A bug in the built-in Calculator app in iOS 11 is getting some major attention this week, despite the fact that it's been around since iOS 11 was in beta testing. According to a long thread on Reddit (via Loop Insight), the issue appears to stem from the fact that the app blocks all input during the animation for the button fades.
For example, type 1+2+3 and then the equals sign into the Calculator app quickly, due to animation lag introduced when adding two or more numbers together, your result is more likely to be 24 than 6. We'd say this is an iOS problem rather than an isolated Calculator issue. Although iOS 11 betas did allow for taps to register before a UI animation finished playing, that behavior changed in the official release of iOS 11.
Any iOS developers will see what is wrong here: the bug is that the animation that lights up the button is blocking touch events until the animation completes. This is the default behavior for animations, but to make an app feel responsive it's best to find a way around that (it can be a one line fix, but sometimes it is complicated).
Some users have experienced similar issues when using older versions of iOS, but the animation lag is noticeable enough in iOS 11 to make the Calculator nearly unusable when attempting to make rapid calculations. However, iOS users who need a reliable alternative can use third-party apps like Calcbot and PCalc.
Apple seems to be aware of the issue, as The Loop points out, Apple employee Chris Espinoza says more than 70 people have filed a Radar report on the bug, alerting Apple to the problem. We can confirm that this is not fixed in the most recent beta of iOS 11.1, with it received so much attention, users could potentially see a Calculator fix in the next iOS 11 updates.
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