WEBVTT - Talking Tech 12th March 2024 0:00:21.398 --> 0:00:25.118 Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:25.118 --> 0:00:28.628 March the 12th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have 0:00:28.628 --> 0:00:32.228 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, Associated 0:00:32.228 --> 0:00:36.368 Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There 0:00:36.368 --> 0:00:39.278 is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need 0:00:39.278 --> 0:00:42.068 to do is search for the two words talking tech 0:00:42.068 --> 0:00:44.738 and down the canal come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:44.738 --> 0:00:47.708 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:00:47.708 --> 0:00:51.188 your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia 0:00:51.188 --> 0:00:56.558 Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking tech podcast 0:00:56.648 --> 0:00:59.588 with me, someone who can explain all this tech stuff 0:00:59.588 --> 0:01:06.038 really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David, 0:01:06.038 --> 0:01:09.938 let's start with a product available from the vision store 0:01:09.938 --> 0:01:12.938 of Vision Australia. This is one that's been around a 0:01:12.938 --> 0:01:16.478 few years. Code jumper, which is an interesting collaboration between 0:01:16.478 --> 0:01:18.818 the American Printing House for the blind, which is very 0:01:18.818 --> 0:01:22.598 strong on education, and Microsoft indeed. 0:01:22.598 --> 0:01:26.408 So this is called Code Jumper in its basic form. 0:01:26.408 --> 0:01:30.668 It's a way to teach children coding through physical manipulation 0:01:30.668 --> 0:01:32.738 of objects, if you like. So what you've got is 0:01:32.738 --> 0:01:36.668 a hub, which is basically got a speaker in it 0:01:36.668 --> 0:01:39.428 and on off button, and then some ports that you 0:01:39.428 --> 0:01:44.228 plug these little modules into. They're all connected via cables. 0:01:44.228 --> 0:01:48.848 And then on each of these little connector units called pods, uh, 0:01:48.848 --> 0:01:52.508 you've got two switches or one switch which does different 0:01:52.508 --> 0:01:57.308 functions such as play a sound faster, repeat a sound, 0:01:57.668 --> 0:02:00.578 do looping. So if you play a, you know, a 0:02:00.578 --> 0:02:02.678 sheep sound, it'll just loop it how many times you 0:02:02.678 --> 0:02:06.578 want to leave it for it's controlled by an application 0:02:06.578 --> 0:02:09.158 that you can run on windows, which funnily enough is 0:02:09.158 --> 0:02:12.668 called Code Jumper. And you can also run the Android 0:02:12.668 --> 0:02:16.448 version of it. And I must admit the way that 0:02:16.448 --> 0:02:21.818 it teaches coding, because when you basically plug each module 0:02:21.818 --> 0:02:26.318 in and if you're using the app on windows or 0:02:26.318 --> 0:02:29.918 on Android, you literally got each line of code that 0:02:29.918 --> 0:02:33.068 comes up on the screen. So you can very quickly 0:02:33.068 --> 0:02:36.458 see that is locked. That's, uh, that's a function because 0:02:36.458 --> 0:02:40.088 I'm doing certain things inside a particular couple of lines 0:02:40.088 --> 0:02:43.688 of code. That's where it goes. If then statement because 0:02:43.688 --> 0:02:45.878 it branches off. If this happens, go to there. If 0:02:45.878 --> 0:02:48.578 that happens go to somewhere else so you can have 0:02:48.578 --> 0:02:51.488 it as basic as you want. You know, just plug 0:02:51.488 --> 0:02:54.398 in all these things and just