S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: August the 6th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have
S1: you with us listening through Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations
S1: 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
S1: tech and Dana can all come usually on a Tuesday
S1: afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to
S1: ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision
S1: Australia Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking Tech
S1: podcast with me, someone who can explain all this tech
S1: stuff really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge. David, let's start with the product minute, an
S1: item from the vision store of Vision Australia. You've got
S1: a nice big phone to tell us about. Yes I do.
S2: So this product is called the Big Purple Phone Silver Fox.
S2: And the first thing I like about this is that
S2: it's an Australian product. So you know, made in Australia,
S2: which is actually really cool. Um, I probably should say
S2: the software is made in Australia because the software that
S2: runs on the hardware, the hardware is actually a Nokia phone.
S2: And of course, you're probably already thinking, well, I think
S2: David's going to mention the word android, which I am.
S2: Because the operating system on the phone is indeed Android,
S2: and the software, which is the big purple phone, Silver
S2: Fox software. It sits on top of that Android operating system.
S2: But as far as a customer is concerned, when you
S2: wander into the vision store and you pick up the
S2: big purple phone, silver fox, you see immediately beautiful. large,
S2: simple icons. You see pictures of people that you'd like
S2: to dial. Um, it's extremely high contrast. It's got an
S2: SOS button for emergency calling, and it's got a limited
S2: number of apps on the phone that you can choose
S2: to have, visible or not visible. And if you're a
S2: carer or a support person of someone who has the
S2: phone and they don't have the ability to be able
S2: to change settings on the phone themselves, or you want
S2: to add things to it or take things off, there
S2: is a quote carers website that you can log into
S2: and you can completely control the phone. Of course, with
S2: the person's permission on being able to change the settings
S2: in the phone. But the thing I also like about
S2: the phone is the fact that it's also protected against
S2: spam calling and SMS messages, because where you can set
S2: up for only contacts can call the phone. So there's no,
S2: you know, spamming going on. And the really, really cool
S2: thing is that if you need to get into other
S2: settings of the phone, which is hidden from the user,
S2: you can also do that. And it has very simple
S2: things like video calling. It has internet radio on it
S2: for listening to different radio stations. Um, it's got photos
S2: so you can still share and take photos and you
S2: can still, you know, send and receive text messages. You
S2: can also use the Dialpad if you wish to make
S2: phone calls manually. And by the way, even though this
S2: is a low vision phone, that keypad, you can also
S2: make it talk. So when you press one, two and three,
S2: it'll actually announce one, two and three. So all over
S2: it's what it's meant to be is a very simple,
S2: straightforward phone. Now, I know we used to call these
S2: things dumb phones in the past. Well, if you like,
S2: I wouldn't say this is a dumb. This is a nice,
S2: simple phone to use for people that just want to
S2: be connected with their loved ones and friends, and I
S2: think it's a fantastic idea.
S1: And how much is it?
S2: It's $699.
S1: $699. The big purple phone, silver Fox from the vision
S1: store at Vision Australia. I want to talk about Orcam.
S1: Many would know of the Orcam products, the wearable that
S1: detects things been around for some years and more recently,
S1: the handheld redoubles. There's been talk around the world that
S1: orcam are moving out of the blindness and low vision market. David.
S2: That's correct. It's been on a few news websites and podcasts,
S2: and I'd like to assure our customers and of course,
S2: our listeners, that senior management at both Quantum and Vision
S2: Australia Vision Store are quite aware of what's happening. They're
S2: currently working through a few things to see how this
S2: will impact both Quantum and Vision Australia, and I'll be
S2: able to give people an update in the near future.
S1: Now, I'd like to talk to you about your podcasts.
S1: We haven't talked about podcasts for a while, and the
S1: podcasting world is an evolving one. What do you do
S1: with podcasts these days?
