WEBVTT - Talking Tech 25th February 2025 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:12.049 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:12.050 --> 0:00:16.430 February the 25th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have 0:00:16.430 --> 0:00:20.419 you with us listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated 0:00:20.419 --> 0:00:24.110 stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. 0:00:24.140 --> 0:00:27.110 There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you 0:00:27.110 --> 0:00:29.450 need to do is search for the two words talking 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.570 tech and Danica. Nor come usually on a Tuesday afternoon 0:00:32.570 --> 0:00:35.659 just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask 0:00:35.690 --> 0:00:38.839 your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision Australia 0:00:38.839 --> 0:00:43.940 radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast 0:00:43.970 --> 0:00:49.820 with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager. Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo. 0:00:49.849 --> 0:00:50.930 G'day, Stephen. 0:00:51.019 --> 0:00:56.719 Damo, we've got news of another in the iPhone series. 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.380 The iPhone 16 series was released in the last few days. 0:01:00.410 --> 0:01:05.179 Yes, this is the iPhone 16 E. The iPhone 16 0:01:05.209 --> 0:01:10.670 E is available to order from February the 21st and 0:01:10.670 --> 0:01:14.660 start shipping, I believe, on the 28th of February. This 0:01:14.660 --> 0:01:20.959 one replaces the iPhone SE variants, so it is a 0:01:20.990 --> 0:01:24.860 well as budget a model as you get with an iPhone. Um, 0:01:24.860 --> 0:01:29.720 it's still sort of starts at, I think around $999 Australian. 0:01:29.929 --> 0:01:34.070 It's a bit of a change from the SE format. 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.179 It's not a small phone, but this one is actually 0:01:38.179 --> 0:01:42.740 based on the body of the iPhone 14. So you're 0:01:42.740 --> 0:01:45.350 still talking about a, you know, a six inch screen 0:01:45.350 --> 0:01:49.520 and that sort of thing. The other significant change that 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.240 people will notice is the departure from the home button. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.610 I know we've sort of been anticipating that for a while, 0:01:55.610 --> 0:01:59.240 but it's now not possible to buy an Apple iPhone 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.960 with a home button. So this one, as with the 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.860 other models in the 16 lineup and ones that have 0:02:06.860 --> 0:02:10.050 gone before it, Now you're sort of utilizing face ID 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.320 to unlock the phone and using a swipe up gesture, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.670 rather than tapping the the physical or haptic home button 0:02:17.670 --> 0:02:20.400 that we've had on the seas for a number of years. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.100 For those who have never used face ID, it shouldn't 0:02:23.100 --> 0:02:25.080 be all that daunting these days, should it? 0:02:25.110 --> 0:02:28.050 No it's not. And if you have voiceover running when 0:02:28.050 --> 0:02:29.700 you set it up, it does give you some pretty 0:02:29.700 --> 0:02:32.490 good guidance on how to set it up. Um, I 0:02:32.490 --> 0:02:35.430 don't find it a problem. It works in the dark. 0:02:35.430 --> 0:02:37.080 So if you're the sort of person that reads a 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:38.610 book in the middle of the night, that kind of thing, 0:02:38.610 --> 0:02:41.040 you'll still be able to unlock your phone. It just 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:42.870 takes a little bit of getting used to. In terms 0:02:42.870 --> 0:02:46.620 of knowing where to position it relative to your face, 0:02:46.620 --> 0:02:52.560 and also if you don't use VoiceOver but you have 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.580 limited or no eye control, there is a thing which 0:02:56.580 --> 0:02:58.770 you can switch off, which they call attention mode, where 0:02:58.770 --> 0:03:00.720 you have