The iACast Network

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Episode NotesIn this episode of the iACast podcast, we have a group of hosts including Jeff Bishop, Marty Sobo, Lynn Schneider, Taylor Arndt and Michael Doise. We start by discussing our excitement for the upcoming Apple event and the release of new iPhones. We express differing opinions on whether we prefer the software or hardware announcements and mention the prevalence of rumors before Apple events. We then move on to discuss our hopes for what we would like to see on the new devices, including the possibility of a “one more thing” announcement.

Next, we decide to discuss non-iPhone topics first before diving into AirPods and the rumors of a USB-C case. We express our desire for a single cable to charge all our devices and discuss the possibility of waiting for the next generation of AirPods Pro. We propose the idea of buying just the case for the original AirPods Pro 2 that we already own and consider the environmental impact of releasing a new case with USB-C.

Moving on, we talk about the potential release of AirPods 4 and discuss the features we would like to see, such as volume control and better transparency. We also speculate whether the new U2 chip will be included in the AirPod 4s or the iPhone 15/16. We mention the possibility of AirPods being able to unlock devices and discuss the potential for health-related features like temperature monitoring. We anticipate that there will be a focus on vision-related technologies and discuss the potential release of new iMacs and a new M3 chip for Macs. We debate whether a separate Mac event will be held in October and consider the possibility of an ultra version of a product.

In the next part of the conversation, we shift our focus to the upcoming Apple Watch release. We express our hope for blood glucose monitoring to be included in the watch and discuss the lack of significant changes in the watch’s performance since the 6th version. We debate whether it’s worth upgrading from the 8th version to the 9th and mention the possibility of adding a button for assigning tasks or apps on the regular versions of the watch. We briefly touch on the iPhone and express our desire for longer battery life. We conclude the discussion by mentioning the upcoming Tuesday release and pondering how much money Apple will make us spend. We briefly touch on skipped iPhone models and discuss the iPhone X as the best one ever made. We briefly mention the increasing prices of iPhones and move on to discuss iOS and the possibility of changes in the HomePod.

We don’t expect Apple to release any new hardware for the HomePod mini but anticipate new software and added capabilities. We describe the round shape of the mini HomePods and mention their ability to be paired. We note that Siri only speaks out of one speaker when paired. We discuss the better audio quality of the mini HomePods for movies compared to TV speakers. We also mention the possibility of a journaling app in iOS 17.1 and new Mac software releases.

Picks* Lynn: Hurricane Track Youtube channel * Jeff: OpenShell for Windows * Taylor: New apartment * Marty: HomePod Mini * Michael: Starfield

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This episode discussed CleanFeed, mishaps with recording, Double Tap, Steven’s TV show, connecting with our community, Slack notifications, package deliveries, video challenges for the visually impaired, and upcoming changes. They thanked subscribers and encouraged feedback.

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NOTES: To remove applications from the Blindshell Classic 2, start by pressing and holding the back button. Then, press the down arrow, followed by number 4, OK, and up once, OK. Go to “Browse Catalog” and select option number 2, which is “Installed Packages”. Press OK and the phone will list the applications that can be uninstalled. Scroll down using the down button to select an application, like “Amazon Alexa” for example, and press OK. Follow the prompts to uninstall the package, in this case, selecting option number two for “uninstall package two of five” and pressing OK. Once the package is uninstalled, the phone will let you know and the number of installed applications will decrease from 18 to 17.

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Episode NotesIn episode 193 of the iACast, a lively group consisting of Michael Doise, Angie Fisher, Michael Babcock, Marty Sobo, and Lynn Shneider discuss various topics. They start by talking about the joys of food delivery and share their experiences attending the American Council of the Blind conference. They also announce that the iACast network is expanding with new content from Unmute Presents. There was a 30-minute episode on Thursday with all the details. Marty and Michael mention their behind-the-scenes work to bring the teams together, and Lynn gives an overview of the topics covered in the latest Friday Finds episode, including iOS 17, changes in social media, a headband for blind swimmers, and Google’s robotic dog.

The conversation then shifts to the topic of robotic guide dogs. The main speaker, as a guide dog user, expresses curiosity about trying a robotic guide dog and discusses the potential time-saving benefits of not having to take care of a real dog. They acknowledge the necessary training for both the robotic guide dog and its user and decide that this topic deserves its own episode to explore the opinions and reasons for and against using robotic guide dogs. They also tease a special announcement coming in the next episode.

The hosts briefly mention the topics covered in previous episodes of their podcast/show and highlight the diverse content available in the IACast network feed. They then discuss the upcoming tech events, such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google events, and announce that they will do event episodes for these events. They invite listeners to join their membership program to access these episodes. They also talk about the Threads social media platform and its accessibility on the web, as well as the possibility of switching to Mastodon once Threads supports ActivityPub.

Michael then discusses the different devices available for blind and visually impaired users, specifically the BlindShell Classic 2 and the Smart Vision 3. They mention the pros and cons of each device and emphasize the importance of considering individual needs and preferences when selecting assistive technology.

The discussion continues with a focus on the needs of elderly individuals when it comes to technology. They mention the complexity of smartphones and the importance of simplicity for older users. They also discuss the potential social considerations and the importance of prioritizing individual needs and preferences.

The hosts then talk about the importance of thinking about how different phones might affect the ability of sighted people to assist individuals with visual impairments. They emphasize the importance of listening to the individual and understanding their preferences and needs. They also discuss the social considerations and the need to prioritize the individual’s needs.

Michael expresses his desire for an iPhone and mentions the Slingers as a neat device he saw at a conference. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages of specialist devices versus mainstream smartphones and highlight the importance of personal choice and requirements.

Next, the hosts share their picks for the episode. Michael recommends the HumanWare NLS E-Reader, Marty mentions his presence on Mastodon and the IACast network, Lynn recommends the Sennheiser Ambio Smart headphones for stereo recording, and Angie shares her pick, the Be My AI app for detailed picture descriptions.

Finally, the hosts share their TV show recommendation, Invasion Season 2 on Apple TV+, and end the episode by thanking the audience and announcing their upcoming move. They encourage feedback and following them on social media.

Picks* Angie: Be My AI * Michael: Humanware NlS E-Reader * Lynn, Sennheiser Ambeo Smart headset * Michael D: Invasion season 2

Providing FeedbackWe love hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to feedback@iacast.net. You can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find us on Reddit, and all around the web. Also, don’t forget to check out our YouTube page, and for all things iACast, check out our iACast page. If you’d like to help support us, you can do so via our and Patreon pages.

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In this episode, we explore the decline of Clubhouse and its attempt to revive itself with a new chat feature. We also discuss the growing preference for closed communities and its potential impact on organizations like ACB. Additionally, we highlight Marks & Spencer’s Braille gift cards, bringing accessibility and joy to the blind community. Don’t forget to subscribe and share our podcast on Apple Podcasts and our Friday Finds feed. Visit FridayFinds.show for more info and send your feedback to feedback@fridayfinds.show. Have a great week ahead!

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In this episode of the State of the Union podcast, we discuss the merger of IACAST and Unmute Presents to create a unified network. Listeners can now access all shows through the IACAST Network feed, and exciting new projects are on the horizon. We have revamped our website and developed the IACAST radio for a seamless listening experience. Join us as we build a strong community around our technology-focused content. #IACast.

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Episode NotesLesson 3 of VO Starter weekly covers the iOS Accessibility Shortcut. We discuss how to configure this feature, and how to activate it.

This is the final episode of this section of VO Starter weekly. We will be back soon with a new section with more exciting lessons.

Please send any questions, or suggestions to feedback@iacast.net

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Episode NotesLesson 3 of VO Starter weekly covers the iOS Accessibility Shortcut. We discuss how to configure this feature, and how to activate it.

This is the final episode of this section of VO Starter weekly. We will be back soon with a new section with more exciting lessons.

Please send any questions, or suggestions to feedback@iacast.net

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In this episode, we provide step-by-step instructions for listeners to locate and add a podcast to their podcast application. We guide them on how to open the app and add a podcast, as well as how to initiate dictation using the side button on their phone. After adding the podcast, we discuss the options available, such as subscribing, accessing the list of episodes, and getting details of the podcast. We highlight the description of the specific podcast we’re discussing, which is “Talk tech if you’re blind or partially sighted and have an interest in technology. This is the show for you.” We express our desire for the phone to provide a summary or description during the search but mention that unfortunately, it doesn’t provide a notification. We encourage listeners to go into the podcast itself to see the details and inform them that there are 26 options available, urging them to proceed by double-tapping.

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In this episode, we announce upcoming changes and the merger with IACAST. We answer tech questions about calendar issues, video streaming, and website accessibility. We discuss OCR apps, alternatives to a hacked weather app, a tablet stand, and Mac’s Stage Manager. We provide steps for downloading books, address technical difficulties, and answer various device-specific queries. We thank listeners and wrap up the episode.

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In this episode, we cover a range of topics and make exciting announcements. We ask listeners for shout-outs to Doug, introduce a new segment, and discuss our smartphone experiences. We talk about fitness competitions, pizza, food delivery fees, and automatic tipping systems. We also address a bug with the Smart Vision 3 phone and provide updates on contacting us and an accessibility expert.

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Introduction:
– Discussion about the inspiration for this episode from the latest DoubleTap show where host Sean talks about recording applications that may not be fully accessible.
Main Content:
– Detailed walkthrough on how to record an iPhone screen and include voiceover, a useful tool for developers to understand accessibility challenges.
– Topics covered:
- Navigating an iPhone 12 without a home button.
- Adding the screen recording feature to the control center.
- Reordering controls in the control center for screen recording.
- Starting and stopping screen recording.
- Sharing the recorded video with developers.
- Conclusion:
  – Recap of the process and its potential benefits for app developers and users.
  – Invitation for listeners to reach out with any questions or comments.
- Contact Information:
  – Encouragement for listeners to reach out on Mastodon at payown, P-A-Y-O-W-N, at unmute.community with any questions or feedback.

Remember to tune in to Unmute every Sunday for more insights and discussions on accessibility and technology!

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In this episode of Friday Finds, we share good news about the resolution of the iOS 17 braille display bug. We also discuss a smart headband called EYECAN, designed to assist blind individuals in navigating swimming pools. We explore the changing landscape of social media and the emergence of platforms offering more control. Additionally, we mention the development of a language model for robotic dogs and express gratitude to our listeners.# You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.

Visit acb.community to learn more about what is up coming.

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This episode of Unmute features an enlightening conversation with Gary and Mia the creators of the innovative Echobatix app. The duo shares the inspiration behind the app and the unique features it offers for touchscreen accessibility. They also delve into the challenges they encountered during the development process and reveal exciting future plans for Echobatix, including a potential subscription model. The episode wraps up with a special giveaway and an opportunity for listeners to connect directly with Gary and Mia for further discussions.

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Welcome to this episode of the Shell Phone Show. Today, we are discussing how to reset your Blindshell Classic 2 phone to factory defaults. This is a useful last resort troubleshooting technique but be warned, it will erase all user data on the device.

Key Points:

Data on a microSD card will not be erased. If you’ve backed up content on your Blindshell Classic 2 to the microSD card, your backups will remain.
To begin, press and hold the back button until you reach the time.
Navigate to settings by selecting option number 5.
Once in settings, press OK directly above number 1, then press up once to ‘About phone’, followed by OK.
In ‘About phone’, press up once to ‘Factory reset’ followed by OK.
The phone will confirm if you really want to perform the factory reset. Press OK to proceed.
The phone will vibrate a couple of times and then announce ‘Please wait, performing factory reset.’
After another 90 seconds or so, the phone will vibrate again and you will hear the phone come on.
Wait for about 2-3 seconds after you hear the startup music to ensure the phone is connected to the network.
The time may be incorrect initially after resetting, but there’s no need to worry.

