Tech tips for the holidays

00:08 S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from December the 24th, 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 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 Dan. It 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, Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damien McMorrow. Damo, how's it going?

00:52 S2

G'day, Stephen.

00:53 S1

Great time of the year, isn't it, as we move into the Christmas break, but we'll be keeping talking tech going all through the holiday period and into January. So lots to talk about, I guess. So it's a good idea to remind people about the availability of Vision Australia and Quantum reading learning vision over the next few weeks as sort of the main operation powers down a bit.

01:19 S2

That's right. So operations for the most part, shut down on the 20th of December and resume normal operation on the 6th of January. And that includes the Vision Store. The Vision Australia at help desk and Quantum reading learning vision, of course.

01:40 S1

In the meantime, you can still go to the online places - shop Vision Australia dot org - you can browse, you can even order stuff online. It might take a little longer to come in.

01:49 S2

Yeah, absolutely. And also Quantum RV dot com dot AU.

01:53 S1

quantumrv.com.au ... So we talked last week about the iOS 18.2 arriving. There were other software updates from Apple.

02:09 S2

Yes there were. There was an update to the Watch OS, so that's now up to 11.2 and also an update to tvOS for the Apple TV. But probably the biggest one is the latest version of Sequoia, the operating system for the Mac, which now means that we have Apple Intelligence available on the Mac as well. We did talk a bit about Apple Intelligence last week, and on the Mac it does include some similar features. So all of those things around being able to summarise content and those kinds of things. But there are also all the writing tools as well, similar, I suppose, in some ways to, you know, co-pilot for windows in that you can have a, you know, multiple versions of a document so that you can get the the tone right if you like. 

And it does try to sort of learn and give you information that's relevant to your personal context. The thing to remember about that, though, is it is only available for the Apple silicon type chips. So you have to have either an M1 Mac or so M1, M2, M3, or M4 if you have one of the older Intel based Macs. Unfortunately, you do miss out on the Apple Intelligence feature.

03:28 S1

That's where you'll start to feel the pressure of not having come to silicon chips yet, which started about four years ago now the M1. It's going to show itself as a difference more and more into the future, isn't it?

03:43 S2

I think it is, Stephen. Yeah, I think they're definitely keen for people to move off those old platforms, you know, to to be able to take advantage of all of the new features.

03:52 S1

So that's the Apple software updates, the usual time they come, which is in December. Lots to play with. Talking of playing with things. Now your life is very much consumed by technology. For work, for your radio work. And we should give a shout out to your weekly radio program, by the way, on Mushroom FM. Tell us quickly about that.

04:16 S2

Yeah, sure. So I do a show on Mushroom FM on a Saturday morning called Demos All Day Breakfast. So it's Saturday morning, 7 a.m. if you're in Queensland, 8 a.m. if you're in the the southern states for a couple of hours, play a lot of Aussie and Kiwi music and also do a cooking segment and things like that as well. It's really just a bit of fun and I'm generally live with that too, so it can be interactive if people want to.

04:41 S1

Yeah, a good way to wake up on a Saturday morning in this part of the world. But you do often just sit down and I guess play with your technology, do something that satisfies a curiosity. Tell us what you've been doing recently.

04:55 S2

Yeah, sure. So I am, I suppose a little bit of a petrolhead at heart. I love my cars and trains and aeroplanes and things like that. And you know, sometimes you do randomly hear of something, you know, or you'll, you'll hear something, a plane go overhead and think, oh, what's that? It sounds a bit unusual. And so I've been messing around a little bit with ChatGPT in voice mode or conversation mode. And this has been around for a little while, but I've only just sort of recently started playing with it. So what it does, it actually allows you to have a voice conversation with ChatGPT, and it is very much like talking to someone on the phone. 

So for example, the other day I asked it about a particular type of aircraft and it did the sort of very friendly Hi, what can I help with? And I asked it about this particular plane and it gave me a fairly detailed answer, but I was then able to just sit there and ask questions. So I said, Okay, so how many engines or what type of engines does this aeroplane have? And it said, you know, there are two engine configurations of Pratt and Whitney engine and something else. And then I said, How many passengers can it hold, what's its range? And then I said, Are any Australian airlines using them? And they said, Yes, Qantas has ordered some. And you know, I don't know how many, how many of these do Qantas have. 

So it was great just to be able to do it in voice mode. You know, we've talked a lot about AI and ChatGPT in particular in terms of being able to feed it documents and manuals and those kinds of things, but to just be able to have a fairly natural conversation and ask questions was actually really interesting. I mean, I know that you can do it to some degree with your smart speaker, you know, your Amazon devices and so on. But this is a whole new level in terms of the level of information that it gives you. And you don't get that frustrating Sorry, I don't know that... type of answer. So definitely quite impressive in terms of the information that you can easily get. 

And I'm actually starting to find now that I'm gravitating more towards these AI powered things for those random questions, rather than using my smart speaker, because the... level of detail that I'm getting is better. There are still some inaccuracies in it, I think, but it does definitely give you more information than your normal sort of, you know, Google or Amazon device or even the older variants of Siri. And also the fact that, you know, you can you can take the conversation wherever you want it go. So if it says something that then sparks your interest, you can ask a sort of a different question depending on what results it gives you. 

