S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: April the 2nd, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have
S1: you with us listening through Vision Australia Radio Associated Stations
S1: of Australia or maybe the Community Radio Network. There is
S1: also the podcast. To catch that all you need to
S1: do is search for the two words. Talking tech and
S1: download can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just
S1: after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your
S1: Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio
S1: talking tech podcast Vision Australia Radio talking Tech podcast with me,
S1: someone who can explain all this tech stuff really well.
S1: Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David
S1: will start with our Product Minute, an item from the
S1: vision store of Vision Australia. You've got a clock this
S1: week I do.
S2: This is the ten inch alarm clock with 30 reminders.
S2: So it's basically a ten inch screen. It's a digital screen,
S2: nice and crisp to have a look at of course.
S2: And the 30 alarm reminders or just 30 reminders is
S2: really for those situations where you want to get reminded
S2: about things. So, you know, whether it's to take your medication,
S2: whether it's to remember to put the the bins out
S2: on a Tuesday evening, which I have a reminder on
S2: because I always get forgetting and so on. It's actually very,
S2: very useful. And I just like the fact from a
S2: low vision point of view. I always used to imagine
S2: there was nothing like having a clock on the wall
S2: that you can just glance at, because I know my
S2: wife often glances at our Amazon Echo to check the time.
S2: She never looks at her phone or a smartwatch or
S2: anything else. Um, so I just think the fact that
S2: you've got this lovely, low vision accessible, high contrast, very
S2: useful clock that you can have a quick look at
S2: if you want to, um, is actually really, really good.
S2: So I think sometimes Stephen, it's the, it's it's the
S2: good old things. I mean I know this is not
S2: a manual clock, but sometimes just having a clock that
S2: does what it's supposed to do is a lot better
S2: than having these all singing, all dancing, make your breakfast
S2: type of thing in the morning stuff.
S1: With a large display. This ten inch that's about 25cm
S1: comes from the United States. That's why it's ten inch.
S2: Indeed.
S1: Yeah. And it's available from the vision store of Vision Australia.
S1: Shop dot Vision Australia. Org. How much does it cost?
S2: It's about $120, so that might be a little bit pricey.
S2: But considering what it does it's not a bad price certainly.
S1: Now let's talk Sony. They're doing some interesting things with accessibility.
S2: They they are they've done a few things um, now
S2: which you know, people say Sony you think are sort
S2: of like musical movies or the PlayStation five, which is
S2: all fantastic, but they actually do a lot more things.
S2: And I think it's season this year. So the, you know,
S2: the center for disability, the annual conference that were there
S2: two weeks ago, um, what they did was not only
S2: did they show off the, you know, the PlayStation five
S2: and all the accessible games and so on, and they're
S2: accessible controller for people who got a physical disability. But
S2: they also showed off their course, their Sony Bravia range
S2: of smart TVs. So of course that's got the screen
S2: reader in it. Um, and all the other type of
S2: accessibility stuff, large print, uh, speech access, input and output.
S2: They also talked about the camera that I know that
S2: was on display last year, where it literally takes what
S2: the camera is being looked at and transposed it straight
S2: onto your retina, which is fairly interesting technology. And I
S2: spoke to a few low vision people, and they said
S2: that it's amazing the clarity that they can see through
S2: using that type of mechanism. So I think that's something
S2: to keep an eye on, uh, so to speak. I just,
S2: I just just did a pun then. Um, so that's
S2: actually very interesting. The other thing, they also have now,
S2: I haven't got the the correct name about this, but
S2: I might put it in the show notes is it's
S2: a set of earphones, but they're not ones that are
S2: bone conduction. These ones sit in front of your ears.
S2: I think they're called floating earphones. The speakers sit in
S2: front of your ears, so of course they leave your
S2: ears alone for you to be able to hear your surroundings.