That’s it! You’ve successfully reset your Blind Shell Classic 2 phone.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on the Shell Phone Show!

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Episode NotesLesson 2 of VO Starter weekly discusses how to disable or stop VoiceOver on an iOS device.

Please send any questions, or suggestions to feedback@iacast.net

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Welcome to this episode of Unmute! We address listener questions and concerns, covering a range of technical issues. We discuss the new Sense Player from HIMSS, provide tips on managing messages across Apple devices and smart TV troubleshooting. We also share resources for transitioning to a MacBook Pro, offer help with various inquiries, and emphasize the importance of backing up data. Join us for detailed explanations and audience engagement!

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In this episode, we discuss defining success on our own terms and avoiding comparisons. We highlight podcast hosts’ unique success stories and mention our oversight in sending files. We invite listeners to follow us on Mastodon and briefly touch on productivity tools. We tease the next episode on SaneBox and ongoing notification issues. We provide our contact information and invite questions for the next live stream episode.

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In this episode, the Send To feature in LaunchBar is explored. Learn how to quickly move files to specific locations with just a few keystrokes and navigate through folders efficiently. Stay tuned for more productivity tips.# You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.

Visit acb.community to learn more about what is up coming.

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In this episode, we delve into two different issues that arise with the advancement of technology. First, we discuss the limitations and decreasing effectiveness of CAPTCHAs. Lynn Schneider, the host, highlights that as AI technology becomes more sophisticated, CAPTCHAs are easier to bypass, making them less secure. However, she mentions that companies like Google and Microsoft are working on making CAPTCHAs more accessible and efficient. They are developing potential solutions to address this issue, which we explore in detail.

Moving on to our second topic, we discuss the increasing cases of vandalism against delivery robots. These robots, used by various delivery services, have become targets for theft, acts of protest against automation taking over jobs, and simply acts of vandalism. Lynn emphasizes the significant cost of repairing or replacing these sophisticated machines due to vandalism. To counter this issue, some companies are considering deterrents such as adding cameras to capture photo evidence of vandals, alarms to alert authorities, and even arming the robots for self-defense. We delve into the legal and ethical implications of arming these defenseless robots, sparking a thoughtful discussion.

It is fascinating to witness the complexities that arise between humans and automation as technology advances. The challenges discussed in this episode raise important questions about our relationship with technology and how we navigate these complexities moving forward. As the episode concludes, Lynn expresses uncertainty about the definitive solution to the issue of vandalism on these machines. Although arming them might be an option, she mentions that the robots already have cameras to capture images of vandals, potentially leading to legal consequences for those who vandalize them.

Thanking the audience for their support and feedback, Lynn wraps up this week’s Friday Finds. She encourages listeners to share their thoughts and provides an email address, feedback@unmute.show, for any feedback. With a warm farewell and wishes for a great weekend and week ahead, Lynn signs off, promising to return with more intriguing topics next week.

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In this conversation, we stress the importance of securing your organization’s web presence. We discuss the significance of having a domain name for verification and business integration. We provide tips for maintaining control over your domain, such as enabling two-factor authentication and locking transfers. We also highlight the need for choosing a reputable hosting company that prioritizes security and keeping WordPress software up to date. We emphasize the importance of user management, backups, and making smart choices for website security. Listener feedback and suggestions are welcomed. Stay tuned for more news updates in the next episode.

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Episode Notes Lesson 1 of VO Starter weekly discusses how to enable or start VoiceOver on an iOS device. Please send any questions, or suggestions to feedback@iacast.net Support VO Starter Weekly by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/vo-starter Find out more at https://vo-starter.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/vo-starter/4ea5b911-3690-4a1d-b339-48a766ef8a30 Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. ... Read more

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Episode Notes Welcome to VO Starter Weekly. THis introductory episode explains what will be covered in this podcast. VO Starter Weekly is a weekly podcast that was inspired by the iOS app VO Starter. It will go through each of the lessons from the app in podcast form. Please send us questions or suggestions about ... Read more

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In today’s episode, we discuss a helpful solution for blind shell users who may face unresponsiveness issues with their phones. When the usual unlocking methods fail, the best way to force a restart is by pressing and holding the back button on the phone. The back button is located above the number three on the ... Read more

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On this episode of the Unmute Presents Community Call, we address a range of tech-related questions. We discuss tips for saving attachments in Outlook, generating QR codes, troubleshooting computer issues, muting messages on WhatsApp and GroupMe, and more. We also provide updates on recent podcast episodes and express our gratitude to the listeners. Stay tuned ... Read more

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Read transcript Episode Notes In this episode of the IACast, the main speaker, Michael Doise, introduces the rest of the group and mentions that they are now doing a pre-show before recording the episodes live on IACast radio. They also talk about their new travel and tech show that will be coming out soon. Michael ... Read more

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Read transcript Episode Notes In this episode of the Programatic podcast, host Michael Doise explores the topic of accessibility in programming. He brings on expert Taylor Arndt to lend her insights and expertise to the conversation. Together, they delve into various aspects of accessibility in programming, covering both desktop applications and websites/mobile apps. The discussion ... Read more

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Read transcript Episode Notes In this episode, Michael Doise flies solo as the host and kicks off the conversation by expressing his appreciation for the audience and his enjoyment of doing the podcast. He updates listeners on the upcoming changes and news in the iAccessibility and Techopolis realms, including the re-release of the VO Starter ... Read more

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Episode Notes In this demo, Michael shows how to use the Bing Chat Image Search feature in the Bing for iOS app. Bing for iOS Support iACast by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/iacast Find out more at https://iacast.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/iacast/10d9fa28-a969-446a-90fb-a3f84a564b24 Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast ... Read more

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Read transcript Episode Notes In this episode of our podcast, I am joined by Marty Sobo and Michael Babcock as we approach our 200th episode. We ask our listeners how long they have been with us and tease some upcoming changes for episode 200. We discuss the tech news coming in September, including new iPhones ... Read more

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Twitter rebranded to X, Vision Pro Developer Updates, and Samsung Unpacked July, 2023

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Episode Notes In episode 188 of the IACast, we begin by discussing the recent passing of Kevin Mitnick, a renowned hacker who later turned into a white hat hacker and worked with companies to defend against cyber attacks. We highlight his influence on the tech community and how his story inspired many to pursue careers ... Read more

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Read transcript Show Notes In episode 187 of the iACast podcast, Michael, along with Taylor and Lynn, kick off the episode by giving a brief recap of the previous episode. We also mention the WayAround booth at a convention and our participation in the Tuesday Unmute Presents call for the ACB community. Moving on to ... Read more

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Read transcript Episode Notes In this episode, I introduce Lynn and Damashe and announce some changes to our podcast, including the addition of chapters and breaking the episodes up into segments. We delve into some legislation in the EU that will make it easier for users to change their tech devices’ batteries, reducing e-waste. We ... Read more

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Episode Notes On this episode, Michael speaks with Lynn, Marty, and Angie about the following topics. Angie tried Android and gives her thoughts. We discuss the latest Reddit news where Reddit is now replacing various subreddit moderators with their own people to bring the service back online. We discuss the best travel gear, and how ... Read more

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Join Michael as he demystifies Reaper, a highly customizable and affordable Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) suitable for both podcasting and music production. This video will introduce you to the key concepts and terminologies of Reaper, including projects, tracks, items, markers, automations, envelopes, rendering, and more. This introduction is drawn from Michael’s hands-on experience as a ... Read more

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In this episode of Friday Finds, Marty and Linn discuss Streamlabs’ new editing tool for podcasting, the importance of understanding the legal aspects of using free tools, and the need for graphical access for the blind and visually impaired. They also touch on Elon Musk’s Twitter troubles and the importance of reading the fine print. ... Read more

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Join Marty, Michael, and Damashe as they discuss their essential tech go bags and the gadgets they can’t travel without. From power banks to cables, they share their must-have items and handy travel tips. Don’t miss this insightful conversation on making your tech travels more efficient and enjoyable. Read transcript

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[MUSIC] >> This has been an ACB Community Call. [MUSIC] >> This Unmute Presents Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023. [MUSIC] Hello everyone and welcome back to another un-mute. Good to see you all again. Couple announcements here at the top. I want to remind everyone to please be respectful for their ... Read more

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Transcript Michael: [0:00] You said something earlier this week that made me think about the way I work. And I kind of wanted to explore that. And I think we talked about bringing it up, but I’m not sure. And that was, uh, when you asked me, do you ever wake up with full intentions ... Read more

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Episode Notes On this episode, Michael tasks with Marty, Lynn, and Angie about the following topics. Apollo for Reddit shutting down June 30, 2023 We give our thoughts to everything announced at WWDC 2023 WayAround released on BLindShell Classic 2 You no longer need to pay for the Apple Developer program to install iOS Developer ... Read more

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Join Marty and the Michaels as they discuss the incredible features of ACB Link, the official app of the American Council of the Blind. Discover how ACB Link provides a seamless experience to access the latest news, affiliate information, live streams, podcasts, and more. Streamlining your ACB media experience has never been easier! Transcript Marty ... Read more

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In this episode, Michael demonstrates for you how to use the Wayaround tag and labeling system on BlindShell Classic 2.

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On This episode, Michael, Taylor, Marty, and Lynn discuss everything announced at WWDC 2023’s keynote. Visit this page to get the original episode, with links and a transcript. Support Unmute Presents by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unmute-presents-on-acb-communi This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you ... Read more

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Welcome back to another exciting episode of Friday Finds! In this episode, Marty and Linn dig into the highlights from Apple’s WWDC, ponder over the conspicuous absence of AI in the presentation, and analyze Apple’s preference for the term “machine learning” instead. They also discuss ‘EmpathEyes,’ an innovative VR simulator that helps parents and caregivers ... Read more

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Episode Notes On This episode, Michael, Taylor, Marty, and Lynn discuss everything announced at WWDC 2023’s keynote. MacRumors – WWDC 2023 Recap Providing Feedback We love hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to feedback@iacast.net. You can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find us on Reddit, and all ... Read more

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Join us for another exciting episode of ‘A Lady with Lucy’, where our hosts, Marty and Lucy, dive deep into the fascinating world of Amazon’s virtual assistant. Discover the magic of various features like the Follow-up Mode, Whisper Mode, Routines, Themes, and the intriguing VoicePad. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a smart device lover, or ... Read more

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[Music] This is the Shell Phone Show. Showing you how to do something on the Blind Shell Classic 2. Brought to you by Peyone Media LLC. [Music] All right, so I’m going to answer a real quick question that I’ve gotten a couple of different from individuals who have asked. And that is what is ... Read more

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Transcript [0:01] This is an ACB Community Call presented by American Council of the Blind. [0:10] Music. [0:17] This Unmute Presents Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another Unmute. We want to get everyone’s tech questions answered. So go ahead and raise your hands, and we’ll ... Read more

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Episode Notes Join Michael Doise, Lynn Schnyder, Taylor Arndt, Angie Fisher, and Michael Babcock as we discuss the following topics. News Reddit proposes new API pricing WayAround version 4.3 is now available. Learn more about this release, and listen to how you can use WayAround in your home, office, or while out in public spaces. ... Read more

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Transcript Michael: [0:04] In today’s Sunday teaching episode, I’m going to show you how to configure your numpad commander, and then I’ll give you a little bit about how I have my numpad commander configured. So this will work if you’re a voiceover user on Mac OS. And what we’re going to do is we’re ... Read more

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Welcome to a new episode of Unmute Presents, where we dive deep into the ever-evolving landscape of AI and tech innovations. In this episode, we discuss Everett Bacon’s new role as vice president of blindness initiatives at AIRA, a leading organization in providing sighted assistance to blind individuals. We also ponder the reliability of AI ... Read more

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A Conversation with Allison from Podfeet

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[Music] This is the Shell Phone Show. [Music] Showing you how to do something on the Blind Shell Classic 2. Brought to you by Peyone Media LLC. [Music] If you’d like to access the manual on the Blind Shell Classic 2, You can do so within the phone itself. Press and hold the back button ... Read more

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Episode Notes In this UnboxCast, Taylor Arndt unboxes the Humanware Victor Reader Stream 3rd Generation, and sets it up. Victor Reader Stream 3rd Generation Providing Feedback We love hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to feedback@iacast.net. You can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find us on Reddit, ... Read more

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Summary: In this episode of Unmute Presents, host Marty dives into the world of external hard drives. Marty explains the different sizes of drives, including the standard 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch drives, highlighting their uses and benefits. He then explores the difference between platter drives and SSD drives, shedding light on their performance and durability. Marty also discusses the various connection types (USB-A, USB-C, and Thunderbolt) and how they affect data transfer speeds. Whether you’re looking for a drive for simple file backup or more demanding tasks like video and audio editing, Marty provides insights to help you make an informed decision.

