S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: March the 12th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps 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 down the canal 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 this tech stuff
S1: really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David,
S1: let's start with a product available from the vision store
S1: of Vision Australia. This is one that's been around a
S1: few years. Code jumper, which is an interesting collaboration between
S1: the American Printing House for the blind, which is very
S1: strong on education, and Microsoft indeed.
S2: So this is called Code Jumper in its basic form.
S2: It's a way to teach children coding through physical manipulation
S2: of objects, if you like. So what you've got is
S2: a hub, which is basically got a speaker in it
S2: and on off button, and then some ports that you
S2: plug these little modules into. They're all connected via cables.
S2: And then on each of these little connector units called pods, uh,
S2: you've got two switches or one switch which does different
S2: functions such as play a sound faster, repeat a sound,
S2: do looping. So if you play a, you know, a
S2: sheep sound, it'll just loop it how many times you
S2: want to leave it for it's controlled by an application
S2: that you can run on windows, which funnily enough is
S2: called Code Jumper. And you can also run the Android
S2: version of it. And I must admit the way that
S2: it teaches coding, because when you basically plug each module
S2: in and if you're using the app on windows or
S2: on Android, you literally got each line of code that
S2: comes up on the screen. So you can very quickly
S2: see that is locked. That's, uh, that's a function because
S2: I'm doing certain things inside a particular couple of lines
S2: of code. That's where it goes. If then statement because
S2: it branches off. If this happens, go to there. If
S2: that happens go to somewhere else so you can have
S2: it as basic as you want. You know, just plug
S2: in all these things and just basically press start. Or
S2: you can have it as complicated for doing loops and
S2: if then statements and all sorts of amazing things. It
S2: comes in this really nice plastic case. I think from
S2: memory there's about eight pods that you can plug into
S2: the hub of Code Jumper, and it's just a really
S2: fun thing to to play with. So if you log
S2: on to the Vision Australia Vision Store website, which is
S2: shop Dot Vision Australia. Org search for Code Jumper two
S2: words I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised how fantastic
S2: this thing is. It's aimed at children that are getting
S2: into coding at school, but it is a really fun
S2: way to do it.
S1: What's it cost?
S2: Last time I checked it's about $1,800, so it's not cheap. Primarily,
S2: most education systems tend to buy the units for their schools.
S1: Very interesting. See, son, the big technology event in the
S1: United States, California State University Center on Disability, I think
S1: it's called. And it's a worldwide interest, the event that
S1: takes place each year in March next week.
S2: Indeed, this is the one that comes up every year
S2: that I look forward to is is this is the 39th, um, conference.
S2: And I think this year is going to be interesting.
S2: I know we're getting a bit sick and tired of
S2: talking about this, but I really do think artificial intelligence
S2: is going to take a main focus this year on
S2: not only what you can do with hardware, but software
S2: and the interrelationship between hardware and software. Not only for
S2: things like smart classes, but for the computing side of
S2: things as well. So that's what I'm looking forward to.
S2: There's already been some interesting nuggets coming out already. Um,
S2: but I thought, why don't we just let the conference
S2: happen next week? Um, and then the following week after that,
S2: we'll do some highlights of the conference. But I'm definitely
S2: really looking forward to this one. I don't think I've
S2: had much as much of excitement looking forward to a
S2: season conference than I have for this one.
S1: You can catch some of the proceedings online.
S2: You can. So the best way to do it is
S2: just go to the CC website and I'll have that
S2: link in the show notes. And then from there you
S2: can quite easily navigate to things like the keynote address
S2: and other online sessions as well.
S1: For Spiro or Freedom Scientific have brought out some updates
S1: for their Jaws screen reader and their fusion screen reader
S1: and screen magnification or screen enhancement tools.