So I do find these things are quite good as a research tool, but the voice mode and the voice interactivity is actually really quite impressive. The other thing that I just wanted to quickly mention, too, that I have been experimenting with a little bit, is using AI tools for generating sort of little snippets of code, you know, so scripts for doing particular things. Other little bits of of random code. You know, sometimes if I'm, if I'm trying to program a radio because as I said, being a ham, I kind of tinker with that stuff as well. But I found ChatGPT quite good for generating little code snippets. So for the programmers among you, you might enjoy playing around with that as well.

08:23 S1

For some of the time over the next few weeks, you're going to be taking it easy and travelling a bit. Tell us about the tech involved in that.

08:31 S2

Yeah, sure. So my wife and I have a caravan, and we are both blind. And there are a few things that we've been using quite a bit for our travels, even simple things like levelling the caravan. I either use the measure app on the iPhone or my Tape King talking tape measure, which has a levelling device in it when we're moving around the campground, we tend to use things like the stellar track or even something like Soundscape or Voice Vista to put a beacon on our caravan, and we've actually stuck some air tags on the caravan as well, so that we can actually be sure we're at the right site. 

So they're the little Apple things that are about the size of a 50 cent piece, and I've just stuck one on the inside of the van, and then I can use the Find My app on the phone to make sure that I'm not walking into someone else's campsite.

09:25 S1

You're very proactive. Great stuff.

09:26 S2

Try to be, try to be. The other thing that we did do, just quickly, we actually installed a remote van mover on our van. And what it does, it has some rollers that grip onto the tires, and you can then move your caravan around as though it's a giant remote control car. The nice thing about that is if the van's not properly positioned on the site or something like that, and we need to just jockey it forward or backward, it moves slowly enough that I can actually walk beside it or even in front of it and know that I'm, you know, I'm not going to hit anything. So that's that's been really handy as well, because it allows us to move the van after it's unhooked from the car.

10:04 S1

Amazing. There's a lot of talk and very sensibly, awareness of the dangers around the internet, particularly the the scams that go on and how you can easily get tricked. Good time to talk about that now, I reckon.

10:21 S2

Yes, definitely. Because often, you know, Christmas time, we're busy, our mind is elsewhere and it's very easy to just not be concentrating and accidentally get pulled into these things. So just sort of wanted to remind people around being vigilant to scammers because they don't seem to take holidays. There are a few simple things that we can do to help keep us safe online. Obviously, anything that says there's a problem with your account, click here to rectify it or click here to confirm your Information that is generally a red flag straight away. So it's worth not clicking here because you don't know where that's going to go. Generally, you know, banks and things like that will ask you to verify things in the app. They won't give you a click here type link. 

The other thing though to be aware of is and it as a screen reader user, you're slightly at an advantage because what you'll find is that the email that you get will look like it's from PayPal, but if you look at it, it'll be something like P, a exclamation mark. Pal or p a y p for L or something like that.

11:27 S1

Something that the eye glosses over.

11:29 S2

Yes, that's right, it looks almost right. Having said that, there are a few that can still trip you up. I saw one a little while ago which was an email from Micrasoft... Micra-soft. And if you're not paying attention even the screen reader will sort of you know, skim over that and you can you can miss it quite easily. So I think the important message with all of these things is just to be extremely vigilant. You know, if something sounds too good to be true, someone tells you you've won $1 million or you've inherited $1 million from a, you know, distant relative... you know, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is... is always a good sort of line of thinking. 

The other dead giveaway is often very poor grammar and also anything that appears to be particularly threatening. I got one a few weeks ago that said that if I didn't respond within 24 hours, they would come and take me away to jail. You know, so that was sort of a dead... giveaway. The thing is that anyone who's carrying on a legitimate business doesn't generally behave that way. So it's always worth being just being a little bit extra vigilant, I think, and particularly at this time of year, because there'll be people, you know, masquerading as, you know, Boxing Day sales and various other thing... or, you know, threatening to cut off access to your money and that kind of thing. And generally, yeah, those sorts of things you should treat as red flags. 

We talk about being safe when we travel and that kind of thing over the holiday break, but it's so important to also be safe with what we do online.

13:03 S1

Just one other thing, too. It's always important to ignore stuff that you get online rather than bite back, because the more you bite back, the more clues they're getting about your existence. Yeah, and even with the telephone ones, some people think it's good fun to string the the person along a little bit when they ask you to open windows or whatever. It's best just to send it away. Don't get involved.

13:32 S2

Yeah. And I must admit, I've been guilty of that as well. I had someone ask me the other day, is that Mr. Damien, and I said, Let's pretend it isn't and see what happens. And of course, that wasn't on the script, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Tempting as it is, you're really better to just hang up and don't engage with them.

13:51 S1

Now, just before we go, a reminder to everyone that you can find details of what we've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program by going to VA radio.org/talking tech. VA radio.org/talking tech. 

14:08 S2

And to write to the program you.an email me, Damo McMorrow. That's Damo M-C-M-O-R-R-O-W at Vision Australia dot org. Thank you all for your emails over the last few months, and I want to just take the opportunity to wish everyone a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

14:25 S1

And the same to you, Damo - damo.mcmorrow@visionaustralia.org.au ....  This has been Talking Tech - with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe. Have a great Christmas everyone. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.