S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: February the 11th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated
S1: stations of the Radio Reading Network or 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 it can all 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. Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damien McMorrow. Hey, Damo.
S2: G'day, Stephen.
S1: You were ahead of the rest of the country last week. Maybe.
S1: Let's catch up with what the country's been advised by
S1: the government in relation to deep seek.
S2: Yes. So we talked a little bit about deep seek
S2: last week. It is the Chinese developed AI tool. And
S2: I mentioned that there was, you know, a little bit
S2: of concern around Silicon Valley because they've said that they
S2: can do it with much cheaper infrastructure than platforms like
S2: ChatGPT and so on, but that there were some concerns
S2: around its security. And as a follow up to that,
S2: I saw earlier this week that the Australian federal government
S2: has blocked access to deep sea on all of their
S2: devices and from all of their networks. So I suspect
S2: their concerns are probably well founded, or at least serious
S2: enough that they've felt it necessary to implement that.
S1: And in that statement announcing that they were making sure
S1: it couldn't be on any government devices, they're advising people
S1: not to have it on their own private devices as well.
S1: I think the message is don't swim outside the flags
S1: where it's not being patrolled.
S2: Absolutely. Yeah, I think, you know, certainly it is a
S2: bit of a venture into the unknown.
S1: So that's deep seek. Many people may not yet be
S1: aware of a recently commenced podcast. A technology podcast from
S1: the National Federation of the blind in the United States
S1: called Access On. It's hosted by Jonathan Mohsin, and in
S1: last week's edition, he had a feature conversation with representatives
S1: from Blazing Technologies. You heard it.
S2: Yes, yes I did. Some of the stuff, obviously, you know,
S2: some of us were already aware of. Those of us
S2: who have been experimenting around with the BT speak for
S2: a while. So they talked about its history and a
S2: little bit about the company and the fact that it
S2: is a family company. But the thing that was potentially
S2: quite exciting was their plans to release a almost like
S2: a modern day Braille light. So they're calling it the
S2: BT Braille. So it'll have similar functionality to the BT speak,
S2: but it will have refreshable Braille. So they are saying
S2: that initially they'll have a 20 cell version, and then
S2: later on they'll release a 40 cell version. It'll still
S2: be Raspberry Pi based, although it'll use a slightly more
S2: up to date module than the BT speak. And they're
S2: aiming at a price point of around about 3,500 USD,
S2: which will probably be substantially more by the time it's
S2: landed here. But, you know, interesting that you know, that
S2: it's something that they are looking at and that they
S2: have in development because they do say that whereas most
S2: of the other braille products that are on the market
S2: are either a braille display or a braille note taker,
S2: they describe these as a pocket computer because of all
S2: of the things that you can do with it. So
S2: I think, you know, it'll be interesting to see how
S2: that one develops and the level of interest in it. Um,
S2: you know, it won't be for everybody because it's it'll
S2: be Linux based as the BT speak is. And that
S2: tends to, you know, put some people off. But, uh, yeah,
S2: I think it has the potential to be an interesting product.
S2: And I'm hoping that at some point, perhaps when I
S2: go to CSUN, I can have a look at one
S2: and report back.
S1: Yes. That'll be very interesting. A fascinating company, really. Blazie technologies,
S1: a company founded by Dean Blazie and his three sons, Chris,
S1: Steven and Brian, worked for him. We say sons, their
S1: 70s babies. So they're they're quite experienced. And it was
S1: Brian Blazie who was a guest, along with David Goldfield,
S1: who also works for Blazie Technologies. And it was interesting
S1: how they talked about their approach and the features they're
S1: looking at introducing and various things, including, as you say,
S1: the BT Braille, which is maybe a year or so away.
S2: And well worth a listen, I think if you're curious
S2: about the BT speak and potentially the BT Braille.
