WEBVTT - Talking Tech 15th October 2024 0:00:33.503 --> 0:00:37.312 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:37.313 --> 0:00:41.573 October the 15th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have 0:00:41.573 --> 0:00:45.263 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated 0:00:45.263 --> 0:00:49.013 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:49.043 --> 0:00:52.013 There is also the podcast to catch that. What you 0:00:52.013 --> 0:00:54.623 need to do is search for the two words talking 0:00:54.653 --> 0:00:58.193 tech and Danica Noel. Come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:58.193 --> 0:01:01.553 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:01:01.553 --> 0:01:05.123 your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision Australia 0:01:05.123 --> 0:01:10.762 radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast 0:01:10.943 --> 0:01:17.212 with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager. Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo. 0:01:17.303 --> 0:01:18.413 Hi, Stephen. 0:01:18.803 --> 0:01:24.743 Let's start by talking about a device known as the Braillesense. 0:01:24.983 --> 0:01:28.402 Some people would already be familiar with the Braillesense six. 0:01:28.403 --> 0:01:30.413 It's been out for a little while and was a 0:01:30.413 --> 0:01:37.323 replacement for the Braillesense Polaris. These products are from Silvis. Blv. 0:01:37.353 --> 0:01:42.393 Who some people would know as hymns and the Braillesense 0:01:42.393 --> 0:01:46.743 six is their Braille note taker type device. It comes 0:01:46.743 --> 0:01:50.913 in two variants a 32 cell and a 20 cell variant. 0:01:51.393 --> 0:01:55.863 They run the Android operating system and they have a 0:01:55.863 --> 0:01:58.953 number of inbuilt apps. So they have things like a 0:01:58.953 --> 0:02:04.413 word processor, a notepad, an email client, a web browser, 0:02:04.623 --> 0:02:09.993 a web radio, a daisy player, a media player for 0:02:10.203 --> 0:02:15.093 playing your MP3 music files, and that type of thing. Uh, 0:02:15.123 --> 0:02:18.423 there's a number of other extras like a dictionary, an 0:02:18.423 --> 0:02:21.603 Excel viewer, a range of other sort of utilities, a 0:02:21.603 --> 0:02:26.673 scientific calculator. And they have speech and Braille. And you 0:02:26.673 --> 0:02:29.793 can also do things like produce maths equations and those 0:02:29.793 --> 0:02:33.993 sorts of things in the word processor. Obviously being an 0:02:34.023 --> 0:02:37.413 Android type device, it has all of the usual sort 0:02:37.442 --> 0:02:43.203 of wireless and Bluetooth connectivity as well. The 32 cell 0:02:43.232 --> 0:02:46.833 version is probably about the size of an iPad mini, 0:02:46.863 --> 0:02:50.972 I would say, and the 20 cell. The mini version 0:02:50.972 --> 0:02:54.123 is a little bit smaller, so it's probably a similar 0:02:54.123 --> 0:02:58.142 width to a brilliant 20, but a little bit deeper 0:02:58.143 --> 0:03:01.413 from front to back because of the stereo speakers and 0:03:01.412 --> 0:03:04.742 the headphone jack and the two USB-C ports and so on. 0:03:04.773 --> 0:03:08.433 Some listening might be wondering how does this relate to 0:03:08.433 --> 0:03:13.293 the selfless, blv sense player that has been around now 0:03:13.292 --> 0:03:15.482 for almost two years? 