WEBVTT - Taling Tech 24th September 2024 0:00:21.078 --> 0:00:24.918 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:24.918 --> 0:00:29.178 September the 24th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have 0:00:29.178 --> 0:00:32.418 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated 0:00:32.418 --> 0:00:36.978 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:37.008 --> 0:00:40.008 There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you 0:00:40.008 --> 0:00:42.948 need to do is search for the two words. Talking 0:00:42.978 --> 0:00:46.368 tech and Dan O'Connell. Come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:46.368 --> 0:00:50.418 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:00:50.448 --> 0:00:53.958 your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision Australia 0:00:53.958 --> 0:00:59.748 radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast 0:00:59.838 --> 0:01:03.468 with me for his second week in the chair. Vision 0:01:03.498 --> 0:01:08.958 Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. Welcome again. Damo. 0:01:08.988 --> 0:01:10.068 Hi, Stephen. How are. 0:01:10.068 --> 0:01:12.528 You? Very good. And what sort of a week have 0:01:12.528 --> 0:01:15.348 you had playing with the new Apple software? 0:01:15.648 --> 0:01:18.988 Yeah, I have been taking iOS 18 for a little 0:01:19.018 --> 0:01:20.788 bit of a test drive, and I have to say, 0:01:20.788 --> 0:01:25.618 overall I'm pretty impressed with it. I'm really liking the 0:01:25.618 --> 0:01:29.998 updates to Braille screen input because I tend to use 0:01:29.998 --> 0:01:34.618 that a lot, and they've really made some significant leaps 0:01:34.618 --> 0:01:39.088 forward with that in terms of being able to activate 0:01:39.088 --> 0:01:41.338 it using a dedicated gesture so you don't have to 0:01:41.338 --> 0:01:45.658 have it in your rotor anymore. You can now use 0:01:45.658 --> 0:01:50.788 it in command mode, which means that you can almost 0:01:50.788 --> 0:01:53.578 drive your phone as you would if you had a 0:01:53.578 --> 0:01:56.698 Braille display with the space key held down. So you 0:01:56.698 --> 0:02:00.238 can do sort of swipes and those kinds of things. 0:02:00.358 --> 0:02:03.148 From within the Braille screen input mode, you can do 0:02:03.178 --> 0:02:05.668 your rotor gestures and all of those kinds of things. 0:02:05.668 --> 0:02:10.438 So Braille screen input is a mode that allows you 0:02:10.438 --> 0:02:13.978 to type text. So if you're writing an email or 0:02:14.008 --> 0:02:18.658 a text message or something like that um, using a 0:02:18.688 --> 0:02:22.798 Perkins style of entry. So what you do, there's a 0:02:22.798 --> 0:02:25.558 couple of different modes, one that they call tabletop mode, 0:02:25.558 --> 0:02:28.948 where you, uh, put the phone on a table or 0:02:28.948 --> 0:02:33.688 on your lap, and you put, um, the three fingers 0:02:33.688 --> 0:02:35.908 from each hand on the screen as though you had 0:02:35.908 --> 0:02:39.418 a Perkins brailler in front of you the other way. 0:02:39.418 --> 0:02:40.918 And the way that I use it is what they 0:02:40.918 --> 0:02:44.188 call a way mode. And that's where you actually point 0:02:44.188 --> 0:02:48.688 the screen away from you. You have the volume buttons 0:02:48.688 --> 0:02:54.298 pointing upwards, and you hold the phone sort of with the, um, 0:02:54.478 --> 0:02:56.728 the two short ends of it in the palms of 0:02:56.758 --> 0:02:59.848 your hands, and you use three fingers from each hand 0:02:59.848 --> 0:03:03.298 on the screen to, to type the Braille letters. And 0:03:03.508 --> 0:03:08.578 it's much quicker than, um, the sort of using the, 0:03:08.578 --> 0:03:11.488 the virtual on screen keyboard and also a lot more 0:03:11.488 --> 0:03:14.728 private than, uh, using Dictation or. 0:03:14.728 --> 0:03:15.238 Siri. 0:03:15.248 --> 0:03:18.398 Or those kinds of things. And now, as I said, 0:03:18.398 --> 0:03:20.858 you can do so much