to actually be looking at the phone with 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.510 your eyes so you can turn that off, which will 0:03:03.510 --> 0:03:06.900 help to make it easier to to unlock and recognize 0:03:06.900 --> 0:03:09.780 your face. So that's just something to sort of be 0:03:09.780 --> 0:03:10.860 aware of. 0:03:10.890 --> 0:03:16.560 Remind us of the differences between the iPhone Sixteen-e, this 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.840 new one and the others. It's sort of like a 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.760 budget model, isn't it? 0:03:20.940 --> 0:03:23.460 It is when you consider that some of the Pro 0:03:23.460 --> 0:03:26.760 models are up over the sort of $2,000 mark. There 0:03:26.790 --> 0:03:28.650 are a few differences, and there are a few things 0:03:28.650 --> 0:03:31.080 that are the same. So the things that are the 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.770 same are it does have the Apple intelligence features which 0:03:34.770 --> 0:03:41.640 the SES didn't have. It has the A18 chip, which 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.600 is the same as the other iPhone 16 seconds. There 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.260 would be a difference in weight because the newer the 0:03:49.260 --> 0:03:52.620 iPhone 16 seconds were, I believe, a titanium case, whereas 0:03:52.620 --> 0:03:54.750 this is using the body, if you like, of an 0:03:54.750 --> 0:03:58.050 iPhone 14, which is the sort of glass and aluminium setup. 0:03:58.050 --> 0:04:02.340 So it would be heavier than a regular 16. It 0:04:02.340 --> 0:04:04.740 doesn't have the camera button, it does have the action 0:04:04.740 --> 0:04:08.610 button that is present on the iPhone 15. You know 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.610 where the mute switch used to be? It's now a 0:04:11.610 --> 0:04:14.070 button that you can set up to still function as 0:04:14.070 --> 0:04:16.710 a mute button, but you can do other things with it. 0:04:16.980 --> 0:04:20.279 But there's no camera button, and there's also just the 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.159 one camera. It is a 48 megapixel camera. So it's 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.750 an improvement on the previous cameras in the SE. They're 0:04:27.750 --> 0:04:31.680 also saying that it does contain a 5G modem, and 0:04:31.710 --> 0:04:35.610 the 5G chip is extremely power efficient. So I guess 0:04:35.610 --> 0:04:37.710 it remains to be seen what the battery life is 0:04:37.710 --> 0:04:40.920 going to be in practice. But, uh, the fact that 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.160 we are starting to increasingly see more 5G towers around 0:04:44.190 --> 0:04:48.390 and that kind of thing is probably a useful thing. So, um, 0:04:48.390 --> 0:04:51.570 they would be the main differences. It is also USB-C, 0:04:51.870 --> 0:04:55.560 which is in line again with the the other iPhone 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:01.320 16 seconds. So it's goodbye lightning. The other difference, though, 0:05:01.350 --> 0:05:04.080 between it and the 16 is that it doesn't support 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:09.180 the MagSafe wireless charging, so you can still charge it wirelessly, 0:05:09.180 --> 0:05:12.180 but only at sort of seven watts. So it's going 0:05:12.210 --> 0:05:16.680 to be a fairly slow charge. So there is wireless 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.920 charging but not the not the magnetic. There's a number 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.729 of sort of magnetic type wireless chargers these days that 0:05:23.730 --> 0:05:26.970 you can get for your your iPhone 15 and 16 0:05:26.970 --> 0:05:31.470 and so on. It doesn't support that magnetic charging standard. 