HA! I commented to my friend the other day, as we were going through a drive-thru and the cashier said she would have our total at the window. "But I can see the total right on the sign." As they are adding the ordered items, they appear on the sign - with the item price, and updated total (including tax). You know they have to see the same information on their computer screen. So why are they surprised when I hand them the total at the payment window, before they verbally tell me? LOL
Sometimes if ordering a deal the screen will show the menu price and not update the sale price on the screen. So the worker is trained to say I will have your total at the window so as to avoid explaining why it was different from the screen total.
Yes. More than one. And I do not regard them as "obsolete" or even obsolescent.
One next to the computer, another in the adjoining room; both scientific types. The simple arithmetical one in my workshop has gone AWOL!
I use a calculator or the calculator-accessory in the computer, depending on what I am doing where in the house, or which is the more convenient for the task in hand even if the computer is on.
The purely arithmetical calculator on my portable 'phone is so basic it is of very limited use. It does not even have a decimal point - that has to be set by mental arithmetic.
[If all else really fails I can still use a slide-rule or logarithm tables, I think!]
I saw in chain-shop W.H Smiths today, an entire rack of them.
It occurred to me that when given a viable choice in a given situation, being able to do something on a computer or "smart"-'phone merely because it's possible is not necessarily always the most convenient or most efficient choice.
Using it on you phone/computer is inconvenient of you are also using your phone/computer for something else at the same time. I often use my phones calc instead of the CPUs because the one on the screen gets in the way, gets hidden or accidently closed. Two devices are more convenient. Much more of a pain if the one device is your phone.
I see there is quite a lot of comment here on the demise of 3G.
That may be so in the USA but perhaps it depends on the companies. In the UK, my plain little anything-but-"smart" DORO telephone is still perfectly useable on 3G, and the company, O3, has said nothing about turning the network off.
I am more worried about BT's future plans for the land-line network, which I use for both the broadband I am using now, typing this; and telephone.
However the question is about calculators, and yes, I do still use one, and fairly often at times. Sometimes it is more convenient and efficient to use it alongside the computer while working on something on that. At other times I use that in the PC; or if it's a measurements converter I need I have a very good stand-alone one installed.
(The calculator function on my portable 'phone is so basic it does not even have a decimal point.)
I've two scientific calculators plus a simpler one in my little workshop where there is no computer. Well, I did. The shed gremlins have hidden it.
If all goes to pot I have two slide-rules, and plenty of copies of log and trig tables available, too!
Malizz 