WEBVTT - Talking Tech 27th August 2024 0:00:21.228 --> 0:00:25.038 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:25.038 --> 0:00:29.178 August the 27th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have 0:00:29.178 --> 0:00:33.498 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated 0:00:33.498 --> 0:00:38.628 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:38.658 --> 0:00:41.298 There's also the podcast. To catch that, all you need 0:00:41.298 --> 0:00:44.238 to do is search for the two words. Talking tech 0:00:44.238 --> 0:00:47.298 and DNA can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:47.298 --> 0:00:50.538 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:00:50.568 --> 0:00:54.048 your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision Australia 0:00:54.048 --> 0:00:59.868 radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast 0:01:00.318 --> 0:01:03.228 with me. For the last 12 years I've been saying 0:01:03.228 --> 0:01:07.068 Vision Australia's David Woodbridge. Well, David is still with us, 0:01:07.068 --> 0:01:09.798 but you're not Vision Australia's now, David, there's been a 0:01:09.798 --> 0:01:13.698 bit of a change after 34 years of service through 0:01:13.728 --> 0:01:16.128 Vision Australia. Congratulations on that. 0:01:16.158 --> 0:01:18.358 Thank you. But it also sounds like I'm getting very, 0:01:18.358 --> 0:01:21.748 very old, so I am not too sure. But yes, 0:01:21.748 --> 0:01:24.628 I have moved on from Vision Australia. And can I 0:01:24.628 --> 0:01:26.878 say though, is that while I've enjoyed my time at 0:01:26.878 --> 0:01:29.668 Vision Australia and number two, I am really excited to 0:01:29.698 --> 0:01:32.848 look into the future. I can't share much yet, but 0:01:32.848 --> 0:01:34.978 I will definitely be around and about. 0:01:35.008 --> 0:01:36.628 Don't worry, I'm going to try and get more out 0:01:36.628 --> 0:01:38.818 of you over the next few minutes about the future, 0:01:38.818 --> 0:01:42.388 but let's go right back. 34 years ago, when you 0:01:42.418 --> 0:01:46.198 walked in to the office of the Royal Blind Society 0:01:46.198 --> 0:01:49.618 at Enfield in Sydney, what sort of a job did 0:01:49.618 --> 0:01:50.728 you walk into? 0:01:50.998 --> 0:01:55.858 Well, back then we were called the technology resource officer roles, 0:01:55.888 --> 0:01:58.288 which actually made me feel like I was a troll 0:01:58.288 --> 0:02:02.908 hiding under a bridge somewhere and popping out and surprising people. Basically, 0:02:02.908 --> 0:02:04.738 what I used to do for the next 15 years 0:02:04.738 --> 0:02:11.068 or so was to basically assess, recommend, install, support, and 0:02:11.068 --> 0:02:17.378 train people on assistive technology and or mainstream stuff for home, 0:02:17.378 --> 0:02:22.418 work and education. So it really hasn't changed that much, 0:02:22.448 --> 0:02:24.458 except the thing that I had back then to use 0:02:24.458 --> 0:02:29.948 as far as technology went was a landline phone, a 0:02:29.948 --> 0:02:37.058 original Toshiba 1000 PC plus running keynote. And I think 0:02:37.058 --> 0:02:39.488 about a year when I first started, I think I 0:02:39.488 --> 0:02:41.468 also got a Braille and speak. So there were the 0:02:41.468 --> 0:02:46.958 three things that I use. So no mobile phone, no smartphone, 0:02:46.958 --> 0:02:51.098 no graphical user interface. It was all DOS. Um, people 0:02:51.098 --> 0:02:55.178 might remember good old WordPerfect 5.1. That's what I used 0:02:55.178 --> 0:02:57.968 a lot of the time. And we were we were 0:02:57.968 --> 0:03:00.308 really great, Stephen, because later on in a couple of 0:03:00.338 --> 0:03:03.248 years later, we got a pager. So you got a beep, beep, 0:03:03.248 --> 0:03:05.408 beep notification from the pager. And then when you got 0:03:05.408 --> 0:03:07.298 to the next town, when you're out and about seeing 0:03:07.298 --> 0:03:11.168 clients in rural areas, you then could find a phone 0:03:11.168 --> 0:03:13.538 and then ring back the office and say, I believe 0:03:13.538 --> 0:03:17.198 I've got a message So I remember those days fondly. 