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In this episode of Friday Finds, Marty and Lynn discuss some recent stories involving AI and fake news, such as the hoax explosion near the Pentagon and the misuse of alt tags on social media. They also talk about the upcoming WWDC and some app updates that you don’t want to miss.

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In this episode of Unmute Presents, Demasi explains what a password manager is, how it can help you create and store strong passwords for all your online accounts, and what are some of the pros and cons of using one. He also addresses some of the feedback he has received from previous episodes and how he plans to make the security segment more accessible and beginner-friendly.

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Episode NotesOn this episode, Michael discovers how well Logic Pro for iPad can be used with VoiceOver.

Logic Pro for iPad

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Episode NotesOn this episode, Michael discovers how well Final Cut Pro for iPad can be used with VoiceOver and the touch screen. This is the second Final Cut episode

Final Cut for iPad

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[0:23] The Blindshell Classic 2 demonstrated in this content was provided to me by ATGuys as an employee for troubleshooting and demonstration purposes. In today’s content, I’m going to walk you through the process of saving an email. If someone sends you something you want to be able to keep, it’s important to separate that from your email. That way it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
So today I’m going to walk you through saving a message to your notes in your email. Press and and hold the back button. 8.18 AM.
And then we’ll open our email application. Email. One of two.
I’ll press OK. Loading new email. One of 25. And we’ll locate the message in the inbox that we want to save.
Inbox. Two of 25. Press OK.
Loading Google security alert. 20 minutes ago. One of 51.
And I want to save this security alert. So I’ll press OK.
And then we’ll press OK to open the context menu for this specific message.

[1:28] Press option number 6, followed by OK, and yours may not say 1 of 4. Don’t be worried.
All you need to do is locate the option that says.
In my case, it’s the third option, share by notes. Press OK.
Text, image, Google, Mozilla Thunderbird email was granted access to your Google account.
And the note is then read to you.
So in order to save the note, we need to press OK one more time and we’ll hear.
And secure your account. Note saved. Share by notes. Three of four.
Now the note is saved. Here’s how you retrieve a note that you’ve saved to your phone.
Press and hold the back button.
8 19 a.m. locate applications applications 4 of 7 okay internet browser 1 of 9 choose tools tools 2 of 9 press ok alarm 1 of 10 choose notes notes 6 of 10 press ok add note 1 of 2 and then choose notes list 2 of 2 and press ok, image Google Mozilla Thunderbird email was granted access to your Google account. There’s the message that you saved.
If you press OK on this note, edit one of five, you’ll have the opportunity to edit, share, use information from your text, delete this single note or delete all of your notes.

[2:55] And I hope that helps you understand how to save notes in your email.

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Episode NotesOn this episode, Michael and Taylor explore Final Cut on iPad with the use of the Magic Keyboard and VoiceOver. Another podcast will be done with the touch screen as the primary input method.

Final Cut for iPad

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this is a replay for the 2023,05,23 ACB Community call.

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Summary:
In this episode of “Technically Working,” we cover a range of topics that revolve around technology, business, and productivity. From understanding your business dashboard and making informed decisions to unraveling Apple’s intentions with their products, we provide insights that can transform the way you work. We discuss the benefits of using default apps, the significance of taking breaks and stepping away from work, and how the Mastodon platform offers an alternative social media experience. Additionally, we tackle the common dilemma of feeling the need to know everything and offer strategies for managing information overload. Finally, we delve into the realm of big tech and trackers, exploring the implications of third-party add trackers and discussing how to navigate this complex landscape. Join us as we explore these topics and more!

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Episode NotesOn this episode, Michael talks to Marty, Lynn, and Angie about the following topics:

Apple announces new Accessibility Features for iOS iPadOS and macOS 17
Apple announces Beats Studio Buds.
OpenAI announces ChatGPT for iOS
Amazon announces Echo Pop
Amacon Announces Echo Show 5 2023 Release.
Amazon announces Echo buds for $40
Twitter removing accounts after 30 days

Picks* Marty: Backpack Studio * Lynn: ChatGGPT for iOS * Angie: Sennheiser Profile Mic * Michael: Spotify

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Echo Buds (2023 Release) | True Wireless Bluetooth 5.2 Earbuds with Alexa, audio personalization, multipoint, 20H battery with charging case, fast charging, sweat resistant | Black

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In this episode, we explore the power of using third-party apps like Hazel to automate tasks on your Mac. We take a deep dive into how to set up rules and conditions to move files from one folder to another automatically. Whether you’re looking to keep your downloads folder organized or need to move client files to the right folders, Hazel can save you time and headaches. We also discuss the next step in automation, which is creating a keyboard Maestro macro to send emails to clients with links to their files. Tune in to learn how to streamline your workflow and be more efficient with your Mac.

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Show Notes:

Ed Sheeran’s copyright lawsuit and its potential impact on creators.
Balancing the rights of creators with the flexibility needed for creativity.
The importance of staying safe in the digital world and using common sense.
Accessible Mother’s Day cards for moms with low vision.
The potential dangers of AI and its effects on society.

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In this episode of the Unmute Presents podcast, Marty and Michael are joined by Sheila to discuss audio description. Sheila breaks down what audio description is and how it is similar to captioning for the deaf population. Michael shares his personal experience with audio description and how it has become a staple in his movie and TV watching routine. The group also talks about a free service called Audio Vault, which offers audio-only downloads of movies and TV shows from the ’70s to current releases. They also mention the ADP website, which lists all the audio-described options for streaming services and movies. Finally, they provide tips on how to turn on audio description on various devices.

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Welcome to this episode of Unmute Presents, where we bring you a community call from the American Council of the Blind. In this episode, the hosts discuss a range of topics, including how to report issues with apps or programs to the company, such as Zoom, to ensure that they are aware of any problems and can work on fixing them. They also talk about the recent collaboration between Apple and Google to standardize tracker devices and provide tips for navigating Zoom, including how to find the raise hand button under reactions. The hosts also answer questions from listeners, such as how to check for updates on Zoom and how to set it to automatically update. If you’re new to Zoom or experiencing issues with any app or program, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now on your favorite podcast platform.

You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.Visit acb.community to learn more about what is up coming.

Transcript:[Music]

This is an ACB Community Call presented by American Council of the Blind.

[Music]

This unmute Presents Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023.

[Music]

Appingions expressed on ACB media are those of the respective program contributors and

do not necessarily reflect the views held by the American Council of the Blind.

It’s elected officials support its staff.

[Music]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another Unmute.

Just want to give you a couple of reminders here at the top.

First is we’re going to get through all first-hands,

and if we have time, then we’ll go through second-hands.

Make sure you give everyone the same respect.

What their question is, you would want with yours.

If you have any questions, comments, or anything else,

you can reach us at feedback@unmute.show.

Michael, how’s it going? What you got for us today?

It is going well.

I don’t have anything for you today, Marty.

Nothing at all. – No, bummer.
Yeah.

No, I am super excited.

I’ve got some feedback from Chanel last week.

So on Sunday, we published not a comprehensive,

but a quick overview of using Mac GPT on the Mac.

And hopefully that answers some questions.

And of course, if you guys have any questions,

feel free to ask them after checking that out.

And then on Friday, we posted our Friday finds,

And that was an intriguing episode that I’m frantically trying to get logged into because

I forgot that we were going over these as we were starting.

And then on Thursday, we also, what did we talk about on Thursday, Marty?

What did we or what are we going to?

What did we?

No, what did we?

See, that’s just my quick pop test to let you know that I don’t know what we’re talking

about.

So we talked about USB security, don’t plug and play with the MOSC and why you should

track of that, what you’re plugging your devices into. And then Lynn and Marty, now that I got

logged in, that’s, that’s our, we’re, we’re, we’re getting days mixed up. So Lynn and Marty on Friday

talked about subscriptions, scams, and privacy, exploring the latest in tech news on Friday find.

So that was a fun episode. And then again, Sunday we talked about Mac GPT and Marty did,

do you have anything you want to talk about related to some of the content that we published?

because I know I’ve gotten some contacts about some of that.

Yeah. Well, we definitely have been hearing from people overseas,

which is kind of surprising.

And that sort of blows me away because it’s really difficult

to schedule studio time with people who are in another content overseas.

Time zones are upside down, so we’ll figure it all out.

But we got some good surprises coming up for some,

let’s say, some awesome apps that you guys will get to hear about

in the next probably week or so.

So I’m excited about that.

And if you guys have questions, go ahead and raise your hands

and we’ll start knocking the questions out.

I have a question for you, Marty.

Have you gotten stuck in Zoom under the apps dialogue

and you can’t see other things in Zoom?

Has that happened to you?

No, not yet.

Oh, well, enjoyable.

What that is because I have not heard about this yet.

So what I just discovered, and it looks,

and I’m sure Herbie probably has a way to correct me,

but it looks like the F6 keystroke does work on the Mac as well.

But I got stuck in a window where all I could read about was

Kahoot and AI smart business cars.

I’m like, what is this?

And then I realized where my focus had moved to.

So if you do get stuck in that and all you hear is like Kahoot

and you’re using your arrow keys and random things aren’t quite working for you,

then try your hitting your F6 key, which takes you to

different places inside the interface.

So I will ask you about this.

And this has actually been a topic that’s been out for quite a while,

and there’s a lot of controversy over it.

But what it looks like is that Apple and Google are going to team up

and they’re going to try and give more settings, more options,

more ways to control how people track your tracker devices,

such as air tags and the like.

So what do you think about that?

And if anyone here has their thoughts on that, go ahead, raise your hands.

and love to hear what you guys thoughts are on this,

but Michael, what do you think?

So from understanding correctly,

because I’ve not heard of this,

and then we’ll go over to the single hand that we got raised.

So we’ll get to you in a moment.

But my understanding is,

so Google and Apple, and I imagine probably Tile

and these other device trackers

are looking to team up together,

so that way they can work interchangeably.

Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah, and also giving people, like for example,

if you have a tracker, you have more options

to be able to figure out how it’s working,

what it’s doing, how it’s tracking you,

or if somebody else has a tracker around you

that maybe isn’t yours and they’re trying to do something

kind of shifty, let’s say,

then you would be able to see or know about it

because it would be not within the safe zone, basically.

