Comparison

Time cal vs Pinyin Typist

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Time cal

This app offers a versatile stopwatch and timer with advanced calculation features, including frame-based timing. It's designed for professionals in media industries and students, with customizable backgrounds and shake-to-start functionality for simultaneous count-up and countdown.

Highlights
  • Stopwatch and timer functionality
  • Frame-based time calculation
  • Works in background
  • Customizable backgrounds
  • Shake to start/stop
  • Four distinct timing modes
Features
Read full description

Stopwatch & Timer Time Calculator * Works in the background * Large buttons for easy operation * Customizable button backgrounds with your favorite photo * Simultaneous display of current time and counter while calculating * Pressing the "Clear" button twice turns it into "AC (All Clear)" * When using on Mac, you can enter with the number key. Ideal for: Broadcast, music, video, and anime industry professionals.
It includes a frame-based time calculator supporting:
1, 1/10, 1/24, 1/25, 1/30, 1/50, 1/60, 1/100, 1/1000 sec Recommended for:
Directors, ADs, DJs, announcers, voice actors, narrators, mixers, sound producers
...and students aiming for these careers. Also useful for accounting, payroll, and attendance tracking. Shake to Start! * Just shake your iPhone to start count-up and countdown simultaneously * Perfect for giving a cue during live shows or recordings
 → You can track both elapse time and remain time * You can also start by tapping the indicator area * No sound output, suitable for quiet environments 4 Modes Available: Loop : Reset and start every time you shake or touch 0 SW : Repeat restart and stop mode SW : General stopwatch. Add time by restarting after posing LAP : Record lap time and total time If you're a DJ...
Shake it now!!
You'll get what you want. But please...
Don't throw your iPhone!

About

Pinyin Typist

Easily type Pīnyīn with accurate tone marks using system or third-party keyboards. This app simplifies writing Mandarin Chinese expressions, even without knowing Chinese characters. It offers a quick and intuitive typing experience for learners and educators.

Highlights
  • Type Pīnyīn with tone marks
  • Integrates with system and third-party keyboards
  • Predictive text and text replacement support
  • Automatic tone mark placement
  • Easy tone mark correction
  • Copy and paste functionality
  • Supports Cantonese Yale romanization
Features
Read full description

**Pīnyīn Typist lets you quickly and easily type Pīnyīn with tone marks while using Apple’s system keyboards, and it lets you benefit from their features, like predictive text, text replacement, etc., as well as future enhancements. Pīnyīn Typist similarly works with third-party keyboards like Fleksy, etc.** (THIS APP IS NOT AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO TYPE CHINESE CHARACTERS—it supports the standard iOS ways of typing characters.) Pīnyīn makes reading and writing Mandarin Chinese as quick and easy as it ought to be, and Pīnyīn Typist makes typing real, professional-quality Pīnyīn as quick and easy as *it* ought to be. Pīnyīn Typist was the first iOS Pīnyīn typing app, and it’s still the best, especially for typing more than a word or two of Pīnyīn. On the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod touch, Pīnyīn Typist is *noticeably* the quickest, easiest, most natural, most fun, and most beautifully iOS-native way to type exactly the Pīnyīn you want, with proper tone marks. Its *nice, big* tone mark, Ü, hyphen, and apostrophe buttons work with *just a simple tap*, using the same rhythm and technique as regular typing. *It even puts the tone marks over the right vowels for you*, and *it also makes it easy to make corrections to tone marks without backspacing and retyping*. Pīnyīn Typist turns typing Pīnyīn from a pain into a pleasure. Pīnyīn Typist launches quickly, so with it on your Apple mobile device, you can quickly and easily type real Pīnyīn text to write down anything you hear or want to say in Mandarin, just about anytime the need arises or inspiration strikes. Pīnyīn Typist is thus a must-have app if you are learning or teaching Mandarin, or if sometimes you want or need to write down Mandarin expressions, but you or the one(s) you’re writing to don’t (or don’t want to have to) know all the Chinese characters involved. Note that like Chinese Braille (which is based on Pīnyīn), Pīnyīn is a *full writing system* for Mandarin, not just a pronunciation aid. And since, as linguists hold, speech is primary and writing is secondary, it’s good that Pīnyīn just works and lets you focus on speech, on *communicating*. All the text in the Pīnyīn Typing tab view can be copied with a single tap of the Copy All button, and then pasted in other apps, e.g. Pages, Word, Mail, Twitter, Messages, Drafts, etc. (iOS’s standard copying and pasting methods work too.) Pīnyīn Typist’s sharing functionality lets you share Pīnyīn, etc. text in the various ways enabled by iOS, including email, Messages, AirDrop, Twitter, etc. Pīnyīn Typist’s 1,2, and 4 tone buttons can also be used to add tone marks for Cantonese Yale romanization. *TYPING PĪNYĪN IN PĪNYĪN TYPIST* Type “a” → tap the 3rd tone button = “ǎ” Type “ai” → tap the 4th tone button = “ài” (not “aì”!) After “āi” or “aì”, tap the 4th tone button = “ài” Pīnyīn Typist can convert both lowercase and uppercase vowels. All the Pīnyīn Typist toolbar buttons enter typographically correct Unicode characters, making Pīnyīn Typist suitable for typing Pīnyīn for professional uses. Pīnyīn Typist works well with hardware keyboards. Hardware keyboard shortcuts are now available. *OTHER FEATURES* • Pīnyīn Typist can be used in both portrait and landscape orientations. • The size of the text in the Pīnyīn Typing tab view can be quickly and easily adjusted with a slider—all the better for seeing those little Pīnyīn tone marks. • The text in the Pīnyīn Typing tab view (and its size) can be saved as a snippet for future use, with a title that you can choose. A snippet can be shared in the various ways enabled by iOS. • An optional Night Theme is available. • Different fonts can be selected for the text in the Pīnyīn Typing tab view. *PĪNYĪN TEXT WITH FORMATTING* Pīnyīn Typist produces Unicode plain text, which can be used to produce Markdown, HTML, CSS, etc. code. When such code is rendered in supporting environments, formatting can be seen that’s like the formatting seen in web pages.

Screenshots

Time cal1 screens
Pinyin Typist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Time cal at every 5 days against Pinyin Typist's every 15 months. Pinyin Typist's advantage is chart position (#196 vs unranked). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Time cal costs $1.99 and Pinyin Typist $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Time cal ships an update every 5 days, Pinyin Typist every 15 months. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and September 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Time cal versus Pinyin Typist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTime calPinyin Typist
Price$1.99$1.99
Rating—2.7 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews72.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings—7 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 15 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#196 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYukio OishiTroubadourWorks

Customer experience

Time cal

Written reviews6 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Pinyin Typist

All ratings7 ratings
Positive28.6%
Neutral28.6%
Negative42.9%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive72.7%
Neutral13.6%
Negative13.6%

In-app purchases

None

Time cal

No in-app purchases

None

Pinyin Typist

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Time cal free?
Time cal costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pinyin Typist free?
Pinyin Typist costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Time cal or Pinyin Typist have ads?
Neither Time cal nor Pinyin Typist shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Time cal or Pinyin Typist?
Time cal ships an update every 5 days, and Pinyin Typist every 15 months. Most recently, Time cal was updated on September 13, 2026 and Pinyin Typist on September 1, 2026.

Other comparisons