S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: October the 10th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us, wherever you're listening may be through Vision
S1: Australia Radio, associated Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community
S1: Radio Network. There is also the podcast. The way to
S1: find that is to search for the two words talking
S1: Tech and Dan it can come usually on a Tuesday
S1: afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to
S1: ask a Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision
S1: Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast.
S1: With me someone who can explain all this tech stuff
S1: really well. Vision Australia's National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David,
S1: let's start with a game that's become very accessible. Tell
S1: us about Forza motorsport.
S2: For people that don't know what this game is, it's
S2: literally a racing game for a console. So you've got your,
S2: your controller for your Xbox, your PC, and then you've
S2: got the game, of course, and you can choose different
S2: racing tracks around the world to race your particular car.
S2: Now of course, all this is very visual. What they've
S2: done with the release that's coming out this week is
S2: they've got all these accessibility things, not just for blind
S2: and low vision people, but for other disabilities, but particularly
S2: for blind people. They've got all these different types of
S2: audio signals and assistance to help you drive your car. So,
S2: for example, when you're on the right line, so everybody
S2: knows about when you listen to racing like F1 and
S2: so on, all the separate cars that talk about the
S2: racing line, well, you can hear an audio tone when
S2: you're on the racing line. If your wheels start to
S2: go off the side of the track, you can hear
S2: a different sound. To do that when you need to
S2: start to brake, accelerate and so on. Around the corner,
S2: you get different tones again to help you. And it's
S2: also other features which I think one of them is
S2: called something like heavy assistance, which basically means the software
S2: itself will help you drive the car a bit better.
S2: So it'll be a bit more generous about you putting
S2: the accelerator down or braking. It'll try and help you
S2: learn when to accelerate a brake and that sort of stuff.
S2: So it really does mean, particularly if you like me
S2: and my daughter has a whole racing wheel. So it's
S2: like you've got your foot pedals and your racing steering
S2: wheel that you really do feel like you're driving that
S2: car because you've got all the other sound effects, you know,
S2: of the engine and revving and braking and squealing tires
S2: and the crowds and all sorts of wonderful things. So
S2: if you're into that type of sports and you would
S2: always love or wanted to play a game that sort
S2: of people play, then this is your chance. So it's again,
S2: it's called Forza Motorsport and the official date that it
S2: came out is going to be October 10th. But basically
S2: I'm saying it's available this week. So go forth and
S2: race to your heart's content.
S1: And just remind us what technology do you play it on?
S2: So this will be the PC as in Windows Computer
S2: or your Xbox. But of course most people play it
S2: on the Xbox and it has to be the latest
S2: version of the Xbox. So it has to be the
S2: Xbox One s, which is the new Xbox.
S1: Very interesting. Yeah, It's the time of the year when
S1: Freedom Scientific or we know them now. As for Spyro
S1: from their stable come the public betas of Jaws fusion
S1: and zoom text. Please elaborate.
S2: So Jaws of course is the screen reader which feeds
S2: off information off the screen. For blind people, Fusion is
S2: a combination of the screen reader Jaws and their main
S2: product for low vision people, which is called Zoom text.
S2: So you've got three products Jaws, Zoom, text, so screen
S2: reader screen magnifier. And when you combine the two of them,
S2: they're called fusion. And what they've got now is the
S2: 2024 public betas that are now available to download and use.
S2: So these are like ones that you can actually use
S2: to have a bit of a play for them before
S2: they're commercially released and give them feedback. The two main
S2: features that I know caught our attention. One was to
S2: do with when you're on a video call to make
S2: sure that your face is in camera view. If you've
S2: got enough lighting and if you're moving your head around
S2: that sort of stuff too much, which most video cameras
S2: don't like you're doing. And another mode, particularly for Jaws,
S2: is structured Braille mode, which means you can split up
S2: the display to monitor or and or read different documents
S2: open on your Windows computer. So that's going to be
S2: interesting for people that want to be a bit more
S2: productive using their Braille displays. And as far as Zoom.
S2: Text goes. And when I say zoom, text them. Also
S2: talking about fusion, because remember, it's part of draws and
S2: zoom text in one package. They seem to have spent
S2: a lot more time making the interface much easier to use.
S2: They have made a few changes, I believe, to enhancements
S2: to do with the mouse cursor and so on. But
S2: reading the documentation over the weekend, it seems primarily that
S2: they've been trying to make all the the toolbars and
S2: the menus more streamlined. So it's much easier to pick
S2: up and start using straight away.
S1: And the actual official release certainly of Jaws is around
S1: the end of October each year and the others are
S1: around about the same time, aren't they?
S2: Exactly, yeah. Correct.
S1: Now, our friends at Nvda, it's an Australian company which
S1: has software which is freely available, though a donation is
S1: very helpful to them. The public beta is out for
S1: this year.
S2: That's right. So they do a number of betas per year.
S2: I think it's round about four per year I think.
S2: So I think this one's number four. Again, for people
S2: that might not realize Nvidia is a course again, a
S2: screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Nvda stands for Non-visual Desktop access,
S2: and the update for their public beta is primarily around
S2: bug fixes to do with things like Microsoft Edge, Microsoft
S2: Word and so on, and a few behind the scenes
S2: twists and a few more commands to do with their
S2: Braille display. Remember that you don't actually have to buy
S2: a commercial screamer like Jaws or Supernova from Dolphin. You
S2: don't have to use the narrator built in screen reader.
S2: You've always got Nvda there to get you out of trouble.
S1: A wonderful Australian success story.
S2: Absolutely. Yep.
S1: The new pixel phone and watch. Tell us about them.
S2: This is the pixel eight phone and of course the
S2: pixel to pixel watch. These were announced last week. And
S2: the reason why I always like to mention these is
S2: because these are the official versions of Android slash Google
S2: that you always get the latest and greatest updates from.