0:03:15.512 --> 0:03:19.773 The Braillesense six came out ahead of the sense player 0:03:19.773 --> 0:03:22.532 by probably a year or so. So some of the 0:03:22.532 --> 0:03:26.673 apps are shared. So things like the the podcast downloader, 0:03:26.703 --> 0:03:31.112 the daisy player, the media player, those sorts of things 0:03:31.143 --> 0:03:34.993 are shared between the two devices or are very similar 0:03:34.993 --> 0:03:38.563 in functionality, but obviously because this has a Perkins style 0:03:38.593 --> 0:03:42.253 Braille keyboard, you know, you have things like the word processor, 0:03:42.283 --> 0:03:46.272 the email client, the calculator and a whole range of 0:03:46.273 --> 0:03:49.813 other things. So whereas the sense player is very much 0:03:49.843 --> 0:03:53.953 a media player type device, I tend to think of 0:03:53.953 --> 0:03:58.543 the Braille sense family of products more as a note 0:03:58.573 --> 0:04:02.113 taker type device. So I use mine in a similar 0:04:02.113 --> 0:04:04.633 way to the way my sighted colleagues tend to use 0:04:04.633 --> 0:04:05.623 their iPad. 0:04:05.623 --> 0:04:08.263 And with the Braille, it's a lot more expensive, isn't it? 0:04:08.263 --> 0:04:11.053 Up around 7500? Something like that. They are for. 0:04:11.053 --> 0:04:14.263 The 32 cell version. Yes. And for the 20 cell 0:04:14.263 --> 0:04:16.633 it's about 6500, I believe. Yeah. 0:04:16.663 --> 0:04:19.963 Whereas the sense player is down around about 1,100 AUD. 0:04:19.963 --> 0:04:23.413 That's right. Great devices, both of them. And the Braille 0:04:23.413 --> 0:04:27.043 sense has had a significant firmware upgrade recently. 0:04:27.073 --> 0:04:30.943 Yes it has. So what they're calling version 2.5 of 0:04:30.973 --> 0:04:34.483 their of the software for the Braille sense six came 0:04:34.483 --> 0:04:38.003 out this week. and it introduces a couple of cool 0:04:38.003 --> 0:04:44.272 new features, including a ChatGPT client and a new YouTube 0:04:44.273 --> 0:04:49.073 search facility where you can search YouTube and bookmark your 0:04:49.073 --> 0:04:53.033 favorites and those kinds of things. There's also about three 0:04:53.033 --> 0:04:56.423 pages of notes in terms of fixes, so there's quite 0:04:56.453 --> 0:05:02.873 a long list of things that have been updated, reworked, fixed, 0:05:02.903 --> 0:05:06.893 that type of thing. So anyone who's running a Braillesense 0:05:06.893 --> 0:05:10.613 six or a Braillesense six mini, I would definitely recommend upgrading. 0:05:10.613 --> 0:05:13.582 It's definitely a worthwhile upgrade. 0:05:13.793 --> 0:05:17.033 So we're talking about the Braillesense six or the Braillesense 0:05:17.033 --> 0:05:22.103 six mini. They're available from Silvis, Blv and the new 0:05:22.103 --> 0:05:24.923 firmware that's available. You're saying it's good to go for it? 0:05:24.953 --> 0:05:26.093 Yeah, definitely. 0:05:26.123 --> 0:05:30.203 Tell me about notebook LM, and when I say LM, 0:05:30.203 --> 0:05:32.033 that makes me think I. 0:05:32.123 --> 0:05:35.243 Yes, absolutely. And this is one that I've been playing 0:05:35.243 --> 0:05:38.253 around with this week, and I'm really quite intrigued by it. 0:05:38.253 --> 0:05:42.963 So notebook LM, it's a Google service and it is 0:05:42.963 --> 0:05:45.393 free at this point. I don't know whether they'll change 0:05:45.393 --> 0:05:47.403 that in the future, but at the moment it's free. 0:05:47.523 --> 0:05:52.773 And Google describes it as an AI powered research assistant. 0:05:52.773 --> 0:05:56.913 So what that means is that you can give it 0:05:56.913 --> 0:05:59.463 a number of different sources. So they might be documents 0:05:59.463 --> 0:06:03.033 from your computer, you know, word documents or PDFs. They 0:06:03.033 --> 0:06:07.863 might be, uh, websites. Um, there's a whole range of 0:06:07.863 --> 0:06:11.253 different formats that it supports. So you can give it 0:06:11.253 --> 0:06:13.113 a list of sources, and then you can have it 0:06:13.113 --> 0:06:17.013 generate a number of different things from those sources. It'll 0:06:17.013 --> 0:06:19.533 give you a list of things like, um, a table 0:06:19.533 --> 0:06:24.963 of contents, a summary, a study guide, an FAQ, or 0:06:24.963 --> 0:06:29.793 frequently asked questions. But the one that really surprised me 0:06:29.823 --> 0:06:34.113 is a thing called a deep dive conversation. So you 0:06:34.113 --> 0:06:36.573 can give it a, you know, a number of documents 0:06:36.573 --> 0:06:40.023 or a course outline or a manual or whatever you've got. 0:06:40.413 --> 0:06:43.563 Tell it to generate a deep dive conversation and it 0:06:43.563 --> 0:06:48.423 will generate some audio in the format of a podcast. 