S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: July the 11th, 2023. I'm Steven Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us wherever you're listening perhaps through Virgin Australia
S1: radio associated Stations of Australia or maybe the Community Radio network,
S1: there is also the podcast. If you haven't caught up
S1: with the podcast yet, all you need to do is
S1: search for the two words. Talking tech and down at
S1: can all 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 Virgin 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: let's talk air fryers to start. We did touch on
S1: this last week and you've found out a lot more
S1: about accessibility and other things. We'll start with the Philips
S1: 5000 Air Fryer.
S2: This particular air fryer, like most air fryers these days,
S2: has got a touch screen. And I got a bit
S2: excited about this one because it actually came with an
S2: app that you could use to control the air fryer
S2: from your smartphone. I thought, Oh, well, that gets away
S2: from using the touch screen as it does with my
S2: coffee machine. So I thought, I'll talk to 1 or
S2: 2 people about it. And those people got quite excited
S2: until they actually got one of them. And it appears
S2: that the app, as with quite a lot of apps
S2: on the market, is not accessible because they use non-standard
S2: controls on the screen. So they use custom controls that
S2: people like us who are blind, that use voiceover then
S2: can't use those controls and hence can't use the app.
S2: I believe that was the case from what reports I
S2: heard from both Android and iOS iPhone. But apparently it
S2: does work if you link up the Amazon Alexa skill
S2: to the account that you've got two years for the
S2: Philips 5000 itself. And then you can say things like start, stop,
S2: all that sort of stuff. So I thought, well, if
S2: it doesn't really work in the Amazon, Echo is the
S2: only way you can use it, then that really is
S2: not accessible. So if you're talking about it last week,
S2: I would be very cautious indeed, particularly if you're a
S2: blind person requiring voiceover, perhaps not to use that particular
S2: air fryer or indeed, if you want to use it
S2: and give people feedback on the app that controls it,
S2: then certainly feel free to.
S1: But you can't give bad news without some good news
S1: and you've found one that is quite usable.
S2: I did. Now I'm going to pronounce this air fryer
S2: Tefal And then my wife says it's tefal so I
S2: won't get into the spelling of at the moment, but
S2: you'll see it in the show notes. I've got a
S2: link there to either JB Hi-Fi or the Good Guys.
S2: It's a good old fashioned manual air fryer. And what
S2: I mean by that is at the front of this one,
S2: you've got a round big knob that you turn to
S2: the right as in clockwise, to actually set the time
S2: and it makes it click, click, click noise as you're
S2: turning it around, it's got a pointer so you can
S2: tell we're about in the clock. Face It is. And
S2: I've just put a few markers on mine to remember what,
S2: you know, 15 minutes is and so on. And of
S2: course when you let it go, it has the old
S2: timer function which goes tick, tick, tick, tick. And it
S2: goes ding when it's finished and turns the air fryer
S2: off and at the top of the air fryer right
S2: on top, you've got a big round control with which
S2: where you turn it, you can adjust the temperature from
S2: zero degrees Celsius up to 200°C. And again, that's got
S2: a nice little pointer on that particular one. And the
S2: nice thing about it saving is when you turn it,
S2: it stops at 200. It doesn't keep rotating around. So
S2: it's got a beginning and an end point. But again,
S2: if you wanted to set it to 100 or 150,
S2: rather than know full blown 200°C, you can certainly put
S2: again markers on the surface of the air fryer itself.
S2: I've had mine since last Thursday. I've done recitals in it,
S2: I've done fish and chips, I've done prawns and all
S2: sorts of things. And my goodness, the difference between cooking
S2: on an air fryer and cooking stuff in the oven,
S2: not only is it nice and quick, but it's also
S2: makes absolutely beautiful chips. Yeah.
S1: All right, come on. We're getting hungry.
S2: So it really is lovely. And the nice thing I
S2: like about it is finally, when you take the basket out,
S2: you're not touching anything else that that's hot. So it's
S2: one of those things. Steve And I thought, what did
S2: I do before my smartphone? And now I'm doing what
S2: did I do before my air fryer So check it out.
