S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: August the 29th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us. Listening through maybe Vision Australia Radio associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There
S1: is also the podcast. The way to get that is
S1: to search for the two words talking Tech and Danica
S1: Noor commercially on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced.
S1: Another option is to ask a 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, when we think
S1: of Pacific Vision in Australia, those of us who use
S1: the blindness products think of blindness. Products consultant Sam Taylor.
S1: Sam is no longer with Pacific Vision. He finished up
S1: last Friday, the 25th of August. But the news isn't
S1: all bad.
S2: No, it's not all bad because when you hear of
S2: these really excellent people vanishing, you think, Oh no, they're guys.
S2: All that knowledge and experience and everything else. Well, I'm
S2: actually very pleased to say that Sam Taylor is now
S2: part of Vision Australia and he joins our excellent team
S2: of assistive technology specialists at Vision Australia. So not only
S2: can he help, quote Pacific Vision people, if you like,
S2: he can also help everybody else as well. So we
S2: can freely talk about all the different products that Sam
S2: also uses, because I've known him since he was at
S2: school and I know he uses a lot more products
S2: than what Pacific Vision sells. And I guess the one
S2: thing about Vision Australia is that because we deal in
S2: all products from every supplier, then I really think that
S2: Sam's going to bring a huge thing to Vision Australia,
S2: particularly in the areas of Braille and speech output devices
S2: like the Sense Player OCR, but also things like the
S2: Victoria Stream and all those other different types of products.
S2: So I'm really, really happy to see him being part
S2: of Vision Australia now.
S1: Welcome, Sam, to Vision Australia and we wish Pacific Vision
S1: well with filling what will be quite a large gap indeed.
S1: An interesting item that you came across concerns batteries, particularly
S1: the iPhone in the future.
S2: Yes. So this is one of the stuff that's coming
S2: out of the European Union at the moment. Is there
S2: sort of battery decisions in 2027 which everybody's going to
S2: start fighting with? So what it is, is that any
S2: electronic device should be able to have its battery changed.
S2: And what they're really talking about is consumer products. So
S2: they're not talking about electric vehicles and that sort of stuff.
S2: So what they're saying is you should be able to
S2: use any commercial tool that you can buy in a
S2: shop to change your battery. Now because Apple in particular,
S2: but this also applies to Samsung phones as well and
S2: pixel phones is that these batteries are pretty much part
S2: of the whole system. I mean, you've got to use
S2: glue guns and special screwdrivers and everything else to even
S2: try and get the battery out, let alone do it
S2: yourself as a non technician. In some ways I agree
S2: with them because like you don't want battery waste or
S2: like you and I talked before the show, Steven, half
S2: a time when you get rid of your phone, you're
S2: really getting rid of it because one, you can't afford
S2: to replace the battery or the battery's dying, so you
S2: buy a new phone. But wouldn't it be nice back
S2: in the old days, remember that if you had a
S2: phone and the battery was getting a bit woozy, you
S2: could just pop that one out, pop a new one
S2: in and off you go again. So I would like
S2: the fact that Apple did something, wherever it's going to be,
S2: will replace your battery for nothing. Because when I got
S2: my battery replaced in my phone a couple of years ago,
S2: it cost me just on $200. So maybe one way
S2: they'll be able to wiggle out of it is to say, well, look,
S2: we'll no longer charge for consumers. But remember, this is 2027.
S2: It just got announced. And I'm sure most of the
S2: major manufacturers of phones and tablets remember and computers because
S2: remember the MacBook Air and the iPad, again, the batteries
S2: part of the whole unit. So I have a funny
S2: feeling we're going to see a lot of benefactors screaming
S2: and yelling with the EU about, no, no, no, we
S2: possibly can't do this. So let's keep looking at that
S2: over the next couple of years or so.
S1: Yes. Because it really will make a big difference to
S1: the business models for those products.
S2: Can I say for the famous quote, they won't be
S2: the thinnest iPhone or iPad Mac ever made, because you're
S2: probably going to have to make it bigger to be
S2: able to cope with the fact that you want to
S2: be able to remove the battery.
