S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: the 26th of September 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to
S1: have you with us wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision
S1: Australia Radio, associated Stations of Australia or maybe the Community
S1: Radio Network, there is also the podcast. If you haven't
S1: caught up with that yet, all you need to do
S1: is search for the two words talking tech, and then
S1: it can come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after
S1: it's been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri
S1: device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio Talking
S1: Tech Podcast. Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast. With me
S1: someone who can explain all this tech stuff really well.
S1: Vision Australia's National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David,
S1: the new Apple devices iPhones and Apple watches are now
S1: available for purchase.
S2: They are indeed. So we've got the iPhone 15, the
S2: 15 plus the iPhone Pro and the iPhone Pro max.
S2: And so basically the smaller ones, the 15 and the
S2: 15 pro with the 6.1 and the plus and the
S2: max one is your 6.7 diagonal inch screen. So they're
S2: now available to purchase. And of course, the Apple Watch
S2: Series nine and the Apple Watch Ultra two. And what
S2: I noticed on the Web, they were saying that particularly
S2: for the Apple Watch Ultra two, if you've already got
S2: an ultra one, there's really no point update to the
S2: Apple Watch Ultra two. But if you have a series
S2: four watch, which is going back a fair way, they
S2: are suggesting that you might want to update to the
S2: Series nine. If you have a series six, 7 or 8,
S2: They reckon the extra functionality in the Series nine is
S2: not dramatically besides the, you know, the being able to
S2: see it in very bright light. The screen is very,
S2: very bright now. But besides that, yeah, there just a
S2: few things to think about before you rush out and
S2: spend your good, well-earned money.
S1: And iOS 17 hit our devices last week.
S2: Yeah. Now, look, I've got very complacent because I remember we,
S2: we talked off air. I mentioned one thing about the,
S2: the side switch on the side of the iPhone and
S2: I called it a different name. And I suddenly realized
S2: that for you, iOS 17 is a completely new experience.
S2: I've been beta testing it since, what's it been, June
S2: this year. So how have you found iOS 17 overall
S2: as a sort of a brand new user, so to speak? Well, it.
S1: Reminded me of other times when I download new versions
S1: of iOS, it appears snappier at the start. That's nice.
S1: Some of the sounds are a little bit different. I
S1: noticed that notifications behaves a little differently, but that's all
S1: resolvable when you go to the settings and you've got
S1: to keep that in mind that sometimes things haven't actually
S1: been taken away, but they might have had their default
S1: settings changed. In the case of notifications, you just go
S1: to settings accessibility, then within accessibility, voiceover and then verbosity,
S1: and that deals with punctuation and also notifications, whether they
S1: be for the lock screen or the banner notifications, you know,
S1: where those big ones come over the top of an
S1: article you might be reading. ET cetera. So there's little
S1: things like that that that change, it's well worth digging
S1: a little bit deeper. And you see that it's not
S1: actually sort of very much the same, like it's basically
S1: as it was, but with new enhancements and tweaks and
S1: there's quite a few of those. David There's a very
S1: nice coverage of this from Jonathan Mohsin with his current
S1: Living Blind Fully podcast Edition 250, where he spends a
S1: lot of time going through not just the iPhone 15
S1: Pro and some of the physical features and functionality of that,
S1: but also a lot of time with iOS 17 and
S1: there's some useful little tips you can pick up from that.
S2: There's actually a huge amount of some of the extra
S2: stuff that I've been using. I've been using it for
S2: such a long time now. I just take it for
S2: granted the way it works. So things like the fact
S2: that you don't have to use the magic words, he says,
S2: I try anymore and the reason why I'm spelling is
S2: that because you can actually use the the second word
S2: now to activate our beloved personal assistants. And we've also
S2: got extra voices for the Apple's personal assistants, plus the
S2: fact that this is what I like. You can speed
S2: it up a bit faster or he up a bit faster,
S2: depending on what voice you use as well. And the
S2: other thing that somebody reminded me the other day, too,
S2: we've actually got new ringtones for the iPhone and some
S2: of them are really, really cool. So if you go
S2: and check out your sound settings on your iPhone, some
S2: of the new ringtones are actually very, very nice indeed.