0:05:31.470 --> 0:05:34.589 So it's USB charging you need to go with for it. 0:05:34.860 --> 0:05:39.960 It's USB-C or it will support the older wireless charging standards, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.920 but it'll only charge at 7.5W. So you're going to 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.050 be waiting a while if you charge it using anything 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:47.280 other than USB-C. 0:05:47.370 --> 0:05:52.470 Yep. So that's the new iPhone 16 E. We talked 0:05:52.470 --> 0:05:57.960 about the new mobility aid, the Walk Smart Cane two 0:05:57.990 --> 0:06:01.350 last week. You've discovered a little more. 0:06:01.950 --> 0:06:04.500 I have there's a couple of things that I wanted 0:06:04.500 --> 0:06:08.340 to share, I suppose as a follow up from the 0:06:08.340 --> 0:06:12.210 discussion we had last week. First of all, if you 0:06:12.210 --> 0:06:17.860 were to buy it from the We Walk website. You 0:06:17.860 --> 0:06:19.810 need to be aware that even if you tell it, 0:06:19.810 --> 0:06:23.710 your country is Australia and it's a little bit sort of, um, 0:06:23.890 --> 0:06:26.620 confusing because they say put in your email address and 0:06:26.620 --> 0:06:29.770 your country to get the pricing for your country. However, 0:06:29.770 --> 0:06:32.770 the pricing that they quote is in US dollars, but 0:06:32.770 --> 0:06:36.100 it doesn't say that anywhere. Which means you'll you know, 0:06:36.130 --> 0:06:38.980 you think, oh, that's pretty good for $850. But then 0:06:38.980 --> 0:06:40.450 when you get your credit card bill, it's going to 0:06:40.450 --> 0:06:44.290 be the 1300 with the currency conversion or 1370, I 0:06:44.290 --> 0:06:46.600 think it was the other day when I checked. So 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.089 just be aware of that and then you may get 0:06:49.090 --> 0:06:52.270 hit with the customs duty. On top of that, it 0:06:52.270 --> 0:06:54.250 would be GST exempt, but you're still going to get 0:06:54.250 --> 0:06:57.730 hit with the customs duty. Now the other thing that 0:06:57.730 --> 0:07:00.820 I can now confirm as well is that Vision Australia's 0:07:00.850 --> 0:07:05.320 Vision store will be carrying the we walk to Smart 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.830 Cane as well. So you can just get it from there, 0:07:08.860 --> 0:07:10.570 get it shipped to you and you're not having to 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.870 mess about with, uh, you know, currency conversions and all 0:07:13.870 --> 0:07:16.420 of those sorts of things. And the price is essentially 0:07:16.420 --> 0:07:19.060 what it would cost you by the time you imported 0:07:19.060 --> 0:07:22.180 it anyway. So if it's not on the web shop already, 0:07:22.180 --> 0:07:26.110 it will be available quite soon, I believe from Vision Store. 0:07:26.140 --> 0:07:27.730 You've had a little play with one? 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.220 Yes, I took it for a wee walk. Quite impressed 0:07:30.220 --> 0:07:33.100 with it actually. We mentioned last week that there is 0:07:33.100 --> 0:07:36.040 a Harman Kardon speaker in the end of the cane 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.220 in the end of the handle. Um, and I do 0:07:39.220 --> 0:07:41.140 have to say the audio quality is pretty good. It's 0:07:41.140 --> 0:07:45.700 good and loud and it sounds quite reasonable. Um, it 0:07:45.700 --> 0:07:48.610 is nice to use because all of the buttons are 0:07:48.610 --> 0:07:50.920 on the handle of the cane, so you can access 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.940 them with your finger or your thumb. And the other 0:07:54.940 --> 0:07:57.430 thing that I discovered as well is that the handle 0:07:57.430 --> 0:08:00.760 unscrews from the rest of the cane. So if you were, 0:08:00.790 --> 0:08:04.480 you know, unfortunate enough to snap the cane further down 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.750 the shaft, you could just replace the shaft and screw 0:08:07.780 --> 0:08:11.140 your handle onto it. So you haven't sort of completely 0:08:11.140 --> 0:08:15.070 ruined a $1,500 cane, essentially. A couple of other things. 