0:03:17.888 --> 0:03:20.858 I think it was in 1994. I first had a 0:03:20.858 --> 0:03:24.908 conversation with you. I was wrestling with the graphic user 0:03:24.908 --> 0:03:29.468 interface for windows, and a friend said to me, talk 0:03:29.468 --> 0:03:33.008 to this bloke at the Royal Blind Society in New 0:03:33.008 --> 0:03:36.878 South Wales, David Woodbridge. Fortunately, where I worked, I had 0:03:36.908 --> 0:03:41.558 access to an STD line, so I rang David Woodbridge. 0:03:41.588 --> 0:03:44.738 You probably don't remember that conversation, but it did help 0:03:44.738 --> 0:03:47.048 me along the way with one of the early screen readers. 0:03:47.048 --> 0:03:50.978 It was the IBM Screen reader. So there was the 0:03:50.978 --> 0:03:54.188 graphic user interface, and there's been other challenges as well. 0:03:54.218 --> 0:03:56.948 Tell us about sort of the maybe the three things 0:03:56.948 --> 0:03:59.888 that have made a difference that you've had to conquer. 0:03:59.918 --> 0:04:01.478 Yeah, of course, as we all know, it was the 0:04:01.478 --> 0:04:04.268 graphical user interface. Of course, with windows. And it took 0:04:04.268 --> 0:04:09.728 a long time between, you know, windows 3.1 and 3.11 0:04:10.208 --> 0:04:13.928 coming out until we got proper screen reading, because doing 0:04:13.928 --> 0:04:17.108 it via the IBM Screen Reader OS two, because you 0:04:17.108 --> 0:04:19.748 had to run OS two. So GUI stuff. Can I 0:04:19.748 --> 0:04:22.118 just say that from an Apple loving point of view? 0:04:22.118 --> 0:04:24.758 I was using the Mac in 1990. So I wasn't 0:04:24.758 --> 0:04:28.178 too worried about the GUI with windows because I had 0:04:28.178 --> 0:04:31.658 already been using a mac already with outspoken. So windows. 0:04:31.658 --> 0:04:36.098 The next major thing was smartphones. Now I won't say 0:04:36.098 --> 0:04:39.278 who this person was, but in 2009 I got really 0:04:39.278 --> 0:04:43.298 excited about, of course, the iPhone and then subsequent Android phones. 0:04:43.298 --> 0:04:46.058 The person at the time said, oh, do you really 0:04:46.058 --> 0:04:48.368 think this will take off? Or does David just think 0:04:48.368 --> 0:04:51.758 it's a gimmick? And I still remember that person's statements 0:04:51.788 --> 0:04:55.748 quite well. And of course the third one, which I'm 0:04:55.748 --> 0:04:59.108 excited to see. Where that goes, of course, is the 0:04:59.108 --> 0:05:05.588 multiline braille and graphics display from Humanware. So, you know, 0:05:05.588 --> 0:05:08.528 so we go to DOS to go. We go from, 0:05:08.558 --> 0:05:11.768 you know, landline phones to mobile phones to smart phones, 0:05:11.768 --> 0:05:15.778 and we go from single braille lines to multi-line braille 0:05:15.778 --> 0:05:19.108 and graphics. And so that's to me, are the three 0:05:19.228 --> 0:05:21.838 amazing events that have happened in the 30 or so 0:05:21.868 --> 0:05:24.748 years I've been at BHS. And then Vision Australia. 