S2: So I've gone in and decided to only use the
S2: podcasts app on, of course my Mac, my Apple Watch,
S2: my Apple TV and my iPhone, etc. etc. because while
S2: it had transcriptions in it and two, I was just
S2: getting very messy between the old downcast that I used to,
S2: which I used to use Stephen overcast and the Apple Podcasts,
S2: I decided, right, that's it. I'm going to actually consolidate
S2: into one app, which is the podcasts app. And then
S2: when I cleaned them up about a week or two ago,
S2: I discovered that I've got about 21 to 22 podcasts
S2: that I religiously follow every single week and listen to them.
S2: But out of those 21, which are divided up between
S2: adaptive technology or assistive technology and mainstream, I do have
S2: three top favorites for assistive technology, and I definitely do
S2: have top three favorites for mainstream.
S1: And you've got a list of all those somewhere.
S2: I do, so I did post the whole list on
S2: Mastodon because it definitely won't fit on Twitter. Um, I
S2: will have all the links in the show notes. Um,
S2: but I didn't want to sort of bore people about
S2: going through the whole 22. So today I'll just list
S2: my top three from each category. But yes, you can
S2: definitely look in the show notes or on Mastodon.
S1: And what are your top ones?
S2: So what I recommend to people to listen to in
S2: particular is the Talking Tech Vision Australia radio show. Second
S2: one is Living Blind Fully by Jonathan Mohsin and number
S2: three is the IC Forest Technologies from a blind person's perspective.
S1: And what about mainstream ones?
S2: Mainstream one is one that I've been using and listening
S2: to for a long time is the Daily Tech news show.
S2: The second one is six colors and a third one
S2: is Macbreak weekly.
S1: What six colors?
S2: About six colors is by a person called Jason Snell,
S2: who used to be one of the major editors at
S2: Macworld quite a long time ago, and he's been a
S2: co-host now on Macbreak weekly. So he does a podcast
S2: which is primarily aimed at Apple technology, but he really
S2: does all types of technology and how it relates to
S2: culture in general. So it's not just a, you know,
S2: this tech came out, it's how this technology is reflected
S2: in our current culture.
S1: And details in the show notes of how to get
S1: hold of those.
S2: Indeed.
S1: Excellent. A completely different topic. Now X is continuing to
S1: muck around and has removed the Twitter app from the
S1: Mac App Store.
S2: Yes. now there's an interesting story behind this one, because
S2: I got a notification on my Mac last weekend and
S2: it said, uh, you can't use this application anymore, you
S2: need to update it to the X app. So I
S2: updated it to the X app, and then it came
S2: back and said, you are not authorized to use this application.
S2: I went, oh. So I got rid of that one.
S2: And then I went back to my iOS Xe app
S2: and it said, uh, due to violations of the ECS
S2: rules of conduct, your, uh, account has been suspended. Um,
S2: please contact us if you don't agree with this. So
S2: I emailed ECS as instructed by their email. I got
S2: a one liner back saying it's under review. No further
S2: discussion was held with me, and then I logged on
S2: the next day and it said, Your account has now
S2: been labelled as a spam account and it's attracting spam,
S2: but you can still use it. However, your spam label
S2: may limit the reach of your account. So what I've
S2: now decided is that I'm probably going to only very
S2: rarely post on X, because I was only doing it
S2: to support people, and the fact that the Mac application
S2: has completely gone with no comment from X at all. Um,
S2: most people are saying now, just don't even try and
S2: run an X app if you've got an M1, Mac, etc.
S2: because you'll most likely get blocked, which is what happened
S2: to me. Um, so for all intents and purposes, if
S2: you want to use X now, it's either the web version,
S2: the Android version, or the iOS version. The Mac one
S2: does not exist anymore. And of course, if you've got windows,
S2: you can use it on windows as well via the
S2: website or other apps, but it's just a complete mess.
S1: Again, very strange. Let's talk more positive things now. We
S1: haven't talked about it much for a while, but The
S1: Living Mindfully podcast from Jonathan Mohsin continues to flourish.
S2: It does, and I quite like what he's done in
S2: sort of a bit of a, a renew of living mindfully.
S2: And that's the fact that you can now subscribe to
S2: Living Blindly under Apple Podcasts, which is a great thing.
