S1: Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: October 31st, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have you
S1: with us. Wherever you're listening may be through Virgin Australia Radio,
S1: Associated Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network.
S1: There is also the podcast. The way to catch that
S1: is to search for the two words talking tech and
S1: down a canal 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 adviser on access technology, David Woodbridge David,
S1: let's start with the Apple event that took place this morning,
S1: Tuesday morning. And people can hear that if they'd like
S1: to at some stage.
S2: Indeed. And we'll talk about it more in depth next week.
S2: But if you want to catch up on all the
S2: scary information that was revealed today, then I would go
S2: to your trusted internet resource. So things like Applebee's, I'm
S2: showing the The Tech Doctor blog and podcast will do something.
S2: So if you want to get a full rundown, that
S2: would be the resources that I would go to.
S1: You better let people into the joke. Why it was
S1: scary information.
S2: Because it's actually Halloween, so that's why it's a scary event,
S2: I think. I think the title was actually fast scary event.
S1: And for those of us who've been trying all their
S1: lives to resist Halloween, well, tough. We'll just have to
S1: live with it this time.
S2: Indeed.
S1: iOS and other software products had updates come down last week.
S2: Yep. So 17.1 for iOS and of course iPad I
S2: OS was released. Lots and lots of bug fixes. So
S2: one of the major ones was of course the weather
S2: focus issue with locations jumping all over the place and
S2: you couldn't read the weather properly. There was a few
S2: to do things to do with messages and so on. Well,
S2: now they've been fixed. So if you go and check
S2: out the link that I've got for Apple in the
S2: show notes, they always got this warning at the top.
S2: When a major release is released, like 16 or 17,
S2: you're bound to have lots and lots of bugs. And
S2: normally by a point one release, they've got most of
S2: the bugs ironed out. So if you've been a bit
S2: nervous about should I update or now is a bit
S2: more of a safer time to update, everything's pretty much stable.
S2: There's a few bugs floating around, but not too horrendous
S2: and as far as watch is concerned. So Apple Watch
S2: 10.1 the famous two finger pinch, or the double tap
S2: as they call it, is now raring to go. So
S2: that's where when you do a pinch with your fingers,
S2: it will activate a default button on the Apple Watch interface.
S2: So for example, the one that I keep mentioning is
S2: the fact that you can do a two finger pinch
S2: to to answer a call and to hang up a
S2: phone call. So it just means that you could really
S2: operate your upper watch hands free, including answering and hanging
S2: up a phone call.
S1: And a long promised airdrop enhancement is now active for iOS.
S2: This one's actually really cool. So normally when you do
S2: an AirDrop, it's practically via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and then if
S2: that's not finished because it's a large light, so it's
S2: a large photo or something like that, it will continue
S2: over the internet, which I find is actually really clever.
S2: So if you've been a bit wary about using AirDrop,
S2: particularly when you have to leave the house, don't be nervous.
S2: It will actually continue going on until it's complete.
S1: Very good. Now there's this movement around the world, really,
S1: to put mobile phones away from kids when they're at school.
S1: I remember when I was a kid, transistors were banned
S1: at school. I see it as just an extension of that.
S2: I think that's quite true. Yeah. I've put a US
S2: article in the show notes, and of course, when you
S2: go to high school these days, you put your mobile
S2: phone in a pouch and you're not allowed to access
S2: your mobile phone throughout the whole day, they completely banned.
S2: And of course, what the the positive people are saying
S2: about this is that people are actually engaging more so
S2: when they're in the lunchroom or the canteen or the playground.
S2: They're actually talking to each other and having a great time,
S2: rather than looking at their phone screens all the time.
S2: I'm in two minds about it because I think, you know,
S2: really people should learn how to control their, you know,
S2: their smartphone or tablet use. I mean, we don't ban
S2: phones in the workplace to a certain extent. And I
S2: always think that an education system should reflect the state
S2: of an employment system. But, you know, there's arguments for
S2: both ways.
S1: We should also mention about Apple releasing an update to iTunes.
