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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2021 27 Check with your committee chair to confirm meeting place, date, and time. THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! By Steve Benoff Say again! That's a phrase I picked up when I was piloting my single- engine Piper to and from work when I was in my 20s. It's a common way to request an airport tower to repeat a statement, and I still use it today instead of more politely asking someone to please repeat what they just said. As the years have gone by, I'd found myself saying "say again" more often as my hearing deteriorated. I'm now on my second set of hearing aids, and I'm not saying "say again" as often. Because I listen to podcasts on my phone, I wanted hearing aids that were Bluetooth compatible with my iPhone. So, I researched Bluetooth hearing aids. (I also insisted on them being rechargeable so I wouldn't have to replace those tiny batteries.) While I found some that connected to my phone, most of those required me to answer a call on my phone which is quite inconvenient when I'm riding my bike. As an aside, prior to wearing hearing aids, I listened to my phone using a Bluetooth earpiece which allowed me to answer a call (and simultaneously pause a podcast) with the press of a button. I wanted the same in a hearing aid. I finally found what I wanted, but to convert normal hearing aids to Bluetooth I needed to wear a pendant around my neck with an answer button on it. Many people I'm sure would consider this a deal breaker — not me. These hearing aids worked well for me. As did a second set I purchased. These new hearing aids have Bluetooth built into the hearing aids themselves so one can listen to podcasts, or music for that matter, without a pendant. But they are also available with a pendant which I use to answer calls and stop podcasts. But this is an apps column, not a hearing aids column, I say halfway into my piece. Well, one of the advances in hearing aid technology is the app that now accompanies so many current hearing aids. My former Signia hearing aids came with an app that allowed me to adjust the base and treble hearing curves. It also allowed me to tailor them for quiet and noisy environments as well as being able to favor listening positions ahead and behind me and to my left and right. Actually, the hearing aids themselves didn't come with the app; it came with the pendant I mentioned earlier. My new hearing aids are made by Widex (which merged with Signia last year). I think they're an improvement over what I had, but the biggest difference is the Moment app that came with them. For one, even though I have a new pendant, you don't need it to use the Moment app. This very well- designed app has all the features of the Signia app plus several others. The main reason to use the app is to select and create hearing profiles. It comes with three choices to start. Universal is the default program despite the fact that Widex created a profile called PureSound which I much prefer. In my opinion, that should be the default, but Widex obviously thinks otherwise. You can also choose Directional Focus to tailor the aids for a specific direction in your current environment. Also on the main page is a volume control, a mute button, and a cute little left-right button which opens up a whole new world of hearing aid control. At first you're presented with a screen allowing you to adjust the sound level from one to nine for each ear independently. But there's an equalizer button which takes you to another screen which allows you to adjust bass, middle, and treble up or down as well as pre- programmed buttons to shape hearing curves for speech, clarity, sharpness, and echo. Once you've made your choices you can save and name your program and have it appear on the app's main screen as one of the choices. Furthermore, there is a button labeled SoundSense Learn which allows you to create a new program using technology built into the aids to sense the current environment and a tailor a program to fit it. It even gives you a series of A-B samples to select between to further refine the program. When you're finished, you can save and name the finished product. All this marvelous control is thanks to the technology built into the product, but it wouldn't be accessible if it weren't for the app that goes with it. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. Technology & Hearing Aids

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