S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from
S1: October the 3rd, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have
S1: you with us. Listening maybe through Virgin Australia radio associated
S1: Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network, there
S1: is also the podcast. If you haven't caught up with
S1: that yet, all you need to do is search for
S1: the two words talking tech and Dan It can all
S1: come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced.
S1: Another option is to ask your 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, let's start with
S1: the big news in the disability world. Last week that
S1: the report of the Royal Commission into Violence, abuse, neglect
S1: and exploitation of people with disabilities, that report was released
S1: and it's available and it's quite easy to access, isn't it?
S2: Mark It is indeed. And the fact that it's in
S2: various formats, which I think is absolutely fantastic, mind you,
S2: because it is a report about people with disability, you'd
S2: want to make sure it was accessible. But I think
S2: we're coming to the stage, Stephen, where I don't think
S2: stuff being inaccessible format these days is a strange thing.
S2: I think most of the things coming out, these are accessible.
S1: Certainly government stuff is Exactly.
S2: That's right. So I think it's nice that these days
S2: we can get the same amount of access to content
S2: than everybody else does. So I'm definitely looking forward to
S2: reading it. I think as you said before, we went
S2: on here today to read the executive summary, which is
S2: also quite large because it's 12 volumes. I can remember
S2: somebody in the media saying it's for people that remember
S2: the huge telephone books of yesteryear. It's about the size
S2: or thickness of an old fashioned telephone book. So if
S2: you want a very good read, start for the executive
S2: summary and see how you go. But again, the fact
S2: that it's accessible is fantastic.
S1: Yep. That's where you'll see the overview of the report
S1: with the recommendations in that volume.
S3: Exactly.
S1: Be my eyes, the AI aspect of it, artificial intelligence,
S1: the virtual assistant that's now gone into the public beta stage.
S2: That's right. And when we say public beta stage, what
S2: they're doing is rather than making the whole thing public
S2: beta at once, which you can imagine would probably put
S2: a huge amount of strain on their service, they're sort
S2: of releasing it at about 10% of the user base.
S2: I think it's once a week, they said. So it'll
S2: take several weeks for everybody to get the quote, public
S2: beta so you won't have to subscribe to anything. It'll
S2: just come up and be live and, or like I
S2: did when I subscribed to the private beta, you'll probably
S2: get an email saying when you go into the app
S2: it'll be live. But it's basically the feature where you
S2: take a photo of something and then you can find
S2: out in great detail what the photo or the image
S2: is that you've just taken with the camera and explore it.
S2: And for those that haven't experienced it, it's absolutely amazing.
S2: I've taken photos of my backyard. I've taking photos of parks,
S2: I've taken photos of my son's school, and just the
S2: amount of detail that came out with the AI interpreting
S2: the photo was amazing. So enjoy that. Keep checking in
S2: maybe once a week and sooner than later. You'll definitely
S2: get access to it. But it's no longer in private,
S2: it's in public beta. But like I said, they're rolling
S2: out over the next couple of weeks.
S1: If you're a little bit nervous about taking photos, it
S1: will help you with that process. But also I actually
S1: have in my device my phone lots of photos that
S1: have been taken over the years. Also, there are lots
S1: of photos in Facebook that one can access. It's very
S1: easy to share those and have been my I tell
S1: you about them. So it's not just photos that you've
S1: taken yourself, but it's others that you have access to.
S1: It's terrific.
S2: True. That's a good point. And I remember individualism too,
S2: over the weekend where a lady said she'd had a
S2: photo taken of some artwork that was done on her
S2: by her brother a while ago, and she was able
S2: to actually have a look at the photo, so to speak,
S2: and it was able to describe it in full detail.
S2: So you're right. It's not just, you know, your own
S2: photos that you're taking at the time. It's all the
S2: past one. So enjoy, I think.
S1: Yeah, very true. The new iPhones are out. Have you
S1: had access to an iPhone pro yet, The 15 million?
S2: No, I haven't. But apparently one of the existing issues.
