WEBVTT - Talking Tech 19th March 2024 0:00:21.408 --> 0:00:25.248 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:25.248 --> 0:00:29.238 March the 19th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have 0:00:29.238 --> 0:00:32.748 you with us. Wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision Australia Radio, 0:00:32.748 --> 0:00:37.398 Associated Stations of Australia or the Community Radio Network, there 0:00:37.398 --> 0:00:39.738 is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need 0:00:39.738 --> 0:00:43.008 to do is search for the two words talking tech 0:00:43.008 --> 0:00:45.768 and down. It can come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:45.768 --> 0:00:49.218 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:00:49.218 --> 0:00:53.118 your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia 0:00:53.118 --> 0:00:58.968 Radio talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking tech podcast 0:00:58.968 --> 0:01:01.668 with me, someone who can explain all this tech stuff 0:01:01.668 --> 0:01:07.938 really well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David, 0:01:07.938 --> 0:01:10.248 you can explain the tech stuff really well, but we're 0:01:10.248 --> 0:01:12.498 going to start with something that's not really high tech, 0:01:12.498 --> 0:01:16.908 but very useful a way of labeling items in Braille. 0:01:17.058 --> 0:01:19.338 And this is the the product that we're going to 0:01:19.338 --> 0:01:22.158 talk about this week from the shop, the store of 0:01:22.158 --> 0:01:23.208 Vision Australia. 0:01:23.358 --> 0:01:27.738 Indeed. So this is the Dymo Braille labeler. And if 0:01:27.738 --> 0:01:30.018 you haven't may have not have had one before. It's 0:01:30.018 --> 0:01:33.528 boasting a little dymo label, a type thing that you 0:01:33.528 --> 0:01:36.918 of course put tape into. And then you've got this 0:01:36.918 --> 0:01:39.558 sort of rotary dial thing that's got Braille and print 0:01:39.558 --> 0:01:41.838 on it. So somebody who's sighted that doesn't know Braille 0:01:41.838 --> 0:01:44.628 can actually use it as well. And then you simply 0:01:44.628 --> 0:01:47.418 push the little handle in underneath the unit where the 0:01:47.418 --> 0:01:49.638 tape goes in. And every time you press it, and 0:01:49.638 --> 0:01:53.388 of course, it makes a little character or punctuation mark 0:01:53.388 --> 0:01:55.458 or whatever else, it's actually on the little round rotary 0:01:55.458 --> 0:01:59.238 thing and you can do labeling stuff. So this came 0:01:59.238 --> 0:02:01.938 in very useful because a what, I don't know, ten 0:02:01.938 --> 0:02:05.328 years ago maybe or more, I decided to braille label 0:02:05.328 --> 0:02:08.628 on my DVD collection, of which I've got about 500 0:02:08.628 --> 0:02:12.168 little cases of them. And it just so happened that 0:02:12.168 --> 0:02:16.128 my daughter decided to get a loan or a permanent 0:02:16.128 --> 0:02:19.248 loan of another little DVD player that I haven't had 0:02:19.248 --> 0:02:21.768 this in this house for about five years, and I 0:02:21.768 --> 0:02:25.278 was able to go through a whole DVD collection and 0:02:25.278 --> 0:02:27.048 grab out the one she wanted because it was labeled 0:02:27.048 --> 0:02:29.628 in bra with my Dymo label. So it really does 0:02:29.628 --> 0:02:32.418 have good purposes. If you're still going to C D collection, 0:02:32.418 --> 0:02:35.388 you can do that. In fact, anything you can stick a, 0:02:35.418 --> 0:02:38.538 you know, a label onto, you can label in Braille. 