0:05:24.748 --> 0:05:27.568 For the person listening who's not a Braille person, maybe 0:05:27.568 --> 0:05:31.888 the casual person driving somewhere that's hearing talking tech, just 0:05:31.918 --> 0:05:35.668 unpack that one a little bit more about the multi-line 0:05:35.668 --> 0:05:37.588 braille display and the graphics. 0:05:37.978 --> 0:05:41.308 So traditionally a braille display is normally, you know, the 0:05:41.308 --> 0:05:44.668 tiny little ones are 14 cells, so 14 characters across. 0:05:44.698 --> 0:05:49.078 Then you've got sort of different ones. You've got 20, 24, 32, 0:05:49.108 --> 0:05:52.468 40 and then the humongous ones which are 80, um, 0:05:52.468 --> 0:05:55.078 which you'd have on your desk, of course. But the 0:05:55.078 --> 0:05:58.048 thing about that is that you can't then like, look 0:05:58.078 --> 0:06:00.418 at a graphic or a tactile graphic on the screen 0:06:00.418 --> 0:06:02.218 because you've only got one line you can imagine trying 0:06:02.218 --> 0:06:04.798 to if you're a sighted person trying to scan up 0:06:04.798 --> 0:06:08.878 and down a visual screen, one line at a time. Well, 0:06:08.878 --> 0:06:11.788 what this does, it puts that whole graphic on and 0:06:11.788 --> 0:06:14.158 the really cool thing about it, Stephen, with the monarch, 0:06:14.188 --> 0:06:17.788 you can have an overall picture of the tactile, let's 0:06:17.788 --> 0:06:20.698 say the Eiffel Tower, and then you can zoom in 0:06:20.698 --> 0:06:23.608 and see much more detail. And that to me is 0:06:23.608 --> 0:06:26.668 absolutely amazing. So we're getting very close in a way 0:06:26.668 --> 0:06:28.378 to what sighted people get. 0:06:28.648 --> 0:06:31.828 So what's going to be catching your attention in the future? 0:06:32.098 --> 0:06:35.608 A couple of things. Smart glasses, because they are really 0:06:35.608 --> 0:06:38.308 getting close to being an assistive technology as well as 0:06:38.308 --> 0:06:43.378 a mainstream product. Number two is to see where orientation 0:06:43.378 --> 0:06:46.258 mobility goes, because we're always knowing that there's things coming 0:06:46.258 --> 0:06:50.608 out like the biped, the glide, and so on. And 0:06:50.608 --> 0:06:53.758 the third one, and probably the most important one for me, 0:06:53.758 --> 0:06:57.568 is where artificial intelligence will take us as far as 0:06:57.688 --> 0:07:03.898 assistive technology, mainstream productivity, education, so on and so on 0:07:03.898 --> 0:07:07.648 is concerned. So to me, you know, this came on 0:07:07.648 --> 0:07:10.408 the market very rapidly in the last 3 or 4 0:07:10.448 --> 0:07:14.528 years and it's just like a snowball. It's just gathering momentum. 0:07:14.528 --> 0:07:16.898 It's gathering more mass as it goes down the hill. 0:07:16.928 --> 0:07:20.378 And I've really jumped on the bandwagon with AI because 0:07:20.378 --> 0:07:23.498 it's made my job for doing research, for talking tech 0:07:23.498 --> 0:07:25.508 and other stuff that I do for social media and 0:07:25.508 --> 0:07:27.098 so on a lot easier. 0:07:27.488 --> 0:07:29.978 You can see a lot of good with AI. More 0:07:29.978 --> 0:07:33.548 good than bad though. Any bad could be really big bad, 0:07:33.578 --> 0:07:36.008 but that's for sort of the external world. 0:07:36.038 --> 0:07:38.738 To look out there. That's right. And look like like 0:07:38.738 --> 0:07:41.108 if everything. I mean, every time I listen to the news, 0:07:41.108 --> 0:07:42.938 I take it with a grain of salt because I 0:07:42.938 --> 0:07:45.848 think it's one person's point of view or it's one 0:07:45.848 --> 0:07:50.078 media corp point of view. So like if everything just 0:07:50.078 --> 0:07:52.118 use it with common sense, like if you're told the 0:07:52.118 --> 0:07:55.178 world's black and then you know quite well that it's blue, 0:07:55.208 --> 0:07:57.518 then I don't know if I'd actually believe it. Somebody 0:07:57.518 --> 0:08:00.218 told me it was black. Use everything with a grain 0:08:00.248 --> 0:08:02.108 of salt and a bit of common sense, and I 0:08:02.108 --> 0:08:03.458 think everybody will be fine. 0:08:03.488 --> 0:08:06.278 So what's happening for David Woodbridge over the next few 0:08:06.278 --> 0:08:07.448 months and years? 