WEBVTT - Talking Tech 1st August 2023 0:00:08.188 --> 0:00:12.028 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:12.028 --> 0:00:16.258 August the 1st, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have 0:00:16.258 --> 0:00:19.408 you with us wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision Australia Radio, 0:00:19.408 --> 0:00:23.908 associated Stations of Australia or maybe the Community Radio Network, 0:00:23.998 --> 0:00:26.698 there is also the podcast. If you haven't caught up 0:00:26.698 --> 0:00:28.798 with that yet, all you need to do is search 0:00:28.798 --> 0:00:31.828 for the two words talking tech and Diana can all 0:00:31.828 --> 0:00:35.338 come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. 0:00:35.548 --> 0:00:38.578 Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart 0:00:38.578 --> 0:00:43.738 speaker to play Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. Vision 0:00:43.738 --> 0:00:48.408 Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. With me. Someone who can 0:00:48.408 --> 0:00:52.218 explain all this tech stuff really well. Vision Australia's National 0:00:52.218 --> 0:00:57.948 Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's start with 0:00:57.948 --> 0:01:00.888 a little bit of unfinished business from last week. You 0:01:00.888 --> 0:01:04.668 were talking about the various ways people can use technology 0:01:04.668 --> 0:01:07.518 when the internet is not around. What we didn't get 0:01:07.518 --> 0:01:11.688 to talk about was the world of the computer, the desktop, 0:01:11.688 --> 0:01:14.058 the laptop, etcetera. When you can't use the Internet. 0:01:14.328 --> 0:01:16.698 No. And the really good thing about, of course, your 0:01:16.698 --> 0:01:18.828 desktop or your laptop is the fact that you can 0:01:18.828 --> 0:01:21.588 plug it into lots and lots of different things. So 0:01:21.948 --> 0:01:24.588 all the other offline stuff that I talked about, yes, 0:01:24.588 --> 0:01:26.298 you can still do it on your desktop. You can 0:01:26.298 --> 0:01:30.018 do your word processing, you can take notes, you can 0:01:30.018 --> 0:01:33.078 even offline voice dictate. If you also choose, you can 0:01:33.078 --> 0:01:36.858 listen to music, audiobooks, podcasts, etcetera. But what you can 0:01:36.858 --> 0:01:40.788 also do, of course, is plug in things like scanners, 0:01:41.028 --> 0:01:43.968 which we use in particular as blind people to do 0:01:44.088 --> 0:01:47.148 optical character recognition. So you can get your piece of 0:01:47.148 --> 0:01:49.758 paper out of the post box, whack it on the 0:01:49.758 --> 0:01:53.238 scanner and hey presto, you can read what's on the 0:01:53.238 --> 0:01:55.458 thing at your mailbox. And of course the other thing 0:01:55.458 --> 0:01:58.488 to do with printers is also print stuff. So if 0:01:58.488 --> 0:02:01.338 you have to print out a form or an application 0:02:01.338 --> 0:02:03.768 that somebody gave you, then you can do all that 0:02:03.768 --> 0:02:05.508 sort of stuff as well. And then all the other 0:02:05.508 --> 0:02:07.548 myriad things that you can do is when you can 0:02:07.548 --> 0:02:12.948 plug in different peripherals such as SD cards, cameras, and 0:02:12.948 --> 0:02:15.468 that's really what a desktop in a notebook's for is 0:02:15.468 --> 0:02:18.588 the fact that it's extremely expandable. And of course, if 0:02:18.588 --> 0:02:20.868 you're a low vision person, not only can you use 0:02:20.868 --> 0:02:24.168 the tiny screen in your notebook or laptop, you can 0:02:24.168 --> 0:02:26.838 plug in a much bigger screen. And of course, when 0:02:26.838 --> 0:02:29.328 you're on your desktop and