S2: Is with the the phone is that for some apps
S2: it's obviously what they call clocking the CPU or the
S2: processor too fast. And of course once you start doing
S2: that with software using the the chips to fast, you
S2: generate heat. And of course, some people have been actually
S2: saying that some of their iPhone 15 and 15 pros,
S2: I'm assuming as well, have been overheating. And Apple says
S2: it's not due to the fact that they're using titanium.
S2: It's due to the fact that the software or the
S2: apps that are running are taking advantage of, I guess,
S2: the extra speed in the processor. So there'll be another
S2: bugfix coming out from Apple to fix that issue. So
S2: I'm assuming it's ever going to be changes with the
S2: the library routines, the apps you accessing or something else.
S2: But yeah, don't be worried. Your hardware is not overheating.
S2: It's the software that's making it overheating.
S1: Yeah. Watch out for those little updates to iOS 17.
S1: They'll be coming thick and fast for the next little while.
S1: Probably you're having an irritation that you're not getting the
S1: warning about. Low battery.
S2: No. And look, I don't know. This is I think
S2: it's been happening for a while that I've just I've
S2: just been ignored and getting grumpy. So what it is
S2: remember in the old days, I can't remember how long
S2: this was ago now, but I used to get a
S2: warning when my battery was at 20% and at 10%,
S2: you know, go and plug in your power. Well, I'm
S2: sure I'm right in thinking over the last maybe. Jeez,
S2: I want to say six months. I haven't been receiving
S2: that warning. Now, when you're like me and you're in
S2: bed at night time having a bit of a sleep
S2: or going to sleep, I listen to an audiobook and
S2: the only reason why now, when my battery goes flat,
S2: is because my book stops and then of course wakes
S2: me up. So there was apparently a fix that that recommended,
S2: I think it was on Apple vs where you could
S2: go into your verbosity settings for voiceover and change your
S2: system notifications to speak. So I did that and it
S2: hasn't made any difference at all. So I've been writing
S2: to find out if other people have been getting that 20%
S2: or 10% battery warning and if they have, that's fantastic.
S2: Let me know. And if they haven't, I wonder if
S2: there's actually a workaround because I'm one of these very
S2: naughty people that I tend to use. Use my iPhone
S2: until it practically dies and then I plug in my power.
S1: Now, what about the Apple Watch and the new operating system,
S1: the Apple watchOS ten?
S2: This one actually surprised me a little bit. I get
S2: the feeling saying that we're spending about this show so
S2: far talking about things that Apple hasn't done properly. And
S2: this is sort of another one that Apple hasn't done
S2: really properly either. And that's the fact that remember when
S2: the the watchOS ten was announced in Series nine and
S2: the ultra two watch were announced, they were talking about
S2: the double tap or double pinch. And that's where you
S2: put your index finger and thumb together and you tap
S2: them twice or pinch them twice. And that's to do
S2: things like play music or answer and hang up a
S2: phone call. Now, I thought when it was announced it
S2: was ready to go, but it wasn't. So it's only
S2: at the moment in the current public beta of 10.1
S2: for the Apple Watch that it's actually available. Now. Remember,
S2: this is only available on the Series nine and Ultra two,
S2: but it just reminds me of again today that it's
S2: almost sounds like in a way, software wise, Apple wasn't
S2: ready to go with the software. So I don't know
S2: what's happening in Apple land, but they seem to be
S2: losing the plot slightly lately.
S1: The weather complication on the watch.
S2: Yep, that's another one that hasn't been happening. So for
S2: some people, apparently when you go into the weather complication
S2: on your watch face rather than having like conditions and
S2: rainfall and that sort of stuff, it has dash dash,
S2: which means there's no content there. And apparently the fix
S2: from Apple was to go in and change your location
S2: to turn it on and turn it back off again
S2: on the watch or your iPhone. And the other recommendation,
S2: which was put forward by Macrumors was to change your
S2: clock from 12 to 24 hour time and back again.
S2: That was also supposed to fix it. Other people are
S2: still saying it's wrong, so keep having a look at
S2: to see if you are having troubles with your watch. Complication.
S2: Have a look at the link in the show notes.
S2: Try the things I just suggested. But at the moment
S2: they're sort of more this is what we think is
S2: causing the problem. So see what happens. But the weather
S2: app itself is working fine. It's just the weather complication.