S2: So that might be something else that people might want
S2: to play with as well.
S1: macOS out this week, Sonoma.
S2: So this again is a lot of stuff under the
S2: hood and all up it makes it a you know,
S2: a good update. But can I ask people to pay
S2: particular attention to preview, which is the app that we
S2: use traditionally to read PDF files on the Mac And
S2: Apple supposedly has done a lot of work behind the
S2: scenes about trying to allow you to navigate structured tagged
S2: PDF files such as headings, links, tables, and one of
S2: the major issues with PDF files was if you tried
S2: to read by say header one and then header two
S2: and then jump down and say the next heading level
S2: two trying to navigate past all the sub subheading ones,
S2: it never worked properly. So if you're a PDF user
S2: and you want to check out preview on the next
S2: version of the Mac OS, let me know and just
S2: email me at David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org
S2: And I'll be very interested to see what you think
S2: about the new improvements.
S1: I want to go back to iOS now, the Magnifier
S1: app and some interesting stuff in there now.
S2: Yes, just remember now and this is particularly with the
S2: pro versions of the phone. So this is the 12 pro,
S2: the 13 pro, the 14 pro, and the 15 pro,
S2: as well as the max versions of those in the
S2: magnifier app. We now have five detection modes now. So
S2: we've got people detection, which is what we used a
S2: lot in Covid to find out how close the person
S2: was to you. We have door detection and that door
S2: detection also supposedly also tells you, I haven't tried this
S2: out for a while about which way the door opens
S2: and where the handle is. We've got image. So it
S2: will actually look at an image and tell you what's
S2: actually in the image text. So that's basically optical character recognition.
S2: So if you point your phone at a sign or
S2: anything else for that matter in your pantry, it'll add
S2: to you. And of course the new one quite dramatically,
S2: along with door detection in iOS 17 is point and speak.
S2: And that's where you've got a touch screen surface. You
S2: point your finger at a button and it tells you
S2: what the button is based on, again, the camera. So
S2: if you've been avoiding that app. For a while. Go
S2: and have a look at it again, because now you've
S2: got those five interesting things to have a play with.
S1: Magnifier. Easy to find. Now, there are still a number
S1: of devices you buy through Apple that use the lightning connector,
S1: aren't there?
S2: There are. So whilst, you know, we've got all excited
S2: about the iPhone with its new Usb-c and the iPhone
S2: 15 line up my 14 pro max still uses lightning
S2: so does the 13 and the 12 and the. If
S2: you've still got those phones around the place. I've got
S2: three magic keyboards in front of me that use lightning.
S2: My trackpad external trackpad for the Mac uses Lightning. My
S2: version one and two of my AirPods Pro uses lightning
S2: for the charging case, my AirPods Max, which costs $1,000.
S2: They still use lightning and a few other things as well.
S2: So if you're like me and you've gone very much
S2: into the Apple universe, particularly before they're different types of hardware,
S2: then just have a think about what you're doing and
S2: what cables you might need. I'm still going to hang
S2: off a little bit until Apple starts to update some
S2: of their other stuff, so that's when I'll start to update.
S2: But at the moment I've got too many gadgets still
S2: on lightning to justify, you know, even thinking about updating
S2: to another usb-c only device.
S1: Tell us about the integration of FaceTime and Apple TV
S1: or Apple TV, 4K, whatever that means.
S2: So the 4K is just basically it's the way that
S2: movies are made these days. You can watch it in
S2: dramatic video, blah, blah, blah, cinema mode and so on.
S2: But what this really means is that if you run
S2: your Apple TV 4K, specifically in your lounge room on
S2: your say, 60 inch or 80 inch television screen, then
S2: what happens is with iOS 17 running on both the
S2: Apple TV 4K and your iPhone or iPad, then the
S2: video that you're looking at. So your grandchildren or your
S2: family on the screen from overseas is on your big screen.
S2: And then the camera and the audio is coming out
S2: of your iPhone or your iPad. So it's really Apple saying,
S2: you know, you can have your family and your lounge
S2: room because you can imagine, you know, seeing people and
S2: grandchildren and people's drawings and everything else on this huge
S2: screen is going to be absolutely amazing. So I think
S2: that's one really great thing. But just remember, it's definitely
S2: the Apple TV 4K, It's not the Apple TV HD.
