S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: January the 28th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
S1: stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network.
S1: There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you
S1: need to do is search for the two words talking tech.
S1: And it 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: And guess what day Moz back Damo McMorrow, Vision Australia's
S1: national access technology manager. How was your holiday?
S2: It was great, but, um, it's always nice to be
S2: back and good to be with you once again doing
S2: talking tech for the year.
S1: We had some very good alternatives over the last three weeks,
S1: but you've still got a job with talking.
S2: Well, that's good to know. And thank you to the
S2: folks who, uh, who, you know, covered, um, some of
S2: the shows while I was away as well. I hope
S2: you enjoyed the content. I'd like to.
S1: Talk to you now about one of Vision Australia's many
S1: innovative programs, the Alexa smart home program. Tell us about that.
S2: This program is really, as the name suggests, designed to
S2: get people comfortable with using the Amazon Alexa smart speakers.
S2: It is open to people who are over 65, and
S2: it's funded through the Commonwealth Home Support or TSP program,
S2: or people who are on a home care package can
S2: also access it. Essentially, what we do is we provide
S2: an Amazon Echo Dot or echo speaker, depending on what's
S2: available at the time. We have an install partner who
S2: comes out and sets the speaker up for you, gets
S2: it connected to your internet, and sets you up with
S2: an Amazon account. And then we run eight sessions, generally
S2: about an hour each over an eight week period, and
S2: you're in a small group of usually three other people.
S2: So a group of four working with one of our facilitators,
S2: and we go through everything from sort of just the
S2: basics getting the time, setting alarms, timers, news and weather,
S2: you know, right through to listening to Audible or Kindle books,
S2: listening to podcasts such as this one, and then also
S2: doing things like setting up routines, you know, so that
S2: when you speak to the device in the morning, it
S2: turns something on or plays the latest news for you
S2: or that kind of thing. So because it's a group situation,
S2: it enables people to learn from one another's questions and
S2: that kind of thing.
S1: How are all the participants connected?
S2: At the moment we use either Zoom or Teams. Our
S2: help desk team can help you get set up with
S2: that before the program starts, and the help desk can
S2: also provide you with any sort of one on one
S2: help during the program that you might need. If you're
S2: having an issue, getting something to work or whatever we can,
S2: we can do that.
S1: For those who may not be familiar with the devices
S1: you're talking about. What are these Amazon Echo devices?
S2: Okay, so these are Amazon's version of a smart speaker.
S2: So it's a speaker that you can talk to, you know,
S2: so that you can say, um, you know, Alexa, what's
S2: the time? What's the current weather? What's the current score
S2: in the cricket, whatever it might be. So it's all
S2: controlled by voice, which is one of the reasons why, um,
S2: these are such an enabler for people because you don't
S2: need a degree in computer science, as it were, to
S2: be able to drive it. You don't even need to
S2: know your way around a keyboard, because everything you do
S2: is done using your voice. So they're a really easy
S2: device to use, and you can get a lot of
S2: information from them. Um, you know, you can even sort
S2: of do, you know, video like conference calls with your
S2: family and all sorts of stuff. So, um, it opens
S2: up a world of possibilities. And we a lot of
S2: the people that we speak to who joined the program,
S2: you know, perhaps they've stopped, uh, bothering with the newspaper.
S2: They may not even be calling family anymore because that
S2: stuff becomes a bit of a challenge. They might have
S2: stopped reading books. They might have been an avid reader.
S2: And so when they find out that they can read
S2: their Kindle books again with the device or that they can,
S2: you know, set up a routine to play the latest
S2: news every morning, it helps people to, you know, feel
S2: much more connected again to the world around them. The
S2: other thing that I should mention, too, is that all
S2: of our facilitators are themselves blind. So they do use
S2: this stuff on a daily basis themselves, and they absolutely
S2: meet you where you're at, as it were. So a
S2: lot of a lot of people enjoy that aspect of
S2: it as well, because they can learn from the facilitators,
S2: but also the other group members.
S1: For those who want to express an interest in enrolling
S1: in the program.