0:02:38.538 --> 0:02:40.368 And if it's stuff in the pantry and so on. 0:02:40.368 --> 0:02:44.658 So nice little good simple manual device for labeling available. 0:02:44.658 --> 0:02:50.988 From the vision store shop in Australia. Borg. Let's talk 0:02:50.988 --> 0:02:55.158 again about the label one. This is the little device 0:02:55.158 --> 0:03:00.318 which is Braille oriented and enables one to use this 0:03:00.318 --> 0:03:04.518 keyboard device as an input device for maybe a smartphone 0:03:04.518 --> 0:03:06.978 or some other device. Tell us about it. 0:03:06.978 --> 0:03:10.758 Yeah. So basically you've got, uh, six, six standard boxes. 0:03:10.758 --> 0:03:12.888 And of course, if you're a brown user, you've got 0:03:12.888 --> 0:03:19.158 ..7.8 with combination of those keys, you can navigate your smartphone, 0:03:19.158 --> 0:03:22.518 and you can also input in braille into an edit field. 0:03:23.028 --> 0:03:27.528 Now it works extremely well on the iPhone. Um, so 0:03:27.528 --> 0:03:29.538 you link it up and you can start navigating and 0:03:29.538 --> 0:03:31.488 doing all sorts of really cool things with VoiceOver. Now, 0:03:31.488 --> 0:03:37.068 when it comes to talkback on Android, because Android is 0:03:37.068 --> 0:03:41.388 so open and so flexible, I've been finding that some 0:03:41.388 --> 0:03:44.058 of the things that are supposed to work, particularly on 0:03:44.058 --> 0:03:48.318 my Samsung Z flip three, which is now effectively I 0:03:48.318 --> 0:03:51.078 want to say about four years old, I'm still using 0:03:51.078 --> 0:03:55.128 the current OS. Some of the commands in it don't work, 0:03:55.128 --> 0:03:58.878 but then I've had discussions with other people that have 0:03:58.878 --> 0:04:01.818 a different Android phone and a different version of the 0:04:01.818 --> 0:04:07.578 operating system. Uh, and it works perfectly fine. So what 0:04:07.578 --> 0:04:09.348 I've come to think about, because I did post a 0:04:09.348 --> 0:04:12.258 podcast on using the hybrid one on my iPhone last 0:04:12.258 --> 0:04:15.618 week on my podcast feed. When I'm going to do 0:04:15.618 --> 0:04:19.368 a podcast on Android this week, I'm probably really going 0:04:19.368 --> 0:04:21.768 to say to people, look, there is no there's no 0:04:21.768 --> 0:04:25.878 overall issues in using it with Android for Android users, 0:04:25.878 --> 0:04:28.848 in particular for phones and tablets. What I would recommend 0:04:28.848 --> 0:04:32.868 is that you try it before you buy it, just 0:04:32.868 --> 0:04:37.458 to make doubly sure that your specific model of your 0:04:37.458 --> 0:04:40.938 phone or tablet, and your specific way you've got your 0:04:40.938 --> 0:04:43.758 Android OS set up, is going to work with the 0:04:43.878 --> 0:04:46.488 other one. So it's not the fault of the hable 0:04:46.488 --> 0:04:50.268 one that's the issue. It's the complexity of having such 0:04:50.268 --> 0:04:53.538 an open ended system. That's always been the issue when 0:04:53.538 --> 0:04:57.618 you try and use anything from an assistive technology point 0:04:57.618 --> 0:04:59.508 of view with Android. 0:05:00.198 --> 0:05:04.188 Now, recently we talked about the new range of zoom 0:05:04.188 --> 0:05:10.068 digital recorders. Um, you and I have ventured into the 0:05:10.068 --> 0:05:17.478 purchasing area and we each have a zoom H1 essential recorder. 