0:08:07.478 --> 0:08:11.538 I've got some interesting prospects coming ahead, which I'm actually 0:08:11.538 --> 0:08:14.328 really excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to share one 0:08:14.328 --> 0:08:17.238 of them hopefully next week when I come back to 0:08:17.268 --> 0:08:20.748 do the program again. Um, besides that, all my social 0:08:20.748 --> 0:08:24.618 media stuff stays in place, so I'm still doing Mastodon X, 0:08:24.648 --> 0:08:27.438 I'll still be doing my IC podcast. I'll still be 0:08:27.438 --> 0:08:31.008 sharing all the information that I normally share. So really, 0:08:31.008 --> 0:08:34.278 in some ways not much has changed. I'll still be 0:08:34.278 --> 0:08:36.708 around in some form or another. 0:08:37.248 --> 0:08:40.518 Yeah. Well, that's very good. And of course, as we 0:08:40.518 --> 0:08:45.528 go into September, we'll have Apple announcements to deal with. 0:08:45.528 --> 0:08:49.068 We certainly will. And the speculation at the moment from 0:08:49.068 --> 0:08:51.348 quite a few different sources. So again, take this with 0:08:51.348 --> 0:08:54.558 a grain of salt, is the fact that the Apple 0:08:54.558 --> 0:08:57.258 event will be on September 10th, of course, which will 0:08:57.288 --> 0:09:00.618 be September 11th, 3 a.m.. Our time in Australia on 0:09:00.618 --> 0:09:04.068 a Wednesday morning. Correct. And it'll be a thing, of course, 0:09:04.068 --> 0:09:07.518 the normal stuff. So it'll be the iPhone. Um, it'll 0:09:07.548 --> 0:09:11.328 be the Apple Watch. There's some speculation that they may 0:09:11.328 --> 0:09:16.638 release Mac OS alongside of it, because there's new features 0:09:16.638 --> 0:09:19.668 in iOS 18 that requires the new version of the Mac, 0:09:19.668 --> 0:09:22.008 so I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac gets the 0:09:22.008 --> 0:09:24.858 same launch date, because normally it's about a month later. 0:09:24.888 --> 0:09:27.348 The beta stuff's going really well. I must say, it's 0:09:27.378 --> 0:09:29.478 actually quite stable now. I think I mentioned a while 0:09:29.478 --> 0:09:32.178 ago that it was very unstable. Now it's quite solid 0:09:32.178 --> 0:09:36.408 and I'll still be doing it on the Tech Doctor 0:09:36.408 --> 0:09:39.348 blog and podcast. So I'm really looking forward to the 0:09:39.348 --> 0:09:41.208 date and see what happens. Mhm. 0:09:41.598 --> 0:09:44.388 You say the beta is going well. What things can 0:09:44.418 --> 0:09:47.118 we look forward to? You have mentioned in the past 0:09:47.148 --> 0:09:52.158 the simulated braille device keyboard that we'll get with iOS. 0:09:52.188 --> 0:09:55.548 Yeah. Look that's actually really amazing. So for people that 0:09:55.548 --> 0:09:59.208 have used things like um, let's see the table one 0:09:59.208 --> 0:10:02.928 and all the other concept keyboards, plus the, you know, 0:10:02.958 --> 0:10:06.708 the input keyboard off your different devices like your, your 0:10:06.708 --> 0:10:08.478 Braille sense scents. And, you know, I've got a few 0:10:08.658 --> 0:10:12.618 devices in front of me now, including the brilliant P40. Well, 0:10:12.618 --> 0:10:14.508 this is just using them on the flat screen of 0:10:14.508 --> 0:10:17.358 the phone. So besides being able to braille in, you 0:10:17.358 --> 0:10:21.708 can actually braille navigate by using your normal navigation keys like, 0:10:21.738 --> 0:10:25.038 you know, chord or space for space one and so on. 0:10:25.038 --> 0:10:27.558 So that's actually really exciting. The other one that's really 0:10:27.558 --> 0:10:31.068 exciting is the notifications from your iPhone to your Mac. 0:10:31.158 --> 0:10:34.488 So when your iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network 0:10:34.518 --> 0:10:36.948 as your Mac, you can have your iPhone in the 0:10:36.948 --> 0:10:39.558 other end of the house, and the notifications from your 0:10:39.558 --> 0:10:42.678 phone will pop up on your Mac screen. Then you 0:10:42.678 --> 0:10:45.468 can check them. So that's a really great way of 0:10:45.498 --> 0:10:47.148 being able to sort of, you know, have your iPhone 0:10:47.148 --> 0:10:50.238 on charge, different spot in the house, and then you 0:10:50.238 --> 0:10:52.788 can just basically get on with your life. So the 0:10:52.788 --> 0:10:55.368 third one, Steven brings me back to I. And that's 0:10:55.368 --> 0:10:59.448 the function where you have all these things available with VoiceOver. 0:10:59.478 --> 0:11:04.488 You've got object detection, door detection, people detection, text detection, 0:11:04.488 --> 0:11:06.908 point and speak where you can point in a touch 0:11:06.938 --> 0:11:10.418 screen and find out where the buttons are and so on. 0:11:10.418 --> 0:11:14.138 So that's just going to make it extremely interesting. And 0:11:14.138 --> 0:11:17.768 as far as things like camera based systems coming up 0:11:17.768 --> 0:11:21.008 that do similar things to what the software does, I'm 0:11:21.008 --> 0:11:23.798 looking forward to at some stage, somebody doing a comparison 0:11:23.798 --> 0:11:27.218 between what a smartphone can do. Let's not forget Google 0:11:27.248 --> 0:11:31.508 Lookout that does similar things to what VoiceOver does with 0:11:31.508 --> 0:11:35.258 its own inbuilt systems in iOS 18, and I think 0:11:35.288 --> 0:11:37.028 it will be a good comparison to see the difference 0:11:37.028 --> 0:11:41.738 between your smartphone and what these other hardware devices can do. 0:11:41.738 --> 0:11:46.478 Because when I got my iPhone in 2009, I replaced 0:11:46.478 --> 0:11:50.078 about 30 different items that all these apps replaced. So 0:11:50.078 --> 0:11:53.378 it'll be interesting to see where the the iOS and 0:11:53.408 --> 0:11:56.768 Android goes as compared to these hardware devices in the future. 0:11:56.828 --> 0:11:59.498 There's an app you've been telling me about that you 0:11:59.498 --> 0:12:01.478 run on the Mac called whisper. 0:12:01.508 --> 0:12:04.238 Yes. And this is one of those things that I 0:12:04.268 --> 0:12:06.578 wish I had a long time ago. Mind you, it 0:12:06.578 --> 0:12:08.978 probably didn't exist a long time ago. So what it is, 0:12:09.008 --> 0:12:12.098 is you can bring in any audio file. So normally 0:12:12.098 --> 0:12:14.198 that would be an audio file of somebody talking in 0:12:14.198 --> 0:12:17.018 an interview or a podcast or whatever else it might be, 0:12:17.318 --> 0:12:20.288 and then you can very quickly ask it to then 0:12:20.288 --> 0:12:24.878 transcribe that into basically a text file. And then you 0:12:24.878 --> 0:12:27.518 can do anything you like with that text file. So 0:12:27.518 --> 0:12:30.548 for me, um, a lot of the research for talking 0:12:30.578 --> 0:12:32.918 tech that I really haven't spoken about lately and how 0:12:32.918 --> 0:12:35.798 I do it, I just don't check out social media stuff. 