Image Up Advertising & Design

8 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2017 By Steve Benoff I took three trips this year and used apps on my phone during each of them. On many apps you need to sign in to get the full benefit of the app and that presents a problem. We all know about the problems associated with Internet security. This applies to phones just as much as to your computer at home. On my home computer I use a password manager (LastPass) to remember my many logins and passwords, and it works great. And LastPass has an app that is supposed to manage my passwords on my phone. But it's designed to work with a browser rather than smartphone apps. So I have to enter my log-ins and passwords manually with many of my apps. So my inclination is to create a short memorable login and password for these apps, which is exactly the wrong thing to do from a security standpoint. I have no solution to this problem until I can find a suitable smartphone password manager. On one trip I used the Marriott app on my phone. It was fine for making a reservation, but when it came time to alert the hotel to my early arrival, Marriott failed me completely. It's supposed to facilitate such an alert, but it wouldn't process an arrival time earlier than the default of 4 pm. Of course, there is no way of knowing about this fault until you actually try to use it and by then it's too late. So be advised, just because an app seems to have a certain feature, that doesn't mean it works. Another example of this is evident when my daughter flies to LA from New York. It's helpful to know her estimated arrival time, which can easily vary a half hour from the scheduled time. If she's flying American, I can use the AA app to get the latest update. If she's flying Jet Blue, I'm out of luck. Every time I request an update on their app, I get the scheduled time. Again, what's the point of offering a feature that doesn't work? On a trip to New Mexico, I used the Google Maps app to plan my trip and throughout the trip to see the traffic ahead. For route planning, the Apple Maps app works fine, but I prefer how traffic is displayed on the Google app. Take a look at both and see which you prefer. In New Mexico, I used two apps which proved most helpful - Zagat and Trip Advisor. These are two among countless travel and restaurant apps. If you're in an unfamiliar city or just want to discover new restaurants, apps can help. I love the cuisine of New Mexico. These two apps helped me find restaurants that feature local cooking. When you enter the city in the app, you're presented with voluminous lists of choices. Restaurant apps rate their listings based on customer reviews. Many also include links to restaurant websites where you can look at their menu. Read the reviews; they can be quite helpful. Using Trip Advisor, we found a very nice restaurant in which served many green chili dishes. And in Taos, Zagat directed us to a true diamond in the rough. From the looks of the place driving by, you would never think to stop there. But thanks to the app, we had a terrific meal on their sunny patio. And just don't think of mapping apps only for driving. They're great for walking too. It turned out that the public parking lot in Taos was on the opposite side of the small downtown area. So I entered the address of the restaurant, and I got easy walking directions to it. Sometimes you use an app only to confirm what you already know. When we were in Sedona, I looked up pizza places on both Zagat and Trip Advisor. I found lots of choices but none appealed to me more than the place we'd been to several times. We didn't find something new, but an app helped us confirm that we weren't missing something special. It seems I haven't got to New York and the apps I used there last summer. I'll do that next month. Do you use an app you'd like to share with others? Let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. There's An App For That

• Cover