S1: That was on access on from the National Federation of
S1: the blind, you can find it the usual way that
S1: you seek out your podcasts. Now let's talk about seeing I,
S1: for one, haven't visited it for a little while, but
S1: you sent me there recently. It's certainly changed from its
S1: earlier days.
S2: It has. It's evolved quite a lot. We talked a
S2: couple of months ago on the program about, you know,
S2: the feature that you could use to have videos described
S2: to you. So it is still actively being developed. But
S2: one of the things that I wanted to mention is
S2: the fact that the, the, the interface or the layout
S2: of the program has sort of had a bit of
S2: a makeover.
S1: So this comes from Microsoft, doesn't it?
S2: That's right. It's a free application from Microsoft. A lot
S2: of people use it. It has, you know, short text mode,
S2: a document mode, um, you know, for reading, uh, printed text.
S2: It has the ability to describe people. Um, it has
S2: a photo and video description function. It has a light detector,
S2: a color detector, a whole bunch of different features. And
S2: the way it used to work was that as you
S2: swipe through the screen, you had a selector where you
S2: could swipe up and down and select different channels. They
S2: call each feature a channel rather than a, you know,
S2: a function or a feature. What they've done now is
S2: they've changed the layout of the product. So when you
S2: first run it, after you've done the update, you'll notice
S2: there are three tabs. So there's a read tab. And
S2: what they've done is they've combined all of the reading
S2: features into that tab. So you have the short text mode,
S2: but if you want it use the document mode. You
S2: can tap the take picture button. Um, and also the
S2: handwriting recognition has been added into or combined into that tab.
S2: You've then got the describe tab, which has all of
S2: the sort of image description features available there. So things
S2: like the photo and video description, the AI feature where
S2: you can ask it about the image, that kind of thing.
S2: And then there's a more tab, and the more tab
S2: is laid out, much like the, the, the sort of
S2: the previous layout. So there's pretty much anything that doesn't
S2: fit into either reading or description. Uh, it gets put
S2: into the more tab and you can swipe up through
S2: the different options. There's the things like the world thing,
S2: which allows you to pan around with the camera and
S2: have things described to you. There's the light detector and
S2: the color detector and so on. So it's well worth
S2: sort of having a bit of a look around because
S2: the the layout has changed, the functionality hasn't. But what
S2: they've tried to do is just group all of the
S2: features that sort of do similar things or are complementary
S2: to one another into these different tabs. So it does.
S2: It is a much cleaner interface. It does make a
S2: lot of sense, but the first time I looked at it,
S2: I thought, hang on, what's going on here? And it
S2: confused me for a couple of minutes. So well worth
S2: a bit of a look around before you sort of
S2: need to use it in a hurry, just so that
S2: you know what's happening.
S1: I found it interesting going back to seeing AI after
S1: not having been there for quite some time, and I
S1: was reminded that it's very important when we see these
S1: things to go back to them, because you can forget
S1: about all the wonderful tricks that are buried away in there.
S2: Absolutely. You know, and these things are evolving at a
S2: quite an alarming rate. So even if you look at
S2: an app and you think, well, maybe that's not for
S2: me at the moment, it's always worth checking back every
S2: now and then because things do change. And seeing AI
S2: particularly is one that is evolving quite rapidly.
S1: So that's seeing AI from Microsoft. There's a new Apple
S1: app that you discovered a thing called invites I n
S1: v I t e s.
S2: That's right. And this one is for those of you
S2: who like to party, which, incidentally, isn't this grey haired
S2: old bloke. But, um, the concept is interesting nonetheless. So
S2: the idea of this is if you're having an event,
S2: you know, like a, you know, I don't know, an
S2: engagement party, a birthday party, whatever it might be. You
S2: can use the app to send out your invites and
S2: you can, um, you know, import photos and sort of
S2: personalize the invites. Or you can develop something using the
S2: new Image Playground feature if you want. Uh, so you
S2: can you can send out the invites, you can track the,
S2: the replies as to who's coming and who's not. You can, uh,
S2: send out directions and weather and things like that so
S2: you can send out like a, you know, a map
S2: to help people, uh, find the place. You can set
S2: up a playlist that people can add songs to. So
S2: an Apple Music playlist so people can, uh, you know,
S2: add their, their choice of music for the party and
S2: all of that kind of thing. so very useful potentially
S2: for those of you that have a busy social life
S2: and have lots of gatherings of one form or another.
