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Contents
A First Look at Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 Beta.. 2
Living Blindfully Plus Comes to Apple Podcasts. Siri’s Phenomenal New Voices Tell Us About It 8
AI Claims a Scalp. OrCam Exits the Blindness and Low Vision Market 11
Feedback on the Meta Smart Glasses. 12
Listener Thoughts on the Closure of AppleVis. 19
Jonathan’s Comments on the Closure of AppleVis. 21
Are There Players for the PC That Support Podcast Chapters?.. 27
Castro and Autonomous Vehicles. 29
Real-world User Experiences of Blind People in Autonomous Vehicles. 30
Poor Telegram Accessibility. 32
Another Benefit of Living Blindfully Transcripts. 36
Idea for New iPhone Users, Nature Sounds App, Personal Voice.. 37
ThinkBios Utility and Zoom H1 Essential 40
Welcome to 294
[music]
Voiceover: From Wellington, New Zealand, to the world, it’s Living Blindfully – living your best life with blindness or low vision. Here is your host, Jonathan Mosen.
Hello!
On the show this week: a first look at Apple Intelligence, you can now subscribe to Living Blindfully plus through Apple Podcasts, OrCam exits the blindness market, thoughts on the closure of AppleVis, and real world experiences of blind people in fully autonomous vehicles.
It’s episode 294. And yet again, we have neither a country code nor an area code to tell you about. But that’s okay because it’s been a very busy week, and we have plenty of other things to tell you about.
A First Look at Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 Beta
I thought I’d start by talking about Apple Intelligence.
Now when iOS 18 comes out (and we’d be expecting that in September), there’s not going to be any Apple Intelligence in there. Apple is taking quite a cautious approach.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the iPhone 16 though, because one of the big selling points of the iPhone 16 is surely going to be support for Apple Intelligence. And if people buy their iPhone 16s, and then they find they have to wait till iOS 18.1 before they can take advantage of the smarts that they bought the phone for, that could be a bit of a dampener on sales. So I’ll be interested to see how Apple handles this.
There is quite an unusual thing going on at the moment, and that is that Apple is beta-testing iOS 18.0. Everyone around the world can grab the public beta of that if they want. And if you’re feeling even more adventurous, you can get the developer betas of that.
But they’ve also rolled out iOS 18.1, and iOS 18.1 does have the beginnings of Apple Intelligence built in. I want to show you a couple of things pertaining to this. And in the process, tell you about something that people have been requesting for ages and has finally come to Living Blindfully plus. So we can kill two stones with one bird, or something like that anyway.
First, let me talk about who can benefit from iOS 18.1 and how you get it. Apple Intelligence is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, the iPads with the M processors, and of course the Macs with the M processors as well. I don’t have a Mac, so I’m not going to talk too much about Mac OS because I don’t have any direct experience of this.
But if you’ve got a compatible iPhone or iPad and you are outside of the United States, there may be some things to do to take advantage of it. Even if you’re in the EU when you do these things, you won’t be able to use Apple Intelligence even if you have a compatible device because it’s not available in the EU. And also, China is in the same predicament. But if you’re not in those regions, you can actually get Apple Intelligence if you have a compatible device and you’re willing to make some changes.
What you need to do before you download the iOS 18.1 beta is to make sure that your language is set to English, United States. You also need to set your region to English, United States. Now, if you are in a part of the world (and it’s most of the world) which uses metrics, then after you make this change so that your region is English, United States, you may want to go in and change the measurements back to metrics and various other things of that nature, but that’s absolutely possible. Then you need to change your Siri language to English, United States as well. So if you don’t have an American accent, that may impact how well Siri recognizes your instructions.
So when you’ve done this, your region will be set to English, United States, your language will be set to English, United States for the phone as a whole, and also for Siri.
Next, iOS 18.1 is only available to developers at this point. So if you haven’t done so already, you can enroll free at developer.apple.com with your Apple ID, log in with your password or a passkey, enroll there. You don’t actually have to pay for the Apple Developer Program, as I understand it, to gain access to this. Just enroll on the developer’s site.
Then you will be able to go into Settings, General, Software Update, choose the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta, and then download it.
You haven’t finished yet. When you’ve downloaded it, you’ve got to opt in to the waitlist. To do this, you double tap the new option. It used to just be called Siri or whatever it was in the old versions. Now, it’s called Apple Intelligence and Siri on the settings screen. When you go there, there will be a button to opt in to the waiting list. When you double tap that first button, a little pop up appears underneath and there’s a second button at the bottom of the screen that you have to double tap that gets you on the waitlist. And it will be really clear that you are, because the button to enrol in the waitlist will disappear.
I didn’t have to wait too long, I’m pleased to say. It took me about 5 or 6 minutes between when I pressed that button and when I got access to Apple Intelligence.
So it’s a bit of a process to set this up. And also, it is a beta. I mean, this is a pretty rough and ready beta. I haven’t seen any show stopping bugs really from a VoiceOver point of view, but there may be. So just be mindful of that. I know it’s exciting to jump on the bandwagon with the latest and greatest, but there are risks of putting this on your primary device.
So when you’ve been approved and you have your Apple Intelligence up and running, there are several things available to you. It’s not the full suite that they were telling us about at WWDC, but this is a start. And there are some rough edges around accessibility of some of these.
We are going to be doing a very comprehensive iOS 18 walkthrough just before iOS 18 is officially released. I’ve already started work on that. But I can’t wait to show you some of these things in iOS 18.1, so I’ll give you a brief overview now. As I say, some of it is a bit hit and miss.
I’m going to show you briefly some of the features pertaining to what Apple Intelligence can do when you are writing. At the time I’m putting this recording together, I found that it can be a bit difficult to invoke this in some applications, and it seems impossible in others. Now, I’m not sure whether that’s a VoiceOver thing, or whether it’s a general thing. For example, we covered the Drafts app comprehensively. We devoted a long episode to this in episode 238, and I can’t get it to work in Drafts at all at the moment. It does seem to work OK in Ulysses, in the Notes app, and in various other places.
So, let’s have a look at just a few of the things that you can do.
It just so happens that I’m in the Mona app for Mastodon, which we have covered extensively on episode 227 of this podcast. I’m going to write a toot (or a post, depending on your preference) in Mastodon about all this Apple artificial intelligence, and I’m going to write it in a fairly informal way, deliberately.
So here we go. I’m going to type, “Man, I am super impressed with the Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1. I wanna see how this develops. It’s gonna be awesome, dude! Really nice job from Apple. I like it heaps.”
Alright. So we’ve got:
VoiceOver: Man, I am super impressed with the Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1. I wanna see how this develops. It’s gonna be awesome, dude! Really nice job from Apple. I like it heaps.
Jonathan: Let’s use our old friend, the rotor.
VoiceOver: Misspelled words.
Edit.
Jonathan: We’re now on the edit part of the rotor so I will flick down, …
VoiceOver: Select.
Select all.
Jonathan: and select all.
VoiceOver: Cut, menu item.
Jonathan: Now, everything’s selected, and a menu has popped up in Mona. It works super well here. I think, there might need to be some additional VoiceOver work done on this. But I’m going to flick right on this menu that’s popped up.
VoiceOver: Copy, menu item.
Writing tools, menu item.
Jonathan: Now, we have writing tools, which is part of Apple Intelligence.
So I’m going to double tap.
VoiceOver: Writing tools.
Close, button.
Jonathan: And here’s where everything gets a bit messy because focus does not pop on to that menu. You have to go searching for it. But I believe if I tap towards the bottom of the screen, I may find it.
VoiceOver: Friendly, button.
Jonathan: Okay. Now, we’ve got different styles. So it’s going to try and rewrite what I just wrote, and we can have it more friendly.
VoiceOver: Rewrite, button.
Friendly.
Professional.
Concise.
Summary, button.
Key points, button.
Jonathan: I want to change it to professional, because I deliberately wrote that very informally. And some people do write informally, and they want to be able to spruce up their writing for more formal occasions. So how well does this do?
VoiceOver: Summary.
Concise, button.
Professional, button.
Jonathan: I’ll double tap professional.
VoiceOver: Copy. Dimmed, button.
Jonathan: It has rewritten it already, and come up with a little menu.
Done, button.
Copy.
Replace, button.
Jonathan: I’m going to double tap replace.
You can preview it, I think.
VoiceOver: Share, button.
I am thoroughly impressed by the advance…
Jonathan: Yeah, there we go. So here is what it’s going to offer instead.
VoiceOver: I am thoroughly impressed by the advancements in Apple’s intelligence features introduced in iOS 18.1. I eagerly anticipate the evolution of these features, and believe they will undoubtedly enhance the user experience. The meticulous attention to detail and innovative approach displayed by Apple are commendable. I thoroughly appreciate the exceptional work they have done.
Jonathan: Yeah. Well, that’s what I said in the first place. [laughs] That is a very different writing style.
And once we get some of the accessibility kinks ironed out, you can see that this is very useful. There are other writing tools as well including proofing, various other things that you can do to spruce up your writing.
And all of this is happening on device, so it’s pretty prompt.
If you want to use this, we’ll just flick left.
VoiceOver: Share, button.
Replace, button.
Jonathan: And there’s the replace button. So if I double tap, …
VoiceOver: Text field. Is editing.
Jonathan: Now, we’re back in the body of the Mona post, and the original post that I wrote has been replaced with that more formal version.
Next, I want to demonstrate a feature that I have rapidly come to like. I’d miss it if it went away now. This is Apple Intelligence ability to summarize emails and text messages.
This is a bit of a departure. So what used to happen is that when you went in to your email client and you flicked through the emails in your inbox, you would get a preview – the first 2 or 3 lines of the email. And hopefully, that will be enough to tell you what the email is about, and you’d be able to decide whether to open the email or not.
But it doesn’t always work that way. The first 2 or 3 lines might be waffle. Waffle, I tell you. And you don’t want that.
Well, Apple Intelligence now summarizes your emails by default, and here’s a pretty common example.
Bonnie gets a drink called Arepa, which is supposed to be good for your brain, they tell me, and we get this on a subscription. So every so often, we’ll get an email saying that our subscription is coming up, and we’re going to get another shipment of Arepa. And if we want to cancel it, do it now.
So here’s what Apple Intelligence did with that, just as I flick through the inbox.
VoiceOver: Drink Arepa, a reminder about your upcoming order with drink Arepa, [7:05] AM.
Summary. Recurring order charge confirmation for drink Arepa subscription.
