WEBVTT - Talking Tech 4th July 2023 0:00:08.148 --> 0:00:11.838 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:11.838 --> 0:00:15.978 July the 4th, 2020 3rd July already I'm Steven Jolly. 0:00:15.978 --> 0:00:18.978 Great to have you with us listening maybe through Virgin 0:00:18.978 --> 0:00:23.808 Australia radio associated Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community 0:00:23.808 --> 0:00:27.108 Radio network, there is also the podcast. If you haven't 0:00:27.108 --> 0:00:29.418 caught up with that yet, the way to find the 0:00:29.418 --> 0:00:32.808 podcast is just to search for the two words talking tech. 0:00:32.808 --> 0:00:35.508 The usual way you get your podcasts and Downer can 0:00:35.508 --> 0:00:38.238 all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's 0:00:38.238 --> 0:00:41.718 been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri device 0:00:41.718 --> 0:00:46.488 or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. 0:00:46.488 --> 0:00:50.628 Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech podcast. With me someone who 0:00:50.628 --> 0:00:54.108 can explain all this tech stuff really well. Vision Australia's 0:00:54.108 --> 0:01:00.258 National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's start 0:01:00.258 --> 0:01:03.888 by talking about the catalogue, the new catalogs that are 0:01:03.888 --> 0:01:08.028 now available from the Vision Store of Vision Australia, Indeed. 0:01:08.028 --> 0:01:11.688 So there are actually three, if you like, updated ones 0:01:11.688 --> 0:01:15.168 in the last, let's say 2 to 3 months, which, 0:01:15.258 --> 0:01:17.478 you know, sometimes people get a bit bored about hearing 0:01:17.478 --> 0:01:19.878 about catalogs, but these have been updated. So if you're 0:01:19.878 --> 0:01:23.928 looking at specific different types of products. So there's three 0:01:23.928 --> 0:01:28.398 catalogs at the moment, magnifiers, assistive technology and daily living. 0:01:28.728 --> 0:01:30.528 And just to give your brain a bit of a 0:01:30.528 --> 0:01:36.168 reminder about those different categories, magnifier is everything from manual magnifiers, 0:01:36.168 --> 0:01:38.748 as in you could all visual type ones that you 0:01:38.748 --> 0:01:43.768 hold over the page manually to electronic video magnifiers, which 0:01:43.768 --> 0:01:47.418 were effectively looking for a camera to say stuff magnified 0:01:47.418 --> 0:01:51.168 color contrast or that sort of cool stuff. Assistive technology 0:01:51.168 --> 0:01:56.508 is everything to do with computers and smartphones and smartphone stands, 0:01:57.228 --> 0:02:01.968 and daily living is almost practically everything else. So things 0:02:01.968 --> 0:02:05.628 like lighting, stuff to use in the kitchen, stuff to 0:02:05.628 --> 0:02:10.248 use in the bathroom, talking clocks, talking watches, all that 0:02:10.248 --> 0:02:13.098 sort of stuff. And what you'll see is a bit 0:02:13.098 --> 0:02:16.158 of a test run on one of them. So you'll 0:02:16.158 --> 0:02:19.848 see in this technology one, it says assistive technology zip file. 0:02:19.938 --> 0:02:24.648 And what that is, it's a daisy format catalogue. So 0:02:24.648 --> 0:02:27.108 rather than having to listen to a whole MP3 file 0:02:27.108 --> 0:02:30.948 or read for the Braille file, the Bref file or 0:02:30.948 --> 0:02:33.918 reading the PDF file, we're trying a daisy format to 0:02:33.918 --> 0:02:36.318 see if people like the daisy format. So that's the 0:02:36.708 --> 0:02:40.818 assistive technology, one or the other two, the magnifiers and 0:02:40.818 --> 0:02:44.658 the daily living ones are just straight pdf file accessible, 0:02:45.288 --> 0:02:48.408 an MP3 file and a brief profile. 0:02:48.768 --> 0:02:55.428 Shop dot vision australia.org/catalogs. But that's in the show notes. Indeed. 0:02:55.908 --> 0:03:00.348 Very good. Now navigation apps of the quite a number 0:03:00.348 --> 0:03:06.168 of navigation apps around has been soundscape from Microsoft but 0:03:06.168 --> 0:03:09.858 Microsoft has ceased support of this app. Now that we're 0:03:09.858 --> 0:03:14.538 into July, it has now made it open source so 0:03:14.538 --> 0:03:18.198 developers can work with it. And we're seeing other apps 0:03:18.198 --> 0:03:21.618 similar to soundscape popping up like mushrooms. 