S2: Yeah, we've forgot to mention this when iPhone 15 and
S2: that came out because of course, every time there's a
S2: new iPhone update iTunes for when. Does gets updated. We
S2: get so focused on the Mac that we forget about iTunes.
S2: And that brought up this update. Now, I must admit
S2: I'm a bit confused because it said the update is
S2: to allow people to play podcasts and audiobooks inside the
S2: iTunes application. Now, I thought you could only do that
S2: with I, so I'm not quite sure. But in the
S2: notes that I've got and in the link to the article,
S2: it says it allows people to play podcasts and audiobooks.
S2: So I've got my trusty little Windows Surface Pro next
S2: to me, so I'm going to have a bit more
S2: investigation because to me that sounds like something that's already
S2: been available. So I just want to see what the
S2: slight difference is in what they're currently talking about. But anyway,
S2: if you want a new iTunes update in September for windows,
S2: go for it.
S1: Now, we might have heard about this in the media
S1: last week, but you could expand on under the little.
S1: And that's about Microsoft and the government and the cyber
S1: spies battle. What's going on there?
S2: This is actually a really intriguing story. I was listening
S2: to an interview on ABC radio last week, and what
S2: they were saying is that governments by themselves can no
S2: longer fight cybercrime because it's so big, it's so entrenched now.
S2: It's worldwide. It's not country based. Governments themselves don't have
S2: the skill based, hence why industry has to be involved
S2: in fighting cyber crime, detecting it, stopping it all, that
S2: sort of stuff. So what's happening as far as Microsoft
S2: is concerned, they're doing a $5 billion investment into stopping
S2: cyber crime in Australia. But what they're also doing up
S2: to 2030 is they're not only going to be doing
S2: and helping with cyber crime detection, they're also going to
S2: be doing things like creating about 300,000 jobs, not just
S2: in cyber detection, criminal type stuff, but also at the
S2: end of the article that I was reading was the
S2: fact that TAFE will be offering actual certificates to do
S2: with computer science via Microsoft. So it looks like Microsoft
S2: is taking a huge hand in not only cyber crime
S2: type stuff, but computer. And remember, also artificial intelligence.
S1: Is Google still the best search?
S2: This was an interesting article I think was is Google
S2: search better than being or DuckDuckGo, which is the private
S2: search one? And what it ended up saying was really
S2: if you're doing general searches, then all of them are
S2: pretty much the same. If you're doing very specific searches
S2: for very specific items in the article, the person used
S2: the example of searching for a particular item for a
S2: toy that doesn't exist anymore, and Google gave the correct information.
S2: Whereas being an DuckDuckGo sort of said you might want
S2: to try some of these web pages, but from Google
S2: it gave a lot more information, not just web results.
S2: So it looks like Google is still the main search
S2: engine of choice. And remember, this other reason why I
S2: put it in there too, is because Google is in
S2: trouble at the moment, because everybody thinks Google is got
S2: too much of a head start on the internet, and
S2: they really should let other people, you know, have more
S2: input into internet rather than just Google taking it over
S2: all the time.
S1: Being a person who follows games stuff a lot. Tell
S1: us about Marvel's Spider-Man and accessibility.
S2: You remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about
S2: the Forza Horizon motor racing game? Well, this is not
S2: as amazing as that one. And what I mean by
S2: that is the accessibility options in Spider-Man two is I
S2: guess it's more general. It's more to do with physical
S2: motor control and people with low vision. But I did
S2: ask my son, who bought his new Spider-Man two last week,
S2: and I said, did he actually happen to notice the
S2: accessibility options? And he actually went through them with me,
S2: and it sounds quite good. So things like when the
S2: characters jump, you can control the fact that if they're
S2: going to fall, they don't really fall. And depending on
S2: how fast they move, you can control the speed of
S2: movement and all that sort of stuff. So you can
S2: make it a bit easier to actually use it with
S2: the game controller. But again, it's an example of many
S2: game developers really focusing on making their games accessible to
S2: a wider audience.