basically press start. Or 0:02:54.398 --> 0:02:57.098 you can have it as complicated for doing loops and 0:02:57.098 --> 0:03:00.278 if then statements and all sorts of amazing things. It 0:03:00.278 --> 0:03:03.008 comes in this really nice plastic case. I think from 0:03:03.008 --> 0:03:07.058 memory there's about eight pods that you can plug into 0:03:07.058 --> 0:03:10.448 the hub of Code Jumper, and it's just a really 0:03:10.448 --> 0:03:13.808 fun thing to to play with. So if you log 0:03:13.808 --> 0:03:16.658 on to the Vision Australia Vision Store website, which is 0:03:16.658 --> 0:03:20.588 shop Dot Vision Australia. Org search for Code Jumper two 0:03:20.588 --> 0:03:24.218 words I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised how fantastic 0:03:24.218 --> 0:03:27.188 this thing is. It's aimed at children that are getting 0:03:27.188 --> 0:03:30.188 into coding at school, but it is a really fun 0:03:30.188 --> 0:03:30.848 way to do it. 0:03:31.058 --> 0:03:31.988 What's it cost? 0:03:32.198 --> 0:03:36.938 Last time I checked it's about $1,800, so it's not cheap. Primarily, 0:03:36.938 --> 0:03:41.588 most education systems tend to buy the units for their schools. 0:03:41.768 --> 0:03:47.348 Very interesting. See, son, the big technology event in the 0:03:47.348 --> 0:03:51.368 United States, California State University Center on Disability, I think 0:03:51.368 --> 0:03:55.208 it's called. And it's a worldwide interest, the event that 0:03:55.208 --> 0:03:58.058 takes place each year in March next week. 0:03:58.238 --> 0:04:00.578 Indeed, this is the one that comes up every year 0:04:00.578 --> 0:04:04.568 that I look forward to is is this is the 39th, um, conference. 0:04:04.928 --> 0:04:06.998 And I think this year is going to be interesting. 0:04:06.998 --> 0:04:08.348 I know we're getting a bit sick and tired of 0:04:08.378 --> 0:04:12.098 talking about this, but I really do think artificial intelligence 0:04:12.098 --> 0:04:16.268 is going to take a main focus this year on 0:04:16.268 --> 0:04:19.448 not only what you can do with hardware, but software 0:04:19.448 --> 0:04:22.898 and the interrelationship between hardware and software. Not only for 0:04:22.898 --> 0:04:26.618 things like smart classes, but for the computing side of 0:04:26.618 --> 0:04:29.948 things as well. So that's what I'm looking forward to. 0:04:29.978 --> 0:04:33.098 There's already been some interesting nuggets coming out already. Um, 0:04:33.098 --> 0:04:35.618 but I thought, why don't we just let the conference 0:04:35.618 --> 0:04:38.618 happen next week? Um, and then the following week after that, 0:04:38.618 --> 0:04:42.248 we'll do some highlights of the conference. But I'm definitely 0:04:42.248 --> 0:04:44.408 really looking forward to this one. I don't think I've 0:04:44.408 --> 0:04:47.258 had much as much of excitement looking forward to a 0:04:47.258 --> 0:04:48.938 season conference than I have for this one. 0:04:49.088 --> 0:04:51.158 You can catch some of the proceedings online. 0:04:51.158 --> 0:04:52.598 You can. So the best way to do it is 0:04:52.598 --> 0:04:54.908 just go to the CC website and I'll have that 0:04:54.908 --> 0:04:57.038 link in the show notes. And then from there you 0:04:57.038 --> 0:04:59.708 can quite easily navigate to things like the keynote address 0:04:59.708 --> 0:05:01.598 and other online sessions as well. 0:05:01.838 --> 0:05:05.348 For Spiro or Freedom Scientific have brought out some updates 0:05:05.348 --> 0:05:09.938 for their Jaws screen reader and their fusion screen reader 0:05:09.938 --> 0:05:13.388 and screen magnification or screen enhancement tools. 