S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: April the 16th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have
S1: you with us. Wherever you're listening may be through Vision
S1: Australia Radio, Associated Stations of Australia or maybe the Community
S1: Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To catch that,
S1: all you need to do is search for the two
S1: words talking tech and down a canal come usually on
S1: a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option
S1: is to ask a Siri device or smart speaker to
S1: play Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio
S1: talking tech podcast with me, someone who can explain all
S1: this tech stuff really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on
S1: access technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's start with our product minute.
S1: This is an item from the vision store of Vision Australia.
S1: And it's to do with mobility being out and about.
S2: It is so this is to attach your mini guide
S2: to your mobility cane. Now let me just backtrack a bit.
S2: So what this actually does, it's a holder, as the
S2: name suggests, to attach your handheld mini guide, sonar based
S2: orientation mobility device and what it is. It's a device
S2: that you normally hold in your hand and you point
S2: it forward. And because it has this high frequency ultrasound
S2: that hits objects and bounces back and makes the mini
S2: guide vibrate depending on what you've got it set to.
S2: So it might be to detect an object one meter
S2: away 1.52m, four meters up to a whopping eight meters away.
S2: That's fine if you've got a hand available to hold
S2: the mini guide, but if you don't, then what this
S2: holder does, it allows you to attach that mini guide
S2: to the cane. And then because it's got sort of
S2: this sort of rotating type screw device on the mechanism
S2: that holds it on, you can actually put the mini
S2: guide into what orientation you like, whether it's pointing straight
S2: ahead up a little bit, if you're going near trees
S2: or whatever else you might want to do. Now I
S2: just want to say something about the product description, which
S2: I'll hopefully let the guys know to correct. This week
S2: is on the description. It actually says that you've got
S2: to use cable ties to attach the holder to the cane. Now,
S2: when I got mine this week, what it is, is
S2: a little o ring. And this o ring has got
S2: a screw. So you undo the screw and it lets
S2: the O ring expand. And then you slide that o
S2: ring onto either your part of your metal part of,
S2: you know, your handle. I've done my handle. And then
S2: as you tighten the screw up, it tightens that o ring.
S2: So you get a very nice solid connection to your cane,
S2: and then you just pop the mini guide into the
S2: holder part, and then you adjust the angle with this
S2: little lever which way you want the mini guide pointing.
S2: So because it's got the O ring, then you don't
S2: need cable ties to attach the holder to the cane.
S2: That might have been on an original version, but this
S2: new version fits on very nicely. It's nice and snug.
S2: It holds the actual mini guide very nicely, and it
S2: really does work. So if you want to turn your
S2: cane into a bit of a smart sonic type cane,
S2: this works really nicely. So all you need is both
S2: the mini guide holder and of course the mini guide.
S1: And what's the cost of the mini guide holder?
S2: It's about $99, which I originally thought. Wait, that's a
S2: bit pricey, but when I got it, it's so well
S2: designed and so well built that I thought, yeah, sometimes
S2: when you get things that are made very well and
S2: good quality, you think, yep, that's fine, that's worth the price.
S1: Excellent. We talked last week about the BT Speak Pro,
S1: which is the device from Blazey Technology with the little
S1: Braille keypad on it. Um, let's talk about its availability.
S2: So Virgin Australia has received quite a few inquiries about
S2: the BT Sport Pro from Blades Technologies, and I don't
S2: know if we've made it extremely clear in the last
S2: episode that it's currently only available in the United States
S2: from Laser Technologies themselves, because they're only been shipping this
S2: new product since March 1st. At the moment, I think
S2: they just want to maintain control over servicing and support
S2: and supply and those sort of things. I did contact
S2: them last week and asked them about what their plans
S2: are for international distributorship, and they said, look, for the moment,
S2: we'd much prefer to have control over the whole way
S2: to go process because we want to maintain great consumer
S2: support and so on. Um, so as soon as available
S2: internationally and or at Virgin Australia, I will definitely let
S2: people know. But for the moment you would need to
S2: purchase it from the United States and of course pay
S2: shipping for it.
S1: Microsoft. Looking at the idea of having ads right up front.
S2: Yes. I was just completely startled by this particular one.