Next order in 3 days.
Jonathan: Now, that is fantastic. It just concisely summarized the key point of that email, which is the next order is going to be processed in 3 days, and what the order is. It’s very cool indeed.
Next, I want to show you a very nice enhancement to Reader Mode. Many people will be familiar with this already. It takes away a lot of the clutter. It’s a great accessibility feature because sometimes, when you go to, say, a newspaper site that has a lot of ads and extraneous things, it can be very cluttered. With VoiceOver, you go into Reader Mode, and all the clutter magically disappears on a lot of occasions.
Well, there’s something else that’s been added to Reader Mode, and that is a summary of the page.
To demonstrate this, I have up in Safari, on my iPhone, the blog post written by David Goodwin, the founder of AppleVis (We’ll be talking a bit more about this later in the show.), announcing its closure.
What I’m going to do is go to the top of the screen because I have my address bar at the top of the screen.
VoiceOver: Page menu, button.
Jonathan: And I’ll flick down.
VoiceOver: Show reader view.
Jonathan: There’s the reader view.
I’ll double tap, and flick right.
VoiceOver: Address.
Refresh, button.
The End of an Era, a Message From the Founder as we announce the closure of AppleVis, heading level 1.
Summary, button.
Jonathan: There’s the summary button, so I’ll double tap it.
VoiceOver: Summary.
Jonathan: And it all happens on device, so it’s pretty quick.
If I flick right now, …
VoiceOver: AppleVis, a community-driven website for blind and low vision Apple users, will close due to the founder’s departure and the team’s inability to continue without him. The founder expresses gratitude to the community and team for their contributions over the past 14 years.
Jonathan: And that is a very concise summary of what the blog post says. So a nice addition to Reader Mode, thanks to Apple Intelligence.
Living Blindfully Plus Comes to Apple Podcasts. Siri’s Phenomenal New Voices Tell Us About It
Finally, I want to do two things. I want to show you the fantastic new Siri voices, at least for American English in iOS 18.1. And at the same time, tell you about a feature that many people have requested that I’m now pleased to be able to deliver. And that is a version of Living Blindfully Plus, specifically and uniquely for Apple podcasts. It doesn’t change what we’re already doing. This is an additional feature.
And to talk about this, I thought I would read the blog post that I wrote on this subject, in case you haven’t seen it. But what we will do is go through some of the Siri voices, so you can hear some of them in action, and you’ll hear how very good they are. We’ll start with voice 1, and we’ll let you hear little bits of this as we go through.
To give you this demo, I’m double tapping the page menu. Then, there is a button for reading the document out loud. And this is what we get. We’ll start with voice 1.
VoiceOver:
[voice 1, male voice]
One of our most requested features is here. Subscribe to Living Blindfully plus directly in Apple Podcasts.
Hello, everyone.
At the moment, I am loving working on Living Blindfully as my full-time job. This is why you are seeing some significant new features rolling out. Your Living Blindfully plus memberships and the support of our sponsors is making this possible, and I am truly grateful for everyone’s support.
Since we rebranded to Living Blindfully in April 2023, the enhancement I have been asked for the most is the ability to subscribe to Living Blindfully plus directly in Apple Podcasts.
[voice 2, female voice]
As of today, you can do this as well as, rather than instead of, the method we have always used. I hope you’ll read this post carefully, as I’d like to explain the pros and cons of activating a Living Blindfully plus membership via Apple Podcasts versus using Pinecast, which remains our preferred method.
We think for most users, Pinecast remains the best option because you can listen to your premium content on any app or device you like. If it plays podcasts, Living Blindfully Plus via Pinecast will work with it. You can even have your subscription on multiple devices such as your desktop, laptop, Victor Reader Stream, and your favorite iOS app including Apple Podcasts. No need to stick to one device whenever you want to hear Living Blindfully.
Using Pinecast, you can choose what you pay for your membership. Money is tight for many of us, while others may wish to support us generously. Using Pinecast, you set the price of your membership. Adjust it up or down whenever you want.
[voice 3, male voice]
Here are the benefits of becoming a member of Living Blindfully plus through Apple Podcasts.
Subscribing via Apple Podcasts is familiar and easy. The subscription is billed to your Apple ID. You can check or cancel it anytime using the usual method for all your other Apple subscriptions.
With Apple Podcasts, we give you the option of paying yearly, rather than monthly, if you’d like.
You get a machine-generated transcript as part of your plus subscription through Apple Podcasts. While nowhere near as accurate as our human-generated version, this is a way to get a transcript early.
There are some downsides of using Apple Podcasts.
You can only take advantage of your membership on the devices logged into your Apple ID, and with Apple’s own apps. This means that if you sometimes listen to podcasts on other apps or devices such as a Victor Reader Stream, Overcast, Castro, or Pocket Casts, your Living Blindfully plus subscription won’t be available to you.
What you pay is not flexible. The price is set in each country for monthly and annual subscriptions. If you’d like to pay more to support us, or you find the price too high, you would be better using the more flexible Pinecast option.
Finally, Living Blindfully keeps much less of the revenue when you subscribe through Apple Podcasts than we do from the Pinecast option. So when you use Pinecast, more of what you pay goes to supporting us. This has influenced the pricing we’ve set for Living Blindfully Plus and Apple Podcasts.
[voice 4, female voice]
If you’d like to become a Living Blindfully plus member through Apple Podcasts, here’s what you do. These instructions apply to Apple Podcasts for iPhone and iPad. If you use a Mac or Windows, hopefully these instructions will be sufficient to help you subscribe on those platforms.
Using iPhone, open the Podcasts app. The simplest way to do this is to say to Siri, open podcasts.
Find the Search tab at the bottom right hand corner of the screen and double tap to select it. Once in the search field, double tap to activate the text field and type or dictate Living Blindfully. As you type, the search results will update. Swipe right and you should find the Living Blindfully show. Double tap to select it.
On the Living Blindfully screen, swipe right, and you will eventually find reference to Living Blindfully plus.
You can get a 14-day free trial of Living Blindfully plus.
An important note, Apple Podcasts defaults to the yearly subscription. VoiceOver will confirm that this is selected.
If you would prefer the monthly option, you can double tap it. Unfortunately, VoiceOver will still tell you that the yearly option is selected. But in fact, the monthly option does get selected after you double tap it. I have reported this accessibility bug to Apple, and we hope it is addressed.
Once you confirm your subscription, you will need to use Touch ID, the side button or your password to finalize the purchase. Apple will send you an email confirming the subscription.
You can cancel the subscription anytime from within the subscription section of Apple’s Settings app.
[voice 5, female voice]
To find out more about Living Blindfully plus, including comprehensive instructions for making the most of our flexible Pinecast subscription method on whatever app or device you have, please visit https://LivingBlindfully.com/plus.
To everyone who supports Living Blindfully, thank you so much. If you’re considering doing so, thank you too. We work hard every week to earn your listenership and support with quality content.
Jonathan: And there are the 5 new stunning US English voices in iOS 18.1. We heard the default rates there. You can speed them up in that listen to page option.
Although they haven’t finished working on the new Siri yet, there are some definite signs of improvement including greater contextual awareness and tolerance of speech slip ups when you give a command.
For example, let’s try this.
Set a timer for 5 minutes. Actually, no. I want it for 2 minutes, please.
Siri: 2 minutes, starting now.
Jonathan: We’ll cancel that.
Cancel the timer.
Siri: It’s cancelled.
Jonathan: It is a lot more contextually aware now. So I can say something like, “When is the New Zealand cricket team playing next?”
Siri: New Zealand battles Afghanistan in the only test of Afghanistan v New Zealand test in India 2024 on September 9th, 2024 at [4:30] PM.
Jonathan: What was the score the last time they played?
Siri: Afghanistan beat New Zealand by 84 runs in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 match, 14 match on June 8th, 2024.
Jonathan: Actually, I’m sort of sorry I asked that question, but there you go. It got the context. It knew that I was still talking about the New Zealand cricket team.
Siri is loaded with information about Apple things. There is a lot to like, and there’s plenty more still coming.
So that’s a first look at Apple Intelligence expected in iOS 18.1.
Advertisement: My sincere thanks to Pneuma Solutions for making Transcripts of Living Blindfully possible.
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AI Claims a Scalp. OrCam Exits the Blindness and Low Vision Market
Now, on Living Blindfully, I want to return to the subject of wearables. This is a hot topic right now, and there’s plenty of listener feedback to get to.
But before we get to that, you know, British Prime Minister from the 1960s and 70s, Harold Wilson, (yes, he is the Mr. Wilson referred to in the Beatles song Taxman) famously said that a week is a long time in politics. Well, a week can be an eternity in technology.
Just last week on Living Blindfully, in episode 293, we played a chat with Vicky Cardona recorded at the National Federation of the Blinds Convention in Orlando, Florida, discussing the blindness wearables market.
Well, if you want an example of the disruptive nature of AI and how many businesses are simply going to be turned on their heads or AI’d out of existence, look no further than OrCam, one of the players that we talked about just a week ago. According to the Israeli Business Daily Globes, OrCam, which is an Israeli company, has decided to hold development of visual aid devices for the blind and low vision market in favor of digital listening devices for the hard of hearing. OrCam has made the decision due to advancements in AI, which make the need for further development of visual aid products unnecessary. Dozens of employees will be laid off as a result.
OrCam plans to spin off hearing impairment activities into a separate company, which will then go for an IPO, an initial public offering.
OrCam was very well resourced. They raised around $181 million in venture capital. They had a good spin machine. You would frequently see them referred to in business publications.
Sadly, we could never get them on Living Blindfully to actually talk about their tech.
After producing a comprehensive demo of the Envision smart glasses, (Envision are always very approachable) I reached out to OrCam to offer them equal time. If they lent me a demo product for a few weeks, I’d have happily devoted an episode to it. But they never responded.
OrCam is a compelling example of the disruptive nature of AI because with these large language models (which have come along since November 2022, when the first ChatGPT was unveiled), others were able to produce technology that did more at a better price point and frankly, eat OrCam’s lunch.
You can expect a lot more of this sort of disruption in future. But it illustrates how important the blindness wearables market is. I still think the killer product in this space is yet to come.
And I’ll be watching with interest to see how OrCam get on in the hearing market because there are some very big, well resourced, entrenched players like Phonak, Oticon, Widex and more. And of course on Living Blindfully, we’ve heard from HeardThat, which is doing some great stuff in this space.
