S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: August the 20th, 2024. 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, formerly RPA Australia or
S1: the Community Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To
S1: catch that, all you need to do is search for
S1: the two words talking tech. And you can all come
S1: usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced.
S1: Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart
S1: speaker to play Vision Australia Radio talking tech podcast Vision
S1: Australia Radio talking Tech podcast with me, someone who can
S1: explain all this tech stuff really well. Vision Australia's national
S1: advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's start with
S1: the product. Minute information about a product from the vision
S1: store of Vision Australia. What's the Tony Only box.
S2: It's basically a little foam box, um, that you put
S2: these little characters on. I should say up front, the
S2: whole range is from Disney. And depending on what the
S2: character is, it will tell you stories. It will basically
S2: play a range of songs. So really, it's your your
S2: special treat from the character, using it with this little
S2: soft box and what the soft box is doing, really,
S2: it's magnetically connecting to the if you like the circuit
S2: chip stuff in the character, and then it's got a
S2: built in speaker, and you can also plug in headphones
S2: and do other sort of cool things. And if you
S2: think of all the major characters from Disney, then you've
S2: already got them covered. So I've already ordered one, of course,
S2: for my three year old grandson. So what happens is
S2: you order a starter kit and that normally comes with
S2: like a default character. So the one that I got
S2: was It's a light blue Tony box and it comes
S2: with a little puppy. Now, I've got no idea what
S2: the puppy is yet, but we'll soon find out. And then,
S2: of course, because my grandson's into Mickey Mouse, I had
S2: to buy the Mickey Mouse one. But there are lots
S2: of other ones that I'd love to buy. Things like
S2: Thomas the Tank Engine, Nemo, and The Little Mermaid. And
S2: I just hope The Little Mermaid has got that. You know,
S2: the Sebastian, the crab. He's so laid back and cool.
S2: And I just hope we have some songs from him
S2: as well. So the final thing I want to say
S2: about is you can also get a pirate and a unicorn.
S2: Now those ones are what are called sort of the
S2: open ended characters. And that's where parents and grandparents and
S2: anybody else, you can do your own music and stories
S2: and everything else on those as well. Um, but I
S2: believe all up, I think there's about 30 or 40.
S2: We're not certainly stocking all of them, but price wise
S2: you're probably looking at about $200 for the the box.
S2: So the starter kit, like I said, it comes with
S2: the puppy and the box. And then each character is
S2: round about $29. Now when I checked the comparable price
S2: on Amazon in Australia, we're selling it for exactly the
S2: same price. So um, that's actually a really good thing
S2: as well, but it just sounds so fantastically cute that
S2: I just could not resist buying one.
S1: So you mentioned your three year old grandson. What's really
S1: the market for this? The the age group.
S2: Around about that age. So you know, three to probably
S2: 3 to 5 literally. It's like having your own personal speaker. Um,
S2: or a very simple sort of almost like not a
S2: Bluetooth speaker, but having a speaker. There used to be a, um, oh,
S2: it used to be a character that used to get
S2: a long time ago and they were called Skylanders. And
S2: what you do with the Skylanders was you've got the
S2: the physical Skylander character and then on your smartphone, Android
S2: and iPhone. It would detect that you had that character
S2: and then the really cool things on on the app.
S2: So it's been tried lots of different times. Um, the
S2: influencer that my wife follows on Instagram, she said it
S2: was really good for her son that was a bit
S2: reluctant to speak. And now that he's been listening to
S2: music and stories on the Toby box, he asks Mum
S2: and Dad at the kitchen table a lots of times
S2: about can he get another character and what's his story about,
S2: and can he listen to that song again? And so
S2: it's really increased his participation, particularly in speaking.
S1: The Tony box, Tony box from the vision store of
S1: Vision Australia. The cost for the basic unit, you said $200.
S2: $200, including the puppy, and then each character is around
S2: about $29. Now, I said roundabout because of course, I
S2: guess the more branded well-known ones are going to be
S2: a bit more expensive, but average wise it's about $29.
