S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: March the 19th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have
S1: you with us. Wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision Australia Radio,
S1: Associated Stations of Australia or the Community Radio Network, there
S1: is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need
S1: to do is search for the two words talking tech
S1: and down. It can come usually on a Tuesday afternoon
S1: just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask
S1: your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia
S1: 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: you can explain the tech stuff really well, but we're
S1: going to start with something that's not really high tech,
S1: but very useful a way of labeling items in Braille.
S1: And this is the the product that we're going to
S1: talk about this week from the shop, the store of
S1: Vision Australia.
S2: Indeed. So this is the Dymo Braille labeler. And if
S2: you haven't may have not have had one before. It's
S2: boasting a little dymo label, a type thing that you
S2: of course put tape into. And then you've got this
S2: sort of rotary dial thing that's got Braille and print
S2: on it. So somebody who's sighted that doesn't know Braille
S2: can actually use it as well. And then you simply
S2: push the little handle in underneath the unit where the
S2: tape goes in. And every time you press it, and
S2: of course, it makes a little character or punctuation mark
S2: or whatever else, it's actually on the little round rotary
S2: thing and you can do labeling stuff. So this came
S2: in very useful because a what, I don't know, ten
S2: years ago maybe or more, I decided to braille label
S2: on my DVD collection, of which I've got about 500
S2: little cases of them. And it just so happened that
S2: my daughter decided to get a loan or a permanent
S2: loan of another little DVD player that I haven't had
S2: this in this house for about five years, and I
S2: was able to go through a whole DVD collection and
S2: grab out the one she wanted because it was labeled
S2: in bra with my Dymo label. So it really does
S2: have good purposes. If you're still going to C D collection,
S2: you can do that. In fact, anything you can stick a,
S2: you know, a label onto, you can label in Braille.
S2: And if it's stuff in the pantry and so on.
S2: So nice little good simple manual device for labeling available.
S1: From the vision store shop in Australia. Borg. Let's talk
S1: again about the label one. This is the little device
S1: which is Braille oriented and enables one to use this
S1: keyboard device as an input device for maybe a smartphone
S1: or some other device. Tell us about it.
S2: Yeah. So basically you've got, uh, six, six standard boxes.
S2: And of course, if you're a brown user, you've got
S2: ..7.8 with combination of those keys, you can navigate your smartphone,
S2: and you can also input in braille into an edit field.
S2: Now it works extremely well on the iPhone. Um, so
S2: you link it up and you can start navigating and
S2: doing all sorts of really cool things with VoiceOver. Now,
S2: when it comes to talkback on Android, because Android is
S2: so open and so flexible, I've been finding that some
S2: of the things that are supposed to work, particularly on
S2: my Samsung Z flip three, which is now effectively I
S2: want to say about four years old, I'm still using
S2: the current OS. Some of the commands in it don't work,
S2: but then I've had discussions with other people that have
S2: a different Android phone and a different version of the
S2: operating system. Uh, and it works perfectly fine. So what
S2: I've come to think about, because I did post a
S2: podcast on using the hybrid one on my iPhone last
S2: week on my podcast feed. When I'm going to do
S2: a podcast on Android this week, I'm probably really going
S2: to say to people, look, there is no there's no
S2: overall issues in using it with Android for Android users,
S2: in particular for phones and tablets. What I would recommend
S2: is that you try it before you buy it, just
S2: to make doubly sure that your specific model of your
S2: phone or tablet, and your specific way you've got your
S2: Android OS set up, is going to work with the
S2: other one. So it's not the fault of the hable
S2: one that's the issue. It's the complexity of having such
S2: an open ended system. That's always been the issue when
S2: you try and use anything from an assistive technology point
S2: of view with Android.
S1: Now, recently we talked about the new range of zoom
S1: digital recorders. Um, you and I have ventured into the
S1: purchasing area and we each have a zoom H1 essential recorder.
S1: You've had yours about a week. What do you reckon?
S2: So the zoom H1 essential recorder is a little sort
S2: of like a chocolate bar sized recording device. Now, I
S2: should add in the beginning, this is the professional recorder.