0:05:13.388 --> 0:05:16.028 Yep. So just to remind people so fusion is basically 0:05:16.028 --> 0:05:18.668 zoom text and jaws together. So zoom text is the 0:05:18.668 --> 0:05:21.618 screen render fire jaws. Screen reader. So when you put 0:05:21.618 --> 0:05:25.848 them together, that's called fusion. What has astounded me to 0:05:25.848 --> 0:05:30.378 do with jaws specifically, is they introduced this function back 0:05:30.378 --> 0:05:36.768 in 2019 called Picture Smart, which basically generally described a picture, uh, 0:05:36.768 --> 0:05:39.198 to you. So it might say, you know, dog on 0:05:39.198 --> 0:05:42.288 a mat or people at the beach. Well, now they've 0:05:42.288 --> 0:05:44.778 introduced a new version of Picture Smart, which is called 0:05:44.778 --> 0:05:49.818 Picture Smart AI. And it's using artificial intelligence to give 0:05:49.818 --> 0:05:53.478 you more information about a picture. So remember I just 0:05:53.478 --> 0:05:56.808 said picture smart would say people on the beach. But 0:05:56.808 --> 0:06:00.168 what the AI does is it would say something like 0:06:00.528 --> 0:06:03.678 people sitting on the beach, the person on the left 0:06:03.678 --> 0:06:06.978 appears to be looking towards the camera, smiling. They're wearing 0:06:06.978 --> 0:06:08.928 a yellow shirt and they appear to be talking to 0:06:08.928 --> 0:06:12.108 the person next to them, and so on and so on. 0:06:12.108 --> 0:06:16.518 So you really are getting a much better idea of 0:06:16.518 --> 0:06:21.168 the picture. It's very much like, be my eyes. I um, 0:06:21.168 --> 0:06:24.018 to just it just it's so rich in the content 0:06:24.018 --> 0:06:26.808 it gives you. It's absolutely amazing. And with this function, 0:06:26.958 --> 0:06:30.798 you can do it for image files on your computer 0:06:30.978 --> 0:06:34.758 or pictures on the internet instead of social media type websites. 0:06:34.758 --> 0:06:36.438 So it's absolutely amazing. 0:06:36.618 --> 0:06:40.878 On his weekly podcast, Living Blind Fully, Jonathan Merson does 0:06:40.878 --> 0:06:45.678 pretty well at tuning in to latest developments in blindness 0:06:45.678 --> 0:06:49.278 and low vision tech. He had an interesting conversation recently 0:06:49.278 --> 0:06:52.518 with a man named Dean Blasi, whose work goes back 0:06:52.518 --> 0:06:54.918 a long way back to the Braille and speak device 0:06:54.918 --> 0:06:56.748 back in the late 1980s. 0:06:56.748 --> 0:06:58.848 That's right. And if you remember that we talked about, 0:06:58.848 --> 0:07:00.528 I think it was last week before, we also talked 0:07:00.528 --> 0:07:04.188 about the the new BT speaker and the BT Speaker Pro, 0:07:04.188 --> 0:07:08.718 which is basically Dean Blasi re-engineering the new version of 0:07:08.718 --> 0:07:11.328 the Braille and speak. But it was interesting. It was 0:07:11.628 --> 0:07:14.328 a look back in time over his career spanning a 0:07:14.328 --> 0:07:17.298 very long time, and it was just interesting to hear 0:07:17.298 --> 0:07:22.128 how he developed different types of technology with, you know, 0:07:22.128 --> 0:07:25.848 different blind folks along the years. And it was amazing 0:07:25.848 --> 0:07:28.068 because I just remember that I had actually forgot a 0:07:28.068 --> 0:07:30.108 few products along the way as well that I, I 0:07:30.108 --> 0:07:32.328 had also come in contact with in the late 70s 0:07:32.328 --> 0:07:34.728 and early 80s. So if you're lucky, a bit of 0:07:34.728 --> 0:07:39.468 a historical perspective on where things came from and perhaps 0:07:39.468 --> 0:07:42.948 where they're going to, it's very much worthwhile listening to. 0:07:42.948 --> 0:07:47.238 Yes, very much so. Now there's a little Braille word 0:07:47.238 --> 0:07:48.648 game that you've discovered. 