I think it’s about time then, because, you know, the safety of these devices, you don’t

think about, and hopefully you don’t find yourself in that scenario, but it’s about

time that we’re talking together and that information is interchangeable between platforms.

Monica, whose hand is up?

Chanel.

Hey, Chanel.

Hello.

Well, it’s funny because I checked the podcast this, like, go, I don’t know, an hour or two

ago, and there, I didn’t see the one with Mac GPT.

I go to check it again. Sure enough, it’s there. So go figure.

I will listen to it later. And I just,

I didn’t know that F6 worked in Zoom on the Mac.

It doesn’t seem to work in mine.

Interesting. Yeah. It’s switching me between different panes.

I do command accent that kind of does the same thing.

Yeah. That’ll switch you between the actual windows and zoom though. Right. Okay.

I think when I’ve got stuck in that apps thing before,

Maybe I just tried to do escape or command W.

Um, I just wish zoom didn’t make it.

So we had to be in there, but I want, yeah.

So appreciate that there Chanel because, uh, yeah, F six is now it’s not working.

That’s interesting.

Cause it was on the Mac.

Cause I’m like, why is it not working?

And I thought that my FN key, cause that gets me all the time.

Right. – And with this external keyboard,

for some reason, Mac OS sometimes honors

my respect in system settings, sometimes it changes.

So, okay.
But yeah, give that a listen, Chanel,

and hopefully it gives you some ideas.

One of the things that we did talk about,

well, that I did demonstrate later on in the podcast,

is the importance of prompting

and actually constructing the prompt to chat GPT.

And the example I used is,

instead of just saying, write me show notes for a show,

Let Chat GPT know something like, you are an assistant to a podcast host on the unmute

presents podcast. Here are the details we covered in today’s episode. Please provide me show notes,

a title and the promotional paragraph for this episode. And I found that when you, when you

craft your prompt that way, it, it gives you more usable information than the generic info you might

get from Chat GPT. So I demonstrate that in the audio. So intrigue next week, or of course,

if you send an email about your thoughts on that.

Thanks.

No problem. Monica, who do we have next?

Abraham is next.

Hello, Abraham.

Abraham, how’s it going?

Hi, I’m good and you yourself?

Good, thanks.

Zoom acting weird.

So besides your app issue, which I think I had before,

when people are sharing audio, it is you are sharing audio,

and I have to Alt+F4 to get out of that window,

and every time I tab to something,

open the Participants panel,

it goes back to that window, you are sharing audio.

Does F6 work in that window?

Have you tried that by chance?

No, I tried that.
Okay.
And what’s happening now?

I don’t know if I have scripts installed.

I think that Doug Lee made my Zoom scripts.

And I’m I Alt-Wise, I’m not raising my hand.

I had to go into the reactions menu.

Interesting. It would almost be worth–

so since you said scripts, I’m assuming you’re meaning JAWS.

It would almost be worth finding out

if you temporarily go back to JAWS factory defaults

and suspend those scripts if your Alt-Y works.

Because I wonder if it’s looking for the placement of Ray’s hand

on the screen, but when they moved it under reactions,

then it may not–

that’s probably why it’s happening there.

I enabled help and said,

“Accept call when I pressed Alt-Y.”

But I switched to NVDA and you are sharing computer audio.

Yes.

I’m still stuck on that.

Yeah.

I don’t think that’s good.

It’s funny, I was reading an article while I was

actually lurking in the background of Herbie’s cooking call this morning.

And someone shared their screen and it popped up on in the middle of my article.

I’m like, I really, there’s nothing users can do, but it is really frustrating how

Zoom just takes over everything when you’re trying to do other things.

Yeah.

There’s a suggestion too, and this isn’t just for Zoom, but it will work with Zoom.

If you ever have an app or a program, something like that, that you’re having

issues with and you’re continuing to have issues with it, you know, register a

complaint with the company, whether it’s Zoom or any other app, this way, they at

least they know. And the more complaints they get about things that aren’t

working or problems, maybe you could create a ticket with them, whatever they

allow you to do, let them know so that they’ll know that you’re having these

problems. And I’m sure if you’re having these problems, other people are having

the same or similar problems. So the more they know, the more they’re aware to

look at a fixing. So if you don’t say anything, then maybe they don’t know. So

If you’re able to take a few extra minutes to register a complaint or a suggestion

that something’s not working, go for it.

Okay.

We’ll do things.

Alan.

Hey, Alan, how’s it going?

Hello guys.

I’m wondering if the same problem going to work in Windows as well as the

same messages might come up in Zoom regarding the trackers.

Yeah.

It’s well, currently what they were talking about was the Apple air tags,

which works with any Bluetooth device.

So, I think that they’re trying to get everyone to jump on board so that all of the trackers

kind of work with the same technology so they’re not used in ways they shouldn’t be used for.

Yes, I know sometimes they’ve got a button sometimes disappears, so I have to use the F6

button to get it.

Right.

Yep, yep. Sometimes that F6 button will move that focus for you and that’s a good tool to

have in your back pocket.

Perfect, Alan.

Well, thank you and feel free to reach out with another question.

Monica, do we have any other hands right now?

Yes, Jane.

Hi, Jane.

Hello.

My question has to do with Zoom also, but I have an SE 2020 iPhone and today

I was on a Zoom call and I tried to raise my hand to ask the question and

it wouldn’t let me.

What?

So wouldn’t let you, meaning when you went to go to the button to raise

your hand, it didn’t let you?

It wouldn’t let me.

It wouldn’t do, when I said, so I flipped left and right

and it told me settings, a couple other things,

but I didn’t find the raise hand button under the wall.

Do you remember if you heard something that said reactions?
I don’t know.
Because I think what happened is

the raise hand button is under reactions.

And so if you don’t-

Okay, I’ll try that again.

Try that next one, Carl.

So you think it’s under reaction

because I know when you guys, ACB gives the instructions,

yes, the more buttons in the right-hand corner

and the mute button in the left-hand corner,

but you kind of have to click left and right to find them.

Right.
No, they really aren’t there

if you’re using an SE 2020 or an SE new version, whatever.

Well, that is good to know.

And maybe we can play with that.

I know the raised hand button from the recording

has been moved out of the more tab for most users.

Although we do still run into some users like this.

So look for reactions and then it should be under there.

Okay, ’cause I went into settings

and I got something else and I was like, okay.

So I got all the way out.

Do you ever check to make sure

that your Zoom is updated all the way?

What’s that?
Do you ever check to make sure

that your Zoom is getting updated?

Do you check to make sure your Zoom doesn’t have any updates

that you’ve updated it to the most current version?

How do you do that?

would go into the app store.

And then on the top right corner,

there’s a button that says accounts and you click on that.

And then you would scroll down,

you would see updates,

anything that has apps on your device

that need to be updated will show.

Oh, okay, I thought you meant,

because I was wondering if I went into my Zoom app,

would it say if I’m updated?

No, no, no, you gotta go into your app store

and then go to accounts

and then you’ll see it down there at the bottom.

if there’s an update for it, it’ll be there.

And if you don’t see it right away,

you can do a three finger swipe down to refresh it.

And sometimes that’ll pop and then you’ll see updates.

Thank you very much.
Marty.
Yeah, you can go to your my account under your Zoom.

You can go to my account under Zoom

and you can check what version you have.

And you can also set it to automatically update.

Okay, thank you.

I’m new at this, but I thought I managed to master Zoom,

But like I said, when I went into Zoom today to raise my hand, it wouldn’t let me.

So I’ll check that out.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, EG for the chip.

All right, Monica.

Thanks, you have Kim.

Hello.

Just to confirm what the previous lady was saying, it’s funny because my iPhone

made, um, it made Zoom look different without me even telling to it updated.

And so what you need to know is now on the bottom of your screen,

instead of there being five little pictures or whatever they are, there’s six.

And yeah, the one that says reactions, double tap on that and raise hand will

be the first thing you hear double tap on that.

And so, uh, a boy in that line, kind of, I also have a question about Siri.

I just recently updated to 15.4.

I waited forever.

And one bug that Siri now has,

I used to be able to hold down my home button.

I have an FV20, I think, yeah.

So I hold down my home button,

I used to be able to say on the app store, find,

and then I’d name the app.

On this new update,

Sperry won’t go to the App Store.

She’ll say, “Here’s what I found on the web for go-to divine office,” or whatever.

I tried it two or three times and then I said, “Okay, be that way.”

So I went into the App Store on my own and I wrote it in with my Braille device.

The app that I was looking for,

it popped up right away.

But Siri is, I think my smartphone is getting stupid as far as she’s concerned.

Well, a couple of things here.

The first thing is you’re not the only one that’s having issues with Siri.

Everyone in this update has had issues.

We’re hoping that they are going to start resolving these issues

in the next operating system, which should, they’ll probably talk about it in June at WWDC

and probably they’ll release it sometime end of the year,

September-ish, maybe October, just all depends.

But a workaround for that would be,

you could also go to the App Store,

go to search and then in the search box,

once you have the VoiceOver cursor in there,

you could dictate what you’re looking for

using the dictate button on the keyboard.

And I know it’s not a perfect situation,

but at least if you don’t wanna type it

and you wanna dictate it, that’s a workaround for you.

Yeah, I keep forgetting about Duketay too.

If you don’t see the little microphone on your keyboard,

you can go into your settings and turn it on and then it will show up.

Okay.

I have a suggestion if I may.

Go for it, Chanel.

Yeah. Sometimes it’s just a matter of the syntax you use with Siri.

Like you might have to say search for in the App Store instead of GoTo,

or on my Mac now if I want to open anything with Siri,

which usually I don’t,

but I have to demonstrate that for the class.

I will say open the text edit app.

If I just tell her open text edit,

she’ll be like, “I can’t do that.”

But if you say open the text edit application,

then it’s just a matter of fooling her to get what you want.

But honestly, 99 percent of the time I don’t use her.

But the one percent that I do, that’s what I’ve found.

One other quick tip I will tell you really quickly is that in this update as well,

one of the issues is it doesn’t always pick up what you say from the very beginning.

So what people do is they’ll activate Syrian, wait a second,

then they’ll say what they’re looking for.

And when they’re done talking, they’ll wait another second and then turn it off.

That way you’re sure that it’s going to get,

hopefully it will get all of what you’re saying.

But a lot of people are having problems because it doesn’t pick up the first part of what they’re saying

because they activate Syrian and it starts right away talking.

and then it doesn’t pick up everything you’re trying to say.

Okay, thank you guys for your help.
Yeah, no problem.

All right, Monica.

Okay, next we have Sheila.
Hey, Sheila.
Hey guys, how are you?
Good, how are you?
I am doing just fine.

My question is not Zoom.

Good.
Way totally not Zoom.

And Outlook, which is what I use for my mail email.

How do you request a red receipt for someone

that it’s an important email that you want to know that got.

And I know I’ve done it before,

but I went the other day and couldn’t find it.

I will tell you for sure,

because I don’t remember off the top of my head

and my favorite keystroke in Microsoft products,

unfortunately does not work in Outlook.

So for those who did not know,

Alt-Q will let you search the menus

for what you’re looking for in every product but Outlook.

So Sheila, if you stay tuned,

I will look up that keystroke or where to go to get that,

unless someone else has an idea and they can chime in

because I don’t know.

Okay, thanks.
No problem.

Who do we have there next, Monica?

Why look, she loves Antara.

We have Kristy next.
Hey, Kristy, how are you doing?
Hello, how are y’all doing?
Good, good.
Good, I have a question about the Alexa Kindle voice.

Like, okay, you can change Alexa voice,

you know what I’m saying, for the whole operating thing.

but when you’re trying to get it to read a book to you

from Kindle, is there any way to change the voice

to the male voice or not yet?