S2: Yep. So just to remind people so fusion is basically
S2: zoom text and jaws together. So zoom text is the
S2: screen render fire jaws. Screen reader. So when you put
S2: them together, that's called fusion. What has astounded me to
S2: do with jaws specifically, is they introduced this function back
S2: in 2019 called Picture Smart, which basically generally described a picture, uh,
S2: to you. So it might say, you know, dog on
S2: a mat or people at the beach. Well, now they've
S2: introduced a new version of Picture Smart, which is called
S2: Picture Smart AI. And it's using artificial intelligence to give
S2: you more information about a picture. So remember I just
S2: said picture smart would say people on the beach. But
S2: what the AI does is it would say something like
S2: people sitting on the beach, the person on the left
S2: appears to be looking towards the camera, smiling. They're wearing
S2: a yellow shirt and they appear to be talking to
S2: the person next to them, and so on and so on.
S2: So you really are getting a much better idea of
S2: the picture. It's very much like, be my eyes. I um,
S2: to just it just it's so rich in the content
S2: it gives you. It's absolutely amazing. And with this function,
S2: you can do it for image files on your computer
S2: or pictures on the internet instead of social media type websites.
S2: So it's absolutely amazing.
S1: On his weekly podcast, Living Blind Fully, Jonathan Merson does
S1: pretty well at tuning in to latest developments in blindness
S1: and low vision tech. He had an interesting conversation recently
S1: with a man named Dean Blasi, whose work goes back
S1: a long way back to the Braille and speak device
S1: back in the late 1980s.
S2: That's right. And if you remember that we talked about,
S2: I think it was last week before, we also talked
S2: about the the new BT speaker and the BT Speaker Pro,
S2: which is basically Dean Blasi re-engineering the new version of
S2: the Braille and speak. But it was interesting. It was
S2: a look back in time over his career spanning a
S2: very long time, and it was just interesting to hear
S2: how he developed different types of technology with, you know,
S2: different blind folks along the years. And it was amazing
S2: because I just remember that I had actually forgot a
S2: few products along the way as well that I, I
S2: had also come in contact with in the late 70s
S2: and early 80s. So if you're lucky, a bit of
S2: a historical perspective on where things came from and perhaps
S2: where they're going to, it's very much worthwhile listening to.
S1: Yes, very much so. Now there's a little Braille word
S1: game that you've discovered.
S2: Yeah, this was actually cute. So it's a web based
S2: game on a old fashioned thing called a word game.
S2: Except this time, not only do you have to correctly
S2: get the number of characters in the word correct, but
S2: you're also limited by the amounts of dots that each
S2: letter makes up in the word. So you might have
S2: a word on there that's, I don't know, four characters,
S2: but then you can only use a certain amount of dots.
S2: So it's a really good headspace board game. On trying
S2: to work out this word and by the number of
S2: dots you're only allowed to use, so it's free. It's
S2: on the web. You can play it on your mobile
S2: device or your desktop, and it's just one of those
S2: fun little fiddly things that you can do. So if
S2: you've got a bit of a spare time on your
S2: hands or your board or whatever else, have a play.
S2: And it is quite a lot of fun.
S1: Recently we talked about the Invision app now being available
S1: on the Blind Shell Classic two phone. You've discovered a
S1: bit of an issue.
S2: I honestly do not understand this particular way that things
S2: have done, so I tried to log in to the
S2: N Vision Eye app on my Blind Child Classic two.
S2: The Google option didn't work, but the email did. So
S2: I emailed the developers of the blind Show Classic and said,
S2: you know what? What's the what's the story? Why is
S2: it not working? And they said, oh no, no, no,
S2: you can't use Google signing on anything to do with
S2: the Blind Child Classic. And I thought, well, that's a
S2: bit weird. So I wrote back and said, well, if
S2: that's not an option, then why let a developer have
S2: that option on the app? They're produced? And the response was, well,
S2: they don't like to control what people do when they
S2: produce apps for the blind shell. So I thought, well,
S2: that's a little bit weird. If it doesn't work, then
S2: why not developers? It doesn't work. So for the sake
S2: of people's mind, please don't try the Google option if
S2: it ever pops up on the blind show classic too,
S2: because as I got told by the blind shelf, it
S2: doesn't work. So when you try the great Envision Eye app,
S2: email works beautifully. Don't try the Google and don't bother
S2: actually emailing the blind show because they already know it
S2: doesn't work.
S1: Fair enough. Well, there was a major software updates from
S1: Apple last week.