S2: This is not something that you would just pick up
S2: and do a, you know, a bit of a dictation
S2: or a memo if this is a full blown professional recorder, that's,
S2: that's number one. Uh, number two, it is fairly well
S2: laid out as far as the buttons and ports and
S2: that sort of stuff is concerned. The only thing that
S2: I would point out between this recorder and, you know,
S2: things like the, the stream and, uh, the sense player,
S2: custom devices tend to sort of like take you through
S2: and hold your hand a little bit to do recordings
S2: and that sort of stuff. The H1 is part of
S2: the essential series. So the h4, the h6, these assume
S2: that you know what you're doing. So I always say
S2: to people, if you want to get your best out
S2: of something, then you must read the manual. Listen to tutorials,
S2: or talk to other people because otherwise you won't get
S2: the full benefit out of the H1, in particular the
S2: basic recorder. And if you don't use it to its
S2: full potential, then I guess in some ways you might
S2: have not bothered. You might just go and get a
S2: nice custom device, like a stream or a sense play,
S2: and just to be more comfortable with.
S1: It's high on accessibility, but it's not made for blind
S1: or low vision people to use. That's the point, isn't it?
S2: Correct. So you've had a mainstream company spend 25% of
S2: their budget for development on accessibility, but it's making a
S2: reasonably technical device accessible. But that does not mean it's
S2: actually easy to use as far as functions are concerned.
S2: And I've been watching a few mailing lists and, you know,
S2: people have actually said, I found that I couldn't do this.
S2: And somebody else says, oh, that's because you haven't turned
S2: that on. So its basic form is fine. But if
S2: you really want to start using as a professional recording device,
S2: then you really do need to get to a point
S2: when you're taking full benefit of it.
S1: A very impressive little machine to use, and you can
S1: just hold it in your hand.
S2: You can and look because the the XY microphones attached
S2: to the top of it, you've got to be a
S2: little bit careful in not moving your hand too much,
S2: because when you move your hand on the plastic casing,
S2: it'll come through the mic. Um, you can put it
S2: on a stand if you really want to, but I've
S2: done recordings of, you know, a train and a bus
S2: and a few other things when I've been out and
S2: about and I'm literally holding it. It's so light. I've
S2: been holding it between my thumb and my index finger,
S2: finger pointing in the right direction, and it's picked up beautifully.
S2: I'm not getting any wind noise, any hum in the background. Um,
S2: it's been really fantastic. So I spent the whole day
S2: travelling to and from Sydney yesterday as we did the
S2: recording today, and it was just lovely because I was
S2: able to quickly make different sound recordings that I haven't
S2: done for a long time. On just the environment I
S2: was going through.
S1: The zoom H1 Essential Recorder, the baby of the three
S1: recently released by zoom. In 2020, Apple came out with
S1: its Big Daddy AirPods Max machine or headset? You got
S1: one I did. How's it going? Badly.
S2: Um, mine's effectively died, so I bought mine in December 2020.
S2: And now three years and basically three months later, the
S2: battery in my AirPods Max is officially dead. No lights,
S2: no nothing on the device. So you think for something
S2: at the time cost me $999 would last a bit longer,
S2: at least the batteries concerned for three and a bit years.
S2: So what I'm probably going to do, uh, this week
S2: is contact my local Apple reseller, take the AirPods Max in,
S2: and then see how much it will cost me to
S2: get the battery changed in the device. I did watch
S2: a quick YouTube on it and it's just amazing. Steven.
S2: It took a guy with four different implements to actually
S2: take the battery out of the unit, and it was
S2: a bit scary because it actually said if you do
S2: certain things, you'll actually ruin the whole device. So my
S2: motto is if you want something, things like this with
S2: a battery, take it to the professionals and let them
S2: do it.
S1: Yes, probably. Good advice. Now some AI news. Google Gemini
S1: can be accessed easily indeed.