0:03:21.618 --> 0:03:25.068 David That's a good way to put it, actually. Yeah, 0:03:25.068 --> 0:03:27.738 there is. So there was one that's been around for 0:03:27.738 --> 0:03:30.348 a little bit of a while now that we haven't 0:03:30.348 --> 0:03:32.448 talked about because it's been in beta and it still 0:03:32.448 --> 0:03:36.198 is in beta and that's called open scape. Again, it's 0:03:36.198 --> 0:03:40.038 based on the soundscape, open source code. And the reason 0:03:40.038 --> 0:03:42.258 why I haven't mentioned it was because sometimes it's very 0:03:42.258 --> 0:03:44.238 hard to get into these beta programs and it's all 0:03:44.238 --> 0:03:47.718 fiddly through Testflight, which is the program we use for 0:03:47.718 --> 0:03:51.378 testing apps on iOS. So I haven't mentioned that one, 0:03:51.378 --> 0:03:53.118 but just keep an eye on that because it may 0:03:53.118 --> 0:03:56.148 appear on the App Store sooner than later, but the 0:03:56.148 --> 0:03:58.938 open source software for Soundscape that has appeared on the 0:03:58.938 --> 0:04:01.758 App Store and you can download it now is one 0:04:01.758 --> 0:04:08.478 called Voice Vista, and that's Viki Vista. And it basically 0:04:08.478 --> 0:04:12.048 is soundscape minus, I believe, a few bells and whistles. 0:04:12.048 --> 0:04:14.838 I've tried it and it does work like soundscape. You 0:04:14.838 --> 0:04:17.748 won't see all the whiz bang features. For example, I 0:04:17.748 --> 0:04:22.008 believe there was a few comments on Apple that said 0:04:22.008 --> 0:04:23.988 Street View was in there where you can sort of 0:04:23.988 --> 0:04:27.798 virtually walk through a neighborhood or where you want to 0:04:27.798 --> 0:04:31.038 travel to and get to know the environment and what's 0:04:31.038 --> 0:04:35.088 around you. But for all intents and purposes, so to speak, 0:04:35.088 --> 0:04:39.408 it's soundscape. So give it a go. It's free, it's 0:04:39.408 --> 0:04:42.798 open source, give feedback to the developer, give it some 0:04:42.798 --> 0:04:45.888 stars on the App Store. But it's just nice to 0:04:45.888 --> 0:04:49.938 see the fact that some developers are indeed picking up 0:04:49.938 --> 0:04:53.538 the open source code for soundscape and making it available again. 0:04:53.778 --> 0:04:56.028 It'll be interesting to see what comes out over the 0:04:56.028 --> 0:04:58.968 coming months with the children of soundscape children. Yeah. 0:04:59.298 --> 0:05:00.078 Exactly. 0:05:00.528 --> 0:05:04.338 Yeah. Mr. Musk Mr. Elon Musk has been making announcements 0:05:04.338 --> 0:05:08.958 again about Twitter. And you're only allowed to look at 0:05:08.958 --> 0:05:13.668 600 tweets a day instead of 6000, which the paying 0:05:13.668 --> 0:05:17.448 customers can have access to. 600 is still not bad, David. 0:05:17.628 --> 0:05:19.788 No, it's not. And look, the most the tweets that 0:05:19.788 --> 0:05:22.968 I read per day is maybe 2 or 300 tweets 0:05:22.968 --> 0:05:26.628 per day. But I think Elon, every now and again, 0:05:26.628 --> 0:05:28.638 he tends to get a bee in his bonnet about 0:05:28.638 --> 0:05:31.338 different things. So it gets all excited and makes these 0:05:31.338 --> 0:05:34.768 silly rules up. That is supposed to stop things happening. 0:05:34.768 --> 0:05:36.588 And of course what he's worried about at the moment 0:05:36.588 --> 0:05:41.118 is these artificial intelligence, what they call screen scrapers, where 0:05:41.118 --> 0:05:45.438 it basically tries to go through like a whole Twitter 0:05:45.438 --> 0:05:48.288 feed and basically scrape all the information of it and 0:05:48.288 --> 0:05:51.138 dump it into some sort of database and then rehash 0:05:51.138 --> 0:05:53.598 it and then spit it back out again. So that's 0:05:53.598 --> 0:05:57.048 what he's supposedly trying to stop. I can honestly say 0:05:57.048 --> 0:05:59.628 that these days, and this is in some ways to 0:05:59.628 --> 0:06:03.798 do with Mastodon as well, they're not really great sources 0:06:03.798 --> 0:06:07.458 