you're really getting into things 0:02:29.328 --> 0:02:31.458 like graphics design and all that sort of cool stuff 0:02:31.458 --> 0:02:34.728 and coding, you can run even multiple screens at the 0:02:34.728 --> 0:02:38.748 same time. So again, just because the thing's not on 0:02:38.748 --> 0:02:42.078 the Internet or the superhighway doesn't mean you can't do 0:02:42.078 --> 0:02:44.478 all these other amazing things. And I think I mentioned 0:02:44.478 --> 0:02:46.908 this last week when you're not on the Internet and 0:02:46.908 --> 0:02:49.818 that's one way of being completely secure about what you're 0:02:49.818 --> 0:02:50.418 working on. 0:02:50.748 --> 0:02:54.678 Last week you conducted another of your Vision Australia exploring 0:02:54.678 --> 0:02:55.998 tech webinars. 0:02:56.508 --> 0:02:59.088 I did, and this was called Accessing the Printed Word. 0:02:59.088 --> 0:03:02.328 And what I was meaning by that was that, you know, 0:03:02.328 --> 0:03:04.398 you get these bits of paper in your life or 0:03:04.398 --> 0:03:05.778 you go to the shop and you want to read 0:03:05.778 --> 0:03:08.688 the print on the packaging or you want to find 0:03:08.688 --> 0:03:11.928 out what's in your pantry. Well, there are different options 0:03:11.928 --> 0:03:14.268 from a blind person's point of view to do what's 0:03:14.268 --> 0:03:19.068 called optical character recognition. So that's basically taking the printed 0:03:19.068 --> 0:03:23.028 text stuff on packaging and converting them into speech output 0:03:23.028 --> 0:03:27.618 through image processing called OCR object recognition. And then we've 0:03:27.618 --> 0:03:31.758 also got things like video magnifiers which magnify the print 0:03:31.758 --> 0:03:35.268 so that doesn't translate it. And that magnification stuff again 0:03:35.268 --> 0:03:38.718 of course comes up in very, very large font, high 0:03:38.718 --> 0:03:41.418 contrast and depending on what sort of colour, foreground and 0:03:41.418 --> 0:03:44.688 background draft as well. So we did a whole range. 0:03:44.838 --> 0:03:47.148 We went through it really quickly and there was a 0:03:47.148 --> 0:03:50.028 lady who reminded me at the end of it, she said, 0:03:50.028 --> 0:03:52.758 I'm new to this stuff. I lost you guys half 0:03:52.758 --> 0:03:55.698 the way through. So that was a good reminder to 0:03:55.698 --> 0:03:58.608 me that and that's why we explain stuff. And Stephen, 0:03:58.608 --> 0:04:00.468 you always asked me to explain stuff on this show 0:04:00.468 --> 0:04:03.678 because we know what it is, but sometimes people may not. 0:04:03.678 --> 0:04:05.508 And that was just a good reminder to me that 0:04:05.508 --> 0:04:08.208 I really have to be careful when I talk about stuff, 0:04:08.208 --> 0:04:11.238 that I start from the basics and let everybody know 0:04:11.238 --> 0:04:12.408 what we're talking about. 0:04:12.678 --> 0:04:14.328 So how can we get hold of this? And a 0:04:14.328 --> 0:04:15.678 lot of the other stuff you've done. 0:04:15.798 --> 0:04:18.438 There's two ways. So at the moment the printed word 0:04:18.438 --> 0:04:21.858 exploring tech webinar is only available on YouTube or the 0:04:21.858 --> 0:04:25.848 other web demos are, and of course on my ESI 0:04:25.848 --> 0:04:28.858 podcast feed as well, which is David would be I 0:04:28.878 --> 0:04:33.108 how it sounds.podbean.com. And when I get a hold of 0:04:33.108 --> 0:04:36.378 the audio file for the print word webinar, I'll put 0:04:36.378 --> 0:04:38.148 it up on my seed feed as well. 0:04:38.538 --> 0:04:40.338 And how do we get to them on YouTube? It's 0:04:40.338 --> 0:04:40.608 a big. 0:04:40.608 --> 0:04:44.328 Place. We