Is there room for innovation? Absolutely, there is. So I’ll watch with interest to see what happens.
Feedback on the Meta Smart Glasses
Let’s go to listener feedback about wearables, particularly the Meta Smart Glasses, which are undoubtedly, the flavor of the month right now.
Voice message: Hello, Jonathan! It’s Derry Lawlor here from Dublin, Ireland. I hope you’re keeping well. And hello to all the Living Blindfully listeners out there, too.
So recently, I took the jump and bought myself a set of Meta glasses in Dublin. I set it up at my phone, and I’m very pleased with them. I must say, listening to music, setting them up at WhatsApp, and making calls and receiving calls, that’s pretty cool.
So I then used the VPN to check out the other features, the AI feature which weren’t available in this country. So I have them now, logging in to the US area.
So I thought originally, you need to download the app from the US, but you don’t. That’s worked with me at the moment now.
But hopefully, in time, we will get all the features in Ireland that they have elsewhere. I don’t know why there’s a delay, but I suppose it is only a beta area, these things.
Hopefully, it’ll get better, and I think it will definitely get better. We’ll be able to use apps like Be My Eyes and Aira, of course.
Jonathan: Yes, it does seem to be a trend emerging where EU countries are starting to miss out on things now, I think because of the tighter regulatory environment. And certainly, it appears that Met is getting a bit reticent about playing in the EU, so we are starting to see this.
Voice message: Hey, Jonathan! It’s Mark Baillargeon in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and it’s been 3 weeks and 3 days since I’ve had the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. I gotta tell you, these are an absolute game changer for me.
I’m totally blind. I use a white cane.
I have 40% hearing loss in one ear, 75% hearing loss in the other ear. And the reason I mention the hearing issue is because it can be an issue with the glasses in noisy situations where you can’t hear the glasses and your VoiceOver, even with the hearing aids in, because you’ve got the background noise, even at your default level in your hearing aids. If you turn your hearing aids up, of course the background noise increases, and the volume on the glasses does not. That’s the only downside of the glasses that I’m seeing. You can cup your hand over your ears, and that will help to increase the volume.
Somebody has suggested wearing a hoodie. But in the middle of July, you’d get some weird looks, I would imagine, and it wouldn’t be all that comfortable. A toque might work, which is like a Canadian fur hat that we wear in the winter to cover our ears and whatnot. It also helps maybe to cut out the wind noise.
But let me talk about the glasses and my experience.
I went with my O&M instructor because we’ve been experimenting with Oko Pilot here. And there are issues in Quebec with that, which is a topic for another WhatsApp message, I suppose.
But afterwards, we tried the glasses at an intersection that we were working at. It told me the type of intersection that it was, and that it was a light. And not being a thing that works in real time, I didn’t take that any further, but I thought, well, this is cool. It’s able to tell me that I’m at a light. I wouldn’t ask it if the light is red or green because by the time I got the information processed, the status of the light probably could have changed, and I wouldn’t use the glasses in that context.
From there, we went to the local grocery store, which just happens to be right next door to my apartment building here in Montreal. I went in, and she took me to the chip aisle.
I said, “Just drop me somewhere. It doesn’t really matter where.”
And she said, “Okay, do your thing. Show me what this thing can do.”
So I said, “Hey, Meta. What am I looking at?”
And it told me, “You’re standing in front of the chip aisle, and it has tostitos nachos.”
Oh, that’s cool. But I don’t like tostitos. I like Doritos. So I asked, “Hey, Meta. Where are the Doritos nachos?”
“On the bottom shelf.”, she said.
“Hey, Meta. Where are the Doritos cheese nachos?”
“On the bottom shelf, to your left.”
“How many over?”, I asked, or something to that effect, and it told me exactly where they were. I picked up the bag, yabba-dabba-doo.
And then, Mary Noel, my O&M instructor, said, “Okay, I want you to look above the chip shelves., and I knew by the feel that it was salsa. Now, they don’t have the same brands of salsa here in Quebec that I’m familiar with, or had been familiar with in Edmonton, so it told me the brands when I asked. That’s cool! I know there’s this brand, this brand, this brand.
“Hey, Metta. Who has the spicy brands of salsa on the shelf?” And it told me. I don’t recall the names because like I say, I’m not familiar.
Then we went to the Cookies Isle, and it identified Cookies for me. I was so involved in doing all these things.
She gave me a box, and she said, “Identify this for me.”
So I asked, “Hey, Meta. What is this box?”
And it said, “Orville Reddenbacher Popcorn”. and I knew that. My mind was so involved in doing stuff, I just didn’t process it right away.
I have asked Metta where I am, what’s near me, what’s around me, what am I looking at outside.
Sitting in my living room, looking at the TV, when I don’t see the TV. But it told me the TV was in front on the TV stand with assorted other items. It identified those other items on the TV stand, as well as telling me what brand of television it was.
I’ve also used it to identify frozen dinners from the M&M meat market that I purchase, so I can pull them out of the fridge. I don’t have to depend on the text view of Seeing AI, or holding my phone or anything like that. It is an absolute game changer that’s going to get better and better and better.
I took a 30-second video just for the hell of it and posted it on WhatsApp and to some of my friends.
I haven’t done a Facebook live yet. I know a lot of blind people are doing that, and it would be my intention to do so. It is also my intention. And as I go to events during the summer, (the Highland Games are coming up here in Montreal and the Pride Parade in August), which I intend to attend and make videos which are up to 3 minutes in length now each, and post those on Facebook, or to my friends, or in other places.
So I would give the glasses at this point out of 10, an 8 and a half out of 10 score. There is a need for improvement. The quickness is good. The reliability is questionable in terms of getting your information because you have to know what questions to ask the AI to get the information that you need. But that’s not the fault of the glasses.
That being said, I highly recommend these glasses to the visually impaired and especially the totally blind community, where we are dependent on having to use our cameras on our iDevices and not having an understanding of camera use, because I’ve never used one in my life. I’ve been blind since birth. This is an absolute game-changer that can only get better and better and better.
And there are different types of glasses and styles to look at. I would recommend going into a place where you can look at the glasses. There are 3 different types, different designs, different styles. Have a feel for them. Wear the dummy pair. Have a feeling for what fits right for you and how it feels for you. And then, make your decision on what to buy, maybe rather than just buying them by the description on Amazon and then being disappointed, or they don’t fit right. And then you have to send them back and go through the whole process again.
What Sandy, my wife and I did is she went in and she looked at them first in Best Buy (she happened to be in the area), tried them on for herself. She’s sighted.
And then, based on how she felt with them, she picked out the type and style for me . And then, we went and looked at them and purchased them.
Jonathan: Well, there is one very happy camper with his Meta Smart Glasses.
I’d be interested to know what hearing aids you have, Mark. Because as I mentioned in episode 293, with my Phonak Lumity which are behind the ear hearing aids, I got so much volume from those Meta Smart Glasses. I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve got more volume than I need.
But the Phonak BTE hearing aids are quite long, and that may be influencing their proximity to the speaker. And it probably explains why they’re working so well for me in that regard.
I’m not as enthusiastic as you. In fact, the more I use these, the more I think I should just bite the bullet and get the Envision glasses.
I want ChatGPT on glasses. I find the Meta AI quite superficial and a bit hit and miss, and it’s not always accurate.
And obviously, the fact that you still can’t get descriptions of people is a really big issue. I think that’s something we’ve got to tackle and we’ve got to insist on, because we’re not asking it to identify people by name. All we’re asking for is the same information that sighted people can have by glancing at someone.
Kenny Peyatt says:
“I enjoyed the topic of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses that you talked about on the podcast last week. I’m thinking about getting me a pair from Amazon soon.
I want to know if they are able to tell you the names of amusement rides. The reason why I am asking this is because I went to the Ohio State Fair today, and I had a sighted friend with me. And every time we would go up to a ride, I would ask, “What ride is this?” I wonder if the Meta Smart Glasses would be helpful.”
Most likely, they would, Kenny. If there’s a big sign that says the name of the ride, then you can say to the glasses, “Hey, Meta. What am I looking at?” You may be able to say, “Look and read the sign.”, and it might give you more detailed information as well. You’ve got to experiment a little bit, as Mark said in his contribution. But I think, as long as the sign is in view, it is extremely likely that it can tell you what the ride is.
Bonnie has found something interesting, wandering around Wellington with these glasses. When she asks questions like, “What am I looking at?” or “Read the sign.”, she gets a lot of sighted people who stop and answer the question. [laughs] Interesting phenomenon, that.
Over on Mastodon. Yes, a toot on Mastodon.
David Goldfield says:
“In the past, you’ve expressed some valid concerns about Meta, and why you personally don’t like using Facebook.
You seem enthusiastic about their smart glasses, and I’m curious as to whether you feel conflicted about this, or has Meta made significant changes that you’re feeling comfortable using and recommending their smart glasses?”
David says:
“I’d love to purchase them, but I have such negative feelings regarding Meta.”
Look. I know exactly what you mean, David. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, that was the last straw for me, and I shut down my Facebook account. I talked about that on the Blind Side at the time.
And boy, did I feel good about that. I felt great without Facebook in my life.
And then I joined Ira. They wanted me to do some social media for them.
They said, “Would you please get on Facebook?”
And I thought well, anything for a good cause or something.
So I got on Facebook. I haven’t deleted the account since leaving Ira, but I don’t use Facebook very often and I avoided as much as possible.
Just this week, news is coming through of a settlement between Meta and the state of Texas. This is just one US state, but they’ve got $1.4 billion out of Meta for illegal use of biometric data, specifically facial recognition data. Now, that unit has closed down, so we are talking past history. That payment, that suit was absolutely justified.
What makes me sad though, is that it will make Meta nervous about simply describing someone that is completely different from what Meta was sued for here, but you can understand it’s going to make them a bit jittery.
The evil algorithm and their behavior on Facebook has done a lot of damage to the world, so I absolutely understand what you’re saying. And yes, I do still feel conflicted.
I really bought these glasses because I knew that this was one of those phenomena in the blind community, and I wanted to be able to pass comment on it and talk about it from first-hand experience. If we get a credible alternative that uses ChatGPT, I will be on to that with great relief.