S2: But I thought that was actually really interesting that, you know,
S2: they can see a niche for those particular headphones in
S2: the disability market, particularly blind and low vision. And the
S2: other really cool product, which I think some people were
S2: sort of going, oh yeah, who wants this thing? It's
S2: a robot dog. Now, this might sound a bit weird,
S2: but it's a dog that will respond to being petted, uh,
S2: to being talked to, uh, it'll also greet you at
S2: the front door. If you wanted to do that, you
S2: can sort of train it in little basic robotic commands,
S2: but it's designed for people that may want a. In
S2: this case a little robot dog, but don't want the
S2: real thing or that have other needs that the you know,
S2: the little robot would satisfy. Um, so, you know, because
S2: taking care of a real animal is a lot different
S2: from taking care of a of a robot dog, but
S2: apparently also very cool. You can actually buy, like, little
S2: false bones for it, a little, uh, a little food bowl,
S2: a little drinking bowl. Um, so people might remember those.
S2: Do you remember those Tamagotchi games that were around in
S2: the 90s, Steve, where there were little animals that were
S2: a little virtual animal in the key ring? You had
S2: to take care of it? No, but.
S1: I believe you.
S2: Right. Well, this is like. This is like, this is
S2: the robot version of a little Tamagotchi one's back in
S2: the 90s. So rather than taking care of a virtual pet,
S2: you can now take care of your robot dog. So
S2: I think it's really, really cute.
S1: I wonder whether it would be of interest. Um, maybe
S1: for people who can't see to be able to alert
S1: them to something happening, or for people who can't hear
S1: very well, to alert them to the doorbell ringing by
S1: coming and wagging its tail or something.
S2: Yeah. Look, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised. I mean,
S2: you could certainly do that sort of stuff. I mean,
S2: that there's a lot of senses in it. Uh, mind you,
S2: it's not cheap. I think it's around about 2500 dollars
S2: a year, so it's not cheap. But yes, I mean,
S2: there's hopefully there's certain things that could be programmed into it.
S2: So if the doorbell goes, it can come trundling over
S2: and wag its tail furiously and get your attention. But,
S2: you know, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not beyond
S2: the realms of possibility.
S1: There going to be some events in the next few weeks.
S1: In May we've got the Google I o event.
S2: Indeed, its crazy season coming up yet again. So, uh,
S2: Google has got its IO input output conference and surprise, surprise,
S2: let's just say they're probably going to be talking all
S2: about artificial intelligence, large language models, of course, their Gemini system. Um,
S2: and then along with that, they'll be talking about the
S2: next version of Android coming out. And of course, I'm
S2: definitely be sure there'll be new pixel phones, uh, high
S2: end and low end and of course, a new Pixel Watch.
S2: That'll be also out as well. But I'm really looking
S2: forward to, of course, the chat about Gemini and what
S2: may be happening in the future. That's going to be
S2: really exciting.
S1: So Gemini again, what's it going to be?
S2: I have a funny feeling it's going to replace, you know,
S2: your your okay Google stuff in your phone. So rather
S2: than using your personal assistant just for turning things on
S2: and off and asking the time and date which most
S2: people do, um, you will actually be using Gemini to
S2: do that, plus all the other large language model stuff
S2: that you can really get involved with.
S1: Hmm. Very interesting. That's going to be on May 14th,
S1: the Google event in date.
S2: So it'll be on Tuesday. Their time in the US
S2: so very early in the morning our time.
S1: And four weeks later pretty close to anyway on June
S1: the 10th is the Apple event, the WWDC. Tell us
S1: about that one. Indeed.
S2: So again, um, as I just mentioned, Gemini, the gossip
S2: is at the moment that I want to get this
S2: out of the way is the fact that Apple may
S2: be using the Gemini model. So the large language model
S2: from Google as it's backend to Siri or whatever else
S2: they may produce for the large language model for for
S2: iOS and for the Mac, of course, as well. Um,
S2: but we'll see what happens. But it looks like iOS 18,
S2: which will start being in the beta version as soon
S2: as WWDC is underway. There's going to be a lot
S2: of changes. So in not only just to do with
S2: the AI type stuff, uh, but they're saying, you know,
S2: this will be the big change. We haven't had a
S2: big change in iOS for a long, long time. This
S2: is going to be it. So we'll have different multiple screens. Um,
S2: the phones might be slightly different. Adding new hardware functionality,
S2: not just for the camera, um, when they come out
S2: in September or October. So and there'll be also other
S2: stuff to do with the iPad and so on. And
S2: let's not forget the Vision Pro as well. Hopefully we'll
S2: get that in Australia this year. So there's going to
S2: be a lot of stuff coming out of Apple. And
S2: I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing how all this
S2: stuff sort of integrates with each other. So it's not
S2: just Google and Apple, but it's also how those platforms
S2: will then integrate with all the other platforms around, of course,
S2: things like Amazon and Microsoft. So that's what I'm really
S2: looking forward to, to seeing how all these platforms behave together.
