Space X iPhone SOS Satellite Launch

00:44

S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from September the 5th, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolley. Great to have you with us wherever you're listening, perhaps through Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations of Australia or maybe the Community Radio Network, there is also the podcast. If you haven't caught up with that yet, all you need to do is search for the two words. Talking tech and Downer can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask a 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 stuff really well. Vision Australia's National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. David, let's reach out a little bit and start today talking about the Deep Space Network.

S2

This is actually really fascinating because we take sort of space in some ways for granted, but when you think about some of the stuff that we've been using for quite a long time, you start to wonder about where things are going to be going in the future, because at the moment the Deep Space Network comprises three locations. You've got California in the US, you've got Spain, and then of course you've got Australia. They currently handle about 40 missions at the moment and that includes the Artemis Space Mission to the moon. 

It also includes all the other deep space missions, such as the Voyager staff going out into the the universe. Most of this stuff has been upgraded with the antennas and so on. You know, since I think the first one came online in California, I think in 1966, and we all know about the Apollo mission and how Australia helped with that 1 in 1969. 

I want to say, Stephen, that's right. But they were saying that in the future there's going to be another 40 missions on top of the existing 40 which will still be going. And not only do we send rockets with people in them and voyages out to the universe, but we also have these hundreds and thousands probably by the time it happens in the future, satellites orbiting around the world, which all need to be tracked when they get launched. 

So even the Artemis one mission, I think it deployed ten cube satellites, which are tiny little satellites. And I just thought we sort of just really take this stuff for granted. So I'm going to be interested to see over the next maybe 3 to 5 going ten years and more into the future how NASA and also around the world or the science agency start to manage all this local space stuff, I want to say around the earth, then, of course, around the moon. And then we've got the Mars rover on Mars, the deep space missions and goodness knows what else. 

So it's almost like, you know, the house you built, the three bedroom house you built back in the 19 6660s, even though it's been upgraded, maybe you need to move and buy a bigger house.

S1

Yes, there's a bit of a traffic problem up there and we need a good tracking network to to keep on top of it all. I nearly said to keep track of it all. But now another thing is space. We hear more and more about them, and I'm going to be sending some more satellites of interest up there.

S2

Yes. So apparently this article is to do with I think it's 2025. So it's where basically SpaceX so via their rocket is going to put more satellites. Speaking of satellites into orbit specifically for the emergency SOS system that Apple users and you know, we've already heard about other manufacturers doing more work with satellites, including Google and so on. 

But hopefully if they start putting these type of satellites and communication communication satellites into orbit, I'm hoping that beyond SMS messages to emergency services, we sort of maybe start having more text messages involved, being able to send people via text messages if you're out in the back of his house, Australians like to say whoop up somewhere or even, dare I say it, proper data communication to your Internet provider, sending an email and perhaps even accessing the internet correctly. 

Because I think sometimes we forget that beyond your cellular network and beyond your wi fi little Wi-Fi network at home, we still actually have a lot of satellite communication type stuff. So you can actually get a satellite phone to use. You can also get a satellite hotspot. And just like a normal hotspot you'd have on your phone, these hotspots can share to other Internet enabled devices like your smartphone and your laptop and that sort of stuff. So again, it's one of those things. It's sort of like sight unseen and we've got all these satellites whizzing around the earth, but I don't think we realize how much we actually use these things. 

So that's another thing besides the Deep Space stuff and the satellites in general. I want to really see how all this satellite communication stuff really impacts our lives in the coming years because I think we're just going to get to the stage where we will be able to communicate almost with anything in the next five years or so.

06:03

S1

Of course, already a lot of people in regional Australia are using satellite technology for their TV. Well even in metropolitan areas with pay television services, Foxtel and of course for their broadband internet, they're using the satellite technology. So it continues to be very important and it's grown a long way since Alan Shepard first went into space. Let's talk now batteries and what are Nissan up to?

S2

This was another interesting talk that I'm really interested in. And we're talking about the Nissan Leaf, which is the electric vehicle from Nissan. And I've always wondered what happens to all the batteries that make up the whole system in an electric car. And what Nissan is going to be doing is they're going to be repurposing those batteries instead of two major ways. 

One, of course, they're going to be recycling them if they're not good enough to be used for this second purpose. And the second purpose is as a power battery source that you may be able to use in your home when you're 240 volt power goes out on the main grid. You can switch over to your backup battery and you can still use things like your fridge, your washing machine, your air conditioner and that sort of stuff. 

What happened to us, I want to say about two years ago now, when the bushfires were particularly here in New South Wales, we actually lost power for five days straight. So we had food going off in the fridge and no hot water and this and that. The other thing, and I just think battery backup sources are very expensive. I mean you're talking from anything from $7,000 minimum up to $18,000. And I thought with places like, you know, the Nissan car maker Tesla, which I know already has a battery called the battery wall. I just hope these sort of prices come down and you won't have to look for special subsidies to put, you know, either solar or solar and batteries into your house. 

So, again, I'm going to be watching, along with SpaceX, satellites and communication on Earth with batteries, because, again, remember, all our electricity prices are going up. So I think more and more people are going to start looking at battery systems to use particularly the sunlight, to give you a bit more power at home. And you won't have to use the grid all the time.

S1

What are Anchor up to?

