watch on my wrist nixon one but not a computer one and i dont need to cheat on exams….well maybe)
November 28th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Hey i think the math problem in the icon is a bunch of bull, the 2nd line “Cos(46) +” is wrong to my knowledge (year 11 math). cos is used in trigonometry and would usually be followed by a x (insert number here) or be on the bottom of a divide by (insert number here) also for more modern calculators you dont need to insert brackets it can be written as Cos46 where 46 is the degree’s the angle is at,
please shoot me down if im wrong and i guess i havnt coverd full year 11 course as im in year 10
November 28th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
I had this first via MacZOT before MacHeist gave it to me - and to be honest I never used it. I found out that I must have some buggy version, because no matter what I typed I entered up with a 0 in the answer column.
When MacHeist awarded it, I re-downloaded the app via the Loot section.. no problems so far! I’m starting to see why one of my room mates stopped using a calculator or Calculator for this - it’s not a calculator, it sexy. =P
November 28th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Quick follow-up:
No idea what caused the buggy version, I assume it was my fault rather than the app itself.
Also, I meant to say “it’s” sexy. It’s 4am and I have a lecture in 5 hours.. I’m getting some sleep now!
Sorry for the double-post.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
I too got Soulver from MacHeist. But I still haven’t been able to figure out how to use it.
@ Codie: Cheating is bad, bad I say!
@ Taylor: Stop complaining on each post and get a Mac already! And if you can’t afford one, get a Hackintosh instead! I mean, Macintosh ;-)
@ Joe: MacHeist is awesome. And like you, it introduced me to so many great apps I would have never known of/used otherwise, like Chat Transcript Manager, Cha-Ching and QuickScale.
Can someone please help me understand how to use Soulver? I’m slow at math. That’s the reason I’m not even going to attempt doing the SATs to apply to an American college. Glenn’s example seems fairly easy, but when I tried some basic calculations, it didn’t give me any results.
November 29th, 2006 at 5:18 am
Yeh this is another app that was introduced to me by the MacHeist. Apart from Assignment Planner, this has been the most useful to me
November 29th, 2006 at 7:35 am
This is nothing more than a novelty app for those with more money than brains or those unaware of how the ‘+ - * /’ symbols work. How is it easier to type ‘If I buy 5 imac computers, how much will it cost me’ as opposed to ‘5 * 3855′? In one word: “Gimmick.” Glenn, were you paid to write this ad?
While not clear from the article, Soulver does still function like a regular calculator so you don’t need to write calculations in crazy-English. It does standard unit and octal conversions and has the usual built-in functions. A quick look on macupdate, however, suggests there are plenty of free calculators that do the same, if not more.
While some people find math difficult to learn, it is absolutely essential for anyone wanting to enter a technology field these days. Please don’t pretend that you can avoid it or that you can make it easier by adding a verbose English syntax.
November 29th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Yes, but if you do want to use ‘crazy-English’ then you can.
And as far as I know many people don’t want to enter a technology field these days, and in any case others may find it easier to communicate in English than using addition, subtraction etc. However the main functions of a calculator are still there so you can choose which way you want to calculate these things. I think calling Soulver a novelty app is harsh.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I might blog about this one aswell - it’s a very ‘apple’ approach to maths.