S2: It's fully accessible, as in the buttons are completely. You
S2: can search for lots of different airfryer recipes on the
S2: internet and have fun. Everything.
S1: Good lesson there. We don't always need whiz bang technology.
S2: No, exactly.
S1: At the end of this month, we're going to have
S1: another of your exploring tech webinars from Vision Australia. These
S1: take place every couple of months now.
S2: So this one's on Reading Solutions. Now, what I mean
S2: by reading Solution, this is not reading books, this is
S2: reading things in your environment. So whether it's the mail
S2: post box, whether it's items or print on your jars
S2: and packaging in your pantry medicine labels to check your
S2: dosage for your medicine or, you know, when you're shopping
S2: around and and you want to read the price on
S2: things in the shop, then I'm going to go through
S2: all the different solutions that you can get your hands
S2: on to make this possible from absolutely free apps that
S2: you can use on your iPhone or Android phone right
S2: through to electronic video magnifiers, which are electronic devices. That
S2: magnifies the quote print in front of you and also
S2: gives you different contrast options, highlight options, magnification options, and
S2: so on. Optical character recognition or called OCR, which actually
S2: reads the print out in speech to you. If you
S2: don't have enough vision to quote, read the print. And
S2: also looking at wearable devices that I know there's a
S2: few on the market at the moment. So that's what
S2: we'll be covering. And I'm actually really looking forward to
S2: this one because one of the most frustrating things is
S2: just being able to read print on all sorts of
S2: different things, not to mention things like touch screens and
S2: those sort of things these days. So looking forward to
S2: that one. It's on the last Wednesday of July at
S2: 7:30 p.m. and that's Sydney time.
S1: And people can get to hear that at other times
S1: after the event, can't they?
S2: They can. It'll be on the Vision Australia YouTube channel
S2: and also my ESI podcast.
S1: Talking of magnifying, there's an interesting app from Human Wear.
S2: Yeah, look, it's called The Human Way Explore Magnifier and
S2: it's a free as in free app that you can
S2: run on your iPhone or your Samsung Android phone and
S2: it does what it implies. It actually magnifies stuff that
S2: the camera is looking at. You can actually zoom in
S2: and have a close look at things. You can take
S2: a snapshot of a frozen photo of something. So if
S2: you want to investigate it more or read more about
S2: what's on the screen, you can do that as well.
S2: It's a very simple, straightforward app to use because quite
S2: a few times if you go and look, for example,
S2: in the magnifier app on your iPhone, which is built in,
S2: it's a little bit overwhelming because it's got all these
S2: different options, including stuff for blind people about door detection
S2: and so on. This is purely a one task function.
S2: The thing it does is magnification only. So I think
S2: from a here's a video magnifier type point of view,
S2: it's a really great, simple, intuitive app to use. So
S2: I must say it's really great that Human was put
S2: out this magnifier because I think really think people that
S2: are a bit scared of technology are going to find
S2: this really easy to use.
S1: For anybody undertaking study. One of the barriers may well
S1: be getting hold of the assistive technology that's needed. So
S1: Vision Australia has its bursary program and once again calling
S1: for expressions of interest for the 2024 people.
S2: Indeed. So it's up and running again. It's a certain
S2: amount of money that you can get, as you mentioned, Steve,
S2: to buy assistive technology. Now when we buy assistive technology,
S2: it's both mainstream and assistive technology hardware or software. So
S2: if you're thinking it's not going to cover a laptop, yes,
S2: it does cover a laptop. And you might be looking at,
S2: you know, scanners and screen reading software and screen magnification
S2: software and handheld video magnifiers and all that sort of stuff.
S2: And what normally happens is that you get a short
S2: assessment normally done by the adaptive technology helpdesk. They sort
S2: of try identify your your main needs for the course
S2: that you'll be undertaking. And then towards the end of
S2: the year, when the actual applicants that successful have been announced,
S2: then you'll get a proper assessment done by our assistive
S2: technology services team and they will put a report in
S2: and then you'll get your stuff funded and you can
S2: undertake your course for 2024. So it's a really exciting time.