of news anymore because I find the news that I 0:06:07.458 --> 0:06:10.668 pick up hasn't really anything to do with Twitter and 0:06:10.668 --> 0:06:13.428 Mastodon anymore. I get my news from other sources. I 0:06:13.428 --> 0:06:16.758 do double check Twitter. I do double check Mastodon, but 0:06:16.758 --> 0:06:20.808 they're sort of turning into the the Twitter and mastodon 0:06:20.808 --> 0:06:24.048 social media stuff of the old days, even where, you know, 0:06:24.048 --> 0:06:26.238 back in 2011 and that sort of stuff. And even 0:06:26.238 --> 0:06:28.668 on Facebook, it was like I had a great cup 0:06:28.668 --> 0:06:31.128 of coffee this morning or I agree strongly with that 0:06:31.128 --> 0:06:33.768 comment or I don't think people should have done this. 0:06:33.768 --> 0:06:37.068 And to some ways, that's what both of these social 0:06:37.068 --> 0:06:40.158 media platforms are turning into. So I'm getting less and 0:06:40.158 --> 0:06:44.178 less enthusiastic about using either platform these days. 0:06:44.418 --> 0:06:47.508 People still use them maybe to follow what journalists or 0:06:47.508 --> 0:06:50.568 other people of interest to saying, but not much more. 0:06:50.808 --> 0:06:53.598 No. And I say, if you're after following journalists, I 0:06:53.598 --> 0:06:56.898 think you're much better using Twitter if you want to 0:06:56.898 --> 0:07:00.318 do that one. I'm finding particularly my one that I 0:07:00.318 --> 0:07:03.378 that I use for the incident that I use on Mastodon, 0:07:03.378 --> 0:07:08.748 which is Dragons cave dot space. That's spacey. It's just 0:07:08.748 --> 0:07:12.678 a full of opinion after opinion after opinion. And I'm 0:07:12.678 --> 0:07:15.348 getting a little bit tired of it these days. So yeah, 0:07:15.348 --> 0:07:17.598 I do use Twitter. Like I said, I only read 0:07:17.598 --> 0:07:21.108 about 2 to 300 tweets per day versus my other 0:07:21.108 --> 0:07:23.448 way of reading news, which is basically news what's called 0:07:23.448 --> 0:07:26.568 a news aggregator, which sort of gets news from all 0:07:26.568 --> 0:07:30.048 different sources. I think I'm on that sort of stuff. 0:07:30.048 --> 0:07:33.498 I'm reading to probably till about 900 to 1000 articles 0:07:33.498 --> 0:07:33.948 a day. 0:07:34.158 --> 0:07:36.318 A lot more than most people. You talked the other 0:07:36.318 --> 0:07:40.938 day about Leary Leary and there are other News Feed 0:07:40.938 --> 0:07:42.558 aggregators there are. 0:07:42.558 --> 0:07:46.368 So think about what platform you're using. And they're normally 0:07:46.368 --> 0:07:49.908 cross-platform anyway. So you've got things like Microsoft News, you've 0:07:49.908 --> 0:07:54.408 got Google News, you've got Apple News. We've already mentioned Leary. 0:07:54.858 --> 0:07:58.188 So inside of these, you can then say, okay, well, 0:07:58.188 --> 0:08:01.788 I want to follow information coming out about cricket or 0:08:01.788 --> 0:08:04.578 I want to follow information about the F1 or I 0:08:04.578 --> 0:08:07.098 want to follow information from the Sydney Morning Herald or 0:08:07.098 --> 0:08:11.688 The Age or specific Apple News. Specific Microsoft News. Specific 0:08:11.688 --> 0:08:15.198 Google News. I want General Tech News, Artificial intelligence or 0:08:15.198 --> 0:08:18.738 that sort of stuff. And you can get all that 0:08:18.738 --> 0:08:22.038 just coming straight into your inbox. I use Apple News 0:08:22.038 --> 0:08:24.768 and I use Leary as well, but every morning I 0:08:24.768 --> 0:08:27.048 run it and it says Updating feed and you hear 0:08:27.048 --> 0:08:29.088 it go, one, two, three, four, up to about 36 0:08:29.088 --> 0:08:33.138 a mine. And you literally just go down category by category. 