S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: December the 5th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or maybe the Community Radio Network. There
S1: is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need
S1: to do is search for the two words talking tech
S1: and downer can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon
S1: just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask
S1: your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia
S1: Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast
S1: with me, someone who can explain all the tech stuff
S1: really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology David
S1: Woodbridge David, we have a guest this week returning after
S1: the period in May teaming up with you, and it's
S1: good to have Michael Hart back again.
S2: Yep. Hi, David. Hi, Stephen.
S3: Indeed. What I may have mentioned, in fact, I did
S3: mention probably about which I want to say maybe over
S3: a month ago was the Forza motorsports 2023 the new
S3: accessible version of that game. And when I talked about it,
S3: they were talking about the fact that, you know, it
S3: was all accessible, you know, blind and low vision, and
S3: other people could play it. It had all these audio
S3: type functions to let you play the game. It had
S3: these different options to allow you to sort of better
S3: control your car, all that sort of stuff. And, you know,
S3: I listened to a few YouTube videos on it, but
S3: I thought, wouldn't it be nice to actually really talk
S3: to somebody in reality that's actually been playing with the game?
S3: So what I thought, well, when I spoke to Michael
S3: a couple of weeks ago, I said, you know, when
S3: you're comfortable with using the game, I'll get you on
S3: talking tech to have a chat about it. So Mark,
S3: welcome to the program again. And my question for you
S3: up front is when you install the actual game, is
S3: it sort of up front where you've got the accessibility options,
S3: and what are the main ones that you think you
S3: need to turn on to play the game?
S2: Yeah, it's straight up. As soon as you boot it
S2: up on the Xbox, the first thing that comes up
S2: is an audio menu asking you what you want to do,
S2: if you want to turn on screen reader things like that,
S2: which is very quick and easy to do. So I
S2: found that really good, which that also works on the
S2: Xbox Cloud gaming. So if you have an Xbox Game Pass,
S2: you can also cloud game this. You don't have to
S2: actually install it. So but it it then quickly gives
S2: you a quick menu of turning on heavy assists, which
S2: is used for blind gaming, which turns on a lot
S2: of a lot of assists like steering assist, braking assist.
S2: I don't think it sets up throttle assist to start with,
S2: but then it also turns on all the audio cues
S2: for the edge of the road brake zones, things like that.
S3: Okay. Yeah. So with this heavy assist stuff on initially,
S3: do you still feel like you're driving the car or
S3: is it a bit too automatic?
S2: Well, from the start, I suggest you if you are
S2: a blind gamer or even really, really low vision like
S2: I am, I definitely suggest turning it all on and
S2: just playing around with it to start with, because you
S2: definitely need it right? Until you get used to the
S2: audio cues to understand what they're all doing. So basically
S2: I left them on for a good while. I'd like
S2: to say two weeks before I even thought about turning
S2: them off. And it's still fun to play. It's really
S2: enjoyable because you're doing the full acceleration and you can
S2: still over accelerate on corners and things like that, and
S2: still you can still, unless you've got all the stability
S2: control and traction control on which I'm now that far
S2: into the game, I've turned all that off, all the
S2: traction control and things like that. So I can spin
S2: the car, I can do donuts on the straight, but
S2: once you get more used to it, what I really
S2: suggest is just turning off the I have it on
S2: partial assist for the braking, which will basically you can
S2: just hold your finger flat on the throttle and and
S2: for the most part it'll go all the way around
S2: the track.
S3: But okay, so when you turn these functions off, I mean,
S3: that was all partially off. It sounds really good. The
S3: audio cues are there sort of 1001 audio cues to remember,
S3: or are there sort of like several main ones if
S3: you like that you can remember, like going close to
S3: the edge of the road, all that sort of stuff.
S2: There are quite a few. You can turn some of
S2: them off, like I don't have all the gear shifting
S2: off on or anything like that. I just basically have
S2: the edge of the road, the braking zone, which tells
S2: you you're going too fast when you're coming into the
S2: braking zone and the actual cornering. As you go through
S2: the corners. There's three sounds and so it'll do the
S2: first sound, the second sound, and then a higher pitched
S2: sound to tell you coming out of the corner. So
S2: you know, to accelerate. Okay.