I’m not interested in posting video to Facebook or any of the meta related features. What I want is good, accurate description of the world around me. Of course, Envision glasses, as we talked about with Vicky in Episode 293 really have them beat in this regard because you can just walk around and have real-time description going on. You don’t have to keep asking, “What am I looking at?” and take a picture in real-time. But if you want a detailed description (and ChatGPT is deployed on those glasses as well, by the way), then you can ask and get a very detailed description.
But the price is right with these Meta Smart Glasses. That’s the thing. They’re so much cheaper than the Envision Smart Glasses, they’re delivering a lot of bang for the buck, and they look pretty cool as well.
And there are people who like the idea of snapping a pic and being able to do things with that pic, like social media. It’s not just Meta, although Meta make it easy to send to their social media platforms. You can import the picture and post it on Mastodon, or X, or anywhere else that you are.
I also don’t quite get the same value that other people might get because I wear hearing aids, so I already have my iPhone being piped into the hearing aids. I worked very extensively with my audiologist to get great sound from this, so the hands-free aspect of the glasses don’t appeal to me as they would to somebody who doesn’t wear hearing aids.
I certainly see how attractive it is to have very good quality stereo sound on your head that isn’t covering your ears for meetings, or GPS apps or whatever. I have that anyway. But most people don’t, so I can certainly see that that’s a really compelling value proposition there.
We hear that Apple is working on smart glasses, and I’m looking forward to that because Apple is not perfect, but I do trust them when it comes to privacy more than any other company. I believe that privacy is in Apple’s DNA, and they have a strong record in that regard. So if there are good smart glasses with great accessibility features (and we know Apple has a well-earned, justified reputation for putting accessibility into everything it does these days), then I think that would be very exciting. And again, it will be a mainstream product, so the price will be a lot lower than the current Envision glasses.
I look forward to it all, but it could be some years away yet. But you look at what’s in your iPhone already, all the features that you can enable – people recognition, text reading, scene description, door detection, point and speak and you put those on a pair of glasses, pretty exciting. Those features do tend to work very well. Well, maybe not point and speak. I don’t have a lot of luck with point and speak, but the other ones are pretty good.
Back on Mastodon, the toot from David Goldfield, yes, elicited a reply from Chris Cook, and he said:
“I dumped my Facebook account 6 years ago. I was disgusted when I heard that they were saving up money to pay legal fees, of which they might owe an exorbitant amount.
Then some people were on WhatsApp, and I wanted to join a particular group of folks so I kept that app.
Then I did feel slightly conflicted about the Meta glasses. But I really wanted to experience them for what they do offer.
For the price, the sound is great. And I’ve been having fun taking videos.
I figured a mainstream company might be able to put more money into development that would improve what they offer, including the AI capabilities. I guess this is supporting them, but I’m choosing how much I want to get involved.”
And others have chimed in and said, “This is exactly the dilemma that we feel.” So the dilemma is real, but it is a pretty compelling thing to have a play with.
If you’ve got any experiences you’d like to share on the Meta Smart Glasses, of course, be in touch. LivingBlindfully.com/opinion.
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Listener Thoughts on the Closure of AppleVis
Voice message: Hello, Jonathan and everybody else on Living Blindfully. This is John Dowling.
Back in 2011, I got my first iPhone. It was the iPhone 4S, and I got it for my birthday. And as an 11-year-old, I was really excited to see what would happen because I’ve always kind of been into technology.
I first found out about the iPhone through a mutual friend of mine. We went to this blind camp in New Jersey, and he showed me his phone because I was curious, you know, how a blind person could use a touch screen. And he showed me, you know, how voiceover worked and that.
I was really excited, so I begged my parents to get me, you know, if I could have an iPhone.
About, I think 2013 is when I discovered AppleVis, and I discovered it through the iBlink Radio app, which is now called Sero. I was looking through the podcasts, and I found this thing called AppleVis. And I was like, hmm. What is this? I just started looking through the podcasts and I was like man, this is really cool.
And then in 2014, when I got my first MacBook Air, I really looked at the AppleVis website and I checked out some of the blog posts about how to get started with your first Mac. It was great.
And I just check the site religiously, and I’d listen to the podcasts all the time. I’d look forward to what people were saying.
And then when I found out that AppleVis would be closing, it just, it broke my heart, man, because you know, I’ve relied on that service for a lot of things. I valued the list of apps that users, including myself, had submitted. I submitted a couple of apps to this site.
And I loved how it brought app developers as well. It’s sad because now, where are the app developers, the indie ones that really care about accessibility, where are they going to get that feedback from the blind community?
I don’t know, I mean, it’s crazy, man. But I mean, in some respects, I can understand why David wants to close off the site. There were a lot of negativity, negative posts circulating, and that’s really sad, man. When you have a community that loves Apple products, you really shouldn’t have all these negative posts.
And I don’t know, man. I wish someone would take a step up and maybe offer some services to keep the site going because I don’t want to see it disappear. Even if he just keeps it in read-only, if we could figure out a way to just keep the website afloat because there are a lot of resources that can still be useful, listening back to the old podcasts and reading some of the old blog posts. I’m sure there are a lot of blind bloggers out there who have cited AppleVis as a source.
And if you look at some of their blog posts, after August 31st, that’s going to lead to a lot of dead page, broken pages, and it’s really sad, man. It truly is an end of an era, and I just don’t know what to say other than thank you, AppleVis. Thank you for giving voices to those of us who love Apple products.
I wish all the best for David and the rest of the AppleVis team as they transition on and go to separate projects. And I hope, I pray that something happens and they’re able to figure something out because I hate to see that website go down.
Caller: Hey, Jonathan. It’s Dennis Long. I’m calling about AppleVis going away.
We as a community need to do something. AppleVis is such an invaluable resource.
It was the reason I got my first iPhone, and many people got their first Apple device. It’s a place where you can go ask questions. The community comes together, you get answers. You get help. The AppleVis report card was a huge help, I think, in driving what needed to be fixed, and we need that collaborative effort. It can’t go away.
So the question becomes, how do we either save AppleVis, or if we have to start something new, how do we start something new but something that’s not a one-band thing where if one person decides (and I’m not faulting David at all, I understand why he decided to do this) but if one person decides, I don’t want to do it anymore, I gave enough of my time, I want a different lifestyle, I want to be able to do what I want when I want, that the whole project doesn’t go away?
I think that’s what we have to do. We have to focus on it, not being dependent upon one person.
So, do you have suggestions? Is this something maybe you thought about starting and putting a team of people together, and maybe getting the editorial team of AppleVis together, who has done an awesome job?
I mean, I just can’t say enough. But you know, I would love to see AppleVis, ideally, be saved. That’s the first choice.
And if that can’t be done, then a second choice would be, something has to be started. But, like I said, it’s not a one-band thing.
Jonathan’s Comments on the Closure of AppleVis
First, I want to acknowledge the considerable contribution AppleVis has made to our community.
Sometimes, a great idea comes along at the perfect time. And the timing of the launch of AppleVis was perfect, given the buzz caused by the arrival of the accessible iPhone 3GS in 2009.
By 2010, when AppleVis was launched, there was mounting interest. And it’s difficult to overstate what a paradigm shift the iPhone represented, so people were hungry for information. Quickly, AppleVis delivered many welcome initiatives like getting started guides, podcasts, and particularly the app directory.
As I have said repeatedly over the years, when we make our purchases, our money is every bit as good as everyone else’s, and it’s reasonable to expect that debilitating bugs will be fixed in a timely manner. In the early part of AppleVis’ history, I felt that the site leaned too much towards being a fan site for my personal tastes. That’s a perfectly valid type of site to run. But in my view, no company is perfect and as discerning consumers, we have not just the right, but the duty to respectfully, decisively state where the products we pay for are falling short. There was a school of thought back then that was pretty prominent that said, we’d better not be too critical of Apple, or they’ll get sick of us and take it all away, which of course completely neglects the legal obligation that Apple had to make an accessible device, which is what got them into this business in the first place. It wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts. It was out of the legal obligation because certain key elements of their business were in jeopardy. In earlier times, a lot of the work of advocacy fell to people like me, and some spot on resolutions adopted by the National Federation of the Blind.
But in recent years, I’m pleased to say AppleVis has become far more objective. I’ve been thrilled to see AppleVis relaxing its stance on discussing betas. This used to be taboo on the site so for many years now, I’ve been running a private email list where capable, dedicated testers can compare notes and ensure that we get quality data to Apple.
The report card, as Dennis stated, is an excellent, very welcome initiative. So AppleVis has been a strong and respected voice. No matter what happens next, it’ll always be remembered fondly.
I’ve now been around a long time, and I’ve seen many services (some specifically for the blind community, some not) come and go. Some are still dearly loved and missed. Here are just a few I can think of. I’ll start with an Apple-related one, since we’re talking about Apple things.
The Raised Dot Computing Newsletter.
Now, when I’d get that in the physical mail back in the 80s, everything would go on hold. And I’d devour every word of it to hear about the latest Apple hardware, games, BrailleEdit developments, and more.
The extraordinary thing about the RDC newsletter was that even though they were a commercial company, they would even allow competitors to promote their software running on the Apple platform. And we’re talking about the Apple IIe and similar in those days.
I miss NewsBits.
NewsBits was a cassette-based magazine produced in the late 80s, and I think early 90s, by Doug Wakefield. The production values of NewsBits were impeccable and inspiring. Later, when I started Main Menu, I figured that if I could have production values even half as good as NewsBits, I’d be doing okay. I still feel that way about Living Blindfully.
I miss Technical Innovations Bulletin, produced by IRTI. That was nowhere near as slick as NewsBits. But in a way, that was part of its charm.
I still remember being sternly told at the beginning of each bulletin that the toll-free number was for orders only.
I didn’t have access to it, but many of our older American listeners will reminisce fondly about Ed Potter’s Playback magazine, and the community that was built around that.
I miss Tactic magazine, a fantastic publication about computing produced by the legendary Deborah Kendrick.
Dean Martinow’s Sound Computing magazine was around when many of us were transitioning to Windows and the big switch to the internet was on. I actually heard an article I submitted to Sound Computing just the other day, and it reminded me of all sorts of software I’ve long since forgotten about.
More recently, many people will remember with fondness the podcasts produced by the Serotek Podcast Network. I remember the social media drama when Serotek chose to close that down. For some, it was like the world as we knew it was ending.
All these services were much loved, small operations, driven by one key person in most cases, and they provided information about technology to our community. With the exception of the Serotek example, when they closed, we didn’t have the global megaphone we now have to lament their demise, and sadly, in some cases, to ungratefully chastise their founders for making the right decision for them that they needed to move on.