0:12:35.798 --> 0:12:38.618 I listen to a lot of audio content, but I 0:12:38.618 --> 0:12:41.258 can speed it up because I grabbed the podcast. I 0:12:41.258 --> 0:12:43.718 work it in to whisper for the Mac. I then 0:12:43.718 --> 0:12:46.058 can very quickly just go through the text and go 0:12:46.088 --> 0:12:48.758 yep yep yep. No. Yep no no. Yep yep yep. 0:12:48.788 --> 0:12:50.918 And keep all the stuff that I want and I 0:12:50.918 --> 0:12:52.928 end up with a summary. Now, if I was going 0:12:52.958 --> 0:12:55.328 to be a little bit smarter, I could then take 0:12:55.328 --> 0:13:02.468 that text into ChatGPT and say, summarize this document for me. So, 0:13:02.498 --> 0:13:05.768 you know, I've only been doing that lately, but this 0:13:05.768 --> 0:13:09.038 thing is as flexible as your mind can make it. 0:13:09.038 --> 0:13:11.468 So there's this audio that you might discover in a 0:13:11.468 --> 0:13:15.068 podcast on your phone. How do you get it to 0:13:15.098 --> 0:13:17.648 the Mac and get the text? How quickly can you 0:13:17.648 --> 0:13:18.698 have it as well? 0:13:18.728 --> 0:13:22.568 So let's say that it's already downloaded. I'm on my Mac. Um, 0:13:22.598 --> 0:13:24.848 it's a little bit hard in the podcast app because 0:13:24.848 --> 0:13:27.218 it buries the audio file and it's not named very well, 0:13:27.218 --> 0:13:28.928 so that's one way to do it. The other way 0:13:28.928 --> 0:13:30.398 that I tend to do it is I airdrop it 0:13:30.398 --> 0:13:33.848 from my iPhone to my Mac, so it ends up 0:13:33.848 --> 0:13:36.068 in a nice spot that I can access it properly. 0:13:36.278 --> 0:13:39.218 So that would take, I don't know, let's say 45 0:13:39.218 --> 0:13:42.998 seconds to transfer across. I open the app, I then 0:13:42.998 --> 0:13:44.888 tell it to go and open up this file. That 0:13:44.888 --> 0:13:47.678 takes another, I don't know, 10s. I then run the 0:13:47.678 --> 0:13:50.678 transcribing function that takes probably up to about a minute 0:13:50.708 --> 0:13:52.148 and a half or two minutes, depending on the size 0:13:52.148 --> 0:13:54.518 of the file. I save it. So I think all 0:13:54.518 --> 0:13:57.488 up from having the audio file on my iPhone to 0:13:57.518 --> 0:13:59.798 having a text file on my Mac that then I've 0:13:59.798 --> 0:14:01.328 got to edit, of course, and have a look at 0:14:01.328 --> 0:14:04.708 probably takes no more than about three minutes. 0:14:04.768 --> 0:14:07.918 Before we go. A reminder of where there are details 0:14:07.918 --> 0:14:10.378 of what we've been talking about in this and previous 0:14:10.378 --> 0:14:11.638 editions of the program. 0:14:11.668 --> 0:14:14.458 Indeed. So as usual, you can still check out my 0:14:14.458 --> 0:14:17.818 blog site, which is David Woodburn dot podbean. 0:14:18.928 --> 0:14:22.528 Com David would be our dot podbean p o d 0:14:22.558 --> 0:14:28.678 b e a n.com. Give me another email address. 0:14:28.828 --> 0:14:33.118 Indeed. So the new email address is David Woodburn funnily enough. 0:14:33.118 --> 0:14:38.428 So David w w o d b r at gmail.com. 0:14:38.488 --> 0:14:44.908 David would be David Woodbridge without the ej at gmail.com. 0:14:44.908 --> 0:14:49.138 David would be our at gmail.com. This has been talking 0:14:49.168 --> 0:14:54.208 tech with me has been Australia's leading blindness technologist, David Woodbridge. 0:14:54.208 --> 0:14:57.268 I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll talk more tech next week. 0:14:57.298 --> 0:14:57.808 See you.