0:08:33.138 --> 0:08:35.138 So I opened up Sydney Morning Herald for the day, 0:08:35.178 --> 0:08:37.368 read the news stories because that's the only thing that 0:08:37.368 --> 0:08:39.948 I've got selected as part of my filter and I 0:08:39.948 --> 0:08:44.088 can share it. Then out to my friends, other tech people, 0:08:44.598 --> 0:08:47.628 to Mastodon, to Twitter. I save stuff for the show, 0:08:47.628 --> 0:08:50.178 for talking tech and so on, and it's just really 0:08:50.178 --> 0:08:52.788 convenient rather than having to sort of pop into Mastodon, 0:08:52.788 --> 0:08:56.868 pop into Twitter, pop under different websites all the time. 0:08:56.868 --> 0:09:01.218 I just use one aggregator that does everything for me. 0:09:01.428 --> 0:09:05.748 Let's move now to Smart home apps. There are apps 0:09:05.748 --> 0:09:09.918 for lots of devices on our Smart devices now on 0:09:09.918 --> 0:09:11.268 our smartphones. ET cetera. 0:09:11.508 --> 0:09:13.548 I was thinking about this the other day, and I thought, well, 0:09:14.568 --> 0:09:16.518 it really has got to the day and age where, 0:09:16.518 --> 0:09:19.668 you know, we're sort of a bit over the echoes 0:09:19.668 --> 0:09:23.118 and the Google nests and the homepods of the universe. 0:09:23.118 --> 0:09:25.698 And I thought what we should really should be focusing 0:09:25.698 --> 0:09:28.308 on these days is appliances in your home that are 0:09:28.308 --> 0:09:33.288 actually app driven. And I was having a browse through 0:09:33.288 --> 0:09:35.508 a bit of my content research over the last couple 0:09:35.508 --> 0:09:37.428 of weeks and I thought it's probably a good idea 0:09:37.428 --> 0:09:39.948 to remind people what's available Now, some of these things 0:09:39.948 --> 0:09:42.918 I have not tried myself yet, so I've still got 0:09:42.918 --> 0:09:44.988 to look at them. But just to give you some 0:09:44.988 --> 0:09:49.068 samples of some highlights, there is an Airfryer, which is 0:09:49.068 --> 0:09:51.918 called the Philips 5000 and will have the correct model 0:09:51.918 --> 0:09:54.738 number and everything else in the show notes. But it's 0:09:54.738 --> 0:09:58.488 an air fryer that's controlled by the Philips app, which 0:09:58.488 --> 0:10:02.688 means the things quote and I say quote, accessible quotes. 0:10:03.018 --> 0:10:05.328 Just to remind people that I haven't I haven't checked 0:10:05.328 --> 0:10:10.008 it yet, but. That's where you can completely control the temperature, 0:10:10.008 --> 0:10:12.858 how long things are cooking for the recipes you might 0:10:12.858 --> 0:10:15.678 want to apply to a particular cooking event or that 0:10:15.678 --> 0:10:18.468 sort of cool stuff. So I thought that's a really 0:10:18.468 --> 0:10:21.378 interesting one to keep an eye on. I'm probably going 0:10:21.378 --> 0:10:23.388 to be having a look at the air fry this week, 0:10:23.388 --> 0:10:25.908 so hopefully I'll let you know next week. The other 0:10:25.908 --> 0:10:30.108 one that caught my attention, Steve, was a dishwasher that's 0:10:30.108 --> 0:10:35.328 also app accessible. So you run the app and then 0:10:35.568 --> 0:10:38.298 you can completely control your dishwasher so you can have, 0:10:38.298 --> 0:10:42.108 you know, the eco cycle. You can just do dirty 0:10:42.108 --> 0:10:44.478 pots and pans, all the different cycles because at the 0:10:44.478 --> 0:10:47.808 moment with my dishwasher, I just press start. It just 0:10:47.808 --> 0:10:50.748 goes through the normal watch and I press the end function. 0:10:51.048 --> 0:10:53.778 And I know these days with electricity bills going up, 0:10:53.778 --> 0:10:56.208 I thought, I just want to be more effective about 0:10:56.208 --> 0:10:59.328 using my power, hence why I'm looking at the air 0:10:59.328 --> 0:11:01.788 fryer rather than using my oven to cook all the time. 0:11:01.938 --> 0:11:04.098 And the same thing to do if the dishwasher. So 0:11:04.098 --> 0:11:05.988 if I can get away with not having to run 0:11:05.988 --> 0:11:09.078 my dishwasher for 90 minutes when I don't have to. 0:11:09.648 --> 0:11:13.278 It's just another way of cutting down costs. So they 0:11:13.278 --> 0:11:16.458 were sort of the two main ones that popped out 0:11:16.458 --> 0:11:19.098 at me. And in this list, I've also got things 0:11:19.098 --> 0:11:26.028 like a dryers mentioned, washing machine, TV, a kettle, and 0:11:26.028 --> 0:11:30.228 of course our well-known sensible air conditioning. One for your 0:11:30.228 --> 0:11:33.618 split system to control your air conditioner. And the other 0:11:33.618 --> 0:11:35.028 one that I use all the