S2: So what they're doing is on the current Windows Insider build,
S2: which is like a predevelopment version of windows. This is
S2: for Windows 11, uh, in the United States. What Microsoft
S2: is apparently testing are putting ads in your start menu,
S2: which of course you can go into settings and turn off.
S2: But I just thought, is this turning into some sort
S2: of TV set operating system wise? Because why on earth.
S2: And I know why I know if you'd want to
S2: do it. Um, but why on earth, from a consumer
S2: point of view, would you want to have to navigate
S2: past ads on your start menu? Yes. It's a great way,
S2: from a commercial point of view to raise revenue and,
S2: you know, get people to pay ads on windows in general.
S2: But I just thought this is just getting really, really ridiculous.
S2: It's an operating system. It's not an application. It's not
S2: a web page. It's not a television set. I just
S2: think this is a really bad way for even Microsoft
S2: even think about doing in the first place.
S1: Let's talk about SD cards now, those secure digital storage
S1: things that are so small about thumbnail size, I think
S1: they're likely to even grow more in capacity in the
S1: next year or so.
S2: Indeed. So apparently next year they're going to be hitting
S2: four terabytes of space, which is enormous. Now, one could
S2: be misled on thinking that this is a really great thing,
S2: because in one way it is, but in the other way,
S2: people need to be reminded by the fact that any
S2: memory card or flash stick or USB stick, we used
S2: to call them a thumb drive. They're only meant to
S2: be temporary storage, because if I had something that was
S2: four terabytes, I'd go, oh, well, look, I'll just keep
S2: my podcasts on there or I'll just keep all my
S2: karate notes on there, or I'll keep my life story
S2: on there, and I won't need to worry about it.
S2: But that's a really dangerous thing to do, because as
S2: I keep saying, it's temporary storage. It's meant to be
S2: used to transfer information from one device to another. Um,
S2: if you can't do it via a Wi-Fi network, or
S2: us Apple users use AirDrop and so on. So I
S2: think it's it's great, particularly if you want to have
S2: something that produces very large files. But otherwise I think
S2: it's a little bit on the dangerous side.
S1: Let's talk about Apple now. They continue to see eight
S1: gigs as the default size for Ram.
S2: They've been doing this now for a good I want
S2: to say a good decade. Um, and I don't know
S2: why because yes, you can definitely get away with using
S2: eight gigabytes of Ram in your Mac. Um, with voiceover,
S2: if you want to do basic functions like mail, web browsing,
S2: word processing, as soon as you start doing large amounts
S2: of data crunching and processing like video editing, number crunching
S2: and so on, you do need more memory. And because
S2: Apple's memory is traditionally very, very expensive, then you might
S2: as well buy it up front. So on windows I
S2: always say 16 gigs of Ram. So what I'm really
S2: going to start saying these days to protect yourself in
S2: the future, not get ripped off by having to pay
S2: for extra memory from Apple, then you might as well
S2: just bite the bullet and get 16 gigs, same as
S2: you do with windows.
S1: If you've got an iPhone 12. Anyone in that family? Um,
S1: is there really a need to go up to 1415
S1: at this stage?
S2: No, particularly if you've got a 12 pro, which is
S2: the course when the lidar stuff came in for us doing,
S2: you know, people detection or detection, all that sort of
S2: cool stuff in the magnifier app within iOS itself. Uh,
S2: because I saw an article last week about apparently Apple
S2: and I haven't seen this personally. I've only read the
S2: article about the link on Apple's website trying to convince
S2: people to update from the 12, in particular on the
S2: 12 Pro to the current version. And what they were
S2: saying was, you know, it's better camera, it's more storage,
S2: it's built to last. Well, if your existing phone's already
S2: got a camera that meets your own needs, your storage
S2: when you bought it meets your own needs and it's
S2: built to last i.e. it's still going after a number
S2: of years, then the arguments for upgrading aren't really valid.
S2: So what I would say to people is that if
S2: there's a new specific software function that will only run
S2: on the, let's say, the iPhone 16 this year, or
S2: there's a particular hardware feature that you're really, really, really
S2: looking for. That's the reason to upgrade. It's not the
S2: fact that it's got a better camera, a bit of this,
S2: bit of that, more of this, more of that. It's
S2: the fact that it's giving you extra functionality that you
S2: might need for your specific reasons. So don't match up
S2: an update if you don't have to.