just stick in Vision Australia YouTube channel that 0:04:44.328 --> 0:04:46.548 will pretty much find it straight away. And in fact 0:04:46.548 --> 0:04:48.198 that's what I did over the weekend. I wanted to 0:04:48.198 --> 0:04:50.448 see if it was up on the the YouTube channel 0:04:50.448 --> 0:04:52.728 and there it was with a couple of likes already 0:04:52.728 --> 0:04:56.478 in about 80 or so downloads already. So but that's 0:04:56.478 --> 0:04:58.218 really the fastest way to do it. Stick in your 0:04:58.218 --> 0:05:03.408 favourite search engine Vision Australia YouTube channel and you'll definitely 0:05:03.408 --> 0:05:04.608 come up with the right page. 0:05:05.088 --> 0:05:10.128 Now some very different territory. Tell us about asMr. 0:05:10.518 --> 0:05:13.668 I only discovered this over the weekend. One of my 0:05:13.668 --> 0:05:16.308 friends who uses it quite a lot and what it 0:05:16.308 --> 0:05:22.158 actually stands for is autonomic sensory meridian response, but everybody 0:05:22.158 --> 0:05:24.828 just refers to it as asMr because that's too complicated. 0:05:24.828 --> 0:05:28.698 And what it is, is it's any sort of tingling 0:05:28.698 --> 0:05:32.178 sensation on your head or through your arms or your 0:05:32.178 --> 0:05:37.938 hands in response to certain visual or audio or both 0:05:37.938 --> 0:05:42.348 stimulation in the world. So on YouTube, for example, there's 0:05:42.348 --> 0:05:49.398 about 13 million videos on asMr. Spanning people, doing crafting. 0:05:49.398 --> 0:05:52.038 So all you're watching and listening to is just basically 0:05:52.038 --> 0:05:55.128 somebody crafting in their room. So you're watching them and 0:05:55.128 --> 0:05:57.468 you're hearing the sounds of the crafting and the cutting 0:05:57.468 --> 0:06:01.668 and so on through to people pretending to role play. 0:06:01.668 --> 0:06:04.728 So because of they're using a camera, of course some 0:06:04.728 --> 0:06:07.968 of the role players are the person they've been saying, 0:06:07.968 --> 0:06:09.858 you know, do you mind if I touch your face 0:06:09.858 --> 0:06:12.378 or your head to give you a massage? We're going 0:06:12.378 --> 0:06:14.358 to pretend to do a role play. So we're doing 0:06:14.358 --> 0:06:17.058 an eye test, all sorts of things. And of course 0:06:17.058 --> 0:06:19.668 you can hear them, you know, supposedly taking notes and 0:06:19.668 --> 0:06:22.328 typing on the computer and all that sort of cool stuff. 0:06:22.338 --> 0:06:24.528 Then you've also got things like which and I really 0:06:24.528 --> 0:06:27.498 can't stand this one. It makes me cringe whispering. So 0:06:27.498 --> 0:06:28.878 you've got people I'll try and do so now when 0:06:28.878 --> 0:06:34.038 I go today, we are talking about technology. I find 0:06:34.038 --> 0:06:37.548 that really creepy, but some people like the really spoken 0:06:37.548 --> 0:06:41.418 word and then you've got all sorts of other different things. 0:06:41.418 --> 0:06:43.098 So what it's really supposed to do is for you 0:06:43.098 --> 0:06:48.168 personally and of all those 13 million videos to find 0:06:48.168 --> 0:06:52.248 sort of the trigger that you get that physical response 0:06:52.248 --> 0:06:56.178 to from either visual stimulation or audio. Now for me particularly, 0:06:56.178 --> 0:06:59.748 I know there's certain songs that I listen to, particularly 0:06:59.748 --> 0:07:03.918 with ladies that reach that really high frequency when they're singing. 0:07:03.918 --> 0:07:06.678 That sometimes gives me a bit of a physical, tingly 0:07:06.678 --> 0:07:09.258 feeling at the top of my head. But besides that, 0:07:09.258 --> 0:07:11.658 I think I'm more of a white noise person rather 0:07:11.658 --> 0:07:14.328 than an official asMr person. 