S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: February 6th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have you
S1: with us. Wherever you're listening, perhaps through Virgin Australia Radio,
S1: Associated Stations of Australia, or maybe 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 tech.
S1: And then it 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 Virgin
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 adviser on access technology,
S1: David Woodbridge. David, let's start with another tech show and
S1: we're only in February. This is the Atea Assistive Technology
S1: Industry Association, another event in the United States.
S2: Correct. So this all happened, uh, I want to say
S2: about two weeks ago, and it's effectively the first conference
S2: for the year. And it's all different types of assistive technology.
S2: It's not just for blind and low vision people. Sam
S2: from The Blind Life, he did a really good compilation
S2: of interviewing quite a few different suppliers on his YouTube channel.
S2: And I think roughly, he sort of it sounded like
S2: he gave people every sort of like 20 to 30s.
S2: It's really been fascinating. There was quite a lot there
S2: are all different sorts of gadgets and software and services.
S2: So if you really want a good overview of what
S2: happened at the Atea conference, uh, that's a really good
S2: YouTube one to check out. And as I said, it's
S2: the blind life, um, from Sam. And the reason why
S2: I just say Sam, because that's the way it just
S2: tends to just introduce himself anyway.
S1: Yeah. Very interesting. You suggested that we introduce a new
S1: segment to this program, a product minute each week, a
S1: product from the store, the Vision Australia store. Hmm. What
S1: are you going to talk about this week?
S2: This one's going to be on the Sense player OCR.
S2: And the reason why I'm starting with this one is
S2: because one, it's a daisy player. So it plays all
S2: the Daisy books from the Vision Australia library. Two. It's
S2: got a built in camera that allows you to read,
S2: if you like, in quotes text. So it does optical
S2: character recognition. Three it's a system that's got a built
S2: in FM chip so you can listen to, you know,
S2: normal terrestrial radio, uh, if you don't have any access
S2: to cellular or Wi-Fi on your smartphone. And four important
S2: to me is the fact that you have access to
S2: your smartphone, whether it's Android iPhone, the sensor player actually
S2: turns into a smart keyboard for those devices. Uh, all
S2: the other stuff like podcasts and internet radio and the
S2: stopwatch and so on are all really great. But for me,
S2: there are four things that stand out for me of
S2: the sense player. And just one final thing which may
S2: be interesting for the future because it can run Android apps.
S2: Who's to say that at some stage this year we
S2: might even see some sort of ChatGPT or bard or
S2: something happening, uh, on that device as well. So I
S2: just think it's well placed to be a very customisable
S2: device moving forward.
S1: Physically. It's beautiful, isn't it?
S2: It is. I love it, and the little stereo speakers
S2: at each end, it looks really cool as well. I
S2: don't normally go on about sort of daisy player devices
S2: too much, but yeah, this one is just really, really attractive.
S1: Just sits in the palm of your hand and can
S1: Bluetooth to other devices speakers? Yep. AirPods etc. really? Well,
S1: I have to say and you did mention them in passing,
S1: but it's my go to device for radio web streaming
S1: and also for listening to podcasts because you can have
S1: them there so conveniently. So everyone has their their different
S1: applications that they go to in this multifunction device. It's
S1: quite amazing indeed. And the cost.
S2: It's around about $1,100, so it's fairly expensive. But then again,
S2: it's like that sort of Swiss Army knife. It's a
S2: Swiss Army knife of daisy devices, and you've got all
S2: those other functions built into it as well.
S1: We'll spend a little time now on the Apple Vision
S1: Pro device that has hit the streets. Um, just explain
S1: to people who are not aware of it what it is,
S1: and then we'll talk about how people can find out
S1: more about it.
S2: Yeah. So basically it's a virtual reality headset. Apple's terms.
S2: It's a spatial computing headset. It's basically a set of goggles.