Have you tried switching your main voice to the male voice

and then does that work?

No, well, the male voice, I have the main,

I actually have the main voice as my male voice

and that’s what I want.

Gotcha, but it’s still reading with the female voice.
Yeah, it’s still the Kindle stuff.

my Kindle books that I read on it, it still reads in the female voice. So I didn’t know if there was

something separate I had to do, or if that’s just a fluke and it doesn’t work, if the Kindle

reader doesn’t have the male voice. I don’t have an answer for you on that, but we can reach out

and see if anyone does on that one because, yeah, that’s a good question. I think the Kindle reader

is determined by whoever the book is written by and the person that is doing the recording.

They don’t make a male version and a female version, I don’t think.

Well, the Kindle Reader actually, EG, uses the text-to-speech for Amazon. So it’s not,

I think what you’re thinking of is the Audible Whisper version of the book,

which would be pre-recorded, but the Kindle Reader itself should be the Amazon TTS. So it should

switch over to the mail-wise if your default is now.

Yeah, my default default is mail, but no, it doesn’t do that.

Yeah. Yes, and thank you for that. And, you know, we are gonna I’m gonna ask Lucy if she knows all

send her an email if she has any ideas because she’s who I go to for a lady tips unless someone

else has an idea. Okay, thank you. Real quick before we move on, Monica, I did want to follow

up with Sheila and Sheila, I’m going to email these or text these directions over to you so you have

them. And it looks like you go into the message itself when you create it in Outlook, go up to

the file menu and then choose options and then mail. And when you’re in mail, you can pick if you

want a read receipt or if you want a delivery receipt, and then that will apply to that specific

message. And as it’s explained in the Microsoft documentation, and again, I’ll text you. So if

So if you don’t, didn’t catch them,

then you’ll have them in a moment.

As it explained in the Microsoft documentation,

they suggest only sending read receipts

for important messages or people will stop sending them,

which is why I stopped sending them back myself years ago,

but I see the importance of it for sure.

Oh yeah, there are occasions as a state president

that you need to know somebody got your message.

Yes ma’am.
Thank you, Michael.
No problem, thanks a lot Sheila.

Who do we have next Monica?

I don’t know who EG is. Hey, EG.

Thank you, Michael.

How’s it going?

Fine. I just wanted to add one other thing on

the Zoom that I’ve experienced,

I think maybe others have too,

is that when like for unmute presents,

I always go in and I click on my calendar,

and I’ve got the link there,

and that’s how I get into unmute presents.

The issue there is that if I do that a bunch and I don’t

actually go in and sign in to Zoom,

then some of my settings in Zoom will go away.

So for example, how I have myself named will change.

It’ll revert to my Google setting as opposed to my Zoom setting.

So sometimes you may find that your Zoom settings change

without seemingly doing anything,

but it’s because you haven’t gone into Sign In.

If you go in and sign into your account again,

you can reset your, whether you have a photo or whether you have

a naming or any of those conventions.

Great tip.

And often what I have found is you get signed out

when Zoom updates.

That is correct.

At least when they do a major, when they do.

Yes, yes.

Not every update, but every once in a while,

when you’re like, why am I, what do you mean iPhone?

That’s probably me.

And then something that if you didn’t know this,

if you’re like, am I iPhone?

I’m on an iPhone.

If you tap that participants tab

in the middle of the bottom of the screen,

you are always the participant at the top.

So if it says iPhone at the top thing, you are iPhone.

So thank you, Eiji.

Did you have a question or did you just want to share that tip?

I just wanted to share the tips since we were talking about Zoom a little bit,

but you guys do a great job.

Thank you very much.

Thanks Eiji.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Eiji.

Judy.

Hey, Judy.

How are you doing?

Hey, guys.

So getting back to complaining about Siri, because I’ve definitely fallen out of love

with Siri since iOS 16.

And I don’t really know that anybody’s got an answer for this, but one of the–

I have often used Siri to send a quick text

and my conversation will appear on the screen

or it used to appear on the screen.

So I could look to see if Siri understood everything

or if I wanted to change it and there’d be a send button,

nothing appears anymore.

And I think that started actually with iOS 16.

I don’t even think it was one of the updates to 16.

So I don’t know, have you guys heard about them

doing anything about that at all?

I mean, have you experienced that at all?

Siri has just been not great in this update, I would say, in 16.

They’ve been trying to make improvements and fixes sort of throughout each time they do

a point update, you know, 0.1 to those ones.

But it’s still not great.

We’re hoping that in 17, all these issues will get resolved.

But unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do with Siri and making any setting changes

or adjustments to make it work.

Right, yeah, I know.

It’s kind of one of those things where it is what it is.

Yeah, I know.

It sounds like my dryer is here, so I am going to step away for a quick moment to deal with

that delivery real quick.

But one thing to think about, Judy, with Siri is in the Siri settings, there is an option

that you can enable or disable that says confirm action from Siri.

And so it might be worth playing with that as well.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks for that.

Appreciate that.

And Judy, one other thing before you go, I will say also, you could actually go into

your messages and go to the person.

And once you have the body of the message open for whoever it is you’re trying to text,

you can use the dictate from the keyboard and that might work a little bit better for you.

Right.

Yeah.

No, I have just always found Siri faster that it, you know, pick up the phone, send off

a quick text and then I could see right then and there if it, you know, if he understood

it.

But yeah, I mean, I know I can, I can do that from the messages app as well.

Even though it doesn’t show up on your screen.

So say like you’re going to pick up your phone, you activate Siri, send a text message.

Does it at least repeat back to what it said or is it not doing that either?

No, it does.

But sometimes I’m wondering, like for example, this morning, I always put the punctuation.

So I said, “question mark.”

He repeated back, “question mark.”

And I wanted to be sure that he actually was, that it didn’t say the words, “question mark,”

because it doesn’t always do that.

He’ll usually say, you know, question and it was saying, “question mark,” and there

were a couple of other things in a text that I just wanted to be sure that it came out

okay, and I used to be able to look at that and see what you know what Siri was actually understanding

and it just doesn’t yeah it doesn’t show up at all. Like I you know I’ve told I’ve said this a

lot of times but you know with this particular round in 16 for whatever reason Siri doesn’t pick

your voice up right when you activate it so you know activate Siri try waiting a second then start

speaking, you know, and then when you’re done, wait a second, and then we’ll stop

Siri and see if that helps at all.

Because I wonder if it’s missing the beginning of what you’re trying to say.

Yeah, well, it’s not just that, like, I mean, I understand that it said it doesn’t

show up on the screen at all, or it used to, you know, the conversation with Siri

used to show up on the screen if I was texting.

So, I mean, that was the point.

But yeah, I appreciate that.

And I will often go into messages if I’m just annoyed with Siri, I’ll just go into

the app and just do it that way.

So, thanks.

All right, well, good luck. Hopefully we’ll hope we’re better in 17. Right?

Exactly. Thanks a lot. Yep. Petra is next. Hey, Petra, how’s it going?

It’s going, it’s going well. Thank you very much. My comment is about the weather app. I just

use the native weather app that comes with the iPhone. And that is totally messed up lately

since the last update. I have about nine cities that I would keep track of my sisters, my daughters,

local wherever I am at the moment and then my home city and so forth.

And when I open the weather app, it comes up and first of all,

we’ll say Wi-Fi off or something like that.

And I’m thinking, heck, I’m not even in the status bar.

Why is it telling me that?

And then it will give me entirely the wrong city and it takes forever to get back

to the city that I want to be in. And then when it’s there,

Sometimes it will say left justified error or something,

or it goes into the precipitation

by every second of the day.

And I can’t get out of there.

Is there a better weather app

or does anyone use the native Apple app?

And can you tell me how to navigate that better?

So a couple of things.

The first thing I will tell you is they did break

the weather app and it was having all kinds of issues

for a little while.

They did for the most part resolve it,

although it still does have some bugs.

If you’re looking the way the map,

do you have any vision at all

or are you not able to see anything at all?

No, I don’t have no vision at all.
Okay, well in the weather app at the very top,

that’s gonna be where it’s gonna tell you the city

and the weather currently in your city.

And if you have voiceover on,

it will also tell you what the high of the day

and the low of the day will be.

If you scroll or move your finger down,

the next thing is gonna be like every hour or every,

you know, minute or whatever,

how it kind of goes across the timeline.

The five day forecast or the seven day forecast

is gonna be under that.

And so you would have to get under that

to see what that would be.

Now I’m also gonna say it is still a little bit buggy.

So if you’re looking for some other suggestions

for weather apps, I can give you two.

Both of them work with voiceover

and both of them have free and paid versions.

A lot of people really, really like Weather Gods,

which does work with Voiceover and people love that a lot.

And number two would be Carrot Weather,

which people also like a lot

and it also works with Voiceover.

But they both have free versions

and then they also both have paid versions.

So you’ll have to decide what you want there.

But those would be the two suggestions

for alternatives that I would recommend.

And I will second that.

Weather Gods is a great application,

especially if you just want to hear what the audio or what the weather is like.

Uh, that’s what I use weather gods for.

And then, um, with carrot weather, if you Google carrot weather, you’re going to

see it’s the snarky weather app, which is fine.

And that’s all good.

You can calm that down if you want, but what I find to be the most valuable

thing about carrot weather is carrot weather allows you to completely

customize the interface.

So let’s say you don’t really care about what the, what the precipitation

is over the next six days.

you can take that out and not even see that information

and only see the information you want.

So for someone who’s looking

for a very customizable application,

it does take a little bit for you to get it set up

and configured the way you like it,

then definitely check out Carrot Weather.

And then if I remember right,

I think you can even set different views

for different cities.

So if your kid lives in a city that gets a lot of rain

or has more storm alerts,

you can get those information too.

So I hope that helps a little bit.

My only question about that,

And I’m not sure if you know this or not, Michael,

is the customization behind the paywall

or is that in the free version?

Yep, it is behind the paywall.
Okay.
Well, you know, the weather app,

the way you were describing it used to work that way.

It’s not working that way anymore on my phone.

But the sad thing is about two years ago,

Apple bought a dark sky.

Right.
It was a really, really good weather app.
Yes, it was.
And I thought, wow, in fact,

My daughter who uses an Android had dark sky

and had to pay for it.

And then I was gonna get it for free.

And it was so good that I could be on the paratransit

and the driver could be looking for a particular address.

And dark sky would actually tell me the address

of where we were and what the weather was.

And Apple bought it and they’ve taken dark sky away

and they’ve ruined the weather app.

Well, I’ll try one of the other options,

see if there’s work anybody for you.

I think you’ll be super happy with carat weather

if you used to use dark sky, I would definitely check it out.

All right, thank you very much.
All right, have a good one.
Next.
Hello, Marie.
Hi, I have one quick comment and one question.

First quick comment is I don’t know about a Mac,

an Outlook, but Outlook on a Windows PC,

the Alt-Q absolutely works perfectly

’cause I use it all the time.

It works very reliably. – There’s a security word

not on Windows, so thank you for letting me know

it does work.

I thought you might be talking about on a Mac,

because, and I don’t use a Mac,

but no, it works really good on my Windows PC.

My question is, I have a three year old laptop

that I’m thinking about passing along to somebody,

and it’s running Windows 11.

Do you know, they say that the reset feature

in Windows 11 will absolutely reset everything,

and will wipe out all of your data.

Do you know if that’s true?

So for Windows 11, if you go into settings

and you do the reset PC, it will offer you to just reset

or to erase all of the files and reset,

and that will cleanly erase the files.