S2: You need to get your applications in by the end
S2: of October, including that little assessment that you've got to
S2: get done by the ATI helpdesk. But all the information
S2: is on the website and it's a pretty easy website
S2: to remember. It's simply WW W Weisner Street. Org. So
S2: the main site forward slash bursary bursary light.
S1: Last year, Elon Musk took over Twitter and the chaos started.
S1: Alternatives have been springing up and now matter. Who are
S1: the ones responsible for Facebook and Instagram have come up
S1: with a solution for some people.
S2: And it's called threads like the name implies free ads.
S2: And it's basically a almost like a direct competitor to Twitter,
S2: if you like. And I'll say upfront that you do
S2: need an Instagram account to use it. So if you
S2: don't have that, then you might be able to use threads.
S2: I don't have an Instagram account. What's interesting, Stephen, though,
S2: is Mastodon, which is another social media network. Then last
S2: time I checked, I don't know if this is accurate,
S2: but there was something like 13 million people currently using
S2: Mastodon within four days. As we go to air this week,
S2: there's actually 100 million people. Yes, 100 million people using threads.
S2: And it really does offer similar things to what Twitter does.
S2: People that are sort of like, you know, well in
S2: the well known in the industry and news and Apple's
S2: on there and all different places are on there. So
S2: it's really really interesting and we'll see how it goes.
S2: But I believe, Stefan, you actually had a go at
S2: the app. Did you find it very accessible?
S1: Yes, I am not an Instagram person, but I did
S1: have to join Instagram for this. But Threads is text
S1: based and I haven't used it a lot yet, but
S1: I haven't found accessibility as a barrier. It seems to
S1: work pretty well, but we'll see how that sort of unfolds.
S1: So I'm not committing myself yet, but it does seem
S1: good and it's very interesting that there are so many
S1: users already. So it may be a real competition to
S1: Twitter and to others that have been springing up.
S2: It's interesting. Can I say that, you know, with Mastodon, Twitter,
S2: Facebook now Threads and so on, I very rarely now
S2: read any comment from any content from mainly Twitter and Mastodon.
S2: I post to those services, but I very rarely read
S2: them now. So all my stuff done, as I mentioned
S2: the other week is done by my RSS reader on
S2: my iPhone, on my Mac leery. But yeah, I hardly
S2: just read. There's just too much nonsense going on on
S2: particularly on Twitter at the moment. So I might race
S2: on up to Instagram and give it a go. So
S2: I'll report back my thoughts hopefully next week as well.
S1: I very rarely post and I'm very selective about who
S1: I follow. So we all do these things different. We
S1: don't do it. It's quite interesting. Now, just briefly, you've
S1: been investigating a number of products for some time. How's
S1: all that going?
S2: Very promisingly. I've been doing three main ones that I've
S2: currently been doing are there's a keyboard called the Smart
S2: IO one word. It's basically a very similar keyboard to
S2: the Revo three keyboard. So if you know about Revo,
S2: then you know what this smart IO keyboard looks like?
S2: It's basically a numeric keypad custom keyboard for iOS and
S2: Android at the moment. I'm currently investigating it, so I
S2: won't say one way other than what my opinion is
S2: because I haven't finished the evaluation. You know, I want
S2: to do a comparison to Revo number two is the
S2: Dot Inc. dot pad that I talked quite. I think
S2: it's about six months ago. That's going extremely well, particularly
S2: their software, the app that runs on the system. And
S2: number three is the any self-teaching Braille device. And at
S2: the moment the hardware is really nice. The software is
S2: a bit iffy. So I'm running on a bit of
S2: a comparison with the poly, which is the similar unit
S2: from the American Printing House for the Blind ABH.
S1: Just before we go, a reminder of where people can
S1: find details of what we've been covering in this and
S1: previous editions of the program.
S2: You can check out my blog site, which is David
S2: Would it be a dot podbean pad?
S1: Ben David would be dot Podbean Podbean to write to
S1: the program.
S2: You can write to me at Virgin Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge, How it sounds at 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.