S2: There are a couple of caveats, as there often are
S2: with these things. So in order to actually send out
S2: the invites and have all of the the features available,
S2: you do have to have an iCloud plus subscription. And
S2: if you want to do the collaborative playlist thing, obviously
S2: you need access to Apple Music. However, you don't need
S2: that iCloud plus subscription to receive the invites to respond
S2: to them. Those kinds of things you don't even need
S2: to be. I think on the Apple ecosystem, you can
S2: be an Android user and still respond to the invite
S2: and say whether you're going and view the maps and
S2: those sorts of things. So, yeah, for the socialites among you, um,
S2: it might be something well worth having a look at.
S2: As one would expect from Apple, it is very accessible.
S2: I haven't obviously had a chance to test it out
S2: in a practical sense yet. If I'd had it 3
S2: or 4 weeks ago when I when I had my
S2: 50th birthday party. It might have been useful, but, uh,
S2: it'll be another ten years before I need to do that. But, uh,
S2: I've had a bit of a look at it, and
S2: it certainly looks very accessible and quite interesting.
S1: I must say. It can be a bit challenging when
S1: you receive an invitation and it's come from messenger or somewhere,
S1: and you think, how am I supposed to respond to this?
S1: Sometimes it's a bit hit and miss whether you pick
S1: up those sorts of invitations, but not everybody's going to
S1: be using this app, of course, but it seems an
S1: interesting step forward. The invites app from Apple.
S2: That's right. And you can of course download that just
S2: from the Apple App Store as you would any other
S2: iOS type app.
S1: Daymo. We haven't for a while reminded people about a
S1: very useful service from Vision Australia, which is the help desk.
S2: Yes, that's always worth keeping in mind. So the At
S2: help desk is a free service for people to access, uh,
S2: phone and email support. Uh, you can ring the main
S2: vision Australia number one 384 746. Or you can email
S2: ATC help at Vision Australia. Org and the team are
S2: all themselves blind or low vision. They all use all
S2: of this tech on a daily basis. And so for any,
S2: you know, just general tech advice or if you know,
S2: all of a sudden your assistive tech stops working and
S2: you need some help, well worth giving the At help
S2: desk a try. They're available Monday to Friday, 830 till
S2: six Australian Eastern Daylight Time.
S1: So you've got some boundaries around the scope. It's got
S1: to be an eight or assistive access technology issue.
S2: That's right. You know we can't help you with your,
S2: you know, perhaps your printer or your internet or your router,
S2: those kinds of things. But if it's to do with,
S2: you know, your screen reader, your screen magnifier, your the
S2: accessible features on your phone, even Braille devices and those
S2: sorts of things, we can definitely do our best to help.
S1: We must talk some time about the challenge of that
S1: broader problem of getting IT support for your home system
S1: because it is challenging for people sometimes, isn't it?
S2: Yes, we are lucky that we have things like Be
S2: My Eyes and IRA that can help us in that situation,
S2: but it's still a frustrating experience.
S1: A lot better than a few years ago.
S2: Definitely.
S1: Before we go, a reminder there are details of this
S1: and previous editions of the program available by going to
S1: VA radio, Talking Tech, VA radio, Talking Tech, and to
S1: right to the program.
S2: You can send me an email Damodar m o m
S2: m o r o w at Vision australia.org and I
S2: really appreciate those that have emailed in.
S1: Damien McMorrow at Vision Australia. This has been talking tech
S1: with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager
S1: Damien McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Stay safe. We'll talk more
S1: tech next week.
S3: See you.