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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2021 27 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! By Steve Benoff Obviously, I enjoy using and talking about apps. So, I'm sure you're wondering how I use apps on a daily basis. Here goes: Soon after I awake, I reach for my phone which, by the way, I keep overnight in a charger in my den. If an emergency arises, friends and family know to use my home phone to call me at night. I have a pretty routine procedure early in the morning. First thing, I check my Apple Messages app. Messages may or may not appear from friends and family. I'll usually find at least one person to text. My next app is Apple Calendar. Do I have a pressing engagement? Have I scheduled something I forgot? Sometimes there are no entries. Sometimes, as on the first of the month, there are six or eight items. When green waste was not being picked up weekly, Calendar was a good way for me to know when to wheel out the green can. Apple Weather comes next. It gives me a ten-day forecast as well as a 24-hour hourly forecast. If it's raining, I can see a minute-by- minute prediction for the next hour. It gives me air quality too. (I'll have more to say about weather apps in an upcoming article.) After Weather comes Sunset & Rise. Perhaps you noticed my December Breeze article on the winter solstice. I'm fascinated by the times of sunrise and sunset, and this app suits my need perfectly. It has a Future screen where I can see daily changes at the press of an arrow. It's how I know the depressing news that the start of Daylight Saving Time on March 14 this year makes for a late 7am sunrise. Next comes Apple Mail. In 2020, I made an unusually high number of political donations. While these efforts were largely successful, the downside has been a huge increase in unwanted emails. It's no different from buying something at a new online store and finding yourself on a mailing list, except the frequency of these emails seems much higher. But there are some emails I look forward to each day, like the Daily Report about upcoming events at Four Seasons. I subscribe to the online edition of the New York Times, and each weekday I get three emails of news – Morning, Evening, California. I have the NYT app on my phone, but these emails save me from using it each morning. After emails, I look at my podcast app. I use Overcast, which I prefer to Apple Podcasts. Podcast "subscriptions" are generally free, and I have new podcasts downloaded automatically from an embarrassingly large number of sources. Some I listen to daily, like the short Marketplace Tech and The Daily (NYT) podcasts. Some I get to later in the day, and, fortunately, many come at one or two-week intervals like The National Security Law Podcast or Rich on Tech or Wheel Bearings. If rain is in the forecast, I'll open my Rachio app and adjust my sprinkler timing. I do buy and sell stocks so I always look at the Apple Stocks app which allows me to follow any index or stock I want. However, after finding myself checking this app multiple times a day, I have now constrained myself to checking the market only twice a day – soon after it opens at 6:30 am and after the close at 1 pm. I'm a solo game player. I play a numbers games called KenKen which I print out and play at my desk. But I wanted a word game and found one I like. I discovered it when it was added to my NYT morning email. The problem there is that the NYT really just wants you to pay for their games app and doesn't let you complete a single game for free. This word game is called Pangram. Each game gives you seven letters, one of which must be a part of any word you can construct with four or more letters (including repeats). I really like this game so I searched the Apple App Store. I found three. I use the free one called Wortsalat; it's from Germany. I play it almost daily. So, there you have my daily apps. Of course, I use other ones throughout the day as the need arises. For example, if I read about a tv show or sporting event I want to record, the easiest way to do that is with my Tivo app. I open the app, call up the Guide, find the show, and press Get This Show. It's much easier than having to turn on the tv. If you have a DVR, there is probably an app for you to do the same thing. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. My Day With Apps

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