As George Harrison said, all things must pass. And this is not a uniquely blindness thing.
There’s a void in your life when that diner around the corner, run by its gregarious proprietor who knows you by name, remembers your usual order, and knows just how you like it, closes down the business. Where do you go now?
Goods and services we depend on disappear. I remember covering the demise of the Roger app on my Blindside podcast, and how sad the community was about its demise.
The moment there is a beginning, you are inevitably starting the journey to its end, whenever that is. Even the sun will die one day, and life on this earth will end.
Clearly, AppleVis does leave a void. And I know for certain, based on information I’ve been given, that there are credible people who are willing to take the site over and do a tremendous job with it, offering a fresh perspective, perhaps developing it further in new ways. But in the end, whether that happens or not, is entirely the prerogative of David Goodwin.
So many people in life have an idea and say, someone should do something about that. Well, David not only had the idea, he chose to be the someone that did something about it.
So what does doing something about it actually involve? Well, I don’t know specifically about AppleVis but I can take a good guess, based on my own experience running a range of complex communities, starting all the way back in 1988 with my first bulletin board, the Out of Sight BBS.
You have a dream, and you choose to take the next bold tentative step – to sit down and turn that dream into something tangible. You painstakingly build it, test it, find out things you never knew before including barriers that at some point might seem insurmountable. But you finally overcome them.
And then, it’s time to launch it. There’s enthusiasm all over the place.
As the person who’s put in that hard work, you want this to be out there for people to like it and use it. That was the point of all this work, of all this creation. And if you’re lucky, the response from the community will be enthusiastic, as it was with AppleVis.
That enthusiasm quickly and inevitably manifests itself in demands. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But people will say, “This is a great start, but it’d be even better if you added this, or did this differently.”
This is particularly the case in the fast-paced world of technology, where the only constant is change. Things inevitably break. Databases might get corrupted. Third-party companies on whom, as the site owner, you rely experience issues. End users don’t know or care that the issue was out of your hands. All they care about is that the service they like isn’t working as expected.
So, regardless of what else might be going on, and even though you’re volunteering, you find yourself potentially drawn in to these issues, which can happen any time of the day or night. Even if those issues happen on Christmas Day, that doesn’t matter. Time to put the turkey in the microwave. There’s an issue that cannot wait.
People demand support. Some of it may be due to user error or confusion. Not everyone is polite about seeking that support. And occasionally, you wonder why you bother.
And then, we get on to the community part of it. At the risk of sounding like I want everyone to get off my lawn, the quality of public discourse really has deteriorated with social media’s widespread adoption. This is not a uniquely blindness thing. Blind people are a microcosm of the wider population. I’m an advocate for the equality of opportunity of blind people. And unfortunately, that means that blind people have the right to be just as much of a jerk as everybody else.
But when you’re moderating that crap, and you just like a little bit of downtime, but then some major grenade gets thrown into the system by some tragic individual who decides to do a bit of attention seeking or character assassination, well, there go your aspirations for a quiet evening. It is exhausting. And after a while, it can be soul-destroying. And by the way, this is also, more often than not, why you see Mastodon instances going offline, and why being a moderator on a site like Facebook is one of the most stressful jobs in the world. People get sick and tired of seeing the worst of human behavior, and they come to the conclusion that life’s too short and they have better things to do with the life that remains.
Can the burden be shared? Well, if the infrastructure is right, allowing for people to assume a range of roles or permissions on the system, it’s possible. There have to be clear content moderation guidelines, so forums are all being moderated consistently. It’s a big job, but it is doable.
In terms of legal structure, it may be possible for a not-for-profit entity to be established with an elected board of directors and a constitution providing guidance. Other sites in the blind community have followed this model. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, having something run by committee can stifle innovation. At other times, a falling out between key people can put a project in jeopardy.
And there is nothing wrong, nothing, with someone making money from a professionally delivered, consistently good service. I would be all for a future version of AppleVis or a replacement offering sponsorship and membership tiers.
I know, for example, that Living Blindfully would not still be going if I hadn’t made it a commercial venture last year. I was burning out, and I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who helps keep it alive.
So there’s no single surefire way to ensure that anything will go on indefinitely, but these things can lessen the chance of an early demise.
But if David decides not to pass on the site to someone, which is absolutely his right, then I feel sure something else will emerge. When such an obvious gap exists, it will be filled. It won’t have the same character as AppleVis if it’s something new. But who knows? It may be better in some ways.
The danger I see is that egos get in the way, and that rather than one single new site emerging that can play an equivalent role, there may be several smaller sites, which would therefore be less effective because the community is fragmented.
For those who care about this issue, and assuming AppleVis isn’t going to survive, it would be great to see a group of the best and brightest in our community working together to build a new technical and legal structure that will stand us in good stead for some time to come.
As someone who is tech savvy, keeps their finger on the pulse of technology, and has written and recorded a lot of Apple-related content over the years, some of it for AppleVis as it happens, I didn’t use the site as much as many of my listeners used it.
One area where it did add a lot of value for me though was the app directory. And here, I extend a challenge to, and ask a question of Apple itself. Why, Apple, are you segregating us? Why should we have to go to a separate website run by volunteers to browse an app directory that is maintained by even more volunteers just to try and find out if an app is accessible or not?
Apple has dropped the ball big time here, and they should do 2 things.
First, make the refund process much easier and built into the App Store itself. So if you try an app and it’s not accessible, there’s a very simple user interface for getting your money back.
And second, every app that gets published in the App Store is reviewed by Apple already. So why not incorporate accessibility as part of that review? When we open a page for an app in the App Store, why shouldn’t we be able to see the degree to which Apple considers this app accessible? Not just for VoiceOver users, but for people with a range of disabilities.
I ask again. Apple, why are you segregating us? And why are you, a multi trillion dollar company, having us do what should be your work?
But let me circle back to where I began. Right now, we owe a vote of thanks, appreciation, and gratitude to David Goodwin. I applaud him for doing the right thing for him and his family. I hope he finds the more peaceful life he seeks. We are not entitled to AppleVis, but David Goodwin is entitled to live the life he wants.
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Blind Barbie
Let’s talk more about blind Barbie.
And we start off in Alpharetta, Georgia, where Loy Green is writing in. He says:
“I heard the comment about the Barbie doll having dark glasses might be precipitating the stereotype of blindness.
Well, I wear dark glasses, and I wear them for a reason. My eyes are not pleasant to view.
I think most blind people that wear dark glasses do it for a reason, and not just to let others know they are blind. If people create this stereotype, we should not be shamed because of it.
I don’t know a lot of blind people, so I don’t know if a large number do wear dark glasses. I used to see stars like Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Millsap, and Ray Charles, who all wore dark glasses.”
Thanks very much, Loy. I very much appreciate you writing in with that perspective.
And in New Zealand, Jeanie Willis is writing in. She says:
“Hi, Jonathan,
I was pleased to hear in your comments about this, that the new blind Barbie doll is wearing heels, and presumably has the crazy slanted feet and other features common to the general Barbie dolls. No matter what anyone thinks of the absurd anatomical incorrectness of Barbie, it was important to me that the blind Barbie is, in that respect, the same as all her peers. She looks no different. And her clothes, although with some hidden velcro, are in Barbie terms, attractive and coordinated.
Carolyn’s message sparked some lively discussion on the list here. But one of the outcomes was a sighted spouse was able to provide some more description from the photo, and one of the important points was that she was pictured with the sunglasses pushed up on the top of her head, like a hairband. So if this is how she is in the box, the stereotypical nature of these has been removed and instead, they are there as an accessory.
So as someone chooses to purchase her, the only defining thing will be the cane, and a slightly upward and outward gaze to her eyes, as if not quite focusing on what is immediately in front of her. Again, a little stereotypical, I think, but something I’m sure we all do from time to time when not concentrating on looking at a particular person or thing, and especially if focusing on listening instead.
The word Barbie on the box being in Braille is a nice touch, but I think they really missed a chance to promote Braille here. What a shame she doesn’t have a Braille display accessory with a little tiny Turtleback case, With of course, more Velcro? As we all know, getting those things stretched to those domes first time is not child’s play.
I think overall, it sounds like they have done a pretty good job. And I think at least some applause for attempting to do this and attempting to consult with the blind community as best they knew how.
I suspect getting this perfectly right to make everyone comfortable with the result might be an impossible task.”
Are There Players for the PC That Support Podcast Chapters?
Here’s Walt Smith. He says:
“I heard you mention that some RSS players allow one to zero in on specific chapters and save them for future reference, so that you don’t have to plough through the whole podcast in order to locate a specific article that you want to be able to hear again.
Can you give us the name of one or two such applications for the PC?”
I don’t know whether there are any for the PC, Walt.
There are a bunch for the iPhone, and you have one in your hot hands right now, because I know that you recently got a Victor Reader Stream because you wrote a comprehensive review of this. The Victor Reader Stream supports chapters. So if you listen to Living Blindfully in the latest Victor Reader Stream, you can zap between sections of this podcast.
Each listener contribution is its own section. So if a listener waffles on, and you decide you want to skip to the next section, you can press a key and jump to that next chapter. We segment by interview, all sorts of things like that. If we’re doing a tutorial that goes for a long time, there are multiple sections in each tutorial. So we do make quite liberal and hopefully helpful use of chapters.
If anyone’s using an app on their PC that supports podcast chapters, then please spill. Spill, I ask you.
I think that VLC may support chapters. But then, I heard somewhere that that might not always be particularly reliable. So anyway, I won’t speculate. I won’t guess.
If you’ve got this sorted and you’re able to skip between chapters on a PC, let us know what software is facilitating that. You can find all the ways to be in touch with the podcast by going to LivingBlindfully.com/opinion.
Who Should I Donate to?
Caller: Hi, Jonathan! My name… I’d rather not say my name, I guess. I’m calling from the United States.
I’m a guy, elderly, with a fairly large sum of money and not a lot of family to give it to when I pass. And I’m curious (and I don’t want to have my name or any of this put over the phone) other than what you think a guy like me would have as a best donation in the case of low vision or blindness, whether that’s equipment for people, medical, technology? Just if somehow, on your podcast, you could say where, if somebody wanted to donate to blind and low vision people, as their last rites with a large sum of money should put it.
Thank you very much.