S2: So if you're with other manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and
S2: so on, you basically have to wait to get their
S2: software update that's done by those particular manufacturers and developers
S2: of the updated versions of their slightly different versions of
S2: Android 14, for example. So that's one huge benefit. The
S2: other benefit, which I thought was quite interesting, was that
S2: they also announced that the Pixel eight will be software
S2: supported definitely for seven years. So I think that's actually
S2: a really good thing because normally we think, oh, you know,
S2: 3 or 4 years out of a smartphone that you
S2: should be it. But no, they're doing it up to
S2: seven years. And of course with the Pixel two watch,
S2: they're also announcing some more accessibility stuff to do with
S2: that watch as well. So like I always say, with
S2: both Android, in this case, the Pixel eight and the
S2: Pixel two Watch and Samsung, they're always great spaces to
S2: watch because they keep improving the interface and accessibility almost
S2: every single year.
S1: There's been some very good work done with information about
S1: various Android accessibility features and some YouTube productions. Tell us
S1: about that.
S2: In the link up in the show notes, I've got
S2: a few interesting YouTube demos on the Lookout app, which
S2: is the one you use for object recognition and text
S2: detection and so on. Also, Talkback itself, which is the
S2: actual screener that you actually use to make the phone
S2: talk to you. And there's a few other ones there
S2: as well. So again, this has been one of the
S2: things that's been a little bit, I guess, missing in
S2: the Android world is that there's no real good documentation
S2: or videos or tutorials from Google or other places. So
S2: this is a really good start in making sure that
S2: people have got something to both watch and listen to,
S2: to start learning how to use the Android system properly,
S2: particularly with Talkback.
S1: At that time, we talked again about tactile or Braille
S1: graphic displays. Explain what they are and what's happening at
S1: the moment.
S2: We've got three what are called tactile graphics display on
S2: the market and what they are are effectively ten lines
S2: of a broad display all in one big array. And
S2: when it displays diagrams or Braille itself, as in real brother,
S2: you can read as in literally Braille. It uses those
S2: ten lines to produce the Braille. And when it does
S2: the drawings of a tactile diagram or a chart and
S2: so on, it then uses more pins on that Braille display.
S2: Ten line area to make sure that all the lines
S2: and pictures that you're feeling are sort of very continuous
S2: lines and everything's shaded in properly. So it's like filling
S2: a real picture. We don't have much to do with
S2: the one from orbit research, the ones that we have
S2: in Australia at the moment we're currently looking at is
S2: the dot pad which I've already talked about in the
S2: program and the one that I'm going to be having
S2: a look at starting this week is actually going to
S2: be the monarch. And as far as I can tell, Stephen,
S2: the main difference between the two of them is the
S2: dot pad is more for grab stuff off the Internet
S2: or do your own drawings. So if you're a teacher,
S2: you can quickly do a drawing on your iPad or
S2: your iPhone comes out on the actual dot pad itself.
S2: And I can also do my own drawings, whereas the
S2: monarch seems to be, here's a system where you can
S2: download all I think it's 15,000 diagrams worth of tactile
S2: whatever from the main printing house for the blind in
S2: the States. And you can also download Braille files that
S2: the software will then translate into extended brief or brown
S2: files so that they look really good on the actual
S2: Braille display. Plus it's going to have a scientific calculator
S2: and all sorts of other things. So it's a very
S2: much geared to education. The price of these things. The
S2: monarch is going to be about double the price of
S2: the dot pad. But as far as I'm concerned, they've
S2: got very specific niches in the market. The dot pad
S2: is very much of your this is what you can
S2: do if you want to muck around, whereas the monarch
S2: is we've got all these nice things for you to use.
S2: And by the way, people that are familiar with human wear, yes,
S2: it is based on Qi soft running on Android.
S1: But we're not talking about them for the individual. Probably
S1: more for the educational environment.
S2: Definitely for the monarch because we're looking at $20,000 us
S2: for the dot pad. It's $10,000 US. So maybe with
S2: the dot pad you can see yourself, maybe even also
S2: getting it for job access and those sort of things.
S2: But yes, they're more aimed at the educational market, whether that's,
S2: you know, school, TAFE, college or university.
S1: For something completely different. Tell us about some interesting apps
S1: you've found recently.
S2: This was actually really cool. I listened to the Double
S2: Tap podcast that Stephen Scott does and he had a
S2: person that came on and reviewed a little app called
S2: Train Sounds. This app in particular is actually free and
S2: you run it and you get 46 different types of
S2: sounds of trains, including my favorite one, which is where
S2: you get that other train going through a level crossing.
S2: So you get that ding, ding, ding, ding, ding sound
S2: as the train goes past the level crossing and it
S2: sort of gets louder and fades off in the distance.
S2: But then when I had a look at settings, the button,
S2: the only thing that was under the settings button was
S2: other apps that we produce. And there were all these
S2: other apps with to do with sounds like different crow
S2: sounds different, other bird sounds, different sort of city based
S2: sounds and so on. So if you're very much into
S2: all the different types of sounds that you might want
S2: to listen to, it's not a bad way to do it.
S2: The only thing I didn't like about the train app itself, though,
S2: they weren't labelled, so I didn't have, you know, train
S2: going through a level crossing that was labelled Train Sound three.
S2: But besides that, I did have a really nice time.
S2: Listen to all 46 different train sounds.
S1: Just before we go, a reminder of where we have
S1: details of what you've been talking about in this and
S1: previous editions of the program.
S2: You can check out my blog site, which is David
S2: would be a dot podbean pad veon. Com.
S1: David would be our dot podbean podbean to right to
S1: the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work.
S2: David Dot 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.