S1: To find out more, go to shop Dot Vision australia.org.
S1: Shop dot Vision australia.org. Poor Vision Australia's vision store. Let's
S1: talk about iOS 18, which will be with us publicly
S1: in a few weeks time. And you found something doing
S1: a comparison of the current Siri in iOS 17 and
S1: the early days of iOS 18.
S2: Correct. And look what it really boils down to when
S2: you look at it. As far as we're concerned, yes,
S2: we are getting better voices with Siri, which to me
S2: as a blind person is actually very important because I
S2: particularly like nice voices running on my iPhone. But the
S2: second thing to remember is that Siri is no longer
S2: just a smart speaker Siri thing, like the a lady
S2: in Australia. Um, okay G in Australia and so on.
S2: What it's turning into is more of a conversational type
S2: personal assistant, and when it comes in properly, it'll remember
S2: of things that you've spoken about in the past. Um,
S2: it'll also remember your conversations. So, for example, in the
S2: next story, we're going to be talking about the pixel phones. Um,
S2: and I understand that you can say things like, tell
S2: me about the pixel phone, and then you can say, okay, well,
S2: tell me about the second phones you mentioned. Then you
S2: can go back and say, okay, so you've talked about
S2: the second phone. What about the first one? So you
S2: don't have to keep reminding it what you're talking about.
S2: It's very much a conversational type system now. And you
S2: can do all sorts of other things coming up. You
S2: can ask it to summarize a screen, summarize a document. Um,
S2: it's got better. Um, I to do with messaging and
S2: all that sort of cool stuff But at the bottom line, um,
S2: series been so prescriptive, I want to say from the
S2: years dot 2010 roughly, um, that I think we're going
S2: to get a huge surprise when it starts behaving properly.
S2: And there's really been no excuse about why Apple shouldn't
S2: have done this a lot earlier. In some ways.
S1: And it's going to take weeks and possibly months for
S1: each of us to adjust to it and realize the
S1: potential of it, and it's going to grow as the
S1: different updates come out as well, isn't it?
S2: That's right. I'm probably going to still keep treating my
S2: s lady as the dumb s lady, so it's going
S2: to take me a while to sort of get used
S2: to the new, improved workability stuff that we'll be able
S2: to do with it now.
S1: So you mentioned these phones. Let's talk about the Google
S1: event that took place recently.
S2: Indeed. So basically we've got four new pixel phones. So
S2: the pixel nine, the pixel nine Pro, the XL which
S2: is the bigger one, and then the Pixel Fold, which
S2: is Google's second version of their folding phone. So that's
S2: actually really cool. That's similar in some ways to the
S2: Samsung Fold. What's really interesting about, of course, this new
S2: series is, funnily enough, it's all about AI. So Google's
S2: Gemini AI, it's going to be sort of baked into
S2: the operating system. Um, it's going to integrate the, you know,
S2: the EKG function as well as all the conversational AI
S2: type stuff summarizing, helping you write emails, helping you rewrite stuff,
S2: all that sort of cool stuff. And the other thing
S2: they released alongside the phones, and of course, they've got
S2: better screens, better battery, better camera, uh, different colors and
S2: so on was the Pixel Buds. And what's really cool
S2: about the Pixel Buds is you can use all the
S2: Gemini commands. At least you understand on the on the
S2: internet with the Pixel Buds. So you can do you know,
S2: your hands free communication to your phone. And the other
S2: thing they also released was the Pixel Watch. Now, what's
S2: important about the Pixel Watch is you may remember I
S2: think it was a year or two ago, or maybe
S2: even longer. Google bought Fitbit and the new Pixel Watch
S2: replaces the Fitbit. I don't know if that means they've
S2: just dropped the whole line of Fitbit, but they did
S2: say in an article that I read, or one of
S2: them on the internet that said, the Pixel Watch is
S2: actually replacing the Fitbit, so we'll see what happens from there.