S1: And by the way, by then the iPhone will have
S1: been around for about 20 years. It's gone quick, hasn't it?
S2: Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I wish you wouldn't have said that.
S2: I'm starting to feel old now.
S1: Tell me about the EU's Digital Services Act. More ramifications
S1: from that.
S2: Yeah. So this came into effect last week. So what
S2: it basically says is that any major company that has
S2: over 45 million users is responsible for the content that
S2: is on their platform. So what they were really talking
S2: about in this article was what to do with ads.
S2: But when you think about content as well, you've got
S2: things like appropriate content for children, parental control, where you
S2: can opt in and opt out of ads or data sharing,
S2: which is one of the things that everybody's really concerned about.
S2: So again, I know it's, you know, part of the
S2: European Union stuff, but this stuff always has global implications
S2: because you can imagine that major companies don't want to
S2: start filing with the EU. And hopefully for me in
S2: particular as a parent and a granddad, it has implications
S2: for the rest of the world. So to me, I
S2: think this is a really good thing. It's really holding
S2: up places like Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft to a set
S2: of standards that just basically says, you know what is
S2: at the end of the day, you just can't do
S2: what you feel like. You've got responsibilities. And if you
S2: like it or not, tough luck. We're going to make
S2: you do it.
S1: A big driver around these changes, and particularly with the
S1: battery story we were talking about earlier, is about the
S1: need to be more sensible with the materials we use
S1: and recycling. ET cetera.
S2: That's right. Both of them are really saying, you know,
S2: common sense with batteries and common sense with content.
S1: Google, apparently you can hum a song and it'll find
S1: it for you.
S2: Yes. So this is in beta on YouTube. So people
S2: are part of this Android beta testing program. So remember
S2: with like Shazam on iOS, you can actually let the
S2: microphone slash Siri listen to a part of a song
S2: or you can sing it and it will recognize that, Well,
S2: Google has taken this one step further and you can
S2: hum part of a song and it will recognize what
S2: you're humming. And I don't know about you, Steve, but
S2: my musicality is absolutely awful. So I assumed if I
S2: hummed on it, no bananas in pajamas, it might have
S2: a good idea of getting it. But I don't know
S2: about the fantastic hits on the radio. I don't think
S2: it'll work. But if anybody's on the beta team and
S2: used it, let us know and email me at David
S2: Dot Woodbridge at Borg and I'd be really interested to
S2: see how you go with that humming technique. Yeah, good.
S1: Luck folding phones now. Are they such a good idea?
S2: This was a good article on folding phones that I
S2: found over the weekend because, well, it's really saying is
S2: folding phones, even though there have been around for recently,
S2: even smartphone technology for 4 or 5 years. I've had
S2: folding phones before back in the early 2000. Part of
S2: the problem with them in one one side of the
S2: argument is that the hinges can get dust inside them.
S2: Even though they open out the actual camera inside the
S2: phone is reduced in size because the actual phone's too thin.
S2: And the third major thing is because it has to unfold.
S2: The battery in the phone is not that big. So
S2: half the time you've got to charge it more than
S2: once a day. On the positive side, particularly for us
S2: as blind and low vision people, you can open the
S2: phone up to answer the call. You can close the
S2: phone to hang up the call. And for everybody you
S2: can very quickly use the outside screen of the phone
S2: because remember, it folds down and you've got this little
S2: screen on the outside and you can use that screen
S2: to quickly check a message or reply to a message.
S2: You can check the time, the weather and do sorts
S2: of very small things without actually having to open the phone.
S2: So there's sort of good and bad points to it.
S2: Also got my Z three flip, which I'm still happy about,
S2: but I really, really want a flip phone from Apple.
S2: So maybe in 2027 as well. Steve I might have
S2: a flip phone from Apple.
S1: Yeah, I don't really get this, but there's a contention
S1: that note taking apps don't make us smarter.
S2: And I think what this article is really getting at
S2: is that you can write down and keep links to
S2: the cows come home. But if you don't think about
S2: what you're reading about or taking notes about, then you're
S2: not really using your thought processes as a fairly advanced
S2: life form. Because what we're saying is that apparently was
S2: it three decades ago, we used to spend a couple
S2: of minutes looking at a screen or whatever else it
S2: might have been. Now we spend 47 seconds per screen
S2: for us blind folks. We probably spend more time than that.