S2: The easiest way is to email voice assist. That's all.
S2: One word voice assist at Vision australia.org. Or they can
S2: ring our contact centre on one 300 8474. Double six.
S2: That's one 308 474. Double six and ask to be
S2: registered for the Alexa Smart Home program. We are aiming
S2: to start the next run at the end of February.
S2: So if you are interested in being part of the
S2: next program, please get in touch with us and we will.
S2: We'll get you enrolled and up and running.
S1: Excellent voice assist at Vision Australia. For nearly 12 months now,
S1: we've been raving from time to time about the tiny
S1: little pocket computer, the BT speak. Remind everybody about that
S1: and then we'll talk about some recent updates.
S2: Yes. So the BT speak from Blazie Technologies is a
S2: small pocket sized computer with a Perkins style Braille keyboard
S2: and speech output. So there's no no braille out. It's
S2: braille in speech out. It has a bunch of different
S2: applications a text editor and a address book, and a
S2: calendar and a bunch of other things. But it can
S2: also run desktop applications. So things like Google Chrome or
S2: the Thunderbird email client. The founder of Blaze Tech, Dean blaze,
S2: also many years ago founded a company called Blaze Engineering
S2: and they had a product called the Braille and Speak.
S2: And the BT speak is really the the modern equivalent
S2: of that.
S1: There's a gentleman named Robert Carter who runs a podcast,
S1: the Tech Doctor Podcast. It's been going for over ten
S1: years now. A really good podcast. And he ran a
S1: webinar last week at which the Blaze family was introduced.
S1: And then they talked about some of the updates and
S1: then took questions from people. I commend this podcast to anyone.
S1: All you have to do is look for the tech
S1: doctor and you'll find it. He gave a very good
S1: introduction speaking with Dean Blasi, the founder of the Blasi
S1: Technology Company, and with key members of the organization, a
S1: very small family company, plus a few other people, his
S1: three sons very much involved. They talk about the philosophy
S1: of the company, the concentration on meeting the aspirations of
S1: users in their changes to their their product. Well worth
S1: listening to. So that's the Tech Doctor blog. And podcast
S1: is the sort of the name of the web page.
S1: But if you look for the tech doctor, you'll find him.
S1: And there were some updates announced. Do you want to
S1: take us through some of those updates?
S2: Yeah, the most significant are the fact that they've introduced
S2: a better way of file sharing between your BT speak
S2: and your computer and doing that wirelessly, much more seamless
S2: process than it used to be. So if you're needing
S2: to transfer files to and from your BT speak, um,
S2: there's a better process for doing that. They've also introduced
S2: a feature called markdown in the BT speak editor. And
S2: what that does is it allows you to navigate to
S2: insert things like headings, bullets, those sorts of things in
S2: your documents, but then also to navigate easily through your
S2: document using those elements much the same as you might
S2: in something like Microsoft Word. That one's definitely handy if
S2: you're working with long documents to be able to jump
S2: through them heading by heading, and I think that'll be
S2: a very welcome feature. They've also introduced enhancements to their
S2: media player or audio player, where you can now adjust
S2: the playback speed. So for those who listen to audio
S2: books and like to do it on one and a
S2: half speeds so that they can power through it more
S2: quickly or whatever. You do have that option to adjust
S2: the playback speed on the fly. So there are a
S2: number of other little fixes and improvements. If you're doing
S2: a continuous read and you stop at reading, it'll put
S2: your cursor where where the reading stopped so that you
S2: can resume again. Things like that. So there's a number
S2: of other little bug fixes as well, which I think
S2: will will make the device nicer to use.
S1: A fantastic little device. The BT speak from Blazie technologies,
S1: the stellar trek from Humanware. It's been around a few
S1: years now. It's had some recent updates.
S2: The stellar Trek is the standalone GPS device from Humanware.
S2: It's something I tend to carry everywhere, particularly when I'm traveling.