S2

So what Anchor is doing is they've brought out two batteries, one that's coming next year and one that's already out already. And this is primarily in the United States. So you go out into the countryside and you can use your power bank, which is extremely big, by the way, to, you know, charge your your cooking charger lighting, run your TV off, your laptop, everything else. 

But what they're also bringing out next year is what they call a portable stackable power source. So what you can do is you can have one battery and I can't remember how many watts it had, but it's a decent wattage. They said to run again, an air conditioner, a washing machine, a fridge and so on. But what they're also enabling you to do is to stack another five batteries with the initial one without having to do any major electricity work to build up your battery bank, if you like, at home. 

So if that stuff comes to Australia, then I think it's going to be really interesting for people that can't get these subsidies to look at having a battery backup at home. So again, that's what I'll be looking at hopefully in the next couple of years or so.

S1

Let's talk now about the Microsoft navigation app soundscape, which was dropped, I think, at the end of June springing up from that and based on soundscape was Voice Vista. That's still going strongly, but soundscape has been revived by a third party.

S2

Now I'm a bit confused. I didn't spend too much time looking at the developer, but it actually says the Scottish Tech Army and I'm assuming the Scottish Tech Army is not the Scottish Army, but yes, it's the full blown soundscape. So the soundscape you loved from Microsoft, which became open source in January and was, as you said, discontinued in June, that's now back on board. Just one warning, though, if you have your beloved soundscape still working and you install the new one, it will overwrite the old one, which means, like me, if you had your 75 points of interest or markers in the app, it'll wipe them all out.

10:30

S1

Yeah. Good one. To keep in mind the annual Apple event where the new iPhones and other things are announced. We now know when it's going to be.

S2

That's right. So it's on September 12th US time, which means the 30th. Our time frame in the morning and it's called wanderlust. So I have completely no idea what that's in reference to, but we'll see what happens. And of course, it's going to be the iPhone, which will probably have Usbc. Who knows. 

Some people have said the new AirPods and of course, the updated Apple Watch. So let's see what happens. And probably next week Steve will talk a little bit more about some stuff that can set you up for the the time when we talk about on the show after next week.

S1

Yes, well, a little bit convoluted, but we can give you an idea next week when you can hear about it before we talk about it the following week. What we do know, though, is that iOS 17 will be compatible, as is the usual case, with quite a number of Apple devices going downwards. But it does stop.

S2

That's right. So effectively it's going to be any iPhone after 2017, which effectively means that everything above the iPhone ten, so not the iPhone ten, but the iPhone ten S and so on. And as far as the eye pads are concerned, roughly the same thing. But if you've got an original iPad Pro and so on, they definitely won't work. But if you've got an iPad Pro 11, that will be okay. 

So I've got a link in the show notes for both of those types of things, iPhone and iPad, just so that you can double check.

S1

One thing I wanted to talk to you about is that you have a pretty active X feed, so I didn't even say Twitter. People might like to follow that because it can point you to some quite interesting stories.

S2

I spend a lot of time every day going through a lot of social media stuff that I send out to the x feed and to the mastodon feed as well. So if you want to follow me in that, if you just search for David Woodbridge, you'll definitely be able to find me. I think I must have in my list at least every week around about 40 to 50 stories.

S1

And talking of events, as we mentioned, the Apple event, there's an Amazon event coming up soon.

S2

On September 20th, which of course is going to be in the US. So 21 hour time and I'm looking forward to this one because I want to see what Amazon is eventually going to do with the Echo, you know, whether our good old lady is going to turn into a proper AI rather than a personal assistant. So I really don't care about the hardware. I want to see what they're going to be doing with the software.

S1

We're not going to lose. The thing that we can speak to, though. You don't think?

S2

No, no, no. I think I think a lady will transform herself into a large language model with access to the Internet. So I think we'll get the best of both personal assistant and AI as well.

S1

What about the Google devices?

S2

Look, I think the same thing is going to happen with Google when we've got barred from Google as well. And I think we're going to see those transforming. The only one that's not talking about it is Apple. But Siri is doing a lot of AI things in the background. It's just that Apple doesn't talk about them as being AI. So I wouldn't be surprised in the next 12 months, our personal assistants won't be personal sense anymore. They'll be AI systems that we just use the way we used to use our personal assistants and a lot more.

S1

And of course as that smart wearable device vision pro that Apple's going to be presenting to us in the next year or so, I'm sure there will be a fair bit of AI in that.

S2

Absolutely. Particularly for object recognition and distancing and all that sort of stuff. So no, I think it's going to be very interesting with this type of stuff, particularly over the next 2 or 3 years. There will be, particularly when you talk about augmented reality, virtual reality, and then of course your layering or the accessibility stuff on top of that, which also includes artificial intelligence. So good times ahead, I think.

S1

Now just before we go, a reminder of where people can find details of what we've been talking about in this and the previous editions of the program.

S2

As always, you can check out my blog site, which is David would be dot podbean pad and.

S1

David would be art dot podbean podbean.com. To write to the program.

S2

You can write to me at Vision Israel, where I work, which is David-dot- Woodbridge. How it sounds at Vision Australia-org.

14:49

S1

David-dot-Woodbridge at Vision Australia-dot-org. This has been Talking Tech, with me has been Vision Australia's National Advisor on Access Technology, David Woodbridge. I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.