S1: Meter, the meter connect event.
S4: So they had this big.
S2: Announcement last week about the the new glasses, the new
S2: smart glasses from Meta, which is Facebook, if you like.
S2: The other announcement, which we may need to keep a
S2: bit of an eye on the next 12 months or
S2: so or sooner is the Ray-Ban smart glasses, which looks
S2: fairly interesting because you can you can stream audio to
S2: your Facebook page and other services that people can see
S2: what you're looking at. So the question is, well, could
S2: you use this like a video system where somebody could
S2: help you if you needed help? So I don't know
S2: how accessible this is or anything else about at the moment,
S2: but I think it's one of these things as of
S2: all the stuff coming out of Ara, AR and VR
S2: that we just need to keep track of over the
S2: next 6 to 12 months.
S1: Here's chat. GPT going.
S2: Chat. GPT is feeling a lot better because apparently there
S2: were some issues with it. They I remember the story
S2: was that it would only access a database up to 2021. Well,
S2: then it started accessing the internet and then they took
S2: it off again and now they've put it back on again.
S2: So now when you access ChatGPT, particularly via Bing, then
S2: you'll have direct access to the internet so you can
S2: ask real time questions rather than sort of historical ones.
S2: Before 2021.
S1: Let's go back to Apple. Can't stay away for too long.
S1: The Mac operating system Sonoma has now been released.
S2: Yep. It's got an update for people with older Macs.
S2: And when I say older, max mean before the M1.
S2: So the Intel series you may not get all the
S2: features come with the main features that I've noticed on
S2: my Mac and I've got an M1 is I now
S2: have widgets that I can put on my desktop that
S2: come from my iPhone i.e the battery widget. I can
S2: run websites as if they were applications, which is really,
S2: really cool. And the third one which is more of
S2: a under-the-hood thing. But Apple has said that the pdf
S2: file reading with voiceover has been improved. Lots of other
S2: under-the-hood things, but do the three main ones that stand
S2: out for me?
S1: Pixel phones. Any news?
S4: As usual.
S2: There's an event after we finish going to air this
S2: week and that's the Google event. And of course there'll
S2: be the pixel eight being announced and the Pixel Pro
S2: and the pixel two. Watch again that people are saying
S2: it's under the hood. Hardware changes, not so much software changes.
S2: So I'm showing people like double tap and those sort
S2: of people will get their hands on a pixel eight
S2: and a pixel two. Watch. And I'll let you know
S2: what Steven Scott says and about either the phone and
S2: or the watch.
S1: We haven't talked much about Apple TV for a while.
S4: No, look.
S2: Since I was 17, came out and we now have
S2: FaceTime on a 4K Apple TV. I went and bought
S2: a new Apple TV to test out FaceTime, which worked
S2: really nicely. However, when I went into the settings to
S2: remove a few apps off my desktop, the whole screen
S2: when I was just, you know, flicking down and moving
S2: the other down, I just said remove button, remove button,
S2: remove button. It didn't say the name of the app,
S2: it only said them when I was going back the
S2: other way. So I've reported that bug to Apple as
S2: a voiceover bug and there were a few little other
S2: things that I noticed with voiceover on the Apple TV interface.
S2: So again, there are a few bugs that I think
S2: some stage Apple needs to sit back and do a
S2: bit of quality control, at least with voiceover, not so
S2: much on the Mac, but definitely on the watch, the
S2: iPhone and the Apple TV, because to me these are
S2: just more sort of lazy coding bugs that have crept in.
S2: So if you do have a new Apple TV 4K,
S2: if you do notice any further bugs, please let me
S2: know and I'd love to report them for Apple for you.
S1: So on the midterm report card for Apple shows promise
S1: but can do better.
S2: That's exactly correct.
S1: Just before we go, a reminder of where people can
S1: find details of what we're talking about in this and
S1: 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 by incom.
S1: David would be dot podbean Podbean. To write to the program.
S2: You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work,
S2: which is David Woodbridge, How it Sounds and 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. Take care.
S1: We'll talk more tech next week. See you.