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16 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | NOVEMBER 2017 By Steve Benoff Creating an app is no small undertaking. I say this not knowing any of the details, but I can tell you it's not cheap. A big-time app can cost between $500,000 and a million, and these are built by big-time firms who specialize in app building. Less fancy apps by smaller builders can run between $150,000 and $450,000. A simple app can cost $20,000 to $50,000. And once you have the app working, the annual maintenance usually runs 15 to 20 percent of the original cost. Most apps have a commercial purpose — they're another way of doing business. Some are utility apps that exploit smartphone functions. And some seem to be created at the whim of the builder. All apps have to work with the underlying operating system (OS) of the smartphone. Every time there's a change in the OS, many apps have to be updated to accommodate the change. When there's a major change in the OS, all apps have to be updated. Apple recently updated its OS in a major way thus requiring all apps be updated. But not every app owner wants to go to the expense and trouble of updating its app, and that has rendered some apps on my phone useless. At the moment, two of my favorite apps can no longer be used. When I press the icon for my favorite screen brightness app, I get the following notice – "Brightness needs to by updated… to work with iOS 11." My beloved Angle Meter app elicits the same response; as does the app for my Insteon light switches in my home. I figure Insteon will get around to updating its app soon; frankly, I prefer to use the handy Insteon remote controls rather than the app. As for Angle Meter, I searched for replacements. One keeps prompting me with ads, but another seems to work great. And as for Brightness, if you swipe up on an iPhone with the new OS (iOS 11), a brightness control has been added to Control Center. (In fact, many features have been added to Control Center, including the ability to customize it. Go to Settings, Control Center, Customize Controls.) You can see how I can regard Apple's new OS as ruining two of my favorite apps. But inoperability is not the only way to ruin an app. I'm a big fan of podcasts. With podcasts, you can search and download episodes individually or you can subscribe to a show and have new episodes downloaded automatically as they are "published." Currently, I subscribe to 28 shows. That doesn't mean I listen to every episode on my phone. Each episode comes with a short synopsis. I can keep it or easily delete it by swiping left. You need an app to capture podcasts on your phone. For years I've used the Apple podcast app that comes with iPhones. It's worked beautifully for me until iOS 11. When Apple designed its new OS, it redesigned many of it standard apps including its podcast app. It's not clear to me that the members of the team that redesigned the app were actually regular podcast listeners. The old default screen listed podcast episodes in download order. Many of my shows have multiple episodes; each was listed individually. You could scan the list and pick the episode you want to hear. Now, the default screen lists only the shows downloaded. If there are multiple episodes, I have to select the show and select More Episodes to see a list of episodes. I can replicate the old default screen with a few button presses, but why would Apple change an app that worked so well in its former iteration? And in doing so, Apple even eliminated a handy feature of its old podcast app. You can still create a playlist of episodes, but you can no longer see the list. And you can't change the order of episodes as you could in the past. So be advised. An app that may have worked well for you in the past, may not function the same way in the future. And in some cases, it may not function at all. Do you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. HOW TO AN APP THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! RUIN

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