S1: More and more wearables are going to be part of
S1: our lives. And you saw an interesting article recently about
S1: ethics of wearables.
S2: That's right. And I have a funny feeling this article
S2: sort of slightly originated from some person who decided as
S2: a groom he would go into his wedding wearing his
S2: vision pro, which I believe didn't go down too well
S2: with his new wife, but it sort of really brought
S2: to this person's attention that wrote the article about, particularly
S2: with wearables, not so much a watch. And you. Smart
S2: rings and that sort of stuff. But it's your glasses
S2: that now that are almost the same as wearing a
S2: pair of, quote, normal glasses. And because these things have
S2: got a camera in them, that leads me on to
S2: think about things like the Ray-Ban glasses, the envision glasses,
S2: which you can now get, um, proper lenses for. And
S2: there's also other smart glasses coming out for blind low
S2: vision this year as well, which is similar technology. And
S2: I have a funny feeling that we're going to have
S2: to start behaving the way that the general community behaves,
S2: because you just can't say, I've got the right to
S2: wear this camera, um, in a public bathroom just because
S2: I need orientation and mobility, because everybody else, when you
S2: would go into a restroom to avoid people being uncomfortable,
S2: you would probably take off your smart glasses. And when
S2: you've finished with the restroom, you go out the door
S2: and then put your smart glasses back on again. So
S2: I just think from a disability point of view, we
S2: need to be aware that this is how the rest
S2: of the population behaves when they're using the smart tech,
S2: particularly camera based wearables. And I think we also have
S2: to be or acknowledge that that applies to us as well.
S1: And that reminds me of conferencing. And sometimes we as
S1: blind people might tend to think, oh, I don't really
S1: need to use my camera. I don't, I don't look
S1: at things and I'm not preaching here. I'm just saying
S1: what my experience is that I found it useful to
S1: use my camera in those sorts of activities, because it
S1: normalizes my participation in the meeting. Otherwise it's, oh, Stephen
S1: doesn't use a camera, but everybody else does. So I
S1: try to keep that in mind so you can take
S1: that or leave it as I say.
S2: That's right. That reminds me of a person, a supplier
S2: back in the 1990s that used to sell computers without
S2: a monitor because blind people didn't need a monitor. He
S2: forgot about the fact that people that repair computers need
S2: to look at the computer screen to show off the
S2: computer's working or not.
S1: Yeah, that's that's a good one. And now you've got
S1: a little bit of Microsoft news I do.
S2: So a couple of little bits and pieces to do
S2: with Microsoft. So Windows 11 notepad, you can now spell
S2: check in the little text editor, which I think is
S2: pretty pretty cool because lots of us use notepad for
S2: sort of quick, very fast notes if we're a bit
S2: a bit of a hurry rather than launching up, you know,
S2: for Microsoft Word. So that was number one. Number two,
S2: I guess we can say goodbye to the applications key
S2: in the new Surface Pro range coming out now, because
S2: that's now been changed to the co-pilot key. And I
S2: can remember seeing on social media what Microsoft is saying
S2: is the copilot key is using your computer with AI
S2: rather than using a computer that you then run AI on,
S2: apparently having a key on the keyboard made this really
S2: AI for some reason. I don't quite know why, but
S2: apparently Microsoft's very definite on that message, so they'll probably
S2: the two main things for this week that I wanted
S2: to mention about Microsoft in particular.
S1: And so copilot, for those who are not aware, is
S1: just another of the AI facilities that are around. And
S1: it's they're built into Microsoft Windows. Correct. Before we go,
S1: a reminder of where people can find details of what
S1: we've been talking about in this and previous editions of
S1: the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David, would it be our Podbean pod band?
S1: Com David would be our podbean podbean. Com to write
S1: to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Virgin Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge sounds at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David Woodbridge at Virgin 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 Jolley. Stay safe. We'll
S1: talk more tech next week. See you.