0:07:48.678 --> 0:07:50.718 Yeah, this was actually cute. So it's a web based 0:07:50.898 --> 0:07:54.678 game on a old fashioned thing called a word game. 0:07:54.678 --> 0:07:58.308 Except this time, not only do you have to correctly 0:07:58.308 --> 0:08:02.298 get the number of characters in the word correct, but 0:08:02.298 --> 0:08:05.748 you're also limited by the amounts of dots that each 0:08:05.748 --> 0:08:09.678 letter makes up in the word. So you might have 0:08:09.678 --> 0:08:12.738 a word on there that's, I don't know, four characters, 0:08:12.738 --> 0:08:15.528 but then you can only use a certain amount of dots. 0:08:15.528 --> 0:08:20.178 So it's a really good headspace board game. On trying 0:08:20.178 --> 0:08:22.368 to work out this word and by the number of 0:08:22.368 --> 0:08:25.188 dots you're only allowed to use, so it's free. It's 0:08:25.188 --> 0:08:26.628 on the web. You can play it on your mobile 0:08:26.628 --> 0:08:28.818 device or your desktop, and it's just one of those 0:08:28.818 --> 0:08:30.978 fun little fiddly things that you can do. So if 0:08:30.978 --> 0:08:32.088 you've got a bit of a spare time on your 0:08:32.088 --> 0:08:34.308 hands or your board or whatever else, have a play. 0:08:34.308 --> 0:08:35.628 And it is quite a lot of fun. 0:08:35.868 --> 0:08:40.158 Recently we talked about the Invision app now being available 0:08:40.158 --> 0:08:43.548 on the Blind Shell Classic two phone. You've discovered a 0:08:43.548 --> 0:08:44.628 bit of an issue. 0:08:44.628 --> 0:08:47.928 I honestly do not understand this particular way that things 0:08:47.928 --> 0:08:51.138 have done, so I tried to log in to the 0:08:51.138 --> 0:08:55.368 N Vision Eye app on my Blind Child Classic two. 0:08:55.458 --> 0:08:59.298 The Google option didn't work, but the email did. So 0:08:59.298 --> 0:09:02.208 I emailed the developers of the blind Show Classic and said, 0:09:02.208 --> 0:09:03.888 you know what? What's the what's the story? Why is 0:09:03.888 --> 0:09:05.508 it not working? And they said, oh no, no, no, 0:09:05.508 --> 0:09:08.478 you can't use Google signing on anything to do with 0:09:08.478 --> 0:09:10.008 the Blind Child Classic. And I thought, well, that's a 0:09:10.008 --> 0:09:12.018 bit weird. So I wrote back and said, well, if 0:09:12.018 --> 0:09:14.568 that's not an option, then why let a developer have 0:09:14.568 --> 0:09:18.648 that option on the app? They're produced? And the response was, well, 0:09:18.648 --> 0:09:20.688 they don't like to control what people do when they 0:09:20.688 --> 0:09:23.268 produce apps for the blind shell. So I thought, well, 0:09:23.568 --> 0:09:26.328 that's a little bit weird. If it doesn't work, then 0:09:26.328 --> 0:09:29.418 why not developers? It doesn't work. So for the sake 0:09:29.418 --> 0:09:32.628 of people's mind, please don't try the Google option if 0:09:32.628 --> 0:09:34.668 it ever pops up on the blind show classic too, 0:09:34.878 --> 0:09:37.608 because as I got told by the blind shelf, it 0:09:37.608 --> 0:09:41.808 doesn't work. So when you try the great Envision Eye app, 0:09:41.808 --> 0:09:44.898 email works beautifully. Don't try the Google and don't bother 0:09:44.898 --> 0:09:47.568 actually emailing the blind show because they already know it 0:09:47.568 --> 0:09:48.258 doesn't work. 0:09:48.468 --> 0:09:52.128 Fair enough. Well, there was a major software updates from 0:09:52.128 --> 0:09:53.568 Apple last week. 0:09:53.568 --> 0:09:58.818 Basically everything got updated across the whole iOS OS range. 