0:08:15.070 --> 0:08:19.150 The obstacle detection does work well, so it gives you 0:08:19.150 --> 0:08:21.640 either haptic feedback or audio feedback. So you get the 0:08:21.670 --> 0:08:25.480 sort of. Dink dink dink dink sound. And it gets 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.640 faster as you get closer to the object and you 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.670 can adjust the range. Um, there's sort of three different 0:08:30.670 --> 0:08:34.270 range settings, and the pairing to the app works quite well. 0:08:34.270 --> 0:08:35.830 So once it's paired to the app, you know you 0:08:35.829 --> 0:08:40.179 can activate the navigation features, uh, select, you know, some 0:08:40.209 --> 0:08:43.480 somewhere that you want to go, etc., from the handle 0:08:43.479 --> 0:08:45.040 of the cane so you can leave your phone in 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.400 your pocket or your bag or whatever and drive the 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.579 app from the cane. So it is, I think, quite 0:08:51.579 --> 0:08:54.610 well thought out. What I'm hoping to do is to 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.949 get my hands on one for a little bit longer 0:08:56.949 --> 0:09:00.160 than sort of half an hour, and actually do a 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.469 little audio demo, which we might be able to feature 0:09:02.469 --> 0:09:04.359 on a future edition of the program. 0:09:04.359 --> 0:09:08.290 So we walk Smart Cane two. It's coming to a 0:09:08.290 --> 0:09:16.479 vision store near you. Tell me about network radio. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.820 This is one that I've been tinkering with for a while, 0:09:19.819 --> 0:09:23.150 but I've recently started experimenting with it a little more 0:09:23.150 --> 0:09:27.170 and upgraded my hardware. For those of you that don't know, 0:09:27.170 --> 0:09:30.499 I am a licensed ham radio operator, but you don't 0:09:30.500 --> 0:09:33.230 need to be one to use this technology. It's a 0:09:33.229 --> 0:09:35.329 good way. If you sort of were thinking about maybe 0:09:35.329 --> 0:09:39.170 getting into ham radio and you, you're not quite sure. 0:09:39.199 --> 0:09:42.800 This provides a way of doing a similar thing without 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:47.300 having to be licensed. So there's two components to this. 0:09:47.300 --> 0:09:50.479 One is an app called Zello, and you can use 0:09:50.479 --> 0:09:54.559 the Zello app on your iPhone if you wish, or 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.939 your Android phone. Or you can get a dedicated network radio, 0:09:58.969 --> 0:10:02.420 which feels like a walkie talkie. Okay, so it has 0:10:02.420 --> 0:10:05.329 a push to talk button on the left hand side. 0:10:05.329 --> 0:10:08.089 It's got a little screen, it's got a little stubby 0:10:08.089 --> 0:10:12.770 antenna on the top, and it's got a tactile rubber keypad. 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.520 These things run Android, so you can install talkback on 0:10:16.550 --> 0:10:20.689 them and you've got a radio where everything talks and 0:10:20.689 --> 0:10:24.920 you can use Zello on that. Um, and it essentially 0:10:24.949 --> 0:10:27.349 it allows you to talk, you know, all the way 0:10:27.349 --> 0:10:30.170 around the world. Um, as long as you've got either 0:10:30.170 --> 0:10:34.730 Wi-Fi or cellular coverage. The audio is really, really clear 0:10:34.729 --> 0:10:37.159 and you can set it up in different ways. So 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.340 there's a number of public channels. I use a group 0:10:40.339 --> 0:10:44.210 of channels called the network radio channels, which are set 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.119 up by a guy called Carl G. One Ypc in 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:53.209 the UK. And if you just Google Network Radios G1 Ypc, uh, 0:10:53.209 --> 0:10:55.579 you will find the website for that. There's a lot 0:10:55.609 --> 0:10:58.399 of helpful information there and tells you the names of 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.119 the different channels, but you can also set up private channels. 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.849 So you could have a family channel that's password protected 0:11:04.849 --> 0:11:07.760 and so on. You know, if you've got, um, kids 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.149 or parents who are travelling, you know, maybe interstate, overseas, 0:11:11.150 --> 0:11:14.179 that sort of thing, you could set up a channel 0:11:14.179 --> 0:11:16.519 and have a talk to them as though you're on 0:11:16.550 --> 0:11:19.250 a walkie talkie and, you know, chatting from one house 0:11:19.250 --> 0:11:21.710 to another, as it were, so you can set it 0:11:21.709 --> 0:11:24.860 up in a number of different ways. And you can 0:11:24.859 --> 0:11:27.290 you can access a number of different types of channels 0:11:27.290 --> 0:11:31.219 depending on what you're interested in. For those that are hams, 0:11:31.219 --> 0:11:33.739 if you are using a network radio, you can also 0:11:33.740 --> 0:11:38.270 run other ham specific apps. So there's one called DV 0:11:38.270 --> 0:11:41.479 switch and there's another called Echolink, which are also ways 0:11:41.479 --> 0:11:45.019 of sort of talking around the world from these devices. 