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16 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2018 By Steve Benoff Things I learned on my trip to Arizona. Hey Siri! Hey Google! These are commands many of us are familiar with. On my trip to Prescott (pronounced "press-kit" by locals), Jerome, Sedona, and Flagstaff, I discovered some handy uses for Siri that I hadn't taken advantage of before. Driving in northern Arizona, you spend a lot of time going up and going down. If you wonder how high you are at any particular time just say, "Hey Siri: what's my elevation?" You'll get a response supposedly accurate to a single foot. Or you can say, "Hey Siri, take me to the nearest Starbucks." You'll get a response naming the nearest location and asking if you'd like directions. Siri and Google are apps on my phone. And there are instances when I've asked Siri a question that has elicited an unsatisfactory response. When I asked Google, the response was much more to my liking. I'm sure that the opposite can also be true. But since I have an iPhone, I don't have to touch my phone to wake up Siri. All I have to do is say, "Hey Siri." Even though I have the Google app on my phone, I have to wake up my phone manually and press the Google icon to use it. That's no big deal when I'm not driving, but when I'm in my car, it's safer and faster just to say those two words. After that, you can search by voice for whatever you'd otherwise type out in a Google search bar. Have you heard of Snapchat? Silly question; of course you have. Frankly, I've never used it, and only on my trip was I exposed to it at all. I mention it to make a point about how different apps may have different ways to accomplish the same thing. If you've been to Sedona, you know that almost everywhere you look you can see a breathtaking view. While Martha and I were eating on a restaurant patio, a family was struggling to take a selfie. Now some people take selfies because they prefer the look of a selfie. But I sensed that this family really wanted just a picture of the whole family in front of gorgeous red rock mountains. So I offered to take their picture and that's when the trouble started. Normally, when I take pictures for myself or others on a digital camera (which is what a smartphone also is), I take multiple shots in quick succession. Later, I (or they) can choose the best ones and delete the others. So I took the woman's phone and pressed the appropriate "button." When I tried to press it several times for several shots, I found that the Snapchat app wanted me to look at this particular shot and accept it. I also learned that I could now add "funny" objects to the photo. It was only after accepting the photo that I could take the next one. The lesson here is that the usual way I accomplish a task on one app may not apply to another. When we were at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Sedona, a song was playing through the sound system. We both remembered the song but couldn't remember its name or artist. I've heard there are apps that can "hear" a tune and identify it. At the time, I didn't have such an app on my phone, but a quick trip to the App Store solved that problem. I didn't even know what category such an app would be in. So I entered "song" in the search bar, and among the ten categories that appeared, "song identifier" showed up. That's how I found the Shazam app. I searched for it, downloaded it, tapped it, gave it permission to use my microphone, and identified To Sir With Love sung by Jann Arden before the song had ended. By the way, Shazam was not the first suggestion listed by the App Store. The top suggestion is almost always an ad, which, fortunately, is identified as such. For example, if I search for Sonos (the original "wireless speaker"), the first suggestion is Ticketmaster. So beware that the top suggestion in a search may not at all be what you're looking for. Do you use an app you'd like to share with others? Let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. Apps for Traveling THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!