S3: So it's really not it's really not overwhelming then in
S3: a way.
S2: It is to start with because you're listening. And I
S2: forgot to mention the engine sounds which will move from
S2: left to right. So the engine noise will go to
S2: the left. If you're coming into a left hand corner,
S2: the idea is to try and center that engine sound
S2: to to make sure you're cornering at the right speed.
S2: But it is overwhelming to start because you're listening to
S2: the engine noise, the road noise and everything. So but
S2: once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun.
S3: Okay, and just one final question. Could you play with
S3: other players online?
S2: No, no, I haven't tried a private gaming server yet
S2: because the multiplayer servers to play this, you can't you
S2: cannot play with cars turned on like you can race
S2: against other cars, but you have it so you drive
S2: straight through them because it'd be impossible to overtake them.
S2: This does not even try to overtake you. Just keep
S2: ramming into the back of them, okay?
S3: Yep. Now what we probably should clarify is. So when
S3: we said you can play it on Xbox Series X
S3: and Xbox Cloud, so the Xbox console is fine. But
S3: when you're talking about xCloud, that's really windows. It's not
S3: on the Mac, I'm assuming.
S2: Oh, I did actually test that because I thought this
S2: would be great on a mac. But no, unfortunately there's
S2: no Xbox app for the Mac, whereas window it comes
S2: pre-installed with with Windows 10 and Windows 11. And you
S2: can install the games, but you can you can just
S2: play it through cloud, which basically streams it like a movie,
S2: and it's very stable. I play it on my computer
S2: all the time, but you will need an Xbox controller
S2: plugged into your computer.
S3: Yes. Sounds fantastic. So the price of the game, is
S3: it fairly expensive.
S2: To purchase the game outright? You're looking at about $115,
S2: but if you pay for an Xbox game Pass, which
S2: is about $19 a month for the ultimate you, that
S2: gets you the game and you can play it as
S2: much as you like. So when you get bored with
S2: it or you don't want to play it anymore, you
S2: just stop the subscription and it may have only cost
S2: you six months.
S3: Excellent. Fantastic. All right. So what I'll do in the
S3: show notes, I'll pop a link into there where people
S3: can find out more information about it. I've still got
S3: the YouTube link from a month or so ago. So
S3: thanks Michael for the very quick but good, concise overview
S3: of Forza motorsport. My poor little PC is not strong
S3: enough to probably play the game, so hopefully for my
S3: Christmas I'll be getting an X-Box X series. So again,
S3: thanks for coming on the program.
S2: No problem at all and I hope people enjoy the game,
S2: because it's great to see all these accessible games coming out.
S1: Michael Hart from Central Queensland, Gladstone speaking with David Woodbridge
S1: about one of the amazing games you can play with
S1: your X-Box. Have a good festive season Michael.
S2: Thank you Stephen.
S1: Now, David, we were talking last week about the Object
S1: Detector app, and you were going to go away and
S1: play with some way of attaching the phone around head height.
S1: Tell us.
S3: I was talking about and I did, and I bought
S3: this sort of $16 fabric headband. So it goes around
S3: your head in the band. It's got a clip on
S3: the front of it that holds your phone in portrait
S3: landscape mode, and it's got a sort of a band
S3: that sort of goes from front to back over the
S3: top of your head to sort of try and hold
S3: your phone on. Now, I thought this would be a
S3: great way of using the obstacle detector app to detect
S3: tree branches and overhanging signs. I didn't get to try
S3: out signs, but tree branches and so on did not
S3: work at all because they're not really that massive as in,
S3: you know, a big wall in front of you or
S3: a big truck or whatever else. It didn't really work.
S3: And the second thing I found out about is, depending
S3: on the weight of your phone, it's really uncomfortable to
S3: to have basically a phone on your forehead. So my
S3: 14 Pro Max, which is actually quite big, it was
S3: horrible to use on my head. The back of the
S3: band kept slipping forward. I know why now. People have
S3: huge sort of these virtual headsets on their head that
S3: really hold them tight. So as a bit of a
S3: test run, this was a bit of a failure. It's
S3: just the weight. It's really uncomfortable. I've got to try
S3: it with my 12 pro and we'll see how that
S3: goes back. Yeah. Initially the the reports and the results
S3: so far are not favourable.