S2: Under there you can subscribe monthly or yearly. And of course,
S2: I think you've got a 14 day cooling off period.
S2: And as if you do monthly, you can always terminate
S2: whenever you want to. But interestingly, he also said on
S2: his latest Living Blindly podcast that if you subscribe via
S2: their podcast website, you can choose about how much you
S2: want to pay to support the program. You can always
S2: change it, whereas the calls on Apple you can only get,
S2: you know, one, 1 or 2 bites of the cherry
S2: either monthly or yearly. And the other thing I think
S2: was interesting is once you subscribe to Apple Podcasts, that's it.
S2: You can only use it in the podcast app, so
S2: you can't use it on the Victor Reader stream or
S2: anything else if you do it via podcast, of course
S2: it's a secure link to the Living Mindfully Plus feed,
S2: and you can pop that on anything you like, whether
S2: it's your Victor Reader, stream, your Sense Player, uh, Apple Podcasts, overcast,
S2: or whatever else you might be using. So have a
S2: think about what you do. I chose to do an
S2: Apple podcast. Like I said earlier on, I've just put
S2: all my stuff in just one place now.
S1: Yeah, it's a good one to go to. It's a
S1: very good way to keep in touch with current affairs
S1: in the tech world, for people who are blind or
S1: have low vision and other blindness and low vision related
S1: stuff as well.
S2: Absolutely.
S1: People do spend a lot of money on hats, and
S1: you can spend $150 us on a very environmentally friendly one.
S2: Yes. Now, I think this is a really cool idea.
S2: It's from a company called Eco Flow. And it's a hat,
S2: of course, to, you know, keep the sun off you,
S2: which is very good for us in Australia since it's
S2: coming up to spring and summer and what the hats
S2: got built into it, a little solar panels, um, that
S2: generate power and you can plug in your smartphone to
S2: recharge it when you're out and about, when you're wearing
S2: your hat in the sun. So this is like a
S2: new wearable and a piece of clothing while we're at it.
S2: But I just think it's a really, really, really cool
S2: idea because when I'm out in the garden, um, particularly
S2: in summer here, I'm always guarding. I'm literally outside for
S2: a good 3 or 4 hours anyway. So I'm probably
S2: going to be one of these that's probably going to
S2: buy this hat. So hopefully in summer time this year
S2: in Australia, I'll let you know how my eco flow
S2: hat is going. But I just think it's a tremendous idea.
S1: And how do you get hold of it?
S2: There's a link in the show notes that I will share. Um,
S2: it was one of my RSS feed articles, but I'll
S2: have a link in the show notes and you can
S2: look it up and take it from there.
S1: There's been further developments with the Apple Pay facility.
S2: Yeah, this is an interesting one. Now, I'll just say
S2: up front that I can't use this because I've got
S2: two Apple IDs. I've got a developer, one in my
S2: main one. But if you go into your Apple Wallet
S2: and you choose Add card, you'll see a new option
S2: that says Apple Card. Now don't get too excited. This
S2: is not the credit card they've been talking about overseas.
S2: This is where you can literally add money to your, quote,
S2: Apple Card. And then when you go into an Apple Store.
S2: So this is not the App Store but the Apple
S2: Store physically or I guess I can't confirm this, but
S2: I'm assuming the Apple Store app. You can then use
S2: the money that you've been putting into your Apple Card
S2: to go against the purchase of a product, so it's
S2: almost like having your own little piggy bank, as we
S2: used to say. Um, so you save up your dollars
S2: and cents and then you can go and buy exactly
S2: what you want at the Apple Store. If using your
S2: some of your savings and your Apple Card.
S1: It's an alternative to drawing from your credit card.
S2: Correct. Except this. This way you've already, quote, spent the money,
S2: if you like, because you've already stored it in the
S2: upper card already.
S1: Now, before we go, a reminder of whether a details
S1: of what we've been talking about in this and previous
S1: editions of the program indeed.
S2: So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David Wood bur dot Podbean pod Cbn.com.
S1: David Wood beard Podbean podbean.com to right to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge. How it sounds at 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 Jolly. Stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.