0:07:14.988 --> 0:07:17.628 Then tell me about the My Noise app. 0:07:18.258 --> 0:07:21.378 This app which I got recommended to me. So because 0:07:21.378 --> 0:07:23.788 when I posted the fact that I'd come across as 0:07:24.018 --> 0:07:27.528 people say, Oh yeah, but that's fantastic. But for audio people, 0:07:27.528 --> 0:07:29.598 why don't you try out this thing called bi noise 0:07:29.598 --> 0:07:33.468 or one word? And what it does is let's say 0:07:33.468 --> 0:07:37.038 you're listening to a track that's got bird sounds in it. 0:07:37.038 --> 0:07:40.008 It's got water sounds, it's got the sound of a 0:07:40.008 --> 0:07:44.178 boat up against a wharf and it's got people talking. Now, 0:07:44.178 --> 0:07:47.328 each one of those sounds in that overall track has 0:07:47.328 --> 0:07:51.558 their own way or own slider of adjusting that sound. 0:07:51.558 --> 0:07:53.988 So if you want the bird sounds to be louder 0:07:54.108 --> 0:07:56.628 and you want the boat against the dock to be softer, 0:07:56.628 --> 0:07:59.628 you want the people talking to be softer and you 0:07:59.628 --> 0:08:01.728 want some other things louder or softer as well. You 0:08:01.728 --> 0:08:04.158 can do all that so you can really get the 0:08:04.158 --> 0:08:07.918 noise of the track where you want it. And I 0:08:07.998 --> 0:08:12.048 remember there was a back in the the mid 2010 0:08:12.048 --> 0:08:14.628 20s that, you know, last decade basically there was a 0:08:14.628 --> 0:08:17.418 really good app called Sleep Machine, which did a similar thing. 0:08:17.628 --> 0:08:21.888 And apparently this has over 200 sounds really amazing and 0:08:21.888 --> 0:08:25.578 you can get it for both iOS and Android. And 0:08:25.578 --> 0:08:27.438 of course, if you want to get more sound, there's 0:08:27.438 --> 0:08:29.808 in-app purchases, but you've certainly got a lot to choose from. 0:08:29.808 --> 0:08:33.948 So that's my noise or one word in the app 0:08:33.948 --> 0:08:35.718 or the Google Play store. And of course I'll have 0:08:35.718 --> 0:08:37.878 the link in the show notes for both play stores. 0:08:38.328 --> 0:08:42.048 We used to know them as aftershocks, now just shocks. 0:08:42.288 --> 0:08:45.258 Tell us about the latest product that you've been looking at. 0:08:45.738 --> 0:08:47.748 The new company name is Now Shocks, and they've brought 0:08:47.748 --> 0:08:52.608 out this new pair of earbuds. So remember, shocks are 0:08:52.608 --> 0:08:55.698 very famous for bone conduction. So that's where you'd have 0:08:55.698 --> 0:08:57.828 the little pods on your cheekbones and the sound would 0:08:57.828 --> 0:09:00.798 go through your cheekbones into your inner ear. Well, now 0:09:00.798 --> 0:09:05.418 they've invented this new system called air conduction. So what 0:09:05.418 --> 0:09:09.168 it really is, is and these are on my Bose frames, 0:09:09.168 --> 0:09:10.938 by the way. So what they do is they put 0:09:10.938 --> 0:09:15.078 the speaker near your ear hole. So on the glasses, 0:09:15.078 --> 0:09:16.998 it's basically on the back of the glasses near the 0:09:16.998 --> 0:09:20.088 front of your ear on these ones. They've got a little, 0:09:20.538 --> 0:09:25.218 little rectangular bit that fits just above your ear hole 0:09:25.218 --> 0:09:27.738 and that has two little speakers in at one pointing 0:09:27.738 --> 0:09:29.928 down to your ear hole, one pointing above you to 0:09:30.168 --> 0:09:32.568 cancel out a bit more noise. Then if you can 0:09:32.568 --> 0:09:35.418 imagine coming up and around the front of you and 0:09:35.418 --> 0:09:37.698 