Windows PC, Humanware and RIM latest

00:07 S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from December 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 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 O'Connell. 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, Vision Australia's national access technology manager. Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.

00:50 S2

Hi, Stephen.

00:51 S1

Damo, let's talk about buying a PC. There has to be done from time to time, particularly as some of us may still be using Windows 10 machines. And to get into Windows 11 you need a different machine. Explain what the state of the world is now for buying a new windows PC.

01:11 S2

Sure, and I went through this process myself this week. I the machine that I was using developed a fault with the charging port, and I had to. I've got to send it away to Sydney, and I can't really be without a computer for 3 or 4 weeks while all of that happens. So I sort of went through the process myself and quite a bit has changed. So there's a couple of changes in terms of the processes. So... we have the usual sort of Intel i5 and i7, but then there's a newer generation, which they call an ultra core or U5 and U7 processor. And these are sort of particularly prevalent in laptops. 

So they're designed to be a lower power processor, but they also have a number of different processor cores for accomplishing different tasks. So it's supposed to make the machines more responsive overall, but particularly with artificial intelligence or AI tasks.

02:16 S1

People tend to buy laptops these days. Is there a reason to be getting a desktop?

02:21 S2

Well, personally, I don't think there is. I've been using laptops as desktop replacements for quite a while now... and yeah, I don't think there's really any need. I guess the only reason that you might consider a desktop is if you don't ever bother with a monitor, and you just kind of want a box that can sit under the under the desk somewhere and you don't ever want to take it with you. But from my point of view, yes, I have my laptop here and it's hooked up to my mixer. It's hooked up to my amateur radio gear. But equally, if I just want to sit on the couch and look something up while I'm sort of half watching television or whatever, it gives me the the luxury to be able to do that. 

Also, because Marion and I have a caravan, sometimes I'll take the computer away with me and do a bit of tinkering, if we have a rainy afternoon where it's not good weather for going to the beach.

03:12 S1

And the laptops can run for hours on end, like desktops do.

03:16 S2

Yeah they can. I mean, I've sometimes run mine for weeks at a time and not really had a problem. The cooling these days is a lot more efficient than it used to be. So I think that it's no problem. The only thing probably to be aware of is to exercise the battery from time to time, rather than leaving it plugged in and charging just so that you don't sort of shorten the life of the battery. The laptops do tend to have pretty good battery management these days, but it's still not a bad idea.

03:47 S1

Now you were talking about the processes.

03:49 S2

Yes. So the other thing that you'll see, if you particularly if you're, you know, looking at a lot of the kind of Black Friday type sales that we're seeing around at the moment and those sorts of things. And of course, then we'll have Boxing Day sales. You'll see, particularly the Microsoft devices are advertised as Co-Pilot PCs. And when I say Microsoft devices. I'm talking Surface Pros, the laptops, the studio laptop family of machines. Microsoft have made an interesting move in that they have moved away from Intel processors, which they've been using for many years, to the Snapdragon family of processors, sometimes also called ARM or ARM processors. 

The main reason is to sort of try and compete with Apple and that sort of thing in terms of battery life and cooling and some of those things, and also again, with the focus on AI. So with a co-pilot PC, the one, the couple of differences. One is obviously the processor. The other is that what used to be the applications key on a lot of machines has been retasked as the co-pilot key. So it launches Copilot, which is Microsoft's AI-based assistant.

05:03 S1

So what about assistive tech? How does that go with these processors or Snapdragon machines?

05:09 S2

There are a few things to be aware of. You do need a particular version of Windows 11 to be compatible with these processors. Jaws works okay. Again, there's a separate sort of version of Jaws for that. Zoomtext unfortunately doesn't though, so if you if you are using Zoomtext, you really probably do need to at this point in time, stick with the Intel family, the i5, i7 or U5 and U7 type processors.

05:39 S1

That's going to have to change though, isn't it?

05:40 S2

It is. And I think in time it definitely will. But I guess the thing to remember is that this is a fairly significant change on the part of Microsoft. It's fairly recent. And so I think as time goes on, we'll probably start to see greater compatibility. There's also some issues around some games and some of the sort of slightly more unusual apps, um, where, you know, you'll occasionally run into things with the ARM processors that just don't work. So it is something to be aware of - if you're a Jaws user and the battery life is a consideration, by all means, go for it. But if you're using Zoom Text, I... you know, you really need to hold off, at least at this stage.

06:22 S1

So what's the best way to make this purchase online? 

06:27 S2

Go to a store. I still like to go to a store and have a look at the keyboard and the sound... but again, that's just me, I still like to know that the keyboard layout is something that I'm comfortable with. You know, the key travel is nice and those sorts of things, and that the thing has reasonable speakers. And if you've got some vision, obviously, to have a look at the quality of the screen, whether it's bright enough for you or too bright and those kinds of things. So call me a bit of a traditionalist or a dinosaur, but I still like to actually have a look at what I'm buying and check that I'm going to be happy with it. 

But having said that, you know, you can buy plenty of things online. You know, if you do your research, um, you know, and you don't want to traipse around the shops and have a look, um, by all means, you know, there's plenty of places where you can buy on online, but I still like to have a bit of a hands on with what I'm buying and make sure that I'm comfortable with it.

