S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: January the 22nd, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening through maybe Virgin Australia Radio, Associated
S1: Stations of Australia or the Community Radio Network. There is
S1: also the podcast. To catch that, all you need to
S1: do is search for the two words talking tech and Dan.
S1: It can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just
S1: after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your
S1: Siri device or smart speaker to play Virgin Australia Radio
S1: talking Tech podcast, Virgin 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 and David,
S1: you were off explaining the technology somewhere else on Virgin
S1: Australia Radio recently. I like the idea of being able
S1: to talk about other programs on our network.
S2: It is good. I was actually on the Studio One
S2: podcast with Sam Richard, and we were talking about all
S2: the different types of technology that people actually can use,
S2: smartphones and TVs and all sorts of wonderful stuff. So
S2: if you want to listen to it, go into your
S2: favourite pod catcher and check out this Studio One podcast
S2: feed and have fun having a listen.
S1: That's a good program to keep up with each week
S1: to studio one from Virgin Australia Radio. We talked a
S1: couple of weeks ago about the web Aim Screen Reader survey.
S1: It's a worldwide initiative and the closing date is very soon.
S2: Yeah, so it's the end of January. Uh, January 31st, 2024.
S2: And this is a way that the people can keep
S2: track that do these surveys. So this is the 10th
S2: one of what's currently happening in the realm of access
S2: to digital things in the world, whether it's the World
S2: Wide Web, uh, whether it's PDF files, whether it's desktop
S2: mode for Android, iOS, all that sort of stuff. So
S2: it's a really great way of seeing what's happening and
S2: what the trends are in the world. So as you know,
S2: it's Android, uh, getting bigger and better versus iOS. Is
S2: the Mac growing? Is it shrinking? Are people using windows
S2: more and so on. So it's a really great thing
S2: to get involved with. And of course we want really
S2: relevant stats across the whole world. So if you haven't
S2: done it yet, check out the show notes and certainly
S2: do the survey. And it'll literally only take you less
S2: than about ten minutes.
S1: Yeah. The great thing to do Apple is many of
S1: us know about Apple visits, really the accessibility community for
S1: Apple products. And Apple is has its Apple Vision report
S1: each year on Apple accessibility. What do they say in
S1: this time?
S2: Overall, I don't think it really changes that much because
S2: what they really wanted to say is, of course, low
S2: vision seems to be reasonably okay. Uh, when it comes to, uh,
S2: apple supporting blind people with speech output i.e voiceover, um,
S2: and Braille support, there seems to be a still a
S2: bit of a glum mood around that. It's still not
S2: quite there yet. There are some things, particularly for Braille,
S2: that people are not satisfied with, the same bugs or
S2: the same issues keep reappearing and you sort of get
S2: to a stage where you think, well, why would I
S2: want to keep giving feedback if such a big multinational
S2: company like Apple doesn't pay attention to it. So hopefully
S2: this will feed back into the Apple accessibility folks at
S2: Apple in Cupertino in the US, and hopefully they'll take
S2: it on board. So this type of feedback is still important.
S2: So I'm not saying don't bother. Um, but what I'm
S2: saying is that, you know, it's like writing a letter
S2: in the sand every time the waves come in, it
S2: washes it out, and you've just got to keep doing
S2: it over and over again. And unfortunately, that's part of
S2: being an advocate.
S1: And accessibility is going to be really important with this
S1: new generation of Apple products. The Vision Pro.
S2: Indeed. Because to me, this almost feels like going from
S2: the old days of, you know, mS-DOS, which was a
S2: text based operating system, command driven, one to a graphical
S2: user interface, windows. And when that happened, we all sort
S2: of threw up our hands and went, oh dear, what's
S2: going to happen to blind people in particular? But this
S2: to me with the Vision Pro, I'm really looking forward
S2: to it. Now. I know I said last week, you know,
S2: the pre-orders are out. It's going to come out the
S2: 2nd of February in the US. Um, I'm looking forward
S2: to people getting their hands on it for accessibility testing
S2: in the States. And it's going to be interesting because
S2: I think this is one of these things, particularly about
S2: spatial computing, that as blind people we've never really experienced before,
S2: we've had a bit of a taste with it, with
S2: things like the CIA app and lidar and that sort
S2: of stuff. But I think when you can put stuff
S2: in a special place so you can park your mail
S2: over a particular spot, and you can park a notification
S2: somewhere else in your app, somewhere else. This is a
S2: very interesting thing for blind people to get involved with.