0:09:59.118 --> 0:10:02.598 The one that stood out for me in particular was 0:10:02.598 --> 0:10:07.158 iOS 17.4. Now, the one that doesn't affect us in 0:10:07.158 --> 0:10:12.018 Australia is the EU. The European Union is decided that 0:10:12.018 --> 0:10:15.438 Apple has to offer other third party app stores because 0:10:15.438 --> 0:10:18.558 they think that Apple's controlling things too much. So that's 0:10:18.558 --> 0:10:21.388 been introduced in Europe. It doesn't. Us all doesn't think 0:10:21.388 --> 0:10:25.108 anybody outside the European Union. I'm in two minds about this. 0:10:25.108 --> 0:10:27.808 I love the fact that they're making Apple open things 0:10:27.808 --> 0:10:30.028 up a little bit, which Apple is fighting tooth and 0:10:30.028 --> 0:10:32.728 nail about, but it also means we may have an 0:10:32.728 --> 0:10:38.038 extra level of openness, which sometimes scares me, because openness 0:10:38.038 --> 0:10:40.978 means that any cowboy on the market can then start 0:10:40.978 --> 0:10:44.488 producing apps that may follow Apple's guidelines, but we may 0:10:44.488 --> 0:10:47.698 fall a bit short and accessibility, but I guess it 0:10:47.698 --> 0:10:49.858 will see what happens in the future with that one. 0:10:50.158 --> 0:10:54.388 But the other one that I find extremely gratifying about 0:10:54.388 --> 0:10:58.408 is we now have these transcription functions in the podcast app. 0:10:58.678 --> 0:11:01.798 So what happens is you go to your favorite podcast, 0:11:01.798 --> 0:11:05.788 you turn on transcription, you start playing the podcast, and 0:11:05.788 --> 0:11:07.738 then you can, you know, for a voiceover user, you 0:11:07.738 --> 0:11:09.628 can flick down or you can scroll down through the 0:11:09.628 --> 0:11:12.538 whole transcriptions you get. Do you think, oh, look, that 0:11:12.538 --> 0:11:15.178 sounds a bit interesting. They're talking about, I don't know, 0:11:15.178 --> 0:11:18.568 ramp access to buildings or trains. You double tap on 0:11:18.568 --> 0:11:22.078 that and hey presto, it takes the audio straight to 0:11:22.078 --> 0:11:25.648 that spot in the transcription and starts playing it. And 0:11:25.648 --> 0:11:27.718 you can, you know, you can zip forward and backwards 0:11:27.718 --> 0:11:30.478 like you can, you know, flick back by word by 0:11:30.478 --> 0:11:32.488 word or paragraph, whatever you want to do with voiceover 0:11:32.488 --> 0:11:34.678 and just flick around the whole podcast if you really 0:11:34.678 --> 0:11:38.218 want to. But it's absolutely amazing. And by the way, 0:11:38.218 --> 0:11:41.548 it only works in the podcasts app. But this may 0:11:41.548 --> 0:11:45.328 be one good way of dealing with those podcasts. You think, 0:11:45.328 --> 0:11:48.148 oh God, these guys talk too much. Um, they don't 0:11:48.148 --> 0:11:50.098 really say anything for the first ten minutes, so you 0:11:50.098 --> 0:11:52.378 can flick through all the general chitchat, go to where 0:11:52.378 --> 0:11:54.448 you want to start listening, double tap on the transcript, 0:11:54.448 --> 0:11:56.068 and hey presto, off you go. 0:11:56.338 --> 0:11:58.018 You're not talking about our program, are you? 0:11:58.048 --> 0:11:58.708 Certainly not. 0:12:00.058 --> 0:12:02.608 This could be great news for people who are deaf. Blind. 