S2: But the problem is what they kept saying is that
S2: if you switch too many times doing multiple tasks, you're
S2: not really being able to concentrate on any one task.
S2: Any one time. So it's like that jack of all trades.
S2: You do average on most things, but you're not really
S2: going to be very good at one thing. So I
S2: this one, I like it because when I focus on
S2: a particular topic for talking tech, I try and read
S2: more about that topic while I'm thinking about it and
S2: taking notes on it rather than going, Oh my goodness,
S2: I've got to find these ten other articles. I just
S2: focus on one thing at a time because it said
S2: in reality there was really no such thing as multitasking.
S2: If you're switching every 47 seconds.
S1: One of the old Twitter third party apps spring for
S1: X as it now is still goes viral.
S2: I know. And look, I don't know how this thing
S2: has survived because we know like things like Twitter riffic
S2: went and all the other major ones that particularly blind
S2: and low vision people love. So I don't know how
S2: spring for Twitter has survived under the radar and it
S2: hasn't yet picked up and told you, No, go away,
S2: you're not supposed to be doing that. So remember the
S2: developer of Spring for Twitter is also the developer of Moana,
S2: for iOS and for Mac, and that works extremely well.
S2: So quietly, if you don't like the Twitter app on iOS,
S2: go and grab a spring for Twitter and it's absolutely brilliant.
S1: What's the latest with Lego and Braille?
S2: This is really exciting. So we've had Lego bricks for
S2: educators since 2019, so educators could get a whole box
S2: of Lego that had Lego letters and numbers on it,
S2: plus print, and they're all different nice colors as well.
S2: And educators could use that to build in literacy literacy
S2: into play with children, which is a great way of
S2: improving literacy. But now what the Lego Foundation has done
S2: is said, Well, now we're going to commercially sell this
S2: to everybody on the planet. So if you're a parent
S2: with a blind or a low vision child going blind,
S2: then you can use this as a literacy and as
S2: with all different types of Lego, it comes with instructions
S2: or play instructions on how to incorporate Braille and it
S2: really cool thing. Steve I think it's amazing you'll be
S2: able to use Be My Eyes when the Lego bar
S2: becomes available and probably in about the second week of
S2: September to talk to Lego itself directly for support people
S2: on how to use the Braille bricks. And I think
S2: that is absolutely amazing.
S1: Interesting things happening in the Bemis world with my eye
S1: out in the public beta.
S2: I think we've been my eyes in particular it's watch
S2: this space because they're adding so many specialist services. As
S2: you said, the eye one you can contact Google Microsoft
S2: via the Beam Eyes app. They are really becoming a
S2: powerhouse for doing video support and I might add, for free.
S1: The Apple event announcing the new iPhones and other bits
S1: and pieces. When do you reckon? In a couple of weeks.
S2: I reckon in a couple of weeks. So I think
S2: the second week in September, I normally give two weeks
S2: warning to journalists and mainstream media about when it's coming up.
S2: Now as we go to air on Tuesday afternoon, there's
S2: a tentative suggestion that it may be on a Tuesday
S2: in the second week of September. So hopefully by next
S2: week Stephen will know 100%. But as with people follow
S2: me on X or Mastodon, I'll certainly let people know
S2: as soon as I find out anyway.
S1: Yeah, so around the 12th, 13th, 14th, etcetera of September.
S1: Just before we go, a reminder of where people can
S1: find details of what we've been talking about in this
S1: and previous editions of the program.
S2: Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site,
S2: which is David would be a dot podbean pad and com.
S1: David would be our podbean pod b e n to
S1: write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: as well as Sam Taylor at David Dot Woodbridge. How
S2: it sounds at Vision Australia. Org.
S1: David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org This has been
S1: talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's National Advisor
S1: on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Don't forget
S1: about Dad for Father's Day and there's always the vision store.
S1: You can go to just a few days to go.
S1: In the meantime, take care. We'll talk more tech next week.
S1: See you.