0:06:48.453 --> 0:06:51.513 So it will sound like two people having a discussion 0:06:51.513 --> 0:06:55.473 about your content in a very conversational sort of style. 0:06:55.623 --> 0:06:58.803 So almost like what you and I are doing here, Steven. 0:06:58.803 --> 0:07:02.553 But it's, uh, their AI generated voices. 0:07:02.583 --> 0:07:04.023 And we're not. 0:07:04.053 --> 0:07:08.553 That's right. Not yet anyway. Um, but they. You really 0:07:08.553 --> 0:07:12.423 wouldn't know in that they sound very natural. They breathe, they, um. And, ah, 0:07:12.453 --> 0:07:16.413 they laugh, you know, they it is a very conversational style. 0:07:16.413 --> 0:07:21.153 And I was really quite shocked at, uh, at the results. 0:07:21.153 --> 0:07:23.823 And it generates it quite quickly. And it might be 0:07:23.853 --> 0:07:29.073 a sort of a 10 to 30 minute, um, you know, audio, uh, 0:07:29.103 --> 0:07:31.563 you know, like a podcast episode, almost depending on how 0:07:31.563 --> 0:07:32.943 much content you give it. 0:07:32.973 --> 0:07:36.933 Notebook LLM language model. How do you get to it? 0:07:36.963 --> 0:07:39.933 Really, the easiest way is just to do a Google 0:07:39.943 --> 0:07:41.983 search for notebook LM, and it'll be the first thing 0:07:41.983 --> 0:07:44.713 that comes up and you do it through a web browser. 0:07:44.713 --> 0:07:47.503 I was using Google Chrome when I've been using it 0:07:47.503 --> 0:07:50.443 this week. Uh, it'll ask you to sign in to 0:07:50.443 --> 0:07:53.443 your Google account. So if you've got a Gmail account, 0:07:53.443 --> 0:07:55.573 you're already set up with one. Otherwise you you will 0:07:55.573 --> 0:07:59.263 need to create a Google account first. And then there's 0:07:59.263 --> 0:08:02.803 a button that says try notebook LM. And you can 0:08:02.803 --> 0:08:05.023 set up different notebooks too. So if you're looking at 0:08:05.023 --> 0:08:08.563 different products, you know, or different things, you know, so 0:08:08.563 --> 0:08:11.083 you could, for example, have a notebook where you give 0:08:11.083 --> 0:08:15.373 it a bunch of, uh, holiday, you know, destination websites 0:08:15.373 --> 0:08:16.723 and you could say, give me a list of all 0:08:16.753 --> 0:08:20.473 of the holiday accommodation in Byron Bay together with their 0:08:20.473 --> 0:08:22.543 prices or something like that. And then you might have 0:08:22.543 --> 0:08:25.033 another one for your your overseas trip to Italy and 0:08:25.033 --> 0:08:28.453 another one on, uh, the rules of test cricket, you know, 0:08:28.483 --> 0:08:30.523 so you can have a bunch of different notebooks that 0:08:30.523 --> 0:08:34.333 you can select from so that it organizes all of your, uh, 0:08:34.333 --> 0:08:37.033 information and your sources and the things that it generates 0:08:37.063 --> 0:08:38.533 quite nicely for you and to. 0:08:38.563 --> 0:08:41.173 Be clear, it's web based. It's not an app. 0:08:41.223 --> 0:08:44.763 That's right. Yes, it's it's accessed through a web browser. 0:08:44.793 --> 0:08:50.012 That one called notebook LM now Windows 11 and the 0:08:50.013 --> 0:08:52.203 major update for 2024. 