S2: So if you've ever felt sort of snow goggles, which
S2: are those sort of big chunky goggles that people were
S2: in the snow, it looks like that. And I should
S2: say they're very weighty. They say it's about 650g. So
S2: and it really does push down on your forehead and
S2: your cheekbones because things are so heavy. You've got to
S2: wear the strap around the back of your neck and
S2: a strap over the top of your head to support
S2: the Vision Pro goggles on your face. And because they've
S2: sort of wanted to reduce the weight a little bit,
S2: the actual battery is not part of the headset. It
S2: goes on a wire, uh, into another thing that also weighs,
S2: I think it's 300g, this one, and it's a battery
S2: that sits in your pocket. So it's a wired connection
S2: to the battery. And that gives you about 2.5 hours
S2: of continuous video playing capability. So at the moment, I
S2: guess what you can say is that it's a a
S2: device that's sort of definitely pushing forward the boundaries of
S2: what we can do with current technology. But just saying
S2: it's a fairly heavy set of goggles on your, on
S2: your face, uh, a battery that has to be connected
S2: via wire and it doesn't last very long. To me.
S2: It's almost like the technology to support. It's not quite
S2: there yet. So this is definitely a 1.0 release. Um,
S2: I'm sort of looking forward to the perhaps the one
S2: that's next year.
S1: Perhaps we've got the benefit in Australia of being one
S1: of the countries that doesn't have it and won't have
S1: it for some months, available in the US for around
S1: 3,500 USD. So you can do your arithmetic on that.
S1: It's going to cost a fair bit. By the time
S1: it does get to us.
S2: It does. And by the way, all the reviews are
S2: coming out at the moment. It really looks like a
S2: lot of people are using it for a course. Watching
S2: movies and TV shows, not so much at the moment
S2: on productivity app. So because what what happens if the
S2: headset is that you can park? I like to say
S2: park because it sounds better. You can put these apps
S2: in different spots on your environment so you can put
S2: them on the wall. This is all virtual reality stuff,
S2: by the way. You can put them on the wall,
S2: the ceiling, the floor, um, in front of the kitchen window.
S2: So when you look around, you've got all these different
S2: apps that you can actually look at. And of course,
S2: once you look at them, they get activated. Uh, apparently
S2: one of the things that really annoys people at the
S2: moment is if you just use the on screen keyboard, uh,
S2: with the Vision Pro, it's one key at a time.
S2: So you look at the actual key to activate it,
S2: then you look at the next key, then you look
S2: at the next key. So it's actually very clunky. But luckily, uh,
S2: the Vision Pro also supports the use of a Bluetooth keyboard,
S2: but it doesn't support a mouse. And of course, the
S2: reason why it doesn't support a mouse is because you're
S2: actually using your hand gestures to control the device. Plus,
S2: you can also use your voice so you can do
S2: voice dictation as well. One of the things that people
S2: are getting a bit weirded out by, apparently, when you're
S2: watching a movie, when people look at you, they can
S2: see these sort of virtual eyes. And apparently people are
S2: getting really freaked out by it because it looks very,
S2: very weird. And when you FaceTime from, say, another Vision
S2: Pro or from your iPhone or Mac into somebody wearing
S2: a Vision Pro, you also get this made up character
S2: that supposedly looks like your face but isn't. So people
S2: are also saying that also looks a bit weird, and
S2: I can't understand why Apple would want to even do
S2: that in the first place. And there are some apps
S2: that sometimes will fall over for no apparent reason. People
S2: have been noticing that when they've been wearing them for
S2: a while, because you're looking at a virtual environment, when
S2: you come back to your normal environment, your spatial orientation
S2: is off, including your balance, reaching out for things, those
S2: sorts of things. So that's another thing that it'll be
S2: ironed out, you know, in the next couple of months
S2: or so. Because, you know, beta testing is one thing.
S2: Putting it to a mass market is another thing. And
S2: I think from memory, they said they sold around about
S2: 200,000 units in the United States. So I guess we'll
S2: see what happens. We're now finding out what the device
S2: can really do. And of course, there's another call I've
S2: got in the show notes Vision Pro in the wild.