S2: So all this stuff they're talking about by watching TV
S2: shows and movies and doing all sorts of fancy visual stuff,
S2: that's all well and good, but it's also got some
S2: amazing stuff. Can you imagine having it your eye level,
S2: running an app like CSI, which I'm sure is going
S2: to work on the headset, uh, being able to use
S2: that at eyesight head height again and being able to
S2: identify objects in your current location, that's going to be amazing.
S1: So a real pivotal moment really in the progress of wearables,
S1: isn't it?
S2: Look, I think so. And this really extends the the
S2: boundaries of what's what's happening. And that's why I think
S2: that Apple didn't call it augmented reality or virtual reality.
S2: Or there's another one I can't remember the name of now,
S2: but it's called XR. This is really spatial reality. This
S2: is putting objects in your environment that benefits you.
S1: If people want to find out more about Vision Pro,
S1: there's a bit of stuff out there on the web
S1: now from Apple.
S2: There's lots of stuff on the web, so you can
S2: really delve into, you know what the vision probably even
S2: looks like, what the apps will run when they talk
S2: about things like windows and volumes and that sort of stuff.
S2: What what's meant by all that sort of stuff. And
S2: there's a really good intro video where they got a
S2: quite surprising new person, uh, working with the Vision Pro, um,
S2: in an Apple Store. And it was extremely well done.
S2: And of course, it's very well described. And as with
S2: all Apple's ads, you've always got the ad stuff happening anyway.
S1: And you're happy to be sitting back and seeing what
S1: happens in the States where it's being released. Now before
S1: we get the opportunity to put our hands on it
S1: in Australia and other parts of the world.
S2: I am, I'm going to be really enjoying seeing how
S2: other people that I've got the disability perspective, look at
S2: this headset and say, you know what, these are all
S2: the different types of things you can do with the headset. Um,
S2: because I remember on I think it was on Twitter
S2: last week, somebody said, oh, but look, it's not going
S2: to be accessible because it's all visual. And I said, well,
S2: if you go back and look at Wwdc in 2023,
S2: they actually had a whole demo on accessibility that was
S2: built into the headset. So of course we've got VoiceOver,
S2: we've got zoom, we've got all sorts of other things.
S2: So it's not just your eye movement, but your gestures
S2: and your voice. So like all Apple products, it's going
S2: to be 100% accessible a course. There'll be things you
S2: won't be able to do as a blind person, but
S2: my goodness, you'll be able to do a heck of
S2: a lot as well.
S1: In 1989, for use in the workplace, I got my
S1: hands on a device called Braille and speak from Blazey
S1: Engineering in the United States. It was the brainchild of
S1: a man named Dean Blazey. Um. He's back.
S2: He's back now, this really does feel like a time
S2: jump to me, because he's back with a new business
S2: called Blazey Tech, which is very familiar with his name.
S2: And the two devices that he's reintroducing to the market
S2: this year is the BT speak and the BT Speak Pro.
S2: So they're both basically are two Braille input speech output
S2: no takers. So there's no braille display on them. They're
S2: just like the original Braille and speak typical notetaking type
S2: things such as an editor, play music, stream music, calendar, stopwatch, clock,
S2: all that sort of stuff. Uh, the pro version. It
S2: will also allow you to run desktop applications like social
S2: media office type apps, keeping in mind that this is
S2: based on Unix. So it's literally a shell running on
S2: top of this platform, which is going to be the
S2: BT speak show. But you can actually boot into this
S2: thing and run orca, which is the Unix screen reader.
S2: So it's going to be absolutely amazing and in all
S2: measurements because I'm an old person now, so to speak. Um,
S2: it's six inches long, two inches in depth and about
S2: half an inch or a little bit bigger in depth.
S2: So to me, that was roughly about the same size
S2: of the original Braille and speak, which I had in 1990.
S2: So I'm a bit sad, Steve, that you got one
S2: before I did back then. But, um, it's really great
S2: to see that. And oddly, Stephen, it actually uses the
S2: desktop voice. I haven't heard the desktop voice for a
S2: long time, so it's going to be nice to hear
S2: Paul and someone on the beat speak again.
S1: Might cost a few bucks, though.