0:08:52.323 --> 0:08:56.372 Yes that's right. Microsoft, in their sort of typical fairly 0:08:56.372 --> 0:09:01.713 cryptic fashion, are calling it version 24 H2. And yes, 0:09:01.713 --> 0:09:05.612 it is the major Windows 11 update for 2024 for 0:09:05.612 --> 0:09:10.803 people who already have one of the new, uh, co-pilot PCs. 0:09:10.803 --> 0:09:16.053 So the new ARM Snapdragon based PCs, they'll already be 0:09:16.053 --> 0:09:18.902 running it because they've been shipping it with those devices 0:09:18.902 --> 0:09:24.783 since June, mid-June. But for everybody else, uh, it's starting 0:09:24.813 --> 0:09:27.392 to come down the line from the beginning of October. 0:09:27.392 --> 0:09:30.213 So you may already have it. You may not. And 0:09:30.213 --> 0:09:34.892 it'll come down through the normal sort of Windows Update process. 0:09:34.923 --> 0:09:38.463 Microsoft tend to do these things as a staggered rollout, 0:09:38.463 --> 0:09:41.013 so they kind of deploy it in waves based on 0:09:41.043 --> 0:09:45.602 I'm not quite sure what either geographic location or PC manufacturer. 0:09:45.602 --> 0:09:48.063 I'm not quite sure how they determine who gets what 0:09:48.063 --> 0:09:51.242 and when, but you can get it, you know, if 0:09:51.242 --> 0:09:54.093 you want to force the update. And there is a 0:09:54.093 --> 0:09:56.912 URL which we can put in the show notes, um, 0:09:56.913 --> 0:10:01.743 where you can download the installation assistant and force the 0:10:01.742 --> 0:10:05.433 update to happen. I would suggest perhaps a little bit 0:10:05.433 --> 0:10:10.443 of caution though, in that if you use Windows Mail 0:10:10.443 --> 0:10:14.792 or Calendar or Contacts, so the sort of standard windows 0:10:14.823 --> 0:10:19.053 apps for those things, they will disappear with this update 0:10:19.053 --> 0:10:23.912 and you'll end up with the new look, um, Microsoft Outlook. 0:10:23.913 --> 0:10:27.992 And it's not like the outlook that most of us 0:10:27.992 --> 0:10:30.512 who use sort of office 365 would be used to. 0:10:30.543 --> 0:10:32.882 It is a web based app. It's the look and 0:10:32.882 --> 0:10:36.933 feel is quite different, and it's been getting some fairly 0:10:36.933 --> 0:10:40.713 mixed reviews, both in the mainstream press and in, uh, 0:10:40.713 --> 0:10:43.502 the sort of assistive tech space in terms of whether 0:10:43.533 --> 0:10:45.332 people like it and what they think of it from 0:10:45.333 --> 0:10:49.773 an accessibility standpoint. So if you're really happy with Windows Mail, 0:10:49.772 --> 0:10:53.733 you may want to consider not not installing this update. 0:10:53.732 --> 0:10:57.903 If you use Microsoft Outlook through a sort of an 0:10:57.902 --> 0:11:01.862 office 365 subscription or an earlier version of office, that 0:11:01.862 --> 0:11:04.022 won't change. You won't lose that. But if you use 0:11:04.022 --> 0:11:10.352 Windows Mail, Contacts and Calendar, then there is a big change. 0:11:10.352 --> 0:11:13.893 So it's just worth worth being aware of that. 0:11:13.923 --> 0:11:17.673 Yeah, so no real reason to go chasing after it. 0:11:17.703 --> 0:11:21.032 I don't think so. If you're running a machine with 0:11:21.033 --> 0:11:24.003 an ARM processor, you will notice some performance improvements and 0:11:24.002 --> 0:11:27.632 you will find that your sort of older legacy windows 0:11:27.663 --> 0:11:30.933 apps will run better. Um, but most of the other 0:11:30.933 --> 0:11:34.112 things are, again, sort of cosmetic under the hood updates. 0:11:34.112 --> 0:11:38.043 There's some changes to Windows Explorer, some changes to the 0:11:38.073 --> 0:11:40.142 kind of the visual look of things like the system 0:11:40.173 --> 0:11:45.583 tray and Cortana has been replaced with, uh, The copilot. 0:11:45.583 --> 0:11:48.823 Probably none of those things. Certainly from my point of view, 0:11:48.823 --> 0:11:51.882 I don't feel compelled to rush out and spend my 0:11:51.882 --> 0:11:56.683 Friday evening updating to Windows 11 24 H2. 