more with it. You can 0:03:20.858 --> 0:03:23.588 even pop have it pop up in Braille screen input 0:03:23.588 --> 0:03:26.288 mode automatically every time you double tap an edit field 0:03:26.288 --> 0:03:30.098 now so you can, you know, pretty much do everything 0:03:30.098 --> 0:03:32.858 in braille now without having to select it each time, 0:03:32.858 --> 0:03:34.388 which is very nice. 0:03:34.418 --> 0:03:38.198 Any other iOS features that are really jumping out at you? 0:03:38.228 --> 0:03:42.458 Yes, you can now make some pretty significant customizations to 0:03:42.458 --> 0:03:45.968 the voices. So for those people who have a little 0:03:45.998 --> 0:03:48.698 bit of hearing loss, you know you can alter the 0:03:48.698 --> 0:03:51.668 bass or the mid or the high frequencies in the 0:03:51.668 --> 0:03:56.288 voice to make it more listenable and more understandable. And 0:03:56.288 --> 0:03:58.958 the what used to be the language rotor is now 0:03:58.958 --> 0:04:02.948 called the voice rotor. And you can add almost an 0:04:02.948 --> 0:04:05.948 infinite number of voices to that. So you can you 0:04:05.948 --> 0:04:09.968 can switch voices, you can adjust things like the inflection 0:04:09.968 --> 0:04:14.198 and how the voice speaks. And you can actually also 0:04:14.198 --> 0:04:18.458 now use personal voice as the voice for voiceover, so 0:04:18.458 --> 0:04:21.638 you can record essentially yourself as a text to speech 0:04:21.638 --> 0:04:23.948 engine and use your own voice on your phone if 0:04:23.978 --> 0:04:26.828 you if you really wanted to. It's something I'm planning 0:04:26.828 --> 0:04:30.128 on trying. I haven't done it yet, but it's it's 0:04:30.158 --> 0:04:31.958 on the list of things to tinker with over the 0:04:31.958 --> 0:04:33.458 next week or so. 0:04:33.488 --> 0:04:35.738 Yes, it's an interesting one that might appeal to a 0:04:35.768 --> 0:04:38.438 lot of people. I think I hear enough of my voice, actually. 0:04:38.738 --> 0:04:40.418 Yeah, you and me both. 0:04:40.778 --> 0:04:44.978 Tell me about messaging. I find this attractive. The send 0:04:45.008 --> 0:04:47.828 later feature, so you can schedule a message to go 0:04:47.828 --> 0:04:50.138 off at a particular time. Not at the time that 0:04:50.138 --> 0:04:51.218 you compose it. 0:04:51.218 --> 0:04:54.038 That's right. Yes. There's a couple of nice features in 0:04:54.068 --> 0:04:57.218 the In the Messenger app. That's one of them. So 0:04:57.218 --> 0:05:02.018 with messaging you can text someone, you know, at 6:00 0:05:02.018 --> 0:05:04.268 in the morning or something like that, or you want to, 0:05:04.298 --> 0:05:07.238 you know, send them a message tomorrow for their birthday. 0:05:07.238 --> 0:05:09.938 And you've you've remembered now. So you think, okay, I'll 0:05:09.938 --> 0:05:12.728 type that now. And they can it will we can 0:05:12.728 --> 0:05:15.318 have it send to them at 7:00 in the morning. 0:05:15.318 --> 0:05:19.518 You can do that with the send later feature. The 0:05:19.518 --> 0:05:25.578 other nice one is the RCS or Rich communication system, 0:05:25.578 --> 0:05:30.168 which means that you will be able to message someone 0:05:30.168 --> 0:05:33.618 even if they're using Android. You'll still know things like 0:05:33.648 --> 0:05:36.558 have they read it? Are they typing me a message back? 0:05:36.558 --> 0:05:39.618 So you know, you're typing indication. All of the things 0:05:39.618 --> 0:05:43.188 that I message currently gives you when you're messaging from 0:05:43.188 --> 0:05:47.388 one iPhone to another, you'll have that regardless of whether 0:05:47.388 --> 0:05:50.328 the person is on an iPhone or an Android phone. 