S1: In the windows screen reader world. Always a major event
S1: around the end of October, when the next version of
S1: jaws drops. Jaws 2024 came last week.
S2: And I always say this if you want the the
S2: best screen reader on the market. For me, it's always
S2: jaws for windows. They keep making enhancements to the screen whether. Things.
S2: Absolutely amazing. It's like, surely by now they've run out
S2: of run out of features. The main features that sort
S2: of yelled at it to me was the fact that
S2: the face detection. To make sure that your face is
S2: in the video, focus for when you're on a video call,
S2: like a zoom webinar and so on is accurate. And
S2: also the split view for brows. So you can have
S2: one focus in a window and a focus in another
S2: window with your brow display. And of course, there are
S2: lots of really, really interesting updates for Microsoft Teams and
S2: of course the Office Suite, Microsoft Word, Excel, outlook and PowerPoint.
S2: So if you're thinking is it worthwhile updating, particularly in
S2: the workplace and education, I always say to people, it's
S2: much better to keep it up to date and certainly
S2: get the latest update of jaws for windows.
S1: It's worth having a little bit of a play in
S1: jaws every now and again. There's lots of gems buried
S1: away in there. Recently, the message center was introduced Message Center.
S1: You can reach that by going to help if you've
S1: got your focus on Jaws. And then message center is
S1: one of the things in there. And that's where jaws
S1: leaves announcements about updates and all sorts of other things.
S1: And it was from there I found out about the
S1: Immersive Reader, which is a great little tool, and it's
S1: well worth having a look at if you want to
S1: explore that one. And lots of other stuff buried away,
S1: as I say in there. And the message center is
S1: a good way to find out what's going on with jaws.
S2: That's a great idea. The other thing to remember with
S2: Whisperer or Freedom Scientific is the fact that they've got
S2: lots of training material online as well. So it's one
S2: of the good things about jaws is that you can
S2: go into the website and find all this training material
S2: on basic stuff, advanced stuff, internet stuff, Microsoft Word stuff
S2: and so on. So if you're a beginner user or
S2: even intermediate to advanced user, absolutely take advantage of all
S2: the training material and also use the cast, which is
S2: their podcast, which gives you the latest updates of what's
S2: happening in the Jaws zoom text or Fusion worlds, which
S2: is the combination of Jaws and Zoom text.
S1: Now this next item is not quite tech, but we
S1: do talk about tech stuff a lot in the orientation
S1: and mobility world getting around, as it were. You've got
S1: yourself a new cane the other day.
S2: This is a bit of an interesting thing. It's called
S2: the all terrain cane. So what it sort of basically
S2: means is that you can use it on the beach,
S2: in the bush, in the city, all that sort of stuff.
S2: So basically what it is, it folds into three pieces.
S2: It's got a rollerball tip. So it just basically rotates around.
S2: You can just slide it over all services. The three
S2: segments are actually made of titanium. And then where it
S2: connects to each other, they're actually still connection points rather
S2: than having an elastic inside. It's actually a steel cable.
S2: The whole size of the cane can go from 130
S2: or so centimeters, up to 160cm. So it ends up
S2: being quite a big cane, and the handle is probably
S2: about the double size of a normal handle you'd have
S2: on your normal, your golf club style cane. Because what
S2: this cane is going to allow you to do is
S2: not only use it as a cane, but almost like
S2: a walking staff. So if you're trying to get more
S2: balance walking up a hill or it's a bit unsteady
S2: walking down the hill, you can put your hand up
S2: and down that handle. Plus the fact that you can
S2: also adjust it. I'm going to take it Bush bashing
S2: and on the beach over the next week or two,
S2: and I'll let you know how it goes.
S1: Very interesting. Before we go, a reminder of where everyone
S1: can find details of what we've been talking about in
S1: this and previous editions of the program.
S2: As always, you can check out my blog site, which
S2: is David would be a dot podbean pad com.
S1: David would be dot podbean podbean to write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Business Trial Royal Book,
S2: which is David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia.
S1: Org David dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org this has
S1: been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's national
S1: advisor on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.