coming over the back of it, there's a hook. Now, 0:09:37.698 --> 0:09:39.378 of course, they don't call it the hook. They call 0:09:39.378 --> 0:09:42.228 it the dolphin hook because it looks like a dolphin 0:09:42.228 --> 0:09:44.958 jumping out of water and it's got a tiny little 0:09:44.958 --> 0:09:46.848 white behind it, which is all part of sort of 0:09:46.848 --> 0:09:50.688 the plastic silicone membrane type stuff. So that's supposed to 0:09:50.688 --> 0:09:53.358 hold them in place. Now, I've been using them quite 0:09:53.358 --> 0:09:55.878 a lot over the whole weekend, and here's what I 0:09:55.878 --> 0:09:59.608 found out about them. It's very sluggish with voiceover. So 0:09:59.608 --> 0:10:01.488 I Stephen I can actually flick left or right with 0:10:01.488 --> 0:10:05.628 voiceover with the speech screen reader on iOS and I 0:10:05.628 --> 0:10:09.828 can count up to just below one second before it 0:10:09.828 --> 0:10:13.548 actually moves the focus onto the next item. Number two 0:10:13.578 --> 0:10:16.578 is when I tap on that little rectangular thing above 0:10:16.578 --> 0:10:19.638 my ear hole to play pause or go to the 0:10:19.638 --> 0:10:24.888 previous and next track, that takes about another second to respond. 0:10:25.338 --> 0:10:28.578 And this skip forward and skip back. You have to 0:10:28.578 --> 0:10:31.278 hold your finger down on the little thing left and 0:10:31.278 --> 0:10:33.888 right for about three seconds for it to activate, which 0:10:33.888 --> 0:10:37.128 is part of its design. But I find when I'm 0:10:37.128 --> 0:10:39.378 moving around and walking and I've got my guide dog 0:10:39.378 --> 0:10:41.298 or my cane, I don't want to have to hold 0:10:41.298 --> 0:10:43.818 my my finger on something for that length of time. 0:10:43.818 --> 0:10:46.428 So it's a little bit annoying. And I guess the final. 0:10:46.698 --> 0:10:49.748 Because I'm such an airpod user. I don't like the 0:10:49.748 --> 0:10:52.388 fact that when you take these off your ears, the 0:10:52.388 --> 0:10:55.568 audio is still going out to your Bluetooth headphones. I 0:10:55.568 --> 0:10:58.208 prefer to have the audio stop because I've taken them 0:10:58.208 --> 0:11:00.398 off and I just want to use my my phone, 0:11:00.938 --> 0:11:03.818 whether it's my iPhone or Android phone is as usual. 0:11:03.818 --> 0:11:07.958 So look, sound wise, they're pretty good phone call wise. 0:11:07.958 --> 0:11:10.358 They're also excellent. But if I was going to sort 0:11:10.358 --> 0:11:14.168 of have an opinion, I'd say I'd always recommend the 0:11:14.168 --> 0:11:19.268 bone conduction version of Shox versus these air conduction version 0:11:19.268 --> 0:11:22.478 of shocks. And we're also not particularly cheap. I think 0:11:22.478 --> 0:11:25.748 they're round about, I want to say about 200 and 0:11:25.748 --> 0:11:27.968 something dollars or a bit more. So, you know, not 0:11:27.968 --> 0:11:29.198 cheap shocks. 0:11:29.198 --> 0:11:32.378 That's shock. Still a little bit of work to be 0:11:32.378 --> 0:11:34.478 done to get it right, particularly for people who are 0:11:34.478 --> 0:11:35.438 voiceover users. 0:11:35.438 --> 0:11:36.458 I think so, yeah. 0:11:37.148 --> 0:11:42.128 We've got to talk about this. Twitter is now X indeed. 