0:05:18.018 --> 0:05:20.388 You've had yours about a week. What do you reckon? 0:05:20.718 --> 0:05:24.498 So the zoom H1 essential recorder is a little sort 0:05:24.498 --> 0:05:29.238 of like a chocolate bar sized recording device. Now, I 0:05:29.238 --> 0:05:32.808 should add in the beginning, this is the professional recorder. 0:05:32.808 --> 0:05:34.668 This is not something that you would just pick up 0:05:34.668 --> 0:05:36.738 and do a, you know, a bit of a dictation 0:05:36.738 --> 0:05:39.618 or a memo if this is a full blown professional recorder, that's, 0:05:39.618 --> 0:05:45.258 that's number one. Uh, number two, it is fairly well 0:05:45.258 --> 0:05:48.018 laid out as far as the buttons and ports and 0:05:48.018 --> 0:05:51.048 that sort of stuff is concerned. The only thing that 0:05:51.048 --> 0:05:54.198 I would point out between this recorder and, you know, 0:05:54.198 --> 0:05:58.158 things like the, the stream and, uh, the sense player, 0:05:58.968 --> 0:06:02.598 custom devices tend to sort of like take you through 0:06:02.598 --> 0:06:05.268 and hold your hand a little bit to do recordings 0:06:05.268 --> 0:06:08.598 and that sort of stuff. The H1 is part of 0:06:08.598 --> 0:06:13.368 the essential series. So the h4, the h6, these assume 0:06:13.368 --> 0:06:16.668 that you know what you're doing. So I always say 0:06:16.668 --> 0:06:18.018 to people, if you want to get your best out 0:06:18.018 --> 0:06:21.678 of something, then you must read the manual. Listen to tutorials, 0:06:21.678 --> 0:06:24.468 or talk to other people because otherwise you won't get 0:06:24.468 --> 0:06:27.138 the full benefit out of the H1, in particular the 0:06:27.138 --> 0:06:30.168 basic recorder. And if you don't use it to its 0:06:30.168 --> 0:06:32.208 full potential, then I guess in some ways you might 0:06:32.208 --> 0:06:34.458 have not bothered. You might just go and get a 0:06:34.458 --> 0:06:37.068 nice custom device, like a stream or a sense play, 0:06:37.068 --> 0:06:38.478 and just to be more comfortable with. 0:06:38.478 --> 0:06:41.898 It's high on accessibility, but it's not made for blind 0:06:41.898 --> 0:06:44.148 or low vision people to use. That's the point, isn't it? 0:06:44.148 --> 0:06:47.298 Correct. So you've had a mainstream company spend 25% of 0:06:47.298 --> 0:06:51.888 their budget for development on accessibility, but it's making a 0:06:52.068 --> 0:06:56.628 reasonably technical device accessible. But that does not mean it's 0:06:56.628 --> 0:07:00.258 actually easy to use as far as functions are concerned. 0:07:00.708 --> 0:07:04.128 And I've been watching a few mailing lists and, you know, 0:07:04.128 --> 0:07:07.128 people have actually said, I found that I couldn't do this. 0:07:07.128 --> 0:07:09.348 And somebody else says, oh, that's because you haven't turned 0:07:09.348 --> 0:07:12.948 that on. So its basic form is fine. But if 0:07:12.948 --> 0:07:15.828 you really want to start using as a professional recording device, 0:07:15.828 --> 0:07:18.768 then you really do need to get to a point 0:07:18.768 --> 0:07:20.538 when you're taking full benefit of it. 0:07:20.658 --> 0:07:23.088 A very impressive little machine to use, and you can 0:07:23.088 --> 0:07:24.528 just hold it in your hand. 0:07:24.528 --> 0:07:28.788 You can and look because the the XY microphones attached 0:07:28.788 --> 0:07:30.618 to the top of it, you've got to be a 0:07:30.618 --> 0:07:33.168 little bit careful in not moving your hand too much, 0:07:33.168 --> 