Of course, when you erase files on a computer,

anyone who kind of knows what they are doing

and needs to, could get access to them,

but that is the most efficient way to just give it away

or to sell the computer.

Okay, do you know, this originally came with Windows 10,

but if you do the reset,

it still will be running Windows 11, correct?

Yes. – It won’t go back to 10.
Yep, you can make it so it’s still on Windows 11.
Okay, thank you very much.

That’s it. – No problem,

Marty, I’m gonna step away for about 20 seconds.

Okay, who do we have next, Monica?
We have Melissa next.
Hey, Melissa, how’s it going?
I sent an answer on mute with this, Eric.
Hey, Eric, how’s it going?
Last hand for now, unless Melissa can unmute.

She’s not here, so.

Eric can go ahead with his question if he…

I did send it.

OK, I’ve sent it a couple of times, Marty.

OK, let’s move on.

If either we’ll go to Anne.

All right. Sounds good. Hey, Anne.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you. There I am.

Oh, there we go.

OK, go ahead. Wow.

Go ahead, Eric.

This is my first time and I’m on the iPhone

and I download it 16 and I’m having all kinds of bugs.

Don’t forget to do all the updates once you get 16 on your phone.

You might want to go back and make sure that you have all of your updates there.

You can get rid of as many bugs as you can get rid of.

Okay. I know that I do need to do another update.

I have two questions.

One is with the rotor.

Since I did the updates,

I lost part of my editing rotor functions.

It doesn’t seem like it is where usually go to reset it.

Has anybody had that issue?

I think what they do is there’s

some things on the rotor that

are things that they just put on there,

but you could customize a rotor.

So you could take stuff off or put other stuff on,

to kind of customize it to whatever suits you.

So if you want to mess around with the rotor

and either add, change things with it, whatever,

you would go into settings, then accessibility,

and then voiceover, and then rotor.

And then once you’re in the rotor,

then there’s a bunch of settings and changes that you can do.

I know, but when you get in there, for example,

before you could go in there and tell it

to like give you, right now,

it won’t even allow me to set a link on the rotor

or where you would be able to do the rotor to set a format.

So it would be easier to do like an application.

Right.

I thought that that was weird and I did

send a message to Apple about it.

Well, did you go into the settings for the rotor and see if you can add back the things

that you would want to have on your rotor?

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been fighting with for the past two days.

So I mean, I’ve been trying to work around it, which is a pain, but you know, if it’s

not working for you, did you try calling Apple Disability and see if they can help you get

the rotor set up?

It should not be this difficult, but if you are having issues, actually the first thing

I would say to do is to update, do all your updates first and then see if you’re able

to do it because there could be some bugs with the updates.

So make sure you get all your updates all the way as far as you can go.

And then if you’re still having trouble with it, I would try calling Apple Disability because

it shouldn’t be this difficult.

My other one is on the Messenger app.

When you want to go into one of the chats,

how exactly do you do that now?

Are you talking about like text messages basically?
Like, you know how you get alert

that you have a chat message?

Right.
When you belong to a community.
Are you talking about,

This doesn’t sound like the Apple Messages app.

This sounds like something else.

It’s part of, I think it’s more or less

part of the Facebook.

Oh, Facebook messages or whatever they call it.
Yeah, yeah.
It’s pretty much works the same way

as the Apple Messages app.

You would need to open that app up.

So you have to have that app installed on your phone.

It’s a standalone app on iPhone.

So do you have it installed on your phone right now?

I thought I did.

I guess I better double check.

Yeah, so the first thing is you would need

to have it installed if you don’t,

but once you have it installed,

then you would do a single finger double tap to open it up.

And then the first thing you’ll see is a list

of all of the people that you message with.

And if you have any groups or whatever,

you click on the one that is the group.

And when you do a single finger double click,

it’ll open up the body of that message.

and then you can actually reply in the message,

just like you would on Apple Messages.

There’ll be a box you can type in or dictate in

and it’ll put your message into the chat.

And is there a voice command for that?
You could try, if you know exactly what it’s called,

you can try saying or using Siri to say open Facebook

messages or messenger,

I don’t remember exactly what it’s called,

but that’ll only work if you have it installed on your phone.

And if you say something like open messenger, which will, that’s the fastest way to open

Facebook messenger is just to say messenger.

If you don’t have it on your phone, and I was going to drop this as a comment too earlier,

the most reliable way I’ve found for Siri to actually prompt you to go download the

app in the app stores to say open and then the app name.

And if it can’t find it, it’ll say, would you like to search the app store for this?

And you can just double tap on the search button and it takes you right to the page.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, no problem. If you have any issues, come back and let us know.

All right. Thank you.

All right. Ann, go for it.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Okay.

Sorry about that. Thanks for being nice to me.

Okay. Okay. I’m glad he got in.

There is a new update that came out, what, a couple of days ago, I think.

And a friend always tells me about it. I’m glad she does because I wouldn’t know.

But she said, when you’re downloading it, you download it and then it asks you the same thing again and again and again.

And then she restarted her phone and it worked.

Should you have to do that in the middle of that particular or this particular update that has just come out?

Well, I would think you would never want to turn off your phone or restart at the middle of an update.

That wouldn’t be good.

Well, she had to because it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t let her go forward.

And she said it worked perfectly. So now I’m scared.

Interesting. Uh, I haven’t seen that issue personally, Michael,

you’ve seen this update that came out two days ago or whatever.

Um, so I am on the latest update.

The only time that I’ve ever been told to restart my phone is it’ll,

it’ll walk me through restarting it. And, uh,

then I just double tap on restart and that tells me that it’s fine.

Is it telling, did it tell her to actually go and restart her phone or what?

No, she said it kept telling her to update.

I mean, once she got in the middle of it, whatever that prompt is there, it kept

giving it to her, but it wouldn’t do it and wouldn’t move.

And she figured after three tries, she would, she would just restart the phone.

She restarted the phone and it worked.

So I went through fine.

Yeah.

So, so that sounds like it was just kind of a glitch.

Uh, technology can be technology sometimes.

So I definitely recommend not restarting your phone while you’re doing an update.

But in those instances, sometimes you just got to make a judgment call.

I mean, you can either do it or you can call Apple and they may have you do the

same thing and then you have the reassurance if something does go wrong.

But I definitely get her concern because you, you don’t, you’re always told,

don’t turn it off while it’s updating.

So yeah, I have not seen this though.

No, I’m going to wait till I have siding systems to do this one.

There you go. Whatever makes you comfortable for sure.

Thanks.

No problem, man. Thanks a lot. Who do we have next there, Monica?

Abraham.

Hi there.

Hi. How do I go about uninstalling a JavaScript?

How do you go about uninstalling a JAWS script? Okay, so I am, I may need to follow up with

you via email if I can’t remember off the top of my head, but what you can do is go

into the JAWS utility menu and there’s a option to show JAWS settings path and that will open

the proper JAWS settings path in File Explorer and then in there is the JAWS script files.

But you want to remove the script files and the keyboard manager file as well. And if you

need more directions, I can send that to you via email because I know I kind of butchered it.

This is Chanel.

Okay. Hey, Chanel. Thank you.

Yeah, some of the like the Zoom scripts actually show up and they’re from, if you have the ones from

Brian Harton at least, they show up in the in your you know ad remove and there have been quite a few

updates to the scripts so it may be worth you know making sure that I just double checked and

I only have Teams scripts here.

Oh, okay.

I’m thinking maybe Teams is open in the background and

it’s trying to answer the problem.

That could be your problem, yeah.

Because I think Alt-Y in Teams does answer a call, right?

No, I think it’s control-shift-J.

Oh, okay. Because you were saying it was saying answer call.

I don’t know what’s going on. It’s weird.

But it’s not to fix it on my laptop, only my desktop.

So another thing to try, Ibrahim, is in Zoom, do JAWS Key Q and C1.

Oh, I checked all my hotkeys default.

Okay.

Well, I was reading JAWS Key Q to see what version of scripts the JAWS was loading on your laptop

versus the desktop to see maybe there’s different version numbers on each of the computers.

So we can have Zoom in focus if you do JAWS Key Q, it’ll tell you that.

Okay.

Hopefully that helps a little bit or drop us an email and we can try to send you

some follow-up directions for manually removing scripts. And it might be worth playing with

Brian’s scripts because you can download those for free to see if they work.

Brian Hartchen from Hartchen Consultancy. If you just search for H-A-R-T-G-E-N

Zoom scripts, you’ll find it right away. He has a free version and a paid version of JAWS scripts

that provide additional functionality for Zoom individuals using JAWS.

And actually the free version is already built into JAWS now.

But the paid, I’m trying to remember the paid basically allows you more

customization of your alerts and there’s a couple other things I just can’t remember.

So, yep.

Thanks so much.

Thanks, Janelle.

Thanks, Abraham.

Appreciate it.

Uh, we have about 10 minutes left.

Who do we have next, Monica?

Bell Mills is next.

Hey, Bill.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Good.

I have a Zoom concern here.

It seems like today is a lot of questions about Zoom.

This one, I’m a member of a Bible group.

Every week they send an ID and a password.

do not send out a link and all every week it’s it’s a different ID and password. So

this time I could only enter the ID and and you know I went to join meeting and so on and I just

and I went into settings and couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything. You know I just don’t

know what to do and I’m scared to death to do they only send out the phone number or do they send out

I’d click here. Oh, they just all they do, they don’t, they just send you the number, they send you

them, like they say ID, and they’ll give you a number, and you have to put it in. And this is on

this week, I worked with my computer. Sometimes I go to the iPhone. Oh, oh, I tried both, both. So,

this week, and I never could get in. So I don’t understand it. I have tried to get them,

or I talked to somebody about, please send me a link.

(laughs)

And I think a lot of people would be happy with that.

They don’t send you one that says join now?
Join, no, no.
There’s a lot of times when they send out

a Zoom invitation, they’ll send like a link

and then also the phone numbers.

This is a separate thing from the community.

This is here in town.

So they just send you the participant code?
They just send the codes.
Or the meeting ID.

Yeah. And so you have to, so what to do.

So, bell, are you trying to access this on the blind shell or the iPhone?

Cause I know you’re on both.

Well, the blind shell, I just can’t seem to get that going.

So I have the iPhone and I do some zooming on that, but I have to use my keyboard,

you know, Apple keyboard.

I hope nobody criticizes me for that.

But anyway, so, but this time.

I was not able to get anywhere.

So send us an email.

First of all, thank you for your email about pricing.

I definitely, that was a good read.

Appreciate you sharing that with us.

Um, and, and send us an email as well though, because, uh, apparently

I accidentally turned dictation on.

And so my wife was getting a dictated message of what I was saying.

Anyway, send us an email and I’ll test it on my end because I think, uh, the, first

of all, I want to see why you can’t use zoom on the blind shell.

Let’s troubleshoot that.

So that works for you.

And secondly, um, I think if you go to join meeting, it should just ask you for

the passcodes or for the meeting ID.

So if it’s not, let’s figure out why it’s not.

Well, see it asked for the ID, but it won’t give me, it, it won’t let me put in a password.

Even after you hit ID and then join.

And, and yeah, that’s when you hit join, it should prompt you for the passcode

then and it’s not, no.

Okay.

Yeah.

Shoot me an email.

Let’s play with that one.

Weird.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thanks.

No problem.

Thanks for coming.

Thanks. Have a good one.

Monica.

Yes, we have Malcolm and Herbie

and you got six minutes.

All right.
All right, let’s try and knock these points out.
Let’s make it make Malcolm.

How’s it going?

Good, good, good.

I have a question about an update

that you were just speaking about.