S2: And some people have been wearing them in public and
S2: trying to do, you know, things at the gym because
S2: it's not. Designed for fitness. Some silly person was wearing
S2: them in a Tesla car that was under self driving.
S2: And of course, one of the things in the notes
S2: about the Vision Pro is do not use this device
S2: when driving because you're literally looking at the world through
S2: a camera. So there's lots and lots of things. I've
S2: only scraped some of the major things to think about
S2: at the moment, but I do have some really interesting
S2: articles in the show. Notes about it.
S1: Yes, you've got quite a number of articles there in
S1: the show, notes a lot about accessibility and all sorts
S1: of things.
S2: That's correct. So we've got our standard things like voiceover, zoom, color, contrast,
S2: switch control. I will say now the hand gestures are
S2: very involved and it involves one hand, both hands or
S2: from 1 to 4 finger pinches or taps. So it's
S2: not something that you're going to pick up overnight. It's
S2: something that you're going to have to actually learn to do.
S2: But there is a proper voiceover tutorial, gesture practice mode.
S2: And if you're wondering, because when you see the setup
S2: demo for the Vision Pro, it wants to do your
S2: eye tracking for you. Now, of course, what they've done
S2: for VoiceOver is that's going to be turned off. Once
S2: it determines that you're using VoiceOver, it's not going to
S2: do your eye tracking because it knows you can't see anyway.
S2: So just in case you're wondering, that's not an issue.
S1: Staying with Apple. Tim Cook, the CEO, hinting that AI
S1: is going to be much more important in Apple products
S1: later this year.
S2: Correct. What people have been saying is, look, we don't
S2: care about the AI stuff behind the scenes with machine
S2: learning and so on. We want a Siri, see Siri
S2: in a proper non command system where we want to
S2: see it like a ChatGPT or a bird or a co-pilot.
S2: And he did strongly suggest that in iOS 18, which
S2: is coming out in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference,
S2: we will be very surprised on how fantastic AI will be.
S1: You read an article recently that saying that perplexity and
S1: other AI applications threatening the Google search.
S2: And I also read another article which was brought up
S2: by perplexity and ChatGPT because I said to it, what's
S2: the difference between a ChatGPT and a Google search? And
S2: what it actually said simply was the chat function or
S2: perplexity gives you a summary and goes through all the
S2: searches and gives you definite points on what you need
S2: to think about or explore next. What a Google search
S2: primarily does. It just brings up all the links and
S2: then you decide what you want to actually look at.
S2: I must say, I'm using Perplexity and ChatGPT and copilot
S2: a lot more now that I'm using Google search.
S1: Some updates coming to the blind shell classic to phone correct?
S2: If you've been chatting to quantum lately about your blind
S2: shell not connecting so well to your carrier, uh, there's
S2: some issues going on with those different systems at the
S2: moment around Australia, we have Telstra, Vodafone and Optus. They're
S2: supposed to be a system update coming sooner than later.
S2: So as soon as it happens I will let people know.
S2: So that's all to do with the mobile carriers at
S2: the moment.
S1: And some good news for talking tech that it's now available.
S1: The most recent editions of it on the Vision Store
S1: web page.
S2: That's right. So it's decided to put up the last
S2: three episodes so it'll be updated every week. But of course,
S2: if you want to catch up with the latest episode,
S2: you're probably a bit off just using your favorite podcast
S2: or smart speaker and do it that way. Dare I
S2: say even using the sense player to do it as well.
S1: That's it. Shop Dot Vision Australia. Org shop dot Vision australia.org.
S1: And that's where you can find out about the sense
S1: player that we were talking about earlier. Indeed, before we go,
S1: a reminder of where there are details of what we've
S1: been talking about in this and previous editions of the program.
S2: As always, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David. Would it be a dot Podbean pad be
S2: a incom?
S1: David would be dot Podbean pod be a incom to
S1: write to the program?
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge sounds at Vision Australia, George.
S1: David Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been talking
S1: tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor on
S1: access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. We'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.