0:11:42.128 --> 0:11:45.938 So what you're find out now is when you run 0:11:45.938 --> 0:11:48.098 the app, particularly if you've updated the app in the 0:11:48.098 --> 0:11:53.348 last week or so, when you go through your home screens, 0:11:53.348 --> 0:11:56.888 whether on Android or the iPhone, it'll now be called X. 0:11:56.888 --> 0:11:59.768 Now your screen is not going to say X because 0:11:59.768 --> 0:12:03.368 it's a capital X, it'll say cap X. But the 0:12:03.368 --> 0:12:05.468 weird thing about it is you can still say with 0:12:05.468 --> 0:12:08.978 your favorite personal assistant on your smartphone or your iPhone, 0:12:08.978 --> 0:12:14.378 open Twitter or open X before work quite nicely. And 0:12:14.378 --> 0:12:16.808 then just to add more confusion, when you go into 0:12:16.808 --> 0:12:21.398 the app, when you see your items, you'll still see 0:12:21.398 --> 0:12:24.548 your quote tweets. And when you post something, you'll still 0:12:24.548 --> 0:12:27.158 be posting a tweet. So I guess what they're sort 0:12:27.158 --> 0:12:30.098 of done there, they've updated the outer shell, if you like, 0:12:30.098 --> 0:12:33.158 with the X logo and that sort of stuff. And 0:12:33.158 --> 0:12:36.638 I'm assuming one day we'll be able to read our 0:12:36.638 --> 0:12:40.418 X feed list and we'll be able to post our 0:12:40.418 --> 0:12:42.308 X posts as well. 0:12:42.608 --> 0:12:44.978 Samsung have announced some new products. 0:12:44.978 --> 0:12:47.528 That's right. So this is the yearly unboxed or whatever 0:12:47.528 --> 0:12:52.778 they call it, event for Samsung, new phones, watches and tablets. 0:12:52.778 --> 0:12:57.608 So with the the phones they've updated the new Z flip. 0:12:57.608 --> 0:13:00.158 So that's the flip phone remember like the old Nokia 0:13:00.158 --> 0:13:01.658 phones that you could open up from the bottom to 0:13:01.658 --> 0:13:04.148 the top. So it was a flip phone. Then we've 0:13:04.148 --> 0:13:06.638 got the new version of the fold. And the best 0:13:06.638 --> 0:13:09.578 way to remember the fold is that it opens up 0:13:09.578 --> 0:13:12.488 like a book. So you're going from a smartphone, if 0:13:12.488 --> 0:13:15.998 you like, to it pretty much a tablet type size screen. 0:13:16.598 --> 0:13:20.498 There was an updated the Galaxy Watch and they've brought 0:13:20.498 --> 0:13:23.738 back the famous bezel. So the bezel on the watch 0:13:23.738 --> 0:13:26.528 is where you can turn it to mechanically switch between 0:13:26.528 --> 0:13:29.048 different things on the the watch, which I absolutely love. 0:13:29.048 --> 0:13:32.918 And then finally, the S9 tablet, which is the new 0:13:32.918 --> 0:13:36.488 version of Samsung's tablet, and that's got a faster processor, 0:13:36.488 --> 0:13:39.968 a better looking screen and so on. So overall, they're 0:13:39.968 --> 0:13:43.598 updated tweaks. I wouldn't get too excited about it if 0:13:43.598 --> 0:13:45.458 you've had versions of these things in the last year 0:13:45.458 --> 0:13:45.968 or so. 0:13:46.238 --> 0:13:48.728 Now just before we go, a reminder of where people 0:13:48.728 --> 0:13:50.858 can find details of what you've been talking about in 0:13:50.858 --> 0:13:52.778 this and previous editions of the programme. 0:13:52.928 --> 0:13:55.058 Indeed. So as always, you can check our show notes 0:13:55.058 --> 0:13:57.968 on my blog site, which is David would be a 0:13:58.238 --> 0:14:00.758 dot podbean podbean.com. 0:14:00.938 --> 0:14:05.948 David would it be accurate been podbean to write to 0:14:05.948 --> 0:14:06.578 the program? 0:14:06.758 --> 0:14:08.978 You can write to me at Vision Australia where I work, 0:14:08.978 --> 0:14:13.268 which is David Woodbridge, how it sounds at Vision Australia. 0:14:13.508 --> 0:14:18.338 Org. David Dot Woodbridge at Vision Australia. Org This has 0:14:18.338 --> 0:14:21.188 been talking tech with me has been Vision Australia's National 0:14:21.188 --> 0:14:25.958 Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. 0:14:25.958 --> 0:14:27.608 We'll talk more tech next week. See you.