0:07:35.358 because when you move your hand on the plastic casing, 0:07:35.358 --> 0:07:38.178 it'll come through the mic. Um, you can put it 0:07:38.178 --> 0:07:40.218 on a stand if you really want to, but I've 0:07:40.218 --> 0:07:43.758 done recordings of, you know, a train and a bus 0:07:43.758 --> 0:07:44.928 and a few other things when I've been out and 0:07:44.928 --> 0:07:47.778 about and I'm literally holding it. It's so light. I've 0:07:47.778 --> 0:07:50.178 been holding it between my thumb and my index finger, 0:07:50.178 --> 0:07:53.688 finger pointing in the right direction, and it's picked up beautifully. 0:07:53.688 --> 0:07:58.158 I'm not getting any wind noise, any hum in the background. Um, 0:07:58.158 --> 0:08:01.128 it's been really fantastic. So I spent the whole day 0:08:01.128 --> 0:08:03.948 travelling to and from Sydney yesterday as we did the 0:08:03.948 --> 0:08:07.278 recording today, and it was just lovely because I was 0:08:07.278 --> 0:08:10.158 able to quickly make different sound recordings that I haven't 0:08:10.158 --> 0:08:12.588 done for a long time. On just the environment I 0:08:12.588 --> 0:08:13.368 was going through. 0:08:13.668 --> 0:08:18.288 The zoom H1 Essential Recorder, the baby of the three 0:08:18.288 --> 0:08:24.048 recently released by zoom. In 2020, Apple came out with 0:08:24.048 --> 0:08:30.318 its Big Daddy AirPods Max machine or headset? You got 0:08:30.318 --> 0:08:34.398 one I did. How's it going? Badly. 0:08:34.698 --> 0:08:39.618 Um, mine's effectively died, so I bought mine in December 2020. 0:08:39.618 --> 0:08:43.368 And now three years and basically three months later, the 0:08:43.368 --> 0:08:47.628 battery in my AirPods Max is officially dead. No lights, 0:08:47.628 --> 0:08:51.438 no nothing on the device. So you think for something 0:08:51.438 --> 0:08:55.788 at the time cost me $999 would last a bit longer, 0:08:55.878 --> 0:08:59.208 at least the batteries concerned for three and a bit years. 0:08:59.208 --> 0:09:02.958 So what I'm probably going to do, uh, this week 0:09:02.958 --> 0:09:08.238 is contact my local Apple reseller, take the AirPods Max in, 0:09:08.238 --> 0:09:10.578 and then see how much it will cost me to 0:09:10.578 --> 0:09:14.748 get the battery changed in the device. I did watch 0:09:14.748 --> 0:09:17.418 a quick YouTube on it and it's just amazing. Steven. 0:09:17.418 --> 0:09:22.398 It took a guy with four different implements to actually 0:09:22.398 --> 0:09:24.858 take the battery out of the unit, and it was 0:09:24.858 --> 0:09:26.448 a bit scary because it actually said if you do 0:09:26.448 --> 0:09:29.238 certain things, you'll actually ruin the whole device. So my 0:09:29.238 --> 0:09:31.428 motto is if you want something, things like this with 0:09:31.428 --> 0:09:33.738 a battery, take it to the professionals and let them 0:09:33.738 --> 0:09:34.218 do it. 0:09:34.218 --> 0:09:39.468 Yes, probably. Good advice. Now some AI news. Google Gemini 0:09:39.498 --> 0:09:42.648 can be accessed easily indeed. 