0:11:45.020 --> 0:11:48.260 But if you're not licensed, Zello is a really good 0:11:48.260 --> 0:11:51.829 thing to experiment with on the network radios group of 0:11:51.829 --> 0:11:56.510 channels that Carl runs. Their motto is play nice or 0:11:56.510 --> 0:11:59.149 play somewhere else. So you don't sort of get some 0:11:59.150 --> 0:12:02.329 of the undesirable behaviors that you get on some of 0:12:02.329 --> 0:12:05.420 the local CB radio channels and that kind of thing. 0:12:05.420 --> 0:12:08.059 So it's something I've been messing around with for a 0:12:08.059 --> 0:12:11.089 while and trying different hardware. The other thing I should 0:12:11.089 --> 0:12:12.620 mention too, if you do want to use it on 0:12:12.620 --> 0:12:15.920 the iPhone, you can get hold of a Bluetooth microphone, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.319 which you can pair to your phone and still have 0:12:18.319 --> 0:12:21.349 that kind of push to talk, sort of, uh, walkie 0:12:21.380 --> 0:12:25.219 talkie feel, if you like. It's a thing called an Enrico. 0:12:25.250 --> 0:12:31.489 Enrico B01 Bluetooth microphone. The network radio I've got is 0:12:31.490 --> 0:12:34.819 an Enrico T320. But there's a number of different ones 0:12:34.819 --> 0:12:38.119 out there, or most of them are fairly similar. But, yeah, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.400 it's a good a good sort of way to experiment. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.830 If you're thinking about perhaps getting into ham radio. 0:12:42.859 --> 0:12:45.260 The accessibility of the app. Zillow. 0:12:45.380 --> 0:12:48.499 Zillow itself is extremely accessible. If you're using it on 0:12:48.500 --> 0:12:50.869 iOS to activate your Push to Talk button, you can 0:12:50.870 --> 0:12:54.050 do the sort of two finger double tap to press 0:12:54.050 --> 0:12:56.149 the talk button down, and then do it again to 0:12:56.179 --> 0:12:59.660 to let it up. If you're using a network radio, 0:12:59.689 --> 0:13:02.689 the only problem is that they don't come bundled with 0:13:02.689 --> 0:13:06.439 the Google Accessibility suite. So I ended up using IRA 0:13:06.439 --> 0:13:08.569 to get it connected to my Wi-Fi. And then I 0:13:08.599 --> 0:13:11.869 went to the play Store and installed it that way. So, um, 0:13:11.900 --> 0:13:15.020 that's the only gotcha is that some of the Android 0:13:15.050 --> 0:13:19.040 based network radios don't include Talkback and the Google Accessibility Suite. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.679 You have to install it once it's installed, though. Yes, absolutely. 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.459 Very accessible. And because these radios have got a rubber. 0:13:26.490 --> 0:13:28.920 Like a tactile keypad, you don't even have to use 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:30.990 the touch screen. You can just use the little navy 0:13:31.020 --> 0:13:33.840 circle to move around the screen and then press the 0:13:33.839 --> 0:13:36.209 middle of it to do your double tap. So once 0:13:36.209 --> 0:13:39.059 you've got talkback installed, it's pretty accessible. 0:13:39.390 --> 0:13:43.980 Very interesting network radio. Before we go, a reminder there 0:13:43.979 --> 0:13:46.979 are details of this and previous editions of the program 0:13:46.979 --> 0:13:55.170 available by going to VA radio.org/talking tech, VA radio.org/talking tech 0:13:55.199 --> 0:13:57.569 to write to the program Damo. 0:13:57.569 --> 0:14:03.179 Damo dot McMorrow MC m o r o w at 0:14:03.179 --> 0:14:04.199 Vision Australia. 0:14:04.500 --> 0:14:09.990 Org Damo dot McMorrow at Vision australia.org. This has been 0:14:09.990 --> 0:14:13.050 talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national access 0:14:13.050 --> 0:14:17.400 technology manager Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.139 talk more tech next week. See you.