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8 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JUNE 2017 By Steve Benoff There are apps on my phone that fit perfectly into a category I'll call "Especially Useful To Me". Some I've had on my phone for years, but some I've discovered recently. One of my latest discoveries I found because I searched for something I thought should exist and in fact it did. To conserve battery life I have my screen brightness set to about 30 percent. I don't have Auto-Brightness selected because I don't like the way it adjusts the screen. Most of the time a 30 percent screen works fine for me, but when I get out in the sun I can hardly see what's on the screen. So I have to brighten it. But to do that I have to select Settings, Display & Brightness, and move the tiny brightness bar to full. I figured there must be an app to make that easier. So I entered "brightness" into the app search bar, and. sure enough, I found Screen Brightness Free. Now I have a simple way to control brightness. I press the icon, and I get a big dimmer control. It works great. The lesson to take from this is if you think there should be an app for something, enter a keyword in the search bar and see what comes up. I find the clock app that comes on the iPhone very useful. Of course it gives me the local time. But I can also add locations around the world to see their current time. I can use it as an alarm clock and stopwatch too. But what I use it for most is as a timer. When I'm cooking, I often use this timer function. I could use the timer on my microwave oven, but my phone timer works when I'm in or out of the kitchen. In writing this article I realized that sometimes I need to set more that one timer and my clock app won't do that. So I entered "timer" in the app search bar and I tried a few before deciding on MultiTimer: Visual Timer. It allows for up to six timers. Each comes preset to a specific time, but if you press any one of them, you can change the time setting. It's very handy and easy to use. There's another clock app I use twice a year. When I change my clocks for daylight saving time, I like to use a reference that's accurate up to the second. I found an app that does that perfectly. It's called The Clocks. It gives me a big clock display in various changeable formats, both analog and digital. I think we all have an interest in the weather. For me, I like to know the weather forecast for Beaumont and for New York where my daughter lives as well as nearby locations I might be travelling to. The weather app that comes with the iPhone is great for that. It gives 10-day weather for my current location and allows me to add locations I'm interest in. But it only gives the chance of rain for the current date. For more detailed rain predictions I use the CBS LA weather app. It gives me more detailed information and also allows me to add other locations to follow. So why don't I just use the CBS app for weather, I ask rhetorically? Because it takes time to load weather information each time I open it. I prefer the instant response of the app that came with my phone. Of course, there are countless weather apps available. I tried many before I settled on these two. You may have a different preference. I've always been fascinated with sunsets. If you pay attention you can sense sunsets getting later and earlier by the day. Much of the year the change is a minute a day. Since I've moved to Beaumont and began riding my bike at 8 am, I've also come to appreciate the change in sunrise. There are lots of sources for sunrise/ sunset times including most weather apps. But for me nothing beats the app Sunset & Sunrise. It also shows first and last light. But the feature I like the most is Future. On that screen I can see the daily changes in sunset/sunrise by pushing a button to change to the previous or next day as far back or forward as I want. It's a great app. There's one other app I just discovered. It hasn't proven itself yet, but it does answer a question I've had in mind for years. Have you noticed those square barcode symbols on magazines, newspapers, and products? They are QR codes (Quick Response), and if you have a scanner, you will be taken directly to a website that may, or may not, prove helpful. Well there's an app for that. You can download QR Scanner and see where these codes take you. Do you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. My Favorites In A World Of Apps THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!