FROMAGE-HEAD  The calculator done right. Very nice app.

Hm why not using International preferences for decimals and thousands ?  
(Version 1.4.4)

ANDREW SCOTT  This might make an interesting widget, memory permitting.  
(Version 1.4.3)

THE VALRUS  Revised review: Satisfactory. Looks nice, works well for what it's intended for (complex numbers are clearly not what it's intended for), clean and spiffy. I doubt I'm part of the intended audience but for what it is, it's a fine program.  
(Version 1.4.2)

PHILLRYU  For my purposes (a calculator more advanced than the included one), Soulver is really great. It's fast, clean, and is about 5x more useful / nicer than Calculator app's built-in "Paper Tape" feature. Sure, it's no Mathematica, but I also didn't drop a few grand on this, so I've been nothing but satisfied, and no regrets on the $13 I spent.  
(Version 1.3.3)

THEVALRUS  Unsatisfactory. Doesn't even recognize complex numbers, and not only crashed but brought my system to a grinding halt when I tried to enter:

y = 2x + 5

x = y + 2  
(Version 1.3.3)

GLENN-001  I downloaded Soulver to see whether it would be useful for my kids to do their Maths homework. For primary/mid school students, I can say this is a *fantastic* application. It looks excellent for upper school, but haven't seen it used there.

Soulver has a very simple interface - if you just open it and type (e.g. 2+2) you see the answer immediately - very intuitive.

The big advantage Soulver has is that it lets the student show each stage of solving a problem. Homework assignments are done completely in Soulver - type a heading/date/name, type question numbers, and then type expressions/equations and results.

Soulver lets you combine lines of text and numbers, while easily resolve the value of expressions. So an algebra problem might go:

Q2. Solve 4a -2b where a=4 and b = 3

4a - 2b

=(4x4)-(2x3) (Soulver shows answer as 10)

=10

For younger maths students doing homework, this is invaluable.

Soulver lets you easily enter mathematical symbols (divide, square root) as part of equations.

I compared Soulver to MathPad. For some inexplicable reason, MathPad seems to think that showing the working out for long division and long multiplication is vitally important. News for MathPad - it isn't. Mathematics teachers have moved on, and nowadays its perfectly acceptable to calculate 625/25 with a calculator, rather than having to work it out the long way. The US assocation of mathematics teachers is very clear on this, as are other mathematics bodies.

The Soulver approach is to provide a clean worksheet enviroment for kids to work in. They can do all their homework assignment and then print-PDF-mail it to their teacher or print it out and hand it in.

If you have kids at school, download the software and try it. It all just works.

  
(Version 1.3.1)

GB  I wasn't going to post a review because as a long time MathPad user I figured I would be biased against this. The developers originally described this as a "mathpad with style" so I figured I'd check it out. Since they are asking a shareware fee and MathPad is free it seems fair to compare.

MathPad is a very powerful general purpose program but I'll just compare its use as a simple calculator since that seems to be Soulver's intent.

Soulver uses a slightly different interface concept than MathPad. It evaluates each line of text as it is typed and puts the answer (if any) in a separate column to the right. This is easier for first time users. In MathPad you have to learn to hit the enter key to see your answers. Once you learn to hit enter, the net effect is about the same.

MathPad evaluates the entire worksheet rather than individual lines. This allows more complex calculations to be built up from multiple equations over multiple lines.

Soulver provides a total of all the numbers in the answer column. This is a handy feature if the numbers are related and the total is meaningful.

Soulver claims to have built-in equation solving. This is something MathPad does not have built in. However when I tried Soulver, even simple equations took minutes to never to solve (900MHz G3). Editing the equation and getting it to solve again didn't seem to work at all.

MathPad's interface is a bit old and clunky. Soulver tends to look nicer but this version still has some bugs. I had occasional trouble with cut and paste. Also when editing text, the answer column sometimes duplicates numbers on lines that don't have answers.

Soulver attempts to be a bit more elegant with input notation but its superscript entry is cumbersome to unworkable. Entering something like 4^(1/2) doesn't work.  
(Version 1.2.1)

GB  It isn't really a NEW "kind of scientific calculator which features a word processor style interface with instant calculation" since MathPad has been doing that for years. It may have more (or at least different) "style" than MathPad.  
(Version 1.2.1)

DANIELLE  Found this cool app on the MacUpdate home page this evening.

It has a really cool concept. I love the equation solver part. I'm really liking the 'dashboard' like answers pallette. It shows decimals and notation in real time.

It will be good to see how this progresses. Pretty solid for a 1.0 release.  
(Version 1.0)