0:05:50.328 --> 0:05:54.828 For those with iPhones that are not the iPhone 15 0:05:54.858 --> 0:06:00.768 Pro or higher, iPhone 15 or the 14, etc., they 0:06:00.798 --> 0:06:04.128 won't have all the features that we hear about in 0:06:04.128 --> 0:06:05.868 the new iOS, will they? 0:06:05.898 --> 0:06:10.428 No. That's right. So some features are only available on 0:06:10.428 --> 0:06:14.548 the for example, the 15 Pro and the newly released 0:06:14.548 --> 0:06:18.538 iPhone 16 models. So things like, for example, you can 0:06:18.538 --> 0:06:22.948 now have live recognition added to your rotor. So that 0:06:22.948 --> 0:06:25.528 is the feature that allows you to do door detection 0:06:25.528 --> 0:06:28.678 and people detection and those sorts of things. But some 0:06:28.678 --> 0:06:33.268 of those features require a lidar camera. And so that 0:06:33.268 --> 0:06:36.718 pretty much means it's only the, uh, the pro models 0:06:36.718 --> 0:06:39.958 of phone that will have that option. So not every 0:06:39.958 --> 0:06:43.348 feature is available on every phone, unfortunately. Um. 0:06:44.158 --> 0:06:47.938 Now in addition to the iOS, there was the new 0:06:47.938 --> 0:06:53.218 software for the watch OS 11 and the new software 0:06:53.218 --> 0:06:56.248 for the Mac. Have you played with either of those? 0:06:56.278 --> 0:06:59.458 I have upgraded the watch, but I haven't really taken 0:06:59.458 --> 0:07:02.038 it for a good test drive. I haven't noticed a 0:07:02.038 --> 0:07:05.968 lot of difference. Certainly the upgrade went pretty smoothly and 0:07:05.968 --> 0:07:10.138 the Mac. I'm planning to upgrade my MacBook air this weekend, 0:07:10.138 --> 0:07:12.868 so I'll know more about that then. The only thing 0:07:12.868 --> 0:07:16.258 that is holding me back, and it's probably worth our while. 0:07:16.258 --> 0:07:20.788 Mentioning this one, is that I do use Remote Incident 0:07:20.788 --> 0:07:25.198 Manager or remote from Numa solutions. Um, for those that 0:07:25.198 --> 0:07:28.618 are not familiar with that, it is a remote control 0:07:28.618 --> 0:07:33.268 software so that if you, for example, need to provide 0:07:33.268 --> 0:07:35.878 help to someone else, you can do that regardless of 0:07:35.878 --> 0:07:38.698 whether they're on a mac or a windows machine. Or 0:07:38.698 --> 0:07:42.628 you might use Rim to so that someone can connect 0:07:42.628 --> 0:07:45.628 to you so that if, for example, you use a 0:07:45.628 --> 0:07:49.768 service like IRA, you and you're having problems with an 0:07:49.768 --> 0:07:53.668 inaccessible web checkout, you can use Remote incident Manager and 0:07:53.668 --> 0:07:56.338 have the IRA agent connect to your computer and help 0:07:56.338 --> 0:07:59.248 you through it. Now, I use Rim in all sorts 0:07:59.248 --> 0:08:02.428 of different ways when I'm helping family members, but also 0:08:02.428 --> 0:08:05.848 for controlling my home machine when I'm out and about 0:08:05.848 --> 0:08:08.998 and those kinds of things. And there is currently an 0:08:09.048 --> 0:08:14.118 issue with Sequoia and the Rim product, and Mike and 0:08:14.118 --> 0:08:18.228 the team at Pneuma Solutions are advising people, if you 0:08:18.228 --> 0:08:22.878 are a heavy user of the Rim product, they're suggesting 0:08:22.878 --> 0:08:26.448 you delay upgrading to Sequoia until they resolve that issue. 0:08:26.478 --> 0:08:32.178 There's some issues around permissions, I think, and unattended access 0:08:32.178 --> 0:08:35.688 to systems. So at this stage, their advice if you 0:08:35.688 --> 0:08:37.788 are a Rim user. So if you use it with 0:08:37.788 --> 0:08:40.698 IRA or you help other people at this stage, the 0:08:40.698 --> 0:08:44.388 advice is to delay the upgrade to Sequoia for a 0:08:44.388 --> 0:08:47.478 couple of weeks until they have that issue sorted. 0:08:47.478 --> 0:08:51.258 We'll put Apple aside now because we can think about 0:08:51.258 --> 0:08:55.128 the freedom scientific upgrades, which come out from the end 0:08:55.128 --> 0:08:59.688 of October onwards with the jaws, the screen reader, the 0:08:59.688 --> 0:09:05.298 fusion and the Zoomtext Zoomtext being the screen enhancement and 0:09:05.298 --> 0:09:08.618 the fusion being really the combination of screen reader and 0:09:08.618 --> 0:09:10.178 screen enhancement, isn't it? 0:09:10.208 --> 0:09:13.868 That's right. Yes, yes. So fusion is the email. I 0:09:13.868 --> 0:09:16.598 always describe it as an amalgam of zoom text and jaws. 0:09:16.628 --> 0:09:19.448 And there are betas available for those already. 