BT Speak, OrCam and the Toniebox

00:21 S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from September the 3rd, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolley. Great to have you with us - listening maybe through Vision Australia radio, associated stations of the Radio Reading Network or maybe the Community Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need to do is search for the two words talking tech and down. It can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast.

With me, someone who can explain all this tech stuff really well: leading Australian blindness technologist David Woodbridge. David, we've got a lot to get through today. Perhaps we should start talking about the BT speak, which is the running on Linux device from Blazie technologies, the little handheld device with the Braille keyboard. There's been an update, the August update.

01:26 S2

There has been. And I must admit, this is quite a good update, because they've updated the documentation, which has been something that's sort of really been needed for since the device came out. So that's actually really, really good. The second thing that I really like is in the help option. Now, you've actually got a very nice bit of a tutorial thing to listen to, which is actually really handy. Now I will give you a tip. When you listen to that, make sure that you go into the help about how to play that file, because otherwise, if you don't know the command to stop it, you won't be able to stop it because it's actually playing a media file. So the normal commands that you would use to stop a media file, that's the one you would use for that little sort of help starting tutorial. So that's just a quick tip. 

And the third thing is that they've rearranged the menus and the stuff in the menus actually makes a lot more sense. So that's actually a really great thing. So I think as I think we've said on and off... this, you know, this system basically continues to evolve and it just seems to be getting better and better.

02:32 S1

Yeah, it's a great little device, that one. The BT Speak from Blazie Technologies on the Living Mindfully podcast from Jonathan Mohsen. He had some information about OrCam that we've been waiting on for some time, the OrCam blindness products.

02:50 S2

Yeah. So basically OrCam sent a letter to quantum [?] reading Learning Vision, and then they passed that particular letter on to Jonathan at Living Blind Fully. And basically what they're saying is that... they're not going to keep developing the OrCam range, but what they are going to be doing is keep distributing the OrCam so that things like the OrCam Read and the OrCam My Eye 2, and so on. So they're still doing the products as far as distributorship's going, but it looks like from, I guess from looking around on the internet as well, that they're going to put more development into hearing type devices, which I think, you know, when all is said and done, it's actually really good. 

I mean, one of the benefits of the OrCam, which none of the other devices really do, is that it doesn't interact with the internet. So if you're working in a high secure area, like, you know, the Department of Defense or Parliament House or some other place that's got high security, you know, as long as the employer knows that the thing you're using to read your document isn't accessing the internet at all, it's all stand-alone. That's actually really, really good. So that's been one fantastic thing about the OrCam ever since it came out, is that it doesn't plug into the internet. It's completely independent, very private and secure, and it's really great for the workplace.

04:11 S1

Living Blind Fully has for five years now been a go to place for blindness technology discussion and other blindness issues. It's coming to an end.

04:23 S2

Yeah. Look, it seems to be the time for people to be moving on. So I'm moving on. And apparently now Jonathan's moving on. So yes, living blind fully subscription wise. And the podcast will be coming to an end and towards the end of September. And he hasn't yet told us what his new adventure is going to be... but yeah, he said, unfortunately, the new job will take all his attention, so sadly, he'll have to stop doing Living Blind Fully.

04:52 S1

Yeah, it's been a great product. A lot of people have used it. Indeed. Some good news: AppleVis is to reopen early next week.

05:01 S2

Yeah, this is actually really exciting. So as we learned last week, Be My Eyes, the very famous volunteer type system which also uses AI and all sorts of other wonderful things, has actually taken over the running of AppleVis. They're employing two staff to maintain the site, moderate the site, support the site, etc. They're also having the existing editors, if they so wish, to keep continuing with the actual... website itself. And they, the statement that I heard was the fact that, as with everything that Baby Boys does there, it's, you know, the fact about supporting people out there in the world on all the different types of stuff they use, including technology. And they felt that because iOS and all the stuff that goes with iOS, i.e. the Apple TV, the Mac OS and so on, is a... basically intrinsic part of people's lives these days, and that's why they're continuing with it. 

So I believe it'll be coming online before the Apple event happens on in the US on September 9th. And they'll do their normal editorial stuff on all the stuff coming out from Apple. So that's a bit of a great start to restart the new look for AppleVis.

06:22 S1

Just to explain to those who are not familiar with AppleVis. It has a marvelous library of articles going back years and years. And a terrific library of podcasts, hasn't it?

06:35 S2

It's got a good range of podcasts, good range of articles. But what it's also got is an absolutely fantastic thing. Of all the different apps across all the different categories that you could possibly think of, like entertainment, travel, navigation and so on. And they have comments on those apps. So you know, this this app is accessible. This app is sort of accessible if you want to fight long enough with it. This one's not. Don't even bother. And so on and so on. So when I left Virgin Australia I had to work out some accounting type stuff and my source was AppleVis. So I went in there because it's only retailing at the moment. Went in there and was able to look at quite a few different apps for accounting. Get if they get the information, if they work with VoiceOver or not. And hey presto was off and running. So in that way, I'm really pleased to see it coming back again because it really is truly a fantastic resource.

07:27 S1

And speaking of the podcasts, I find them a very good go to place around the time of the iOS updates because there's some great guides to using new features or change features, etc..

07:41 S2

That's right. And look, I'm sure Thomas Donville, if he hasn't done it already, I'm sure he'll be releasing a whole whole plethora of podcasts to do with all the new features in iOS 18 and so on.