0:09:42.648 --> 0:09:45.438 So this was a drawback that when Gemini was released 0:09:45.438 --> 0:09:46.938 it was saying, oh no, look, you can only use 0:09:46.938 --> 0:09:52.008 it on Android or certain smartphones and that sort of stuff. Well, now, um, 0:09:52.008 --> 0:09:56.298 you can access Gemini, Cosmo, or and this is really, 0:09:56.298 --> 0:09:58.368 really cool. If you just go into your web browser 0:09:58.368 --> 0:10:05.148 and type in ai.com that are reroute itself to gemini.com, 0:10:05.388 --> 0:10:09.798 which means you can then use the Google AI. So 0:10:09.798 --> 0:10:14.238 we now have on web based stuff. Now we've got copilot, uh, 0:10:14.238 --> 0:10:17.868 we've got ChatGPT, and now you can have a really 0:10:17.868 --> 0:10:21.038 good play with Gemini and. As far as I can 0:10:21.038 --> 0:10:24.938 tell at the moment it only gives text based chit 0:10:24.938 --> 0:10:27.368 chat out to you. I haven't found a way on 0:10:27.368 --> 0:10:29.618 the website. Mind you, I've only spent about ten minutes 0:10:29.618 --> 0:10:31.628 with it so far, but I haven't found like a 0:10:31.628 --> 0:10:34.448 voice output option yet. So if people do find out 0:10:34.448 --> 0:10:36.458 that I find out about that, please let me know 0:10:36.458 --> 0:10:37.118 at work. 0:10:37.178 --> 0:10:39.368 Some good news coming towards the end of the year 0:10:39.368 --> 0:10:42.998 for many of Australia's NBN broadband users. 0:10:43.088 --> 0:10:47.378 Indeed. So what this is all about is literally well, 0:10:47.678 --> 0:10:49.958 as far as I'm concerned, it's two things. It's bringing 0:10:49.958 --> 0:10:54.698 more houses online to fibre to the house, which is 0:10:54.698 --> 0:10:57.788 unfortunately what you've got Stephen, for as far as I'm concerned. Uh, 0:10:57.788 --> 0:11:00.488 versus a fibre to the street, which just means I've 0:11:00.488 --> 0:11:03.098 got copper wire running from my node at the end 0:11:03.098 --> 0:11:05.648 of the street to my house. So that's number one. 0:11:05.648 --> 0:11:08.978 So more people have got access to fibre to the house. Um, 0:11:08.978 --> 0:11:10.928 and then the second one is, is, which is what 0:11:10.928 --> 0:11:16.568 this article really talked about is increased speed. Because when 0:11:16.568 --> 0:11:20.048 you consider that the normal household on average has 23 0:11:20.048 --> 0:11:22.598 devices in it, um, and you and I have probably 0:11:22.598 --> 0:11:26.678 got more. Anyway, um, that's a lot of a load. 0:11:26.678 --> 0:11:31.658 So when you can increase the bandwidth and data speed 0:11:31.868 --> 0:11:35.678 that impacts upon how your use of your smart technology 0:11:35.678 --> 0:11:40.118 at home, whether it's smart home devices, smart TVs, your phones, 0:11:40.118 --> 0:11:43.418 your tablets, all that sort of stuff. So towards the 0:11:43.418 --> 0:11:48.638 end of the year, we might have speeds, maybe or 0:11:48.638 --> 0:11:51.398 maybe not, that people get in New Zealand and take 0:11:51.398 --> 0:11:51.998 it for granted. 0:11:52.298 --> 0:11:57.278 So at the moment, if you're on 120 megabit plan, uh, 0:11:57.278 --> 0:12:02.228 you can anticipate maybe 550, they say. And for people 0:12:02.228 --> 0:12:06.128 on a 250 megabit plan could be up around the 750. 0:12:06.128 --> 0:12:07.958 So something to look forward to. 0:12:07.958 --> 0:12:10.568 Indeed. Yeah. Bits of hell over a 300 baud modem 0:12:10.568 --> 0:12:12.248 from about 1986, that's for sure. 0:12:12.698 --> 0:12:15.848 Now, a little technique you've heard about recently on Apple 0:12:15.848 --> 0:12:19.268 viz for turning off predictive text when you're writing on 0:12:19.268 --> 0:12:19.958 your Mac? 0:12:20.078 --> 0:12:23.438 Yes. Now, this has been driving me barmy for a 0:12:23.438 --> 0:12:25.958 little while now, because when you type on your Mac 0:12:25.958 --> 0:12:28.058 and it seems to be more relevant in the latest 0:12:28.058 --> 0:12:31.178 Mac