0:09:19.478 --> 0:09:21.638 Yes. So for people who like to be on the 0:09:21.638 --> 0:09:27.638 cutting edge, the beta versions for the 2025 updates are 0:09:27.638 --> 0:09:31.538 available for people to road test, and you can do 0:09:31.538 --> 0:09:34.388 that by simply going to Freedom Scientific Comm. And there's 0:09:34.388 --> 0:09:39.908 a 2025 betas link. And you can then select your 0:09:39.908 --> 0:09:43.598 your versions, um, depending on which product you want to test. 0:09:43.628 --> 0:09:47.078 There are a couple of caveats. Obviously, the support for 0:09:47.078 --> 0:09:51.638 beta versions is limited, and if you have some jaws 0:09:51.668 --> 0:09:54.518 scripts and things like that. So if you use the 0:09:54.518 --> 0:09:58.358 Lacie product from March and consultancy or the station playlist 0:09:58.388 --> 0:10:02.618 scripts or, um, other, other jaws scripts that you might 0:10:02.618 --> 0:10:05.498 be using in a previous version, they may or may 0:10:05.498 --> 0:10:09.738 not work. Um, with the beta version of, uh, of 0:10:09.738 --> 0:10:11.298 jaws 2025. 0:10:11.328 --> 0:10:14.988 We talked last week about the SMA process. Perhaps you 0:10:14.988 --> 0:10:17.748 might go over that again and explain how people can 0:10:17.748 --> 0:10:21.288 check what they're up to with their SMAs. Sure. 0:10:21.288 --> 0:10:24.738 So a software maintenance agreement, or SMA is something that 0:10:24.738 --> 0:10:28.308 you can purchase, and it's essentially pre-purchasing the next two 0:10:28.338 --> 0:10:33.258 major version releases ahead of time. So if you were 0:10:33.258 --> 0:10:37.548 buying jaws 2024 today and you bought an SMA, you 0:10:37.548 --> 0:10:42.108 would have access to 2025 and 2026 when when they're released. 0:10:42.108 --> 0:10:46.548 That's essentially how an SMA works. So if you don't 0:10:46.548 --> 0:10:50.448 have any upgrades remaining, I would strongly encourage you to 0:10:50.478 --> 0:10:55.908 renew your SMA before jaws 2025 is officially released sometime 0:10:55.908 --> 0:10:59.958 in late October. And the reason for that is that 0:10:59.958 --> 0:11:03.318 if you wait until after 2025 is released, you'll have 0:11:03.318 --> 0:11:08.578 to purchase the upgrade to jaws 2025 and then the SMA. So, um, 0:11:08.578 --> 0:11:11.728 you can save yourself some money by doing that. Update 0:11:11.728 --> 0:11:14.968 before 2025 comes out. What's the best way. 0:11:14.968 --> 0:11:17.518 To check how many of those updates you've got left? 0:11:17.548 --> 0:11:18.898 There's a couple of ways you can do it. You 0:11:18.898 --> 0:11:22.858 can just go into the help menu and go to about, 0:11:22.858 --> 0:11:25.648 but a more accurate and more detailed way of doing 0:11:25.648 --> 0:11:33.148 it is to pop over to FS, activate. That's Foxtrot Sierra, activate.com, 0:11:33.148 --> 0:11:36.298 and there's a link there that you can select, which 0:11:36.298 --> 0:11:40.828 is check the number of activations remaining. They'll then be 0:11:40.828 --> 0:11:43.258 an edit box where you can type in your serial number. 0:11:43.258 --> 0:11:47.158 Press enter and you'll get a bunch of information will 0:11:47.158 --> 0:11:49.348 come up. It'll tell you how many activations you've got. 0:11:49.348 --> 0:11:51.838 So in other words, how many more times you can 0:11:51.838 --> 0:11:55.798 install Jaws, because when you purchase a license, there's three. 0:11:55.828 --> 0:11:59.128 You're allowed three activations or three installs, in other words. 0:11:59.158 --> 0:12:00.778 On three different machines. 0:12:00.838 --> 0:12:04.558 Correct. Yes. Yep. Um, and you'll also be able to 0:12:04.588 --> 0:12:07.798 find out what's the the latest version allowed. So if 0:12:07.798 --> 0:12:11.338 I look at mine, the latest version allowed is 2024. 