Jonathan: Well, I can understand why you don’t want to give your name on the podcast. Otherwise, you might have a whole lot of previously unheard of long lost uncles being in touch. [laughs]
This is obviously a very personal decision, and I think it does come down to values and finding an organization that squares with your own values, an organization whose purposes you want to advance. For example, if it were me, I would personally want to donate to a program that advances the civil rights of blind people, that is blindness controlled, that seeks to provide quality services, so I’d be leaning towards something like the National Federation of the Blind if I were in the United States.
On the other hand, there are several guide dog schools in the United States that are running bequest programs, of course. And if guide dogs are your thing, then that’s another option for you.
You did specifically mention technology, and I know there are organizations that provide a range of technological programs. It might be tech instruction.
It might be an organization like Computers for the Blind. Now, I know Computers for the Blind in the United States are a not-for-profit so they probably do accept cash donations. And they do a good job, you know. They put computers in the hands of people who otherwise couldn’t afford them. And they’re well maintained, I understand, and they’re great machines, and they come all preloaded with assistive technology, and they do some good stuff as well.
Undoubtedly, there’s a range of very good, attractive options that might suit your particular value set, which is obviously really important. And most of these organizations do have staff members on the team who handle bequests and major donations. They will sit down with you, and they will discuss what they would do with the money, should they receive it. And you can get some guarantees. As a donor, you do have a lot of control. You can tag the donation so if you give to an organization, you can stipulate that there are specific purposes to which you want this money put.
Now, having led an organization that runs fundraising initiatives like this, I can tell you that is frustrating because what can happen then is that you get a program that’s oversubscribed, while a very useful, important, worthwhile program is not. And you can’t use money that’s sloshing around for a very worthwhile program, because that money is tagged to specific endeavors.
But nevertheless, it’s yours, and you have the right to do with it what you will.
If anyone else wants to chime in on this, it’s an interesting discussion. If you had a large sum of money, where would you donate it in the blindness space to have the greatest impact that aligns with your values?
Get in touch, you can find out all the ways to do that by going to LivingBlindfully.com/opinion. There is a summary of contact options there. LivingBlindfully.com/opinion.
Castro and Autonomous Vehicles
Voice message: Hello, Jonathan and all Living Blindfully listeners. My name is Michael Chopra, and I have a couple of things I want to mention.
Firstly, Jonathan, you mentioned on quite a few episodes about Castro podcast plan. A while ago, you mentioned you were having issues with it freezing, or other people have also mentioned the same thing – issues with it freezing when playing podcasts, and things like that.
In 2024.6, that has been fixed. There’s notification summary fixes, and something else, and playback fixes as well. So, that has been fixed.
My second topic is on the subject of autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars, if you want to call them that.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do see the point of them. However, I am one of those people that will not go into a self-driving car without someone being there for the first time. I understand that they are designed to keep people safe. However, I wouldn’t feel safe if I went in there by myself for the first time. It’s why I’d go in there and enter one of these with someone who has a working pair of eyes so that they can take over if something bad happens.
Jonathan: Much more on autonomous vehicles in just a moment.
Thanks for the contribution, Michael.
Just covering Castro briefly, it’s good to be back on there. As I’ve mentioned in a previous episode, it does seem to be working quite well.
But there is a very serious accessibility bug. The first one is obviously the one I’ve been going on about for some time now, which is that it doesn’t speak the source of the podcast in the inbox. But since they introduced the system where you can now drill down by categories and create folders, and all the things that we liked Castro for not having because it was just such a simple way of what they called triaging podcasts, they’ve broken the paradigm. But they’re not particularly accessible, because what happens is focus goes all over the place. You think you are in the all category. And then, something happens, and it’s hard to find your place. It is pretty horrible, but I still persist with it because given the large number of podcasts that I have, even with those buggaboos, it still saves me a lot of time compared to manually deleting podcasts in Overcast, which I’m sure it’s temporary, but for the moment has deteriorated in terms of accessibility with its rewrite.
Regarding self-driving vehicles, that’s okay, I reckon, because you have to do what’s right for you.
And the thing is, there’s no shortage of guinea pigs who will jump at the chance to leap into one of these self-driving vehicles, where I believe a manual driver taking over isn’t actually an option anyway.
Real-world User Experiences of Blind People in Autonomous Vehicles
Listen to this, or listen to these, should I say.
Voice message: Hey, everyone! This is Jesu from the Netherlands. Just wanted to share a bit of a story after listening to the self-driving cars interview. Great interview, by the way.
So when I was visiting the US in March of 2023, I really wanted to drive a self-driving car. It’s one of my dreams, honestly, to be able to just travel wherever I want to go, have that freedom. And in San Francisco is the city with, I think, one of the most accessible self-driving car services that you can try as a regular passenger.
So I thought okay, I’m in San Francisco now. We won’t have this technology in our country for a long while, so I need to try this.
I did. And at first, it proved to be a bit of a challenge because you need to be on a waitlist. You have to have access. You have to be in the beta of those self-driving car tests.
And what I did was I reached out to both Waymo and Cruise. Those were the companies that were doing tests with self-driving cars back in 2023 in San Francisco, and I just told them the story like, hey, I would love to give this a try. I would love to have this experience, but I cannot do that in my home country. Is there anything that’s possible?
They were really enthusiastic, and they allowed me to try their app for free in my time in San Francisco. It was a great experience, just being able to use an app to call up a self-driving vehicle that would just pull up to the street where you were. You could just hop in the back of the car.
The interesting thing is, you cannot hop in the driver’s seat. That was my first instinct to do, just get into the driver’s seat of that car. But that’s not something that you’re able to do. I don’t know why.
But then, you could just get in the car and it would drive itself.
How does it feel? Well, not much different than what it would feel like for a regular Uber ride, or taxi ride or whatever. It feels like it’s a bit of a nervous driver sometimes. It will stop a lot, and it will be a bit slow sometimes, slower than a normal human would be. But it also felt very smooth most of the time, and it was a great experience.
And once you get out of the car, you just open the door, you get out, close the door. And within 10 seconds or so, it just zooms off, and it’s gone.
It was a great experience, and I would recommend anyone who is visiting the US or any other country where trials with self-driving cars are a thing, do try doing that. And also, don’t be shy and just reach out to those companies because they really do care about accessibility, and they really are open for giving people this experience.
Jonathan: Dude! Dude, I do so want to do this. And one day, when I get around to doing it, we will record it for the podcast, that’s for sure.
Thanks for that amazing account.
And here is a similar testimonial from Judy Dixon. She says:
“I have been following with interest the conversation about self-driving vehicles.
In April, I had the opportunity to take a 15-minute trip in a Waymo car in San Francisco. I have to say, that was one of the most exciting things I have ever done.”
I’m so envious.
“I did not find it at all frightening, but it was a bit surreal.
To address a couple of the issues that have been raised, the experience is very much like taking an Uber or Lyft. The app manages most everything.
When the car arrives, the app tells you, of course, but there is a honk horn button, so you can honk your car’s horn repeatedly to help find your car.”
That might irritate people around you. But I guess it’s practical, right?
“When you have found it, you unlock the car with the app. So no one else can just get in the car, and you don’t need to worry about getting in the wrong car.
Under accessibility features, the app has a verbosity mode which, when turned on, tells you a bit about what is happening. It says things like, slowing for traffic on Vine Street, or turning on to Spring Street. It didn’t say everything it was doing, and I didn’t find it annoying at all.
The issue of where you are when the car drops you off has not been very well thought through. My car dropped me off several hundred feet down the street from my hotel. The app did not have any feature to indicate the direction of my desired drop-off spot. I had to use a different GPS app to see where I was, and then figure out which direction to go to get to my hotel. I think, this problem could easily be solved with another feature in the app.
All in all, it seemed very well thought out for a blind passenger, and it was really, really fun.”
Thank you, Judy!
Oh man, I really cannot wait to try this.
Poor Telegram Accessibility
This email comes from Regiba, and it says:
“I have my channel on Telegram, and my business is based on this social network. Telegram’s inaccessibility makes managing my business difficult, and makes me feel inferior.
This is not just a problem only for me, but for many people. Many blind people – students, teachers, athletes, and representatives of other professions feel disadvantaged and inferior because they cannot use Telegram to its full extent.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 285 million people worldwide suffer from visual impairment or blindness. Of this number, most use assistive technology.
We call on the Telegram developers to improve the accessibility of their application for VoiceOver users so that all people, regardless of their possibility to see, can fully use this social network.
I wrote my petition, and have many signatures already. I want Telegram developers to support the possibility of equality of all internet users, but they don’t give any answers and don’t do anything to correct Telegram bugs for blind people.
I want to receive a piece of advice from you. What can we do to make Telegram more accessible for us?”
Yeah, I know there are some third-party apps that are sort of reasonable. There is some Telegram support built into Tweesecake, and I think I may have seen a couple of other apps that do have some accessible offerings.
But last time I looked at Telegram which was a couple of years ago now, the iOS app was in a most unfortunate state. And there was another third-party app that was specifically for blind users on iOS, and that kind of went away.
It sounds like the petition route is a good idea, trying to raise awareness of this, and get some support within the blind community. If you want to send me the link to that petition, I’ll gladly share it with the Living Blindfully family because I’m sure that there are people who would want to be a part of that as well.
And I’ll do a bit of research and see if I can find out who we might talk to on the podcast about this, because Telegram is a pretty significant force. And to be deprived of access to it, I agree. It’s not acceptable, but it sounds like they’re just not engaging. And when you get a company that isn’t engaging, it can be very tricky.
Obviously, in some parts of the world, there may be some civil rights options available to you. And I’m not sure where you’re based, but there may be an advocacy organization who can assist. There may be some legislative options that might be exercised.
I’m feeling pretty positive about some of the things the EU is up to these days. They’re really causing a bit of disruption in the technology industry. Telegram is used quite extensively in parts of the EU, and that might be an option worth considering as well.
So others may have some thoughts on this, and there may be some third-party apps that people want to tell us about regarding Telegram accessibility. But sure, the official apps ought to be accessible.
I welcome anyone’s thoughts on this. You can go to LivingBlindfully.com/opinion, and the ways to be in touch are all listed there, if you’d like to share your opinion. LivingBlindfully.com/opinion.
The UK Elections
Voice message: Hello, Jonathan and all the Living Blindfully family.
Nice to be using WhatsApp, a lot simpler.
And I’m still using Castro, a lot easier for me now. Flick up, put it in the queue, and play.