S2: And as far as accessibility is concerned, there's been some
S2: lots of talk on the on the internet about how
S2: Google is improving things like the lookout app, which is
S2: the eye thing for object recognition and so on, and
S2: text OCR. So that's going to be all improved and also,
S2: the other thing to remember about these pixel phones is
S2: that you're getting the original Android version from Google itself,
S2: because when you get phones from Samsung, Motorola or those
S2: other companies, they they put their own overlay or flavor,
S2: if you like, of Android on that phone. So I've
S2: always preferred Samsung to some extent, but if I was
S2: to recommend a good solid phone that's going to get updates,
S2: I think it's for the next seven years. I always
S2: go for the pixel phones. And of course with other
S2: stuff coming out that will plug into phones like the
S2: smartphone for doing orientation mobility, the pixel phone is absolutely,
S2: extremely well situated. So if you're in the market for
S2: a new Android phone, I would certainly have a look
S2: at the pixel nine series of phones. Plus the watch,
S2: of course, and the buds.
S1: Let's talk about another podcast that you found recently about
S1: the sounds of Apple and Apple devices do make lots
S1: of different useful sounds.
S2: They do. Now, this was a podcast on a podcast
S2: called 20,000Hz, and it's from a company or a studio
S2: that does lots of stuff to do with audio. And
S2: they had a combined podcast presentation with Apple itself on
S2: how all the different sounds that Apple device uses, particularly
S2: the iPhone, how they customize them, how they come to
S2: actually arrive at a certain particular audio tone, and so on.
S2: But it was just fascinating because what they said now,
S2: these these tones are sort of so famous now. So
S2: in movies and so on. If you hear the default
S2: iPhone ring, you know it's an iPhone. If you hear
S2: that little ping sound, you know you've got a male Um,
S2: if you've got other different types of sounds going on,
S2: like if you're seeing a send a thumbs up, it's
S2: a pop up sound, and if you send us a
S2: thumbs down, it's a pop pop sound and so on.
S2: So they were just going through the whole thing about
S2: how they were designing the sounds, what effect they had
S2: on people actually using the phone. And I thought, it's
S2: not just Apple type stuff. When you think about sounds
S2: in the community now, you really associate it with different
S2: types of things. So that very famous sound with the
S2: audio traffic light signals with the beep, beep and then the.
S2: Beep beep beep beep beep to across the road, there's
S2: all these sort of ubiquitous sounds that we have, you know,
S2: just not just on technology. Um, so things like the
S2: start up sound for the Mac, but also in the
S2: general community. So I just think it's amazing that, you know,
S2: we we live our lives surrounded by visual stuff. But
S2: as they said in the the podcast on 20,000Hz, sound
S2: is just as important. And they they said from a
S2: design point of view, they put as much work into
S2: sounds as they do into creating graphics and icons.
S1: These podcasts go into a fair bit of detail, don't they?
S1: There's actually two episodes.
S2: There is. The first one is sort of more of
S2: an overview of the default sounds from the Mac, the
S2: iPhone and those sort of stuff. And then the second
S2: one really goes into how they constructed the sound. And,
S2: you know, they take a particular sound that a kalimba makes,
S2: and then they look at the beginning, middle and end
S2: of the sound and then sort of try and tweak
S2: it a little bit until they get the ultimate type
S2: of audio tone they want. But it was just incredible
S2: how they have to go into this huge amount of
S2: detail and make sure that these sounds are sort of
S2: like more common sensical type ones that you'd find everyday
S2: in the community.
S1: And you've got links to these podcasts in the show notes.
S2: I certainly do, and like I said, they were absolutely
S2: brilliant to listen to.
S1: The podcast is called 20,000Hz. Very good. Now, before we go,
S1: a reminder of where there are details of what we've
S1: been talking about in this and previous editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David Woodby dot podbean podbean.com.
S1: David would be our dot podbean p o d b
S1: e a n.com to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia, which is
S2: David Dot Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision australia.org.
S1: David 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.