0:12:02.608 --> 0:12:05.818 That's right. Because you add in a refresher brow display 0:12:05.818 --> 0:12:09.358 and hey presto, you've got 100% accessibility and you've got 0:12:09.358 --> 0:12:12.328 control over the whole podcast. I just might say, Stephen, 0:12:12.328 --> 0:12:17.098 it's really funny reading a text version of a podcast, 0:12:17.098 --> 0:12:19.738 which is basically based on human speech, because you hear 0:12:19.738 --> 0:12:25.228 people say things like and so and perhaps that's it's 0:12:25.228 --> 0:12:28.528 quite bizarre. But no, it's truly is the transcription of 0:12:28.528 --> 0:12:30.538 what's being spoken on the audio podcast. 0:12:30.538 --> 0:12:34.378 So that's iOS for the phone and the iPad. Um, 0:12:34.378 --> 0:12:36.328 the other products, software upgrades. 0:12:36.328 --> 0:12:39.928 Yep. So watch OS 10.4. I didn't have any accessibility 0:12:39.928 --> 0:12:43.678 changes in it to the OS. Didn't either. The Mac 0:12:43.678 --> 0:12:46.408 OS one did have a small change to VoiceOver and 0:12:46.408 --> 0:12:49.378 VoiceOver utility to do a quick nav, so when you 0:12:49.378 --> 0:12:52.648 press your left and right, Erica using VoiceOver to turn 0:12:52.648 --> 0:12:56.278 quick on or off, you now have an option where 0:12:56.278 --> 0:12:59.578 the quick note on can also turn on single key 0:12:59.578 --> 0:13:01.798 navigation for you as well, which used to be a 0:13:01.798 --> 0:13:05.068 separate thing you'd have to do. So that's a little change. 0:13:05.368 --> 0:13:09.358 But besides that, most of the actual updates across the 0:13:09.358 --> 0:13:11.848 board to do with emojis. So different pictures that you 0:13:11.848 --> 0:13:14.548 can have, like people using a white cane, a person 0:13:14.548 --> 0:13:17.758 in the manual wheelchair and security bug fixes as well. 0:13:17.758 --> 0:13:20.098 Some more Apple device accessories. 0:13:20.638 --> 0:13:24.448 Apple released a brand new set of Apple Watch bands 0:13:24.448 --> 0:13:29.788 and some iPhone cases, and an interesting Belkin stand. I 0:13:29.788 --> 0:13:34.138 believe it's a stand that's to do with using your 0:13:34.138 --> 0:13:37.978 Apple TV, 4K, and your phone as the camera for 0:13:37.978 --> 0:13:41.218 the Apple TV, where you can sit in your lounge room, 0:13:41.368 --> 0:13:44.158 you can see your family or loved ones or friends 0:13:44.158 --> 0:13:47.158 on the big, big screen in your room. And of course, 0:13:47.158 --> 0:13:49.378 your phone's looking at you to provide the camera for 0:13:49.378 --> 0:13:51.028 them on the other end of the FaceTime call. 0:13:51.208 --> 0:13:54.478 Very interesting. Before we go, a reminder of where there 0:13:54.478 --> 0:13:56.848 are details of what we've been talking about in this 0:13:56.848 --> 0:13:58.768 and previous editions of the program. 0:13:58.768 --> 0:14:01.048 Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site, 0:14:01.048 --> 0:14:04.828 which is David. Would it be a podbean pod band? 0:14:05.008 --> 0:14:11.128 Com David would be our podbean podbean. Com to write 0:14:11.128 --> 0:14:11.878 to the program. 0:14:11.878 --> 0:14:13.588 You can write to me at visit the show where 0:14:13.588 --> 0:14:17.848 I work which is David Woodbridge out sounds at Vision Australia. 0:14:18.508 --> 0:14:23.548 David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been talking 0:14:23.578 --> 0:14:27.238 tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor on 0:14:27.238 --> 0:14:31.288 access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. We'll 0:14:31.288 --> 0:14:32.698 talk more tech next week. See you.