OS cinema, uh, the assistant keeps trying to make 0:12:31.178 --> 0:12:34.868 recommendations to you. And if you're using speech, not only 0:12:34.868 --> 0:12:37.688 can you hear the word that you're typing in, you 0:12:37.688 --> 0:12:39.548 also get the word of the suggestion that it's trying 0:12:39.548 --> 0:12:44.678 to suggest to you. So turning this off in Keyboard Preferences, um, 0:12:44.678 --> 0:12:48.068 and it's a very straightforward tip podcast. You can just 0:12:48.068 --> 0:12:51.068 turn that off and then hey presto, you can type 0:12:51.068 --> 0:12:56.798 in without getting annoyed by this suggestion system, basically overwriting 0:12:56.798 --> 0:13:00.068 and stopping what you're listening to. So for us as 0:13:00.068 --> 0:13:02.168 blind people and screen reader users, we're going to be 0:13:02.168 --> 0:13:03.488 more productive at the end of the day. 0:13:03.758 --> 0:13:06.638 You've found a great stopwatch app for the Mac. 0:13:06.728 --> 0:13:09.578 I did, it's called The Good Stopwatch, which is a 0:13:09.578 --> 0:13:12.008 really cool name for an app, I think. And what 0:13:12.008 --> 0:13:15.758 happens is it's got simply it's got a stop, a start, 0:13:15.758 --> 0:13:19.598 a pause, and the timer itself. And if you set 0:13:19.598 --> 0:13:23.678 a hotspot on it, um, in voiceover terms, which basically 0:13:23.678 --> 0:13:26.858 monitors a certain part of the screen, you can be 0:13:26.858 --> 0:13:29.858 in any other application, do your hotspot command, and you 0:13:29.858 --> 0:13:33.368 can double check how much time you've taken up outside 0:13:33.368 --> 0:13:35.888 doing a show like talking tech for the radio for 0:13:35.888 --> 0:13:39.278 Stephen in particular, or me doing a quick five minute 0:13:39.278 --> 0:13:43.028 podcast to make sure I can keep talking, um, precisely 0:13:43.028 --> 0:13:44.828 enough to get it within five minutes if I'm doing 0:13:44.828 --> 0:13:47.648 a specific demo for work and so on. So it's 0:13:47.648 --> 0:13:49.928 a really great little nifty app that if you're a 0:13:49.928 --> 0:13:52.028 mac user, you can use for timing. 0:13:52.328 --> 0:13:53.798 So how do you get hold of that? 0:13:54.218 --> 0:13:56.468 Uh, from the Mac App Store? So if you just 0:13:56.468 --> 0:13:58.808 go to the Mac App Store, go to search, type 0:13:58.808 --> 0:14:02.648 in good stopwatch, three words, then it'll come up straight away. 0:14:02.858 --> 0:14:05.288 Now, before we go, a reminder of where there are 0:14:05.288 --> 0:14:07.898 details of what we've been talking about in this and 0:14:07.898 --> 0:14:09.578 previous editions of the program. 0:14:09.848 --> 0:14:12.398 Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site, 0:14:12.398 --> 0:14:16.508 which is David would be a dot podbean pad. Ben. 0:14:16.718 --> 0:14:17.768 Com David. 0:14:17.768 --> 0:14:22.778 Would be AirPods bean pod b e a incom to 0:14:22.778 --> 0:14:23.138 write to the. 0:14:23.138 --> 0:14:25.748 Program. You can write to me at Vision Australia at work, 0:14:25.748 --> 0:14:31.088 which is David Dot Woodbridge out sounds at Vision australia.org David. 0:14:31.088 --> 0:14:35.468 Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has been talking 0:14:35.498 --> 0:14:39.128 tech with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor on 0:14:39.128 --> 0:14:43.148 access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolly stay safe. We'll 0:14:43.148 --> 0:14:44.558 talk more tech next week. See you.