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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2020 25 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! Once COVID-19 recedes from our consciousness, maybe we can get back to our usual worries, like earthquakes. When I search the subject in the app store, I'm presented with over a dozen choices. So, without other information, how do I choose amongst them? I look at the app rating (from one to five stars), but I take into consideration how many people rated the app. One app has four and a half stars but only seven reviewers. Another has five stars from 49,000 reviewers. The two earthquake apps I have on my phone run this gamut. QuakeFeed is the second one I mentioned above. The other, MyShake, is rated three stars from 450 reviewers. I chose it because it was developed by the University of California, Berkeley, and it has a California emphasis. Both have quake alert features and, frankly, I don't know why I have both of them. The opening screen of QuakeFeed is, no surprise, the Quake List. The default presentation is a list by date. But you can select other sort factors – magnitude, distance (from your phone's location), or depth. At the upper left is a world icon which, when pressed, shows a map of the earth with the magnitude and location of the earthquakes on the list. There are other ways to qualify the quake data. But first, let's take a break. Icons. It would be wrong to say I hate icons. But it would be correct to say I prefer words to icons. I'm sure the young designers at Apple know that a stamp means mail and an address book means contacts, but after over ten years using my Mac, I still don't relate to those icons instinctively. There was a time (at least with Windows) when I could have words instead of or with icons on the screen. Those days never included smartphones. So, what does this have to do with QuakeFeed?! At the bottom of the screen is what I think of as a radar symbol – similar to the wi-fi symbol at the top of your phone's screen. For this app that means Data Feed. I just don't see the connection. Nevertheless, when you press the icon you are given five sources for your quake information. U.S. Geological Survey one, seven, or 30 days; European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre one or seven days. When this choice is made, my main screen can show seven days of quake data organized by distance from me. There are other filters available such as minimum magnitude, range of distance from location, and excluded locations. Besides data refinements, you can see news about earthquakes around the globe. QuakeFeed will send quake notifications to you if you choose. This app rates an A+. MyShake, as you might guess, provides the same information as QuakeFeed but configured differently. For one, it favors words over icons. So, to change the default map of the world screen to a list, press List. To change the filters, press Filter. There are only two filters, time range and minimum magnitude. Besides choosing between miles and kilometers in the settings, there aren't many other choices. All the data come from the USGA. As for alerts, your only choice is to opt in or out. If you want alerts, your phones location services must be turned on for the app. You will then be notified of California earthquakes of a magnitude 4.5 or higher. You can also choose global earthquakes of an adjustable magnitude between 3.5 and 8.0. The MyShake app also rates an A+. I set 5.0 as the minimum magnitude for alerts on QuakeFeed and opted in on MyShake at its 4.5 level. As it happened, there were a rash of earthquakes in the Anza, California area soon after setting up notifications. None of these quakes was at 5 or above. Yet, QuakeFeed sent me a dozen notifications. MyShake sent me none. Another interesting difference is that QuakeFeed uses standard alert tones with its notifications while MyShake announces notifications with – "Earthquake. Drop, cover, hold on. Shaking expected." If we get that major quake that's been predicted along the San Andreas fault, we may long for the quieter days of COVID-19. Do you use an app you'd like to share with other? Let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. Earthquake Apps By Steve Benoff

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