S2: Basically everything got updated across the whole iOS OS range.
S2: The one that stood out for me in particular was
S2: iOS 17.4. Now, the one that doesn't affect us in
S2: Australia is the EU. The European Union is decided that
S2: Apple has to offer other third party app stores because
S2: they think that Apple's controlling things too much. So that's
S2: been introduced in Europe. It doesn't. Us all doesn't think
S2: anybody outside the European Union. I'm in two minds about this.
S2: I love the fact that they're making Apple open things
S2: up a little bit, which Apple is fighting tooth and
S2: nail about, but it also means we may have an
S2: extra level of openness, which sometimes scares me, because openness
S2: means that any cowboy on the market can then start
S2: producing apps that may follow Apple's guidelines, but we may
S2: fall a bit short and accessibility, but I guess it
S2: will see what happens in the future with that one.
S2: But the other one that I find extremely gratifying about
S2: is we now have these transcription functions in the podcast app.
S2: So what happens is you go to your favorite podcast,
S2: you turn on transcription, you start playing the podcast, and
S2: then you can, you know, for a voiceover user, you
S2: can flick down or you can scroll down through the
S2: whole transcriptions you get. Do you think, oh, look, that
S2: sounds a bit interesting. They're talking about, I don't know,
S2: ramp access to buildings or trains. You double tap on
S2: that and hey presto, it takes the audio straight to
S2: that spot in the transcription and starts playing it. And
S2: you can, you know, you can zip forward and backwards
S2: like you can, you know, flick back by word by
S2: word or paragraph, whatever you want to do with voiceover
S2: and just flick around the whole podcast if you really
S2: want to. But it's absolutely amazing. And by the way,
S2: it only works in the podcasts app. But this may
S2: be one good way of dealing with those podcasts. You think,
S2: oh God, these guys talk too much. Um, they don't
S2: really say anything for the first ten minutes, so you
S2: can flick through all the general chitchat, go to where
S2: you want to start listening, double tap on the transcript,
S2: and hey presto, off you go.
S1: You're not talking about our program, are you?
S2: Certainly not.
S1: This could be great news for people who are deaf. Blind.
S2: That's right. Because you add in a refresher brow display
S2: and hey presto, you've got 100% accessibility and you've got
S2: control over the whole podcast. I just might say, Stephen,
S2: it's really funny reading a text version of a podcast,
S2: which is basically based on human speech, because you hear
S2: people say things like and so and perhaps that's it's
S2: quite bizarre. But no, it's truly is the transcription of
S2: what's being spoken on the audio podcast.
S1: So that's iOS for the phone and the iPad. Um,
S1: the other products, software upgrades.
S2: Yep. So watch OS 10.4. I didn't have any accessibility
S2: changes in it to the OS. Didn't either. The Mac
S2: OS one did have a small change to VoiceOver and
S2: VoiceOver utility to do a quick nav, so when you
S2: press your left and right, Erica using VoiceOver to turn
S2: quick on or off, you now have an option where
S2: the quick note on can also turn on single key
S2: navigation for you as well, which used to be a
S2: separate thing you'd have to do. So that's a little change.
S2: But besides that, most of the actual updates across the
S2: board to do with emojis. So different pictures that you
S2: can have, like people using a white cane, a person
S2: in the manual wheelchair and security bug fixes as well.
S1: Some more Apple device accessories.
S2: Apple released a brand new set of Apple Watch bands
S2: and some iPhone cases, and an interesting Belkin stand. I
S2: believe it's a stand that's to do with using your
S2: Apple TV, 4K, and your phone as the camera for
S2: the Apple TV, where you can sit in your lounge room,
S2: you can see your family or loved ones or friends
S2: on the big, big screen in your room. And of course,
S2: your phone's looking at you to provide the camera for
S2: them on the other end of the FaceTime call.
S1: Very interesting. Before we go, a reminder of where there
S1: are details of what we've been talking about in this
S1: 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 podbean pod band?
S1: Com David would be our podbean podbean. Com to write
S1: to the program.
S2: You can write to me at visit the show where
S2: I work which is David Woodbridge out sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor on
S1: access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. We'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.