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In yesterday’s bit on the worst of BlackBerry App World, I laid into tip calculators a bit. These applications cost from $3 (most common price) to $13 (for “advanced” features like dividing the check). Applications like this annoy me, because the function essentially already exists on your BlackBerry. Calculating a tip is easy, and you certainly don’t need to waste $3 on a separate application. Today’s quick tip is how to use your BlackBerry calculator to figure out the proper tip, saving you a few bucks on an app.

After launching your BlackBerry calculator, enter in the amount of the check. I know people who tip before tax and people who tip after. Either way, this works the same.

Multiple that number by 1.20, with the .20 representing the tip percentage. You can adjust this according to how well or poorly you want to tip. A 15 percent tip would be 1.15, an 18 percent tip would be 1.18, and so on. The number on your calculator will be the amount to enter in the Total field. If you tip before tax, make sure to enter the tax back in — it’s on the check.

Obviously, from here it’s easy to divide the check. Just divide the total, with tip, by the number of people present. Also, just as a personal note, I never find it necessary to actually enter the tip amount on the check, just the total. The total’s all that really matters, anyway.

This is not meant to be condescending or anything like that. It’s just meant to save people a few bucks on a completely unnecessary application. Why pay for something that’s so easily accessible for free?

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