time, which is for 0:11:35.028 --> 0:11:39.018 my coffee machine to control my prima donna, one for 0:11:39.018 --> 0:11:41.508 my cups of coffee in the morning. So there's probably 0:11:41.508 --> 0:11:44.208 about 10 or 11 there. You know, things are slightly 0:11:44.208 --> 0:11:47.208 getting better. There's more apps coming online that the problem 0:11:47.208 --> 0:11:50.598 with this stuff, though, Steve I find the apps that 0:11:50.598 --> 0:11:54.018 work with these appliances, it always ends up being the 0:11:54.018 --> 0:11:57.468 most expensive model. I just can't see why we can't 0:11:57.468 --> 0:12:01.698 have economical hardware that doesn't cost that much, that that's 0:12:01.698 --> 0:12:02.808 also our driven. 0:12:02.808 --> 0:12:05.418 And it's often an accident that it's accessible and the 0:12:05.418 --> 0:12:07.758 accessibility can fall away with an update. 0:12:07.998 --> 0:12:11.268 Absolutely. Which I found with I think it was last 0:12:11.268 --> 0:12:13.668 year when I might have been complaining on the on 0:12:13.668 --> 0:12:16.728 talking tech about the the app not working properly on 0:12:16.728 --> 0:12:19.698 my iPhone for my coffee machine and I had to 0:12:19.698 --> 0:12:21.348 use Android and then I had to go back and 0:12:21.348 --> 0:12:25.308 use the iPhone again. So yes, because remember, quite a 0:12:25.308 --> 0:12:28.128 lot of these products are touchscreen. So like the air fryer, 0:12:28.158 --> 0:12:31.428 that's a touchscreen one. I'm not too sure about the dishwasher. 0:12:31.428 --> 0:12:32.718 That's another I'm going to have a look at in 0:12:32.718 --> 0:12:38.208 the shop. And you're right, you're sort of riding by 0:12:38.208 --> 0:12:41.778 the seat of your pants hoping fingers crossed that they 0:12:41.778 --> 0:12:44.598 don't go, Well, let's bring out a brand new interface 0:12:44.598 --> 0:12:46.968 for this app and make it all whiz bang and 0:12:46.968 --> 0:12:50.118 everything else. And of course, for our screen reader users 0:12:50.118 --> 0:12:52.388 on our smartphones, it becomes inaccessible. 0:12:52.398 --> 0:12:55.668 Yeah, that can happen. So David, what's your advice to 0:12:55.668 --> 0:13:00.108 someone who's looking to use an app that is available 0:13:00.108 --> 0:13:01.158 with a device? 0:13:01.608 --> 0:13:05.358 My first suggestion is to go and check on the Internet. 0:13:05.748 --> 0:13:10.608 People tweet people mastodon people talk to other blind and 0:13:10.608 --> 0:13:12.678 low vision people and see what they use and get 0:13:12.678 --> 0:13:17.058 their recommendations. First, do not buy a product that says 0:13:17.058 --> 0:13:20.088 it's got an app, if you like, sight unseen, because 0:13:20.088 --> 0:13:22.278 I can guarantee most of the time you might be 0:13:22.278 --> 0:13:26.958 somewhat disappointed. So the ones that people use are fine, 0:13:26.958 --> 0:13:29.358 the ones that people don't use but they've heard about, 0:13:29.718 --> 0:13:33.018 that's the ones that you always check first to make 100% 0:13:33.018 --> 0:13:34.668 sure that it's going to work for you. 0:13:35.088 --> 0:13:37.368 Just before we go, a reminder of where people can 0:13:37.368 --> 0:13:39.708 find details of what you've been talking about in this 0:13:39.708 --> 0:13:41.298 and previous editions of the programme. 0:13:41.418 --> 0:13:43.218 Indeed. So as always, you can check out my show 0:13:43.218 --> 0:13:45.768 notes on my blog site, which is David, would it 0:13:45.768 --> 0:13:49.788 be a dot Podbean pad B and David. 0:13:49.788 --> 0:13:55.128 Would be dot Podbean pod A in to write to 0:13:55.128 --> 0:13:55.788 the program. 0:13:55.968 --> 0:13:57.978 You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work, 0:13:57.978 --> 0:14:03.348 which is David Dot Woodbridge Sounds at Vision Australia. Org. 0:14:03.498 --> 0:14:07.848 David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org This has been 0:14:07.848 --> 0:14:10.878 talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's National Advisor 0:14:10.878 --> 0:14:14.988 on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. 0:14:14.988 --> 0:14:16.668 We'll talk more tech next week. See you.