Well, as you’ll hint at politics, Jonathan, you’ll know that we’ve just had our election, and I found it a very angry vote. Only 59 or so percent of the country voted.
And whether the right party got into power, I can’t really say. But my candidate came second in the constituency that I’m in, and she represents a green party.
This is probably after reading a book called Six Degrees by Tom Linus. It was a revised edition, I think, and it brought it home to you when you read about big chunks of the ice cap disappearing, and melting, and raising the sea levels. So that’s probably why I voted green, to be quite honest with you. I’m a relic now, so what I want is a greener planet for the time that we have left.
Thank you for all the interesting programs.
I find it easier to contact you now because to be quite honest, I couldn’t be bothered to type in opinion@LivingBlindfully.com in the email. I’m so old, I forgot where I was halfway through.
But anyway, it’s nice to hear all the comments, and it’ll be great to hear a lot of people on WhatsApp as well. So happy listening, Living Blindfully family, and take care and good wishes.
Jonathan: I’m pretty sure that’s Peter. Thank you very much, Peter.
We’ll all have to get used to identifying ourselves on WhatsApp. Otherwise, I’m going on my memory of listeners who’ve contributed before.
Yes, I was in the United States when the UK election went down. I was actually on a long international flight when the UK election was called, and I was connected to my ExpressVPN and just listening to BBC Radio for something to do on a very very long flight. And I was aghast, I was aghast that Sunak had done that.
And on the 4th of July, I cleared my diary for a little bit so that I could hear the exit poll. And just after the exit poll was announced with the landslide victory for Labour, there was a massive thunder clap in Florida where I was.
It’s a somewhat distorted picture though, of course, and you get these very skewed results as a result of the first pass to the post electoral system, which is something New Zealand had until 1996.
And now, we have proportional representation. And minor parties like the Greens do much better under a proportional representation system.
But from this distance, it certainly appeared that not too many people felt particularly inspired by that election campaign.
It would be good to hear from our friends in the UK about what they are expecting from the Starmer Labour Government. Were any significant commitments extracted from them during the election? Do you expect life to get any better?
LivingBlindfully.com/opinion with all the information about how to be in touch, if you’d like to let me know how you’re feeling over in the UK about the new government and whether your expectations are high, or whether by and large you think it’s going to be same old, same old.
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Thermomix Food Processors
Voice message: Hi, Jonathan! It’s Cam here from Australia.
On episode 290, I heard your post about the Thermomix. I can confirm that the TM31 is, to my knowledge, the only accessible one. The lady who described it described it perfectly, and it is incredibly beneficial to blind folks in terms of cooking.
Thermomix sells through consultants, and I have raised it with the consultants to give the feedback to Vorwerk. But so far, no luck. It would be great to hear if people in the US have raised it.
It would be absolutely amazing if speech could be built into the Thermomix because the way it cooks, it’s all on temperature and timing. So it’s very very easy for blind people to use, provided it’s accessible.
So yeah, any information from the US or the UK would be fantastic. But so far, unfortunately, we haven’t had much luck in getting progress to make it accessible.
One thing I would possibly suggest to blind owners of Thermomix TM31s, one option might be to try and buy a second one so that if something breaks down with the first one where you can’t get parts or something like that, you’ve always got a second machine. There should be a few of them floating around in the second hand market.
Anyhow, Jonathan, keep up the great work, and thanks so much.
Rediscovering Braille
Fanny is back in touch, and she says:
“I’d like to contribute to your Braille talk in episode 288, and to share my latest experience of rediscovering Braille reading.
I’m also one of those blind people who speaks about reading when consuming an audio book or any book by TTS. I experienced it exactly the way your interview partner described it. From the time that audio books have been available as audio files, easily to carry around on portable MP3 players, I stopped consuming books by reading them in Braille. The Braille books and magazines were just too bulky, needing way too much space. So for a long time, this audio way of consumption has been my only access to books or magazines without the feeling of missing something. And in the same way as I use watch TV as my expression for consuming TV content, I use reading as my expression for consuming written content.
But maybe that’s going to change now, for currently, I’m rediscovering Braille reading.
I was lucky to win a Brailliant BI-20X at a music competition in 2021, together with a friend of mine.”
Well, look at you go.
“Because she already had a Braille notetaker, the unit stayed with me.
At first, I really couldn’t get into it. The translation from and into German contracted Braille didn’t satisfy me at all, either on the Braille display itself or iOS.
But then, the RTFC Braille table got implemented, first into the software for the Brailliant, and later onto Apple’s operating system. That improved the translation experience significantly.
So first, I started to use my Brailliant as a notetaker from time to time. And in the last few days, I’ve decided to give it another try on iOS. I started to read a new book in Apple’s Books app, and I was surprised how smooth the experience has been. As I often did as a child and a youngster, I chose music that matched the content of the book while reading, and a long forgotten feeling of enjoying real reading overwhelmed me.
I cannot say that I’d ever truly been completely out of Braille usage. I always used a Braille display at my work, and as soon as I got aware of it, Braille input on the phone. And as I mentioned before, I never have been missing anything not reading on paper anymore. That’s why my emotional reaction to this experience surprised me a lot. But that makes me understand your point of view on the definition of reading much better, and raises my personal awareness of the ability to really read for myself.”
Good on you, Fanny. Keep up that Braille reading.
It’s a great device, the old Brailliant. Bonnie’s got one here, and she’s rocking it. It’s becoming increasingly capable.
Another Benefit of Living Blindfully Transcripts
I don’t know who sent this. I only have their phone number, which I won’t divulge because it’s come through on the WhatsApp.
But it’s an interesting thing. It says:
“Hi, Jonathan,
I just discovered an unexpected and awesome benefit of having transcriptions of Living Blindfully. I can ask ChatGPT for the content of a given episode, find an episode with specific content, or just answer a question using content from the podcast.
Here is an example.
User: What are Jonathan’s thoughts on the Inclusive Language Guide from Be My Eyes, and what was the first episode in which he covered this topic?
ChatGPT: Jonathan Mosen’s thoughts on the Be My Eyes Inclusive Language Guide were quite critical.”
See, I’m not sure that’s that accurate. My thoughts were generally applauding a lot of what they said.
Anyway, it says:
“He found some of the suggested language changes to be overly picky and not necessarily yielding significant positive outcomes. For instance, he questioned the necessity of replacing terms like Totally Blind with Fully Blind, and Went Blind with Became Blind, as he didn’t see a meaningful difference in their impact.
He did, however, understand the rationale behind avoiding terms that imply blind people lack independence, appreciating the emphasis on the functionality of access tools instead.
Overall, Jonathan expressed scepticism about many of the guide’s recommendations, seeing them as excessively meticulous without clear benefits.”
So I find that interesting because it’s not factually incorrect when it talks about some of the objections I raised, but I think it is factually incorrect to therefore conclude that I was very critical.
There were just a few terms towards the end there. I think it was in the final part where I was not really on board. But it does give the citations.
And then, ChatGPT continues:
“The first episode in which Jonathan covered this topic was episode 287, where he discussed the guide in detail and also featured Bryan Bashin from Be My Eyes to talk about its development and implications.”
The listener writing in on this continues:
“The answer from the chat contains direct links to the transcribed episode, making it easier to either verify the answer or listen to the specific episode for more details.
You could even create a custom GPT specifically to obtain information about the podcast and link to it from the website.”
Yeah. I have been thinking about doing exactly this, actually.
“You probably knew this already. I just had a really good time playing with it, and wanted to share it with you and the listeners, who I’m sure will find it helpful. This can probably be done with other AI based services out there.
Don’t we live in an interesting world?
Thanks for writing in with that.
Idea for New iPhone Users, Nature Sounds App, Personal Voice
Here are a few thoughts from Ian Harrison, who says:
“While listening to your great round up of WWDC, I came up with an idea, I think.
Many years ago, I tried to advocate to blind people how great the iPhone was for me as a newly blind person. I even tried, without success, to persuade my local Apple store to have promotional events and training for our particular group.
Since then, the accessibility settings in iOS have grown exponentially. And in that, it has created its own problems. Even an experienced user can struggle to spot new options, or find them when learned about.
I wondered whether Apple could be persuaded, or a clever person could produce an automation that could semi-automate how to set up a default group of settings relating to a new user’s accessibility issues. For example, creating a tick list of challenges such as blind, partially sighted, deaf, deaf-blind, motor issues, etc. That could then run an automation that would switch on and off most of the popular options for each access issue. If it had to be coded, then some third-party help would be needed on setup. But if Apple could do it, then it could be part of their initial setup out of the box, like many of the other options we now go through.
What do people think? And has someone already attempted this?”
It’s an interesting question, Ian.
When you start a Mac up, if you leave it idle long enough, a little speech message comes on and tells you about how to turn VoiceOver on, which is a very nice touch. You don’t get that on the iPhone. So you hopefully know to triple click the side button to get VoiceOver talking, and off you go.
I’m not sure what other features one might choose to set by default once you have VoiceOver on because so many of these things are a matter of personal preference. But it is an interesting thing to contemplate.
I certainly agree with you that as Apple Accessibility has become more comprehensive and more powerful, that choice brings with it complexity, especially for the new user.
I’m not aware that anyone’s attempted this. And because of the walled garden that Apple still is, you know, they build ways in, but they have to have built those ways in. I suspect it would be something that were it to be done, Apple would be required to do it.
Ian says:
“On your recent podcast, a guest mentioned the Nature Sounds app as good for relaxation. I downloaded it, but cannot seem to get it working properly.
When opened, you are presented with a list of soundscapes and what seems to be unrelated sliders that go from 0 to 100%. I clicked on the first in the list called Calm Sea. It started playing, and was very nice.
However, when I clicked on another in the list, the app continued to play the previous soundscape. I get the feeling that there is more on the screen, such as buttons and descriptions, that are not VO compatible. Or do you have to subscribe to gain proper control of what looks like a very nice list?”
Well, Ian, I think we may be talking about different apps. I’m pretty confident the one that we were talking about is called Nature Space, and that is a very accessible app. They have a large catalog from which you can purchase different soundtracks.
I’ve just had a play with Nature Space to make sure they didn’t break accessibility since I last used it, and it still seems as good and viable as it ever was. So if it’s not Nature Space that you have, I’d recommend giving that a try and see what you think.
If it is Nature Space you have, I can’t account for that because it’s really accessible at this end. I was able to switch from one soundscape to another.
