ScreenLogic Connect and ScreenLogic Config missing in iOS App Store?

[kwlis]

I upgraded iPhones and seem to have lost my SLConfig App. I can no longer find the SLConfig App in the Apple App Store, nor is the ScreenLogic Connect App there. I do get a message that suggests it is not available in my Region (the US). In general, the only Pentair Apps I can find now are Pentair Link2O and Pentair Home, neither of which seem to support my EasyTouch and Screenlogic network adapter products.

 

[kimkats]

Well that is not fun. I would try reaching out to Pentair to ask them what is up with the missing app.

 

[kwlis]

I called Pentair Tech Support, they too found out about this and addressed with Apple this afternoon by the time I called. All three apps are now Live in the App store - Screen Logic Connect, Screen Logic Config, and IntelliCenter. Thanks @kimkats and Pentair.

 

[Dirk]

Whew, pins and needles until I got to your second post! Thanks for the report. I fully expect this will be how the death of ScreenLogic will play out! Support will just end (it may have, already), then it won't load on the latest, and then it will just vanish, and we'll be stuck until we upgrade something very expensive... I hope to be proven wrong about that...

 

[Jimrahbe]

Dirk,

I have no idea why you are such a harbinger of death and destruction.???

It seems to me that Pentair does a pretty good job of maintaining products for a pretty long time.. I think the EasyTouch has been around for over 20 years, maybe longer.. Things have a life cycle whether we like it or not. Try loading an app to your flip phone and see how that works. You can't expect a company to make changes to a system forever.. That said, I don't see Pentair making changes that will make their equipment nonoperational, but I do see where cell phones, computers, or networks may start using some processes that the older Pentair equipment won't be able to use... I can think of hundreds of things that I have bought that were "State of the Art" when I bought them that are obsolete now... Cassette video recorders, dot matrix printer, my Osborne 1 computer with two 20K single sided floppy disc drives that I upgraded to double sided with 40K.. 4K digital cameras, 4 channel stereo systems, Reel to Reel audio recorders, turn tables, 800 lb. TV sets, Analog TVs.. Cars without back up cameras, CB radios, Phones without a display.. The list goes on forever and it is just not possible for us to expect that all old tech be supported forever.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Dirk]

100% agree and I've done my share of schooling folks that complain about needing new hardware or software. Of course! That is the nature of the high-tech industry. Don't like it? Don't use it! I get that.

But the ET and ScreenLogic are in Pentair's current offerings. They actively promote and market these products on their website. The ET is seen very prominently on the product page, at the same level as the IntelliCenter (before it, actually) and is labeled clearly as a "Featured Product." From the ET's page: "Remotely manage from a Mac® Computer* or PC using the ScreenLogic2 Interface application..." Mac is listed first! That more than implies that these products are nowhere near obsolete, and it's fair for a consumer to assume that they won't be any time soon (maybe not prudent, but fair). They're not discounted, and their not placed in a section of the website that would imply they're aging tech. That, IMO, is deceptive, because:

By all accounts ScreenLogic is already obsolete, and is at end-of-life. And that's what I'm up-in-arms about. It's never worked well on a Mac, and now it doesn't work at all. If they weren't selling it so, I would not be "harbingering." If they were more forthcoming about that, then the consumer could make an informed choice. But that's not what they're doing, so I am.

I don't know that there's not going to be a new release of SL tomorrow. But I do have some evidence of that, of sorts. Pentair would have been made aware that MacOS was going to orphan the SL software way back in June 28, 2017. That's over three years ago! A millennium in software development time. And it was reported here that their tech support warned that a new release of SL software was not a priority. (Admittedly hearsay!) If they were serious about keeping SL around, and current, that software would have been updated years ago, both Mac and PC alike. Has the PC version been updated at all? In any way? They did update their app software recently, but look close. They didn't actually add any new capability, did they? They just prettied it up and reorganized the interface. Can it do anything the older version couldn't? That's a marketing trick to keep a product alive without actually spending any real R&D dollars on it. Also deceptive, IMO. And also a sign of the possibility of end-of-life.

So if you'd prefer I don't speculate about this, I'll defer. Otherwise, I think it's safe to say out loud here to at least be mindful of these facts before investing in ET and SL. Which I'd like to think is all I'm doing. Not slamming Pentair for not breathing life into older tech, but rather alerting consumers that it is older tech, and might not ever get updated.

So that's why!