0:11:56.713 --> 0:11:57.882 It'll just come in time. 0:11:57.913 --> 0:11:58.512 That's right. 0:11:58.512 --> 0:12:04.333 Yes. Now, for people using iOS 18, particularly on the 0:12:04.362 --> 0:12:08.742 iPhone 15 Pro and above. In other words, all the 0:12:08.742 --> 0:12:12.523 iPhone 16 models. A bit of a tip about preserving 0:12:12.522 --> 0:12:15.732 your battery. People may not be aware that there is 0:12:15.732 --> 0:12:19.782 now a feature in settings in the battery part. So 0:12:19.783 --> 0:12:23.022 you go into settings, then battery, and it's called charging. 0:12:23.022 --> 0:12:27.403 And within there you can set the level that you 0:12:27.402 --> 0:12:31.093 want it to stop charging at. It said isn't it Damo, 0:12:31.122 --> 0:12:33.973 that it's better for the battery not to go to 0:12:33.973 --> 0:12:36.703 the 100%? Every time, though, there's a bit of conjecture 0:12:36.703 --> 0:12:40.213 about how important that is. But you can stop it, 0:12:40.213 --> 0:12:43.422 say at 80, which is the lowest that you can 0:12:43.423 --> 0:12:46.673 stop it at 80, 85, 90, etc. and it will 0:12:46.703 --> 0:12:49.822 only charge to that level and maybe that will preserve 0:12:49.882 --> 0:12:53.333 the life of your battery. There's a funny thing happened though, 0:12:53.362 --> 0:12:57.862 with iOS 18 .0.1, which came out just a week 0:12:57.862 --> 0:13:01.253 or so ago for some people. What happened was that 0:13:01.252 --> 0:13:05.062 this no longer was happening, the stopping at the 80% 0:13:05.063 --> 0:13:08.453 and it was going on beyond that. And what we 0:13:08.453 --> 0:13:11.573 found is that if you go back into settings, move 0:13:11.573 --> 0:13:17.153 that pointer back up above the 80 or whatever you 0:13:17.152 --> 0:13:19.823 had it set at, and then back down again, it 0:13:19.823 --> 0:13:22.102 seems to take effect again. So you can get it 0:13:22.102 --> 0:13:24.803 back to behaving the way you expect it to, but 0:13:24.833 --> 0:13:26.362 a bit of a bit of a strange one. These 0:13:26.362 --> 0:13:30.203 quirks do come up in iOS. You've been using iOS 0:13:30.203 --> 0:13:33.022 18 for some time now. You're finding it okay. 0:13:33.053 --> 0:13:37.223 Yeah, I do like it, particularly the Braille screen input 0:13:37.433 --> 0:13:40.762 changes that we talked about, and I have been experimenting 0:13:40.762 --> 0:13:44.063 with the battery life. I did set mine up to 0:13:44.093 --> 0:13:47.932 only charge to 85% just to see Whether I could 0:13:47.933 --> 0:13:50.363 get through, you know, a day of sort of normal 0:13:50.362 --> 0:13:53.362 usage with it set like that. And I mean, the 0:13:53.362 --> 0:13:55.943 modern phones, the battery life is so good that really 0:13:55.943 --> 0:13:58.913 I haven't noticed much difference at the end of the day. 0:13:58.943 --> 0:14:01.732 Now, before we go, a reminder that you can find 0:14:01.762 --> 0:14:04.042 details of what we've been talking about in this and 0:14:04.043 --> 0:14:10.612 previous editions of the program by going to VA radio.org/talking tech. 0:14:10.642 --> 0:14:16.492 VA radio.org/talking tech to write to the program Damon McMorrow. 0:14:16.522 --> 0:14:22.073 That's Damo dot m c m o r o w 0:14:22.073 --> 0:14:26.123 at Vision australia.org, and I have had a couple of 0:14:26.123 --> 0:14:29.032 emails from listeners each week and I really appreciate receiving those. 0:14:29.033 --> 0:14:29.843 So thank you. 0:14:29.873 --> 0:14:35.093 Very good. Damo Dot McMorrow at Vision australia.org. This has 0:14:35.093 --> 0:14:38.363 been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national 0:14:38.363 --> 0:14:43.103 access technology manager Damien McMorrow I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. 0:14:43.103 --> 0:14:44.873 We'll talk more tech next week. See you.