S2: So this was a drawback that when Gemini was released
S2: it was saying, oh no, look, you can only use
S2: it on Android or certain smartphones and that sort of stuff. Well, now, um,
S2: you can access Gemini, Cosmo, or and this is really,
S2: really cool. If you just go into your web browser
S2: and type in ai.com that are reroute itself to gemini.com,
S2: which means you can then use the Google AI. So
S2: we now have on web based stuff. Now we've got copilot, uh,
S2: we've got ChatGPT, and now you can have a really
S2: good play with Gemini and. As far as I can
S2: tell at the moment it only gives text based chit
S2: chat out to you. I haven't found a way on
S2: the website. Mind you, I've only spent about ten minutes
S2: with it so far, but I haven't found like a
S2: voice output option yet. So if people do find out
S2: that I find out about that, please let me know
S2: at work.
S1: Some good news coming towards the end of the year
S1: for many of Australia's NBN broadband users.
S2: Indeed. So what this is all about is literally well,
S2: as far as I'm concerned, it's two things. It's bringing
S2: more houses online to fibre to the house, which is
S2: unfortunately what you've got Stephen, for as far as I'm concerned. Uh,
S2: versus a fibre to the street, which just means I've
S2: got copper wire running from my node at the end
S2: of the street to my house. So that's number one.
S2: So more people have got access to fibre to the house. Um,
S2: and then the second one is, is, which is what
S2: this article really talked about is increased speed. Because when
S2: you consider that the normal household on average has 23
S2: devices in it, um, and you and I have probably
S2: got more. Anyway, um, that's a lot of a load.
S2: So when you can increase the bandwidth and data speed
S2: that impacts upon how your use of your smart technology
S2: at home, whether it's smart home devices, smart TVs, your phones,
S2: your tablets, all that sort of stuff. So towards the
S2: end of the year, we might have speeds, maybe or
S2: maybe not, that people get in New Zealand and take
S2: it for granted.
S1: So at the moment, if you're on 120 megabit plan, uh,
S1: you can anticipate maybe 550, they say. And for people
S1: on a 250 megabit plan could be up around the 750.
S1: So something to look forward to.
S2: Indeed. Yeah. Bits of hell over a 300 baud modem
S2: from about 1986, that's for sure.
S1: Now, a little technique you've heard about recently on Apple
S1: viz for turning off predictive text when you're writing on
S1: your Mac?
S2: Yes. Now, this has been driving me barmy for a
S2: little while now, because when you type on your Mac
S2: and it seems to be more relevant in the latest
S2: Mac OS cinema, uh, the assistant keeps trying to make
S2: recommendations to you. And if you're using speech, not only
S2: can you hear the word that you're typing in, you
S2: also get the word of the suggestion that it's trying
S2: to suggest to you. So turning this off in Keyboard Preferences, um,
S2: and it's a very straightforward tip podcast. You can just
S2: turn that off and then hey presto, you can type
S2: in without getting annoyed by this suggestion system, basically overwriting
S2: and stopping what you're listening to. So for us as
S2: blind people and screen reader users, we're going to be
S2: more productive at the end of the day.
S1: You've found a great stopwatch app for the Mac.
S2: I did, it's called The Good Stopwatch, which is a
S2: really cool name for an app, I think. And what
S2: happens is it's got simply it's got a stop, a start,
S2: a pause, and the timer itself. And if you set
S2: a hotspot on it, um, in voiceover terms, which basically
S2: monitors a certain part of the screen, you can be
S2: in any other application, do your hotspot command, and you
S2: can double check how much time you've taken up outside
S2: doing a show like talking tech for the radio for
S2: Stephen in particular, or me doing a quick five minute
S2: podcast to make sure I can keep talking, um, precisely
S2: enough to get it within five minutes if I'm doing
S2: a specific demo for work and so on. So it's
S2: a really great little nifty app that if you're a
S2: mac user, you can use for timing.
S1: So how do you get hold of that?
S2: Uh, from the Mac App Store? So if you just
S2: go to the Mac App Store, go to search, type
S2: in good stopwatch, three words, then it'll come up straight away.
S1: Now, before we go, a reminder of where there are
S1: details of what we've been talking about in this and
S1: previous editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David would be a dot podbean pad. Ben.
S2: Com David.
S1: Would be AirPods bean pod b e a incom to
S1: write to the.
S2: Program. You can write to me at Vision Australia at work,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge out sounds at Vision australia.org David.
S1: Dot 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 Jolly stay safe. We'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.