S1: Let's talk Vision Australia's vision store now. The cut off
S1: date for ordering for the West was last Friday the
S1: 1st of December, still this Friday the 8th of December.
S1: But you can visit a store and still buy stuff,
S1: can't you, right up to Christmas.
S3: That's right. Because we've really been saying, you know, if
S3: you order stuff that's not in stock in the shop
S3: or in the warehouse, then you're going to wait for it.
S3: So that's that was before the, you know, the the
S3: shutdown date before Christmas to make sure you get it. Otherwise, yes,
S3: you can walk into any Vision Australia office where the
S3: vision stores are. And as long as something in stock
S3: on the shelves, you can buy it. So I lost
S3: my audio liquid level indicator a couple of weeks ago
S3: and I thought, well, I better go and get a
S3: new one. So I popped into the vision store last
S3: week and grab one, and now it's up and running again,
S3: so to speak. So yes, you can definitely pop in
S3: the vision. Australia is open until the 22nd of December,
S3: which is the Friday. So yes, the the shop as
S3: they say will be opened for business.
S1: Now this one reminds me of Lost Super. But it's
S1: not quite like that. It's about Gmail accounts that you
S1: may have had over the years. There's things to talk
S1: about with those.
S3: What Google said back in May this year was that
S3: any unused accounts that have not been used for two
S3: years at all will start to be deleted. Now that
S3: didn't say they'd all go at once as of December 1st.
S3: They said they're going to start looking at the accounts
S3: and deleting them, and you will get a warning if
S3: you've got a recovery email or a phone number attached
S3: to those old accounts, which it may not have. But
S3: the best way to find out that if you've got
S3: an old account that's been wandering around that you don't
S3: even know about, if you go to accounts dot google.com
S3: in there, you can actually search for your old email accounts.
S3: And I've had a few floating around that I've only
S3: used for testing. So if they go, I don't really
S3: care about it. But as long as you use the
S3: account for, you know, sending and receiving an email or
S3: you sign up to a third party subscriber service, they're
S3: also classified as active email addresses. So have a look.
S3: If you don't need them, then, you know don't worry
S3: about them. But definitely two years and this will be
S3: a policy from now on. So if you don't use
S3: an email account for two years, even moving forward, now
S3: you'll get a notification saying, well, if you don't do anything,
S3: the account will be deleted.
S1: One of the nice things you can do these days,
S1: if you've got a smart device, a phone or a
S1: tablet that's got a camera in it, even a computer actually.
S1: But I'm thinking of more the mobile device, so you
S1: can link up with somebody in a video way, and
S1: that can be a great help to people to find
S1: things out or have things read to you or explain
S1: or whatever. But there's different ways you can do it,
S1: isn't there?
S3: There is. And if you want to find out something,
S3: or you want to just double check something with a person,
S3: I'm always amazed that you can just pop your hand
S3: in your pocket, grab out your phone and have a
S3: quote video link with a friend or somebody else through
S3: video link. Now, because I'm an iPhone user, I use
S3: FaceTime on my iPhone. But of course, if you're using Android,
S3: you can use the WhatsApp service. And of course you
S3: can also use the. Of audio and other services as well.
S3: It's just amazing because back in the old days before
S3: video link, you'd have to ring up somebody and say, look,
S3: I think I'm near the shop. Can you sort of
S3: like try and talk me through where I am? Whereas
S3: now you've can't quite find the door of the shop.
S3: You just ring up the video chat with the person,
S3: point the camera around and they go, yep, go left,
S3: go right or you're in front of the wrong shop.
S3: Just go to your right about ten meters and so on.
S3: It's basically instant assistance, as I say.
S1: Absolutely amazing. Before we go, a reminder of where people
S1: can find details of what we've been talking about in
S1: this and previous editions of the programme.
S3: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S3: which is David would be r dot podbean pod b com.
S1: David would be dot podbean pod b e a n.com.
S1: To write to the programme.
S3: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S3: which is David Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision australia.org.
S1: David dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been
S1: talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor
S1: on access technology, David Woodbridge. We also heard from Michael
S1: Hart telling us about that amazing motorsport game. I'm Stephen Jolley.
S1: Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.