S1: Yeah, we might see more iPads and MacBooks. This year
S1: with another chip, the M4.
S2: Yes, the M3 only came out five months ago and
S2: all the gossip is at the moment is that Apple
S2: is going to be releasing the M4 chip, probably in
S2: the next. Well, I don't know, but maybe in the
S2: next six months or so. Particularly for the Mac. But
S2: of course, because it's sharing the same chip if you
S2: like to do with the iPads and so on, we're
S2: probably going to see it in the iPads coming up
S2: as well. And of course, this is all about artificial intelligence.
S2: So it's making all the neural engines and the other
S2: processing stuff that goes on the chip to make using
S2: AI much more efficient. So I wouldn't be surprised this
S2: year if we see not only Macs with M4 chips,
S2: but also iPads as well.
S1: An AI seems to be embedding itself into lots of
S1: applications and devices. Seeing AI. Tell us what's happening there.
S2: Just to remind people briefly, what's seeing AI is it's
S2: a application that has different options in it, which they
S2: call channels to do different functions with your camera, such
S2: as optical character recognition. So reading print off a menu
S2: in a restaurant, barcode reading, face recognition, scene detection, all
S2: that sort of cool stuff. And there's a category in
S2: there or the channel that's called world. Now, what world
S2: traditionally does is allow you to do scene detection or
S2: people detection around you. What Microsoft has actually just done,
S2: because it is a Microsoft app, is added this function
S2: called Find My Item in the world channel, which means
S2: rather than just telling you specifically that you've got a
S2: couple of bags around you, for example, or a couple
S2: of sets of keys, you can say, I want to
S2: identify my keys or my bag, or in my case,
S2: my coffee cup, so that when I put it down
S2: and I can't find it, I can go to the
S2: world channel, select Find My Item, select in my case
S2: David's coffee cup, and it will only look for David's
S2: coffee cup. And of course, the reason why that works
S2: so well is because initially when I go to find
S2: my item, I then say add item. It then wants
S2: me to take a picture in different situations of my
S2: coffee cup. And then that's what it looks for when
S2: you actually do it. And just a warning when you
S2: do this because it says to you to start doing
S2: initial photos or images on a table, make sure you've
S2: got room behind you, because it will actually ask you
S2: to step backwards up to about two meters away. So
S2: that's just the tip for using the application in this
S2: particular function.
S1: There are these apps that have been around for some time,
S1: like seeing AI, and they just evolve. And you've got
S1: to be careful to keep on top of all the
S1: exciting new features, haven't you?
S2: You do. And one way of doing that is two
S2: ways that I always do is when you go in
S2: and update your apps within the App Store app itself.
S2: Have a look at the what's being updated just below
S2: where it's got, you know, update for this app, or
S2: go and look in the history for each application. Again
S2: within the App Store app. And that will tell you
S2: because I sometimes forget when I go and use an
S2: application or you hear on the internet that there's a
S2: function in this particular that we think, oh no, I
S2: remember that one. I used to use that when it
S2: first came out last year or something. So that's a
S2: good way to keep up to date with what's changing,
S2: because these apps add new functions all the time. And yeah,
S2: if you haven't visited your full functionality of your app
S2: for a while, I'd go and just double check to
S2: see what's changed.
S1: With apps updating, there are two options. You can have
S1: it so that it automatically happens behind the scenes, and
S1: there's when where you explicitly go and check whether there
S1: are updates and then download those updates. Now that's a
S1: very good reason for using that second option rather than
S1: it just all happening behind you.
S2: Correct. And that's exactly why I've got my automatic app
S2: updating turned off, because I want to see what's being
S2: changed as I update apps.
S1: Before we go, a reminder of where there are details
S1: of what we've been talking about in this. And previous
S1: editions of the program.
S2: As always, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David would be our podbean podbean.
S1: Com David would be our podbean podbean. Com to write
S1: to the program, you.
S2: Can write to me at Vision Australia where I work
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge 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.