S2: If you don't have an Apple TV 4K, then you
S2: won't have FaceTime as an icon on the home screen
S2: of the Apple TV.
S1: But it really is a case of getting your loved
S1: ones into your living room from a long way away.
S1: It's not just like a little thing. You'll look at
S1: it on your phone or whatever.
S2: No, no. And we tried it out with my daughter.
S2: We were able to see my 20 month year old
S2: grandson's attempt at doing some crayon drawing and it was
S2: amazing because Elon said you could see a lot more
S2: detail on this huge screen that you could on her,
S2: even her iPhone 14 pro max screen.
S1: Not only Apple events this month, we've had an Amazon
S1: one and a Microsoft one. Tell us about the Amazon
S1: one first.
S2: The Amazon one was interesting because along with announcing some
S2: new hardware, so they announced I think it was the
S2: Amazon show, eight new version and a fire TV soundbar
S2: and a new fire TV stick. And then as far
S2: as some stuff to do with the A lady, as
S2: I like to call it, they also mentioned the fact
S2: that she or he will be turning into an artificial
S2: intelligence system, which you won't need to use the magic
S2: word for, and you'll be able to say something like,
S2: Let's chat. And like ChatGPT, you can indulge in a
S2: conversational flow with the artificial intelligence. Now it's coming live
S2: in the next several weeks or so. I just tried
S2: it here and it said this feature is not currently
S2: available in your region. So let's hope that it's not
S2: only just in the US, but it's worldwide as well.
S2: So stand by for that.
S1: Microsoft there event.
S2: They announced some new hardware, so they answered announced the
S2: new surface, Studio two and the new surface go Now
S2: the surface go apparently is primarily for business. It's not
S2: for the normal consumer, but the studio one was, again,
S2: lots of up to good internal updates as far as
S2: the processor and memory and everything else was concerned. But
S2: the exciting thing and yes, you probably guessed what I'm
S2: going to say is they also talked about copilot, which
S2: is another fancy way of saying artificial intelligence and what
S2: the co-pilot will do. It will suggest things for you
S2: to do. So when you're writing an email, it might
S2: suggest different ways of writing that email or when you're
S2: looking at a chart in an Excel spreadsheet, you can
S2: ask it to perhaps extrapolate some particular some data under
S2: that chart and so on. So that looks really interesting
S2: because basically there's a new Windows update coming out this week.
S2: And I'm not 100% sure whether the copilot was going
S2: to be this week or coming out in October. But
S2: stand by for that. And it's going to be really,
S2: really interesting, particularly for us. Narrator Screen reader users and
S2: of course draws and other screen readers as well.
S1: Gutenberg and a lot more books available.
S2: Normally on Gutenberg, you've got a whole range of electronic books.
S2: When I'm in electronic, I mean like text only books
S2: that were traditionally use your screen reader or other system
S2: to read. And what they've done, they've used a really
S2: nice sounding speech synthesizer, which you could almost not tell
S2: it wasn't a human to read these books out. And
S2: I've tried a few online and they were quite interesting.
S2: So if I didn't know any better, I'd say it's
S2: a person reading a book with a very formal way
S2: of pronouncing words. But no, it's extremely doable. It's not awful.
S2: And you can definitely listen to them. Remember, with Gutenberg,
S2: they're all books out of copyright, so they're not recent ones,
S2: but there's some really, really good books in there as
S2: well to read.
S1: Explain how you get access to them.
S2: You log on to the Gutenberg website, particularly for the
S2: audio files, and I've got the link in the show
S2: notes because I find sometimes Gutenberg websites a bit hard
S2: to navigate. So the link in the show notes will
S2: take you straight to the web page.
S1: Terrific. Just before we go, a reminder of where everyone
S1: can find details of what we've been talking about in
S1: this and previous editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David, would it be a dot podbean pad
S2: B com.
S1: David would be dot podbean podbean to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge, how it sounds to 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. I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.