S2: I think in Australian dollars it's going to be probably
S2: around about a $3,000 mark. Hopefully I'm wrong. Um, but
S2: it's been show showed off at the Atea conference next
S2: week in Orlando, Florida, and we'll just see what happens
S2: about the price.
S1: Tell us about the Samsung S20. For range of phones
S1: announced last week.
S2: Smartphones indeed. So this is the new Samsung range. So
S2: you got the S20 for the S20 for plus and
S2: the S20 for ultra. So it's all the premium phones
S2: from Samsung. And they were talking about an AI feature
S2: in particular. And mind you, the whole thing was about
S2: AI in a way, was this benefit of where you
S2: can talk on your phone and up to 13 languages.
S2: The other person hears the language that you chose for them.
S2: So if you're speaking in English and you're speaking to
S2: somebody in Spanish, they will actually hear a voice talking
S2: in Spanish. Now when they speak in Spanish, it will
S2: get automatically translated to you in English. And that's pretty amazing.
S2: And another thing they showed off, which was more of
S2: a Google feature than a Samsung feature, I believe, and
S2: I don't know how this is going to work with
S2: assistive technology like talkback at the moment, but you can
S2: draw a circle around anything on the screen. So let's
S2: say it's a picture of a flower, a picture of
S2: a car, a picture of a building, and by drawing
S2: this circle around it, you identify to the eye that
S2: that's what you would like to search for on the internet. Um,
S2: or I'm assuming in some language large model thing LM
S2: that AI is based on, and it will give you
S2: information based on that search that you've just circled. So
S2: it'll be interesting to see how that works with access technology.
S2: But again, the whole the whole phone was built around
S2: AI type of information to do with photos and messages
S2: and videos and all sorts of stuff. So let's just
S2: see where that goes today. I'm probably still not going
S2: to budge and I'm going to keep happily using my
S2: Z3 flip. But no, it's really fascinating. And we did.
S2: So this year it's all going to be about AI. Absolutely.
S2: And Samsung has certainly proved it with these three new
S2: phones on the market.
S1: With people getting back to their studies and people continuing
S1: to do things in the workplace, it's probably a good
S1: time to talk about gadgets and technologies and stuff. You've
S1: got a whole list of devices that you'll have in
S1: the show. Notes. I want to talk to you about
S1: the desk environment at the vision store of Vision Australia.
S1: There's a nice little holder for the smartphone.
S2: It is. It's called the Arcon Desktop Stand. And basically
S2: you can put your phone in it and you can
S2: literally point the phone in any direction you like down, up, sideways,
S2: upside down, horizontally angled, blah, blah, blah. So it's basically
S2: a 360 angle, and it's really good for low vision
S2: access to turn your phone into a video magnifier for
S2: video conferencing. And of course, if you're a blind person
S2: using optical character recognition and so on. And it's a
S2: really good stand. And by the way, it actually sort
S2: of collapses down to be very tiny. Uh, the base
S2: is a little bit big, but you can certainly pull the,
S2: the pole off that holds up then the articulated arm
S2: that holds your smartphone.
S1: Yeah. And how much is that one.
S2: So it's about $180 for that one.
S1: Tell me about the daylight smart go lamp.
S2: One of the things about love in particular is to
S2: have task lighting. So whether you're looking at a piece
S2: of paper while you're handwriting, uh, why you're maybe examining
S2: some photos again, you know, your hard copy photos or
S2: doing any other types of tasks that you need good
S2: lighting for. It's really good to have these type of
S2: desk lights that you can have different brightnesses depending on
S2: what you're looking at and what your environment's like in
S2: your house and your room and so on. So I
S2: always recommend to for low vision people, it's really beneficial
S2: to have a task lighting because it's directed lights rather
S2: than having your light in your room. In general, this
S2: is a much more focused, if you like, spotlight on
S2: what you're doing.
S1: And just before we go, a reminder of whether details
S1: of what you've been talking about in this and previous
S1: editions of the program, indeed.
S2: So as always, you can check out my show notes
S2: on the blog site, which is David, would it be
S2: a dot podbean pad bayan com.
S1: David would be a dot podbean pod be a incom
S1: to write to the program?
S2: To write to me at Vision Australia where I work.
S2: You can email me at David Woodbridge Heart Sounds at
S2: Vision Australia.
S1: Org David 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. Stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.