S2: It allows you to get turn by turn directions, record
S2: your travel routes, put place markers on places that you
S2: need to be able to find. Again, all of those
S2: sorts of things. You can virtually browse the map with
S2: it as well. So they've made a few changes. They
S2: have done some improvements to Bluetooth audio. So if you
S2: use the device with something like a pair of aftershocks headphones,
S2: Bluetooth hearing aids, a pair of Ray-Ban meta glasses, for example,
S2: the Bluetooth connection is now quite a bit more stable.
S2: They've also gone through and cleaned up some of the
S2: points of points of interest. So they're the preloaded places,
S2: things like restaurants, service stations, shopping centers, banks, churches, those
S2: sorts of things. Those businesses come and go. Obviously, you
S2: don't want a point of interest for a business that's
S2: not there anymore. You can put.
S1: Your own points of interest in there too, can't you?
S2: Yes, you can. And you record those using your own voice.
S2: This device does have a camera on the back of it.
S2: There's a number of camera based apps. So we've got
S2: a couple of text reading modes. We have a barcode
S2: reader and also things like door detection. And so they've
S2: made some changes to those so that they perform better
S2: in low light conditions. So if you're trying to read
S2: a barcode label and you've forgotten to put the kitchen
S2: light on, um, you know, it'll perform better than, than
S2: it did previously in those sort of low light situations.
S1: That's the stellar trick from Humanware and some interesting little
S1: updates to that one. Updates continue. You mentioned the Ray-Ban
S1: meta smart glasses. They continue to evolve.
S2: Yes. One of the common complaints with them was that
S2: you couldn't get it to read a full document, insisted
S2: on summarizing it for you. But in version 11 of
S2: the software, you can get it to read the entire document.
S2: And in the event that it it doesn't for some
S2: reason that it truncates, which apparently it still sometimes does.
S2: You can just say, hey, keep reading. But yes, you can.
S2: If you say read entire document or read the whole document,
S2: it will do that rather than giving you a summary
S2: or a cut down version. I have tried it with
S2: a couple of things, including a menu, and it did
S2: work quite well. So version 11, that's a welcome improvement
S2: because it was one of the biggest frustrations, I think,
S2: with the meta glasses was the inability to have an
S2: entire page read to you.
S1: Such a versatile device. I was listening to a podcast
S1: over Christmas. Some bloke out camping did a video and
S1: put it up on up on YouTube of, uh, barbecuing. Yeah.
S2: I don't know who that would have been. Uh, we
S2: might actually talk about, uh, in a future episode, my, uh,
S2: YouTube exploits, because I've been trying to learn how to
S2: film and find accessible, you know, tools for that and
S2: learning all about camera angles as a blind person. So, um,
S2: we might share that in sometime in the next couple
S2: of episodes.
S1: We'll tell people now where they can find it, because
S1: it's very naughty of me to mention it and not
S1: say where it is, but it was very interesting. You're
S1: supposed to get out into the bush and forget about
S1: all your technologies and stuff, but you had it with
S1: you and it was making a difference.
S2: Yes. So I've called the channel the Blind Test Drive
S2: so you can get to it. Uh, youtube.com slash then
S2: the At sign and then blind test drive. I'm staying
S2: away from tech on the channel itself and mostly covering just,
S2: you know, how I do the things we do because
S2: Marian and I often get questions. How do you caravan.
S2: How do you handle your boat? How do you manage
S2: a smoker? So it's more about some of those things
S2: that we we do and the modifications and things that
S2: we adapt in order to make them work for us.
S2: So there'll be some cooking adventures, some camping, some fishing,
S2: maybe some kayaking. I've got a waterproof camera, so we'll
S2: see what we what we come up with over the
S2: next few months.
S1: That'll be very interesting to browse. Well, before we go,
S1: a reminder that you can find details of this and
S1: previous editions of the program by going to VA radio,
S1: talking to VA radio, Talking Tech, and to write to
S1: the program.
S2: Email me Damo Damo MC m o double r o
S2: w at Vision australia.org.
S1: Damo McMorrow at Vision Australia. Org. This has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology
S1: manager Damien McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe and we'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.