“Finally, Personal Voice.”, says Ian. “This feature was also mentioned on a recent podcast.
I thought I would have a go at training my 15 Pro just for laughs, really.
I came across what seems to be a catch 22 in the process. When recording the training sessions, you have to read out specific phrases. Using VoiceOver causes an obvious problem here. I thought, “I know. I will use Bluetooth AirPods to hear the phrase.” Feeling very clever, I tried this, and received the message that the recording could not take place.
Have you a known solution for training Personal Voice on your own as a VoiceOver user?”
Ian, I did this with a Braille display. I turned off speech and all the sounds to ensure that they didn’t conflict with the recordings, and I sat there with my Braille display and did it that way.
If that’s not an option for you because you’re not a Braille reader or don’t have access to a display, I wonder whether just plugging in ordinary wired headphones might help.
Perhaps, people who are speech-only users and who have successfully set up Personal Voice can comment on the techniques that they’ve used to train their voices. LivingBlindfully.com/opinion is how you can be in touch.
TalkBack on Smart TVs
John says:
“I have heard that it is possible to use TalkBack on Smart TV.
Is this true? Have you ever done this? How well does it work? Is it worth using on Smart TVs?”
Well, John, it is possible on some smart TVs if they’re running what used to be called Android TV. I think that may be still around.
And way back in The Blindside Archives, I did a review of a Sony Bravia TV that had TalkBack on it. There was also a special Sony version of TalkBack. And what I found was that if you ran the official Google version of TalkBack at the time (and I’m talking 7 years ago, so I don’t have current knowledge of the situation), but the Android version of TalkBack did not work as well as the Sony TalkBack. That would, for example, read, I think it was the TV Guide and a few other things that Google TalkBack did not.
For quite some time now, we’ve been using a Samsung Smart TV, and they have their own operating system and their own screen reader. That’s what I’ve been using, gosh, for 4 or 5 years now, and we’re quite happy with that. So I don’t have any updated information on the state of TalkBack on smart TVs that are compatible with it.
People are welcome to let us know. Go to LivingBlindfully.com/opinion to find out how to be in touch. If you’ve recently used a television that has TalkBack on it, how well is it working? Can you do everything on it? Can you go through the TV guide?Change all the settings you need to change? Let us know what the state of play is for TalkBack on TVs these days.
ThinkBios Utility and Zoom H1 Essential
Voice message: Hello! This is Alex from Pennsylvania, and I had a few things I want to talk about today.
The first thing we’re going to start with is the Lenovo ThinkPad BIOS thing. You know, I think this is a very important tool, and I hope that they would consider writing a version for the IdeaPads as well as for the ThinkPads.
Now, there is a tool that you can use for the IdeaPads. It’s not as extreme as this tool, but you can change certain BIOS things like you can change the cooling policies, extreme performance versus moderate performance. I forget what the actual wording is, but something like that. You can also change things like the function keys, and I think you can also change like flip to turn on for the lid, and a few other things.
But I don’t think you could change boot order in the Vantage application. It would be nice if they could have this. And I think that this is a really cool idea to do it within Windows because then, you don’t have to go into the UEFI firmware to do it. I think that is a really neat idea to do.
And I wish that other manufacturers would do this too. Like, for example, I bought a new HP laptop. The HP laptop I bought from a distributor. I had to do some stuff to it, and I was not able to boot into the Windows CD.
I learned recently why, and that’s because for some reason, they decided to turn off USB booting. They decided to disable that for some reason.
And so I was able to reset the BIOS and I was able to bring that back, and a few other things that were turned off. So my machine is 100% operable now.
I found that very weird. When I got this computer, there was no WinRe recovery environment, and there was no important stuff like that. So that was why I wanted to do a bit like a repair, or whatever you want to call it, install. So I was able to do that with reinstalling Windows by resetting my BIOS settings, and I had USB booting back.
The reason why I think they did that, according to my good buddy ChatGPT, that was because they wanted to make sure that people didn’t do anything that was going to possibly destroy the machine or whatever. And that’s where I worry now that if I order from this particular distributor again, that they might try to password-protect the BIOS now. That really does concern me. And how am I supposed to reset or change anything if there’s a password and we don’t have the password? I would hope that they wouldn’t do that. But I think that people are assuming that the people who buy from this particular vendor are not advanced computer users. So I’m guessing that’s what that’s about.
Now, the next thing I wanted to talk about real quick is the Zoom H1 Essential.
I got my Zoom H1 Essential today, and I was able to upgrade it to the latest firmware which is 1.20. Now, I can hold the menu key down and you have the accessibility shortcut turn on or off.
So my quick observations of the Zoom H1 are as follows.
First of all, I do like the microphone quality very much. I know that in the podcast, we were discussing that the possibility that the mics might be a little bit different. And I think that’s true to a point, but my opinion is that the mics, since they’re all made by Zoom, probably have some similarity in terms of quality. So yeah, the Zoom H1 being the smallest, I think, might lose a little bit of mic quality, but not much. It’s very very good.
It’s definitely better than my little Olympus that I have. But it’s good enough, and certainly better than the Zoom H1 original, so that’s good.
I was able to set the clock and everything. Everything was good, and the clock was set and you know, I had no issue with that.
I would like them to do a firmware update where, an accessibility update of the firmware, where it won’t say acceessibility. It’d be nice if it said accessibility properly instead of acceessibility. But I’m guessing over time, they’ll do that. I know there was a Zoom H6 update not long ago, I think. So maybe they can spend some time soon, in a couple of weeks, on the Zoom H1 firmware. There are a few little annoyances, but nothing that suggests that I want to take it back.
So very proud of Zoom, and I’m keeping this. This is definitely a keeper.
And I think that people should consider getting these recorders, if they want a recorder that’s going to be 32-bit float because you know, the Olympuses obviously don’t do that. And the Olympuses, I think, are good for if you’re going to be recording directly to MP3, or you might want to use some of your recording capabilities for smaller things. But for good recordings, this, I think, is definitely the way to go.
I know there’s other recorders out there, like Tascam and stuff, but Zoom does a pretty darn good job at getting the job done, and I’m very impressed with that. Plus, I’ve heard videos on the Zoom, and so nothing to be concerned about.
I would like to see them, if they haven’t done it yet, a Zoom accessibility pack for the H1 Essential. That would be kind of neat to see an accessibility pack, maybe containing a windscreen, a tripod mount, a tripod itself, or one of those things, mic stand thing, the little monopod thing that came with my Zoom H1 Original accessory pack. Plus, it’d be nice to see a USB AC adapter type thing. Who knows?
And finally, I just wanted to say real quick that there’s a little thing that I’m learning about Windows. I know I’ve talked about Windows 10 support ending in 2025, and what would happen when it ended.
But my understanding is there’s another option. There is a thing called Zero Patch. My understanding is that Zero Patch will patch security flaws and update, you know, make sure that the flaws are filled in so that the operating system can remain safe for 5 years. They act like they’re going to do this for 5 years. Now, I don’t know the pricing yet, but I do know that they are going to be doing it till 2030.
So it’s Zero Patch. I’ve never heard of this program before. There’s this YouTube channel that I like – Windows Computer and Technology, and they talk about all cool stuff related to Windows and other types of stuff that I find important, and that other users find important. So Zero Patch.
Jonathan: Well, Alex, you only have to wish, and we will make it so. There are now accessory packs available for the Essential Series.
For example, if you look on Zoom’s website, you’ll now find the H1 Essential Pack which includes a hairy windscreen to get rid of all those naughty plosives that you’ll definitely get if you don’t have a hairy windscreen on that device. You get a case for the device to protect it, a USB cable, and a power adapter to plug that cable into.
There are similar packs available for the H4 Essential and the H6 Essential. So they’re available from Zoom now.
Tandom Mobi Insulin Pump
Voice message: Hi, Jonathan! This is Justin Daubenmire from North America. Just reaching back out.
I’d sent a message earlier about asking all of you, the community, about an insulin pump for a type 1 diabetic who’s blind. I happen to be blind and have type 1 diabetes.
It was shortly after sending out that message that I came across a strong possibility of an accessible insulin pump, and this is the Tandom Mobi. Tandom is the company (T-A-N-D-O-M), Mobi is the pump (M-O-B-I).
What’s awesome about this pump is it does not have a screen. It’s very small and it’s fully operated from an iPhone app, and they currently only have this for iOS. It is not available for Android. It was released in North America in February.
And so I went to the App Store. I downloaded the Tandom Mobi iPhone app and went through the setup process entirely independently. The app was fully accessible, at least in the first 2 or 3 screens where you had to adjust and pick certain things and put your name, email, and then adjusting your range for your blood sugar and things like this.
This is a strong possibility. I’m actually a retired computer programmer, and I’ve reached out to them and said I’d love to be able to help test.
So I would encourage people who’s listening who is a blind diabetic. Go on to the App Store, download the app Tandom Mobi, and leave a review and tell them that you’re blind, and you’d like for them to follow the Apple Developer Accessibility Guidelines for the app so that we can use it.
I noticed in reviews on this app, they do give an 800 number to call, and there’s an email address that can be emailed. I’ve not done that yet, but I plan on it.
I’m excited because this would greatly simplify my diabetes management, and it just seems like a very solid potential. So I’m eventually going to get this pump (probably not till the end of this year, just because it’s so hard to get into an endocrinologist where I live).
But yeah, it came out in February. They’re working through a lot of the corks in the software and, you know, things like that.
So hopefully, somebody finds this helpful.
And when I do get the insulin pump, I will report back. Again, it will be toward the end of this year. My endocrinologist appointment is in September. And I would imagine after that, October, November, I’ll get the pump and start using it.
So just wanted to follow up with that.
Jonathan: Thanks very much, Justin! I appreciate that.
And in next week’s episode, we are going to go back to this important discussion about inaccessible medical devices and the dire consequences they are having for blind people. We’ve got some compelling discussion to have on this next week.
Since we introduced WhatsApp into the mix, we have had a phenomenal amount of listener feedback, so we’re working our way through it. There is a massive backlog, but that is going to be an important discussion in next week’s episode.
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Closing and Contact Info
And that’s where we leave it.
I hope that if you are a new Living Blindfully plus subscriber through Apple Podcasts, you’re enjoying that. I have been contacted by people who have said, thanks for finally adding that. You know me, glad to be of service.
I look forward to being back with you next week.
Remember, when you’re out there with your guide dog, you’ve harnessed success. And with your cane, you’re able.
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