07:52 S1

Now, recently you acquired a Toniebox. Tell us again what it is and how did you go with it?

08:00 S2

Yeah. So the Toniebox is basically it's a little audio box which is covered by foam. And you've got a little character which is all from Disney like Mickey Mouse and all those sort of ones. And you pop the little character on top and based on that particular character, it'll, you know, play different songs, it'll play a story and you can control that device. You can, you know, you can whack it on the side to go to the previous and next song. If it's got a song based system, you can also tilt it left and right to go fast forward and rewind. So from that point of view, it works absolutely perfectly now because it's a mainstream device. 

When you first set it up, you will need side assistance if you're completely blind because it had these wonderful little lights and it says if the light is blinking or if the light is a certain colour and so on, then you do this and, you know, being blind, you actually can't see that happening. So that's why I've said on the internet that once you've got it set up, you just basically buy your all your new characters, whack them on there, and it just works flawlessly. So it's just that initial setup itself with the box itself, which is a bit difficult. But once that's done, hey presto and off you go and enjoy all the different Disney characters, stories and songs.

09:12 S1

You've been having some experience in the wearables world. How is your AR headset?

09:18 S2

It's actually going really well. So the Vision Store did a bit of a webinar on this last week as we go to air this week. And I must say, the things they covered were extremely accurate. It does suffer from a little bit of AI delusion. So for example, it thinks my wife's car is currently driving through a field of flowers, which sounds pretty cool. So really, when you're using these for that type of AI stuff, just take some with a grain of salt. It's not too difficult to work out what's right and what's incorrect. I mean, you wouldn't necessarily have an elephant in your lounge room, for example. But as far as documentation stuff is concerned, reading documents, the short text stuff, the queue information. 

So the question, where you can actually use AI to then interrogate a document. So if you were looking at your electricity bill, you can say, how much do I owe on the bill? Or if it was a restaurant menu or a menu from a cafe, you can say, what's the breakfast choices and how much, what's the cheapest one, and so on. So all that sort of stuff works absolutely perfectly. And I'd like to remind people about is this is an external camera to your phone so you can keep your Android phone currently and hopefully later this month, your iPhone 15 or above in your pocket and just use this camera. And of course it's three apps. It's the AR app itself. It also works with the Seeing Eye app. So all the functions you've got in the Seeing Eye app will work through the camera. And of course the Navy lens, which is sort of the the QR code type labelling system, which works really nicely. 

I've got to get mine replaced because the right temple earbud doesn't seem to be working very well, and that's where the camera is. So it might have just got bumped in transport and whatever else might have happened. But... I'm sure I'll be able to take it back and exchange it and and off we go. But as a headset for only $1,399, it's really fantastic when you compare to what other stuff's on the market.

11:10 S1

Just tell me, how does it feel with the camera on your head, rather than on a phone that you've got to manipulate with your hands? Yeah.

11:19 S2

Look, one thing I know, we I think we might have talked about this a year or so ago when I tried the first one. It does get a bit hot with the camera module. So what they've done now, they've got a little silicone sleeve that goes over the camera module, so it makes it more comfortable when it's against your skin on your face. I must admit, after I started wearing it, because it really does feel like you're wearing a headset, so you really do forget about the camera. And it's actually very comfortable. It's not that heavy. And I also use it on my Mac because it's a bone conduction headset, effectively, with a camera on it, I can just keep wearing it so I can take it the USB-C out of my Android phone, which I bought to support the AR headset, whack it into my Mac or Windows, and I can use it as an audio device as well. So that's actually pretty, pretty cool. 

So no, it there's no problem wearing it for extended periods of time. Like I just said, you actually even forget about that. You're wearing it.

12:15 S1

Next Tuesday morning Australian Eastern time. That'll be at 3 a.m. So it's 10 a.m. Monday morning in the US. Is the Apple event, which will be announcing new hardware and will get release dates for software, etc.

12:30 S2

That's right. So I'm getting up for it as usual. And then you and I will be doing a coverage of that particular event. It's actually worked out really nicely because we can do sort of fresh off the press, as it were. And so I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a really exciting event. I'm looking forward to what they're going to be talking about with the iPhone 16. There's speculation there's going to be an iPad mini. There's going to be stuff about the next version of Mac OS. So this time around, particularly with all the Apple AI stuff, this is one event I'm really looking forward to.

13:03 S1

The timing for this is perfect, David, because it's actually going to be the last of your regular talking texts. We'll have you back from time to time more often than not, I hope, but it'll be the last of your regular weekly appearances on Talking Tech, and for it to be an Apple event, well, there's something amazing about that.

13:21 S2

I know it's actually worked out really well, and I will let people know that I'm starting my new job actually next Monday as we speak this week.

13:28 S1

So Talking Tech next week. Make sure you tune in for that one. Before we go, a reminder of where there are details of what we've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program.

13:38 S2

Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site which is David Woodburn dot Podbean.

13:43 S1

Podbean.com David Woodburn podbean podbean.com. To write to the program.

13:52 S2

You can use my personal email address for the last time next week, which is David Wood BR -  So it's like David Woodbridge without the "idge" - at gmail dot com.

14:03 S1

davidwoodbr@gmail.com ... This has been Talking Tech, with me has been leading Australian blindness technologist David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.