07:18 S1

So there's some things to think about when considering purchasing a new windows PC. Let's move to a Humanware development now. And the Mantis Braille Display product, which has been around for a while. A major upgrade.

07:34 S2

Yes. So the mantis is the Humanwares 40 cell Braille display that comes equipped with a QWERTY keyboard, as opposed to the Perkins style keyboard that you have on their brilliant family of products. The... latest development is that the December update will add text to speech to the Mantis family of devices. We've had it on the Brilliant for some time, but the Mantis up to now has not included text to speech, so I think this will actually be quite a significant update. There is a webinar which is happening on the 2nd of December, but you should be able to find a recording of that on Humanware website, if you want to sort of see that in action and and understand what that update means. 

But I think for Mantis users who perhaps want to use their machine in a little more of a standalone context as a sort of a note taker replacement, if you like, I think that this should be quite a significant update.

08:37 S1

That's the Mantis Braille display from Humanware and a major update. Now let's talk about RIM. Quite a package, really. 

08:46 S2

It is. So we've talked a little about it before. It stands for Remote Incident Manager. And it's a product from Pneuma Solutions, that's Pneuma Solutions. And it's designed to allow you to provide or receive remote support. So for example, if I if my mum is having a problem with her computer, I can log into it even though she doesn't have a screen reader on the machine. And I can fix whatever problem she's having, or have a look at an email for her and determine if it's a scam or something like that. So I use it a lot for remotely accessing my own computer if I'm away from home, but also members of the family. 

It's also useful, you know, if you... need to receive tech support from time to time, it's a good way of doing it. And even services like IRA now use that as a way of connecting to your machine to help you with, you know, something like an inaccessible web shop or something like that. So Pneuma have announced an update this week. There is now some AI tools available from the Rim dashboard. So there's three AI tools that you can access. One is the Ask Microsoft Accessibility AI tool. There's also the PFS companion tool from Vespero. And Rim have their own tool called Rimbert. And it's designed, I guess, to help someone. If you're trying to solve a technical problem, you can quickly look something up while you're in a RIM session. 

So for example, I typed in to the RIM bot, How do I build a recovery drive for Windows 11? It's something I always do when I get a new PC, and within about 2 or 3 seconds it gave me a very nice step-by-step guide. So it's a would be a great sort of technical troubleshooting type resource if you were providing support using RIM.

10:40 S1

It works on Windows machines. What about Apple MacBooks?

10:45 S2

There is a Mac version, but as far as I know, they still haven't addressed a couple of the issues that they were having with the Mac OS Sequoia... there are a couple of compatibility problems with it, but certainly it runs absolutely fine on earlier Macs. And I think if you are using a Mac as the controlling machine, so you're the person providing help, I believe it's okay. I think it's mostly, if you're trying to connect to someone who's who's using a Mac and provide help for them. That's my understanding. So that one is has still not been resolved.

11:20 S1

It's fascinating how we've had this year the appearance of these AI help products. It's been quite a thing this year, hasn't it? The development of these products.

11:30 S2

Yes. Yeah. And it's and you know, we're also going to be seeing that in iOS 18.2 with the Apple intelligence which is their sort of AI platform. Uh Google Gemini as well. There's so many to choose from now. And it's really, I think, probably been one of the biggest developments in tech in the last sort of five years or so.

11:51 S1

Have you been using them much in your daily work?

11:54 S2

I do a little bit, yes. I certainly use Microsoft Copilot sometimes just to summarise things for me. We've been going through the process at the moment of selling a property and even just to have it summarise a contract or, you know, be able to ask questions about particular terms of a contract, that kind of thing, without having to trawl through 40 pages of legal speak, you know, stuff like that... I find it really handy.

12:21 S1

Mm. Yes. It's quite, quite an amazing thing how you don't have to search stuff out so much now. It'll steer you in the right direction. And you might go to those places for more detailed research sometimes. But it gets you well on the way, doesn't it?

12:35 S2

It does. And even little things like using a piece of ham radio equipment. And I wanted to know how to how to enter a frequency. And it was an old piece of equipment from the early 2000. I didn't have a manual for it because I'd got it second hand, but I was able to ask ChatGPT some questions and figure out how to do the things that I needed to do.

12:54 S1

Is it becoming a challenge for you to decide which of these AI tools to call on at any time?

12:59 S2

Sometimes I would say it is. I probably my go-to would would be Copilot or ChatGPT, depending on what context I'm using it. But you know, then we've got things like Meta AI for the... Meta Ray-Ban glasses and those sorts of things as well, so sometimes for me it just depends on the the context that I need to use it.

13:19 S1

Now, before we go, let's remind everyone of where there are details of what we've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program. You can go to  varadio.org/talking tech. VA radio, dot org slash talking tech. And to write to the program...

13:37 S2

You can email me, Damo Damo McMorrow - m c m o r r o w - at Vision Australia dot org. And thank you to those who have written in over the last few weeks I've really appreciated your emails.

13:50 S1

damo.mcmorrow@visionaustralia.org ... Yes, you've got some very good reaction to the chat we had with Ruby Lacy last week at the Vision Store.

14:00 S2

Yes, we have and and lots of great questions as well. So thank you very much everybody.

14:05 S1

damo.mcmorrow@visionaustralia.org ... This has been Talking Tech - with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.