On my iPhone 13, it has iOS security response,

16.4.1 parentheses, little a parentheses.

Is this an update we should do?

It says the rapid security response update.

Anytime there’s an update,

especially regarding security, I would suggest doing it.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

And there’s not a major update,

so you’re not going from like 16.4 to 16.5.

So the point updates, the 16.4.1 generally,

obviously not all the time,

doesn’t fix accessibility problems

that may have already been broken or vice versa.

So those are typically safe to do

and it keeps your stuff secure.

OK, thank you.

No problem, Malcolm. Thank you.

All right, Janet.

Hello, Janet.

Hello. Yesterday, Apple was having a bug

when people tried to install the 16.4 point A.

But I think today people might be might be able to get

get the install, get it, get it, get it to install because you got

verify, verify the secure or whatever in it.

Kept saying it was failing and it was it was it was on it was on Apple site. Okay. Good to know

Updating yesterday try to get and should be able to install the update today

Perfect because they were they were I guess they were

Rolling it out and it was rolling out slowly

So like five percent of the people would get it and then another hour ten percent or what, you know, whatever

So, yeah, I just thought I’d mention that and y’all have a great day

Thanks a lot.

And so if you had problems updating yesterday or recently, then try the update again and

hopefully that’ll fix it.

Marty, look at that time.

We did great.

And I got a dryer installed during the hour and signed the papers and everything.

There we go.

And we wrapped it up with four minutes.

So you want to tell people how to get in contact and close it out?

And thank you, Monica.

Sure.

Thanks everyone for being here for another Unmute.

And thanks Monica and Herbie for helping us out today.

If you have any questions, comments, or anything else,

you can reach us at feedback@unmute.show.

And we’ll see you guys next week.

Thanks a lot.

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Show NotesOn this episode, Michael Doise talks to Damashe Thomas, Michael Babcock and Marty Sobo about the following topics:

Tech Headlines* SpaceX Starship test rapidly disassembles (explodes) * Many rumored changes to iOS and WatchOS at WWDC

TopicA new security issue has come up where people are watching iPhone users enter their passcodes. They then find a way to steal the person’s phone, and then change their iCloud password. Find out how to avoid this and other security related topics in this episode.

Picks* Marty: Anker GaN 4 port wall charger * Damashe: MacWhisper * Michael: Reaper * Michael: Sennheiser Profile microphone

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Show Notes: In this episode of Unmute Presents, we explore the capabilities of Mac GPT, a powerful chatbot that can assist with content creation and more. We discuss how to set it up, demonstrate its use, and showcase how it can be integrated into your workflow for increased productivity.

Unmute Presents – Mac GPT

Transcript

Michael:
[0:04] Hey there, and welcome to this Unmute Presents podcast. I want to thank Chanel for coming to our Tuesday call and asking that we do this.
If you have something you’d like to hear from us, remember we’re live in ACB community every Tuesday at 10am pacific time.

[0:21] That’s 1pm eastern visit acb.community for more information.
So on Tuesday, Chanel wanted us to talk a little more about what is Mac GPT?
How are we using it? And can we give some quick demonstrations of what we’re doing to get it to work? So I’m going to go over the app. I’m not going to go fully in depth, but I’d love to answer any questions after the show.
And if you have any questions, reach out to feedback at unmute.show or ask us live on Tuesdays.
In order to use chat GPT with Mac GPT, I know a lot of letters.
You need to either have a premium account through chat GPT or an API key.
I don’t think for your council work, and I’m sure someone will correct me on that if that is incorrect.
I am using the API key method. If you Google Mac stories SGPT, then you’ll find a great article which will give you some explanations of how to set up your API key and how you can go ahead and make sure you don’t get overcharged because this can become very addicting.
Now, once you do that, you can put your API key or log in to Mac GPT.
So get it all set up. And once you have that set up, you’ll see something like.

Voiceover:
[1:41] Application, Mac GPT, Mac GPT, window, edit text.

Michael:
[1:44] And that says Mac GPT window, edit text.
Now, if you just open the app, you don’t have to do this, but I want to show you something that I think can make a big difference to people.
If we do VO home toolbar, and we locate that toolbar and we interact with it.

Voiceover:
[2:00] Until bar five items, native selected radio button.

Michael:
[2:02] One of two, we have a couple of options that you can pick from.
If you signed in with the web, then just leave it on web. I leave mine on native experiment and see what works best for you. But I’m going to go to the end of this toolbar clear button group. And we’re going to press VL space on that.
This is a brand new conversation with ChatGPT and me.
So I’m going to stop interacting with the toolbar, go to the end of the page, and then press VL left arrow once, twice to the edit text. And I’ll go ahead and select that.
And now I’m going to prompt chat GPT, and I’m going to say, you’re a chat bot that is being demoed.
Oh, comma and say hi to Chanel. She’s the reason we’re doing this episode this week, period.

Voiceover:
[3:01] Oh, and say hi to Chanel. She is the reason we’re doing this episode this week.

Michael:
[3:04] And I’ll hit enter. And now if you press VO end, you’ll hear stop button.

Voiceover:
[3:09] Here, stop button.

Michael:
[3:10] That means it’s still working. If you don’t hear stop, then it’s all the way done. So let’s press VL left arrow because we don’t hear it.

Voiceover:
[3:17] Send a message, edit text.

Michael:
[3:19] And then press VL left arrow one more time. And this is a list.
This is where our conversation is. So we’ll interact with this. Enlist.

Voiceover:
[3:26] You’re a chat bot that is being demoed on a podcast. Say hi to the listeners and remind them to stay subscribed to unmute presence. Oh, and say hi to Chanel.
She is the reason we’re doing this episode this week.

Michael:
[3:33] And we’ll press VL right arrow to hear what the chat bot came back with.

Voiceover:
[3:37] Hello listeners. I am a chat, but being demoed on this podcast, thank you for tuning in and listening to the show. Don’t forget to stay subscribed to unmute presence for more interesting and informative episodes and a special shout out to Chanel for making this episode possible. Thank you.

Michael:
[3:46] If we press via right arrow, 63 tokens, $0.00.

Voiceover:
[3:49] 0 1 2 6.

Michael:
[3:51] That’s how much money I spent for that specific transaction.
And that’s a very important thing that is not shown to you by default.
So let me show you two more things. If we stop interacting with this list and we press via left arrow, top button image toolbar to the toolbar and interact with it in toolbar five items native selected radio button one of two we now have some additional options that are available including web rate your shape fill copy button group copy which will copy the entire conversation Now, let’s clear this.
And I’m going to go show you in preferences, a couple of things you might want to be aware of. So like you can on any other Mac app, well, any other well-designed Mac app, you can press command comma.

Voiceover:
[4:37] Now in general window GPT 3.5 turbo API model pop up button.

Michael:
[4:41] And this lets you choose the GPT model 3.5 turbos, what most users have.
But the one thing that I wanted to show you is toolbar.
If you go from the toolbar at the top of the screen to show tokens per message, check checkbox.
By default, that’s unchecked, so you won’t see how much you’re spending, but if it’s something you really want to pay attention to, then you can go check that checkbox and you’ll see those tokens with the amount of money that’s been spent. Let’s command W out of here.

Voiceover:
[5:08] Map GPT, window, toolbar.

Michael:
[5:10] And as I recommend, go poke around in the settings because you can make some preference changes and one of which you’ll see here in a moment. Oh, launch, launch bar.

Voiceover:
[5:20] Application.

Michael:
[5:21] Press and hold D for drafts.

Voiceover:
[5:23] Drafts, drafts, draft, blank, window, edit text, beginning of text.

Michael:
[5:26] And now I’m going to blank edit text. If I press up arrow, beginning of text, nothing there. If I press down arrow, end of text, nothing there.
So now I’m going to type the first change that you’ll notice that’s different than default.
If I type slash GPT followed by, and I’m going to dictate this.
Say hello to all of the listeners of the unmute presents podcast period.
You’re being demonstrated in a live, well, I guess, pre-recorded show period.
And I’ll tap the control key to stop the dictation.
And if I hit shift enter, you’ll hear a sound and then And I didn’t edit any of that out because I wanted you to hear what voiceover would do.
Now if I press my down arrow.

Voiceover:
[6:24] I’m at the bottom and there’s some new stuff on this text.

Michael:
[6:31] So let’s do command up arrow. And I’m going to read this entire screen.

Voiceover:
[6:36] Misspelled GPT say hello to all of the listeners of the unmute present podcast.
You’re being demonstrated in a live. Well, I guess prerecorded show.
Hello to all the listeners of the unmute present podcast. It’s a pleasure to be a part of this live demonstration. And I hope that I can be of assistance to you all. If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to ask.
And I’ll do my best to assist you. Thank you for having me on the show.

Michael:
[6:51] And as you can see that auto filled and your prompt was still at the top of the draft.
So if you wanted to rewrite it or readdress that thing, you can again, by default, you use plus GPT for me. I prefer slash and I went in and changed that in the preferences.
So how do I use chat GPT? Well, let me give you one last example.
And it’s something that I think might be good for you to observe.
And I opened map GPT by using command space, typing MA and holding C.
So this is a way that I use it. I’m going to go through my workflow and just dictate what I’m doing. If it doesn’t make sense, then just assume that I’m dictating.
You’re an assistant to a podcast host who needs to promote their latest episode.
Period. Create me some marketing messages I can post on LinkedIn, comma.

[7:50] Ideas for pictures I can post on Instagram with captions, comma.
And then what I’ll do is I’ll go ahead and let it finish typing that out.
And then I’m going to hit shift enter.
I’m going to paste this in and then here’s what we’re going to see is something.
When I hit enter, um, it’s going to start working and I’m going to VO left arrow.
And I think you’ll hear the sound. I’m not sure if you will, but voiceover will be freaking out and I’ll show you that here in a moment.

Voiceover:
[8:23] Okay. So I’m going to hit enter. freaking out and I’ll show you that here in a moment.

Michael:
[8:24] So this is it typing away and you can verify that by pressing V O N. Stop button.

Voiceover:
[8:29] And it says stop generating stop button.

Michael:
[8:34] It still says stop. And I’ll show you what it gives me here in a couple of moments with the material that I gave chat GPT, which actually chat GPT gave me in the first place.
So let me play for you everything that it heard and what it came back with and what we spent.

Voiceover:
[8:50] In list. youtube short idea. three tech stories with. you’re an assistant to a podcast host, who needs to promote their latest episode. create me some marketing messages. i can post on linkedin. ideas for pictures. i can post on instagram with captions. and some ideas for short form blog post to promote this episode.
Overall episode title. subscriptions, scams, and privacy. exploring the latest in tech news on Friday finds.
Episode show notes. On this week’s Friday Finds episode, we’re covering a range of topics in the tech world.
First, we discuss the recent changes to the popular app, Voice Dream Reader, and the impact of a new subscription model on users. Then, we dive into the flood of ScamChat GPT apps on the Mac App Store and provide tips for staying safe while browsing. Finally, we explore the rumor of app sideloading coming to iPhones and the potential privacy and security implications for users.
Join us as we delve into the latest in tech news with an accessibility view.
Promotional paragraph. Friday Finds is a weekly 30-minute tech story review show brought to you thanks to Unmew Presence.
This week on Unmew Presence Friday Finds, Lynn, Marty, and Damash are bringing you the latest in tech news with an accessibility view, from the recent changes to the popular app, app, voice dream reader to the flood of scam chat, GPT apps on the Mac app store and the rumor of app side loading coming to iPhones.
We cover it all. Join us as we explore the potential impact of these changes on users and provide tips for staying safe and informed in the digital marketplace.
YouTube short idea, three tech stories with an accessibility view.
Friday find episode preview, a quick 30 second teaser that highlights the three stories covered in the episode and emphasizes the accessibility view perspective. LinkedIn post ideas.