0:12:11.338 --> 0:12:13.978 So that tells me that my SMA has run out 0:12:13.978 --> 0:12:16.468 and that I need to renew it, um, and practice 0:12:16.498 --> 0:12:18.688 what I'm preaching and do it sometime in the next 0:12:18.688 --> 0:12:21.868 couple of weeks. And that'll give you other details, like 0:12:21.868 --> 0:12:24.178 it'll tell you, you know, whether you've got things like 0:12:24.178 --> 0:12:27.178 remote access enabled and whether it's a pro or home 0:12:27.178 --> 0:12:28.888 license and a whole bunch of things. 0:12:28.918 --> 0:12:32.068 Let's talk about the tactile braille displays that are being 0:12:32.068 --> 0:12:35.788 developed around the world. There's one called the monarch, which 0:12:35.788 --> 0:12:37.798 is attracting a lot of attention. 0:12:37.798 --> 0:12:43.078 And understandably so, because, um, it does allow you to 0:12:43.108 --> 0:12:46.918 view things like tactile graphics, and it is a multi-line display. 0:12:46.918 --> 0:12:50.248 So it's about the size of a large gaming laptop 0:12:50.248 --> 0:12:53.218 and probably a similar weight. Um, it has a suite 0:12:53.248 --> 0:12:55.918 of applications like most of the Humanware products. So we 0:12:55.918 --> 0:12:59.158 have things like the the Kingsoft suite of applications, key 0:12:59.188 --> 0:13:02.338 word and so on. But we also have a graphics viewer. 0:13:02.338 --> 0:13:06.218 So if you were reading a Braille book on the device, 0:13:06.218 --> 0:13:08.738 you could view. Instead of having to scroll the display 0:13:08.738 --> 0:13:12.428 line by line, you can view a page at a 0:13:12.428 --> 0:13:15.878 time because it's a multi-line display, but you can also 0:13:15.878 --> 0:13:18.878 use it to view and zoom in on graphics. So 0:13:18.878 --> 0:13:24.578 for those people into the sort of science, technology, engineering, maths, 0:13:24.608 --> 0:13:27.638 those sort of Stem subjects, it really is quite an 0:13:27.638 --> 0:13:31.478 interesting tool because it would enable you to, to to 0:13:31.508 --> 0:13:34.298 view diagrams and those sorts of things as well, in 0:13:34.298 --> 0:13:38.108 much more detail than we've been able to in the past. 0:13:38.138 --> 0:13:39.608 It's not going to be cheap, is it? 0:13:39.638 --> 0:13:43.568 No it's not. I don't have the exact figures, but 0:13:43.598 --> 0:13:47.528 the last I had heard was around about $27,000. So 0:13:47.558 --> 0:13:50.678 it's not something that you, you know, you would buy 0:13:50.678 --> 0:13:53.258 unless you were really serious about needing it and had 0:13:53.258 --> 0:13:56.768 a genuine use case. But for those that do, I 0:13:56.768 --> 0:13:59.558 think it has the potential to be quite a game changer. 0:13:59.588 --> 0:14:02.678 There's going to be an event to launch this product 0:14:02.678 --> 0:14:04.238 in Australia in October. 0:14:04.268 --> 0:14:08.108 That's right. The 10th of October at 11 a.m. Eastern 0:14:08.108 --> 0:14:09.218 Daylight Time. 0:14:09.218 --> 0:14:11.378 We'll put the link to that in the show notes 0:14:11.378 --> 0:14:15.518 so you can register for it. Just before we go, 0:14:15.548 --> 0:14:18.308 a reminder of where there are details of what we've 0:14:18.308 --> 0:14:21.398 been talking about in this and previous editions of the program, 0:14:21.398 --> 0:14:29.198 and that link is VA radio.org/talking tech. VA radio.org/talking tech. 0:14:29.228 --> 0:14:31.208 And to right to the program demo. 0:14:31.238 --> 0:14:36.518 You can email me Damo Dot McMorrow. That's Damo dot 0:14:36.518 --> 0:14:41.918 McMorrow m c m o r o w at Vision Australia. 0:14:42.248 --> 0:14:47.468 Org Damo dot McMorrow at Vision Australia. Org. This has 0:14:47.468 --> 0:14:50.768 been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national 0:14:50.768 --> 0:14:55.598 access technology manager Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. 0:14:55.628 --> 0:14:57.278 We'll talk more tech next week. See you.