Michael:
[9:51] And so that was the data that it gave me. And now here’s some LinkedIn post ideas.

Voiceover:
[9:56] Are you up to date with the latest tech news? Check out our latest episode of Friday finds where we explore subscriptions, scams and privacy with an accessibility view. Join us for a deep dive into the latest changes in the tech world.
Our latest Friday finds episode covers everything from voice dream reader to app side loading on iPhones.
Want to stay informed and safe in the digital marketplace. Tune into our latest episode of Friday finds where we provide tips, Instagram, caption ideas.
Police car revolving light, new episode alert, police car revolving light.
This week on Friday finds we’re exploring the latest in tech news with an accessibility view tune in for insights on subscriptions, scams, and privacy, and that is some ideas that it gave me and I cut some of those out because there was a lot in there.

Michael:
[10:27] And as you can see, this is how I can use chat GPT, and then I can go in and copy some of these use the clipboard manager and launch bar to be able to get back to them.
And hopefully that helps you a little bit with being able to leverage max GPT in your workflow and be more productive when it comes to producing.
This is Michael again with unmute presents available as a replay on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on Tuesdays, 10 AM Pacific time. And that’s 1pm Eastern.

Support Unmute Presents by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unmute-presents-on-acb-communi

View Details

On this week’s Friday Finds episode, we’re covering a range of topics in the tech world. First, we discuss the recent changes to the popular app, Voice Dream Reader, and the impact of a new subscription model on users. Then, we dive into the flood of scam chat GPT apps on the Mac App Store and provide tips for staying safe while browsing. Finally, we explore the rumor of app sideloading coming to iPhones and the potential privacy and security implications for users. Join us as we delve into the latest in tech news with an accessibility view.
transcripts:

Transcript:Hey everybody, so I am the bearer of the bad news. To begin with here, last week we talked

about Bookshare raising its membership fee to 80 bucks for those of us who pay out of

pocket and unfortunately this week we have another sad tale of something that we’re paying

for that we didn’t used to have to, for some people that is. So I was looking at the iPhone,

The VI phone, it’s called the VI phone list.

This is an email list, it’s a Google,

I think it’s a Google list that basically talks about

everything iOS for blind and visually impaired folks.

There is an app that we, many of us in the blind community

know and love and trust.

And it is called Voice Stream Reader.

This app has been around, oh my gosh,

I can’t even, I’m not exactly sure how long,

but it is a quality app.

I mean, most people that use this app just love it.

We are just, you know, the developer is awesome.

He really, really, if there’s a problem,

you could write to him and he would help you right away.

His name was Winston Chen.

His name is Winston Chen, I should say.

Great developer.

So it was sort of a shock to a lot of us

when we find out that there will now be,

that the app was sold to a group

that I’ve never heard of,

but the applause group it’s called.

I’ve never heard of that group,

but apparently they are taking over the development

and everything about Voice Dream Reader.

Well, I’ve never even heard of that group either.
A floss group?
Yeah, do you know what else they make by jam, sir?
I don’t.

Winston said that he liked the group

because he felt that they would continue developing the app,

that they would really do right by it.

So if you’ve already have the app,

you’re grandfathered in, so you wouldn’t have to pay.

I don’t know about upgrades or anything like that.

So it’s $59.99 is gonna be the annual price.

So that’s, you know, 60 bucks a year is something that,

it sort of shocked me a little bit.

Yeah, that’s a lot of money, 60 bucks a year?
Yeah.
This is one of the higher, most expensive prices

I’ve seen.

And you know, the thing is,

once someone kind of goes for something like this

and tests the water, then everyone else sort of goes,

well, if they’re doing it, we can do it.

And the thing that makes me nervous

is that if everyone starts charging, you know,

50, 60, $7 a month for apps, you know,

you’re really gonna have to decide

what apps you absolutely need

and what apps you absolutely don’t need

because you can’t just get everything, you know?

Yeah.
Because people can’t afford,

if you were to add all that up,

just if you’re paying for three, four, five apps,

you know, 60 bucks a year for all of those

becomes a lot of money.

Demoss, did you use this app for anything?

Is this your tools you got in your toolbox?

I have been a voice stream reader user

since it was released and I continue to use it today.

Yeah.
Voice String Reader is very, very heavily used

in the education market because of the text

to speech capabilities, whether it’s using a built-in voice

or someone to specialize voices.

It also will play audio books back,

handles daisy files, EPUBs, docs, plain text, et cetera.

Another wide usage of the application

and kind of where Winston was trying to position the app

in addition to helping those with blind and low vision

is people who are dyslexic are also very heavy users

the app because of the text highlighting that happens visually and some other features that

are in there visually for those people.

So very popular app.

I’ve been using it and recommending it to people for over 10 years now.

Now my question to you, if the price went up to 60 bucks a year, would you still use

it and pay that money to you?

Is it that important or would you find something else?

So let me get some clarification here because I may have missed it.

But as far as I know, the cost is just for the Mac application, correct?

Or are they also implementing this across the iOS app?

It seems to me that it is on the iOS side as well.

That’s why it was discussed on the iPhone list, which is basically for iOS issues.

Okay, because as it stands right now, or at least as it stood before this change was announced,

you only paid a subscription for the Mac app.

So if you already own the iOS app, that was free.

So for me, I don’t have to pay for the iOS access at all.

I do pay for the Mac app.

I pay a monthly subscription for the Mac app, primarily because I wanted to support Winston,

because again, I bought this app when it was on sale for $4.99 when it first released.

And this was over 10 years ago.

I have been getting routine use.

This is one of the apps that if it’s not on my phone,

like it doesn’t work right.

So giving him $4.99 a month, I think,

is what the subscription currently is on the Mac,

was no problem for me.

I don’t really use the Mac app all that often.

I may add things to it from there,

but I still primarily use it on my iPhone.

If this change is also going to affect current iOS users,

then that’s a little bit different of a story.

For me, when I pay 60 bucks a year for it, I would.

I mean, I don’t know if I would pay 60 bucks a year

just for the Mac app,

but if they’re doing a wholesale change where,

you know, the only way to access the Apple Cross platform

is to pay 60 bucks a year,

and I feel like I’m probably gonna end up paying 60 bucks a year

’cause I don’t know of another application

that is as fully featured as this one is.

Like, you know, you can read EPUBs in the Kindle app,

but there’s no audiobooks there.

It doesn’t do OCR, so that’s another feature

that’s built into Voice Stream Reader is OCR on iOS.

So if I drop in a scanned PDF that’s instantly OCR,

then I can read it.

And the handy thing for me with Voice Stream Reader

is putting a PDF or EPUB file in

and having it play back as though it’s an audiobook,

meaning I can lock my phone, put it in my pocket,

and proceed to do dishes or whatever it is.

Yeah, it just does what it does and does it very, very well.

Winston said– and I guess this is something

that we all have to get to grips with–

that the one-time pricing model is just not sustainable now.

If you want an app to grow with the times,

change with the different developments in the iOS,

and it’s a moving target, a constant moving target.

And I guess–

[BEEPING]

Lots obviously. Are we gonna get sideloading on our

iPhones?

App sideloading. This is the big rumor. It’s supposedly coming in 17 iOS 17 and

Apparently Apple’s gonna pick which markets

sideloading can occur in and they’re saying that Europe is probably gonna be first because

Europe has a lot of

anti-monopoly

That’s why I think they’re saying that what is it? The iPhone is gonna be have the

SBC because they’re saying, you know, it’s not fair that Apple has this monopoly on the app store

and so I think a lot of this is coming from Europe. I would agree with you there. I would say that

In the beginning this probably and this is I have no inside knowledge on this

I this is just my own opinion

But I think that if they’re going to do something like this

They’re gonna start only in Europe and they’re gonna see how it goes

I think this is something really that’s gonna be a major undertaking

I’d be really curious to see how are they gonna still

continue to make it safe?

How are they going to police it?

I mean, as we just got done talking about,

they’re having some issues

with their own app store currently.

So how are they gonna add a side loading app store,

keep that safe?

So I think that they’re gonna start off in Europe

and see how it goes there if they implement this,

if they’re actually gonna do this.

And we’ll have to see how that goes.

And we’ll see if they bring side loading

to other countries, US and alike.

It’ll be interesting, definitely.

I definitely want to know and see how they’re going to keep track of this,

police it and keep everyone safe or if it’s going to become completely out of

control. I don’t know.

Yeah. It worries me a lot because you know,

there are sort of advantages to the walled garden right now.

Yeah, definitely.

You can keep it, although we can sideload on the net.

I mean, not when they’re not trimming the weeds back into the walled garden,

not so much.

Yeah. Yeah. So I guess.

I mean, just like in the story,

we’re hearing problems with other apps that they’re getting in there and they’re

getting by the process.

That’s a consistent problem with Apple.

The GPT apps are new, but the underlying issue of scam apps

or fake apps or pretend apps getting by app review

quite a bit is not a new story in the Apple App Store

for iOS’s community at least anyway.

Nobody pays much attention to the Mac App Store in general,

but you see a lot of this in the iOS App Store.

I mean, oftentimes you go into the App Store

and you search for an app and by name

and you’re getting different results at the top

versus what you’re looking for

and sometimes it’s even made to look like,

I mean, there’s a weather app or there was.

They probably have gotten rid of it now

that made the news.

But before Apple had their weather app on the iPad,

there was a weather app that was called Weather Space,

and this is what was in the actual text

of the app submission, right?

So it looked exactly like what Apple’s app would look like

before they had one for the iPad.

It looked just like the iPhone app

just designed for an iPad screen.

And they were charging like,

you know, I don’t remember how much.

It wasn’t a ridiculous amount of money,

but they were fooling people that this was the Apple app.

They were like, people would look at that and say,

“Oh, it looks like the one on my phone.

“I’m gonna get that one,” right?

Not realizing Apple’s not gonna charge you

in app subscription for weather.

It’s not a thing they do.

Yeah, and that’s what they’re saying about the open AI chat GPT.

When you look at some of these apps,

it looks like it’s coming from this company.

It’s from open AI.

And that’s where the problem is.

It’s not.

You know, I mean, you can find–

you don’t really– if you want an open AI account,

you go on their website and you make one.

And then you can do whatever you want with it at that point.

It’s your login credentials and stuff like that.

But you just have to be aware.

And I think Damasi would agree, because Damasi

does a security podcast, right?

And I think that Mac and iPhone people,

we tend to be a little bit more complacent

because we think we’re safer, right?

It’s Apple, you know, Apple doesn’t have virus programs,

Apple doesn’t have malware.

But when you think about everything that’s included

in your Apple account, your credit cards,

your, you know, your whole life, I mean.

It comes down to a proportion gain, all right?

If you only have 10 people using Macs

and two people get a virus, well, people are gonna assume

that Macs are pretty impervious to viruses, right?

Whereas when you scale from 10 people using the Mac

to a million people and 200,000 get a virus,

that’s a much bigger number, so you start paying attention.

There’s always been malware on the Mac

or around the Mac ecosystem.

It’s just the smaller it was, the less of an issue it was,

especially compared to, now compared to general malware

in the Windows world versus the Mac,

it does seem like there’s nothing happening

over here on the Mac.

But there are things going on,

and there are people actively trying to attack the Mac

as well as there are people trying to defend the Mac.

I don’t think you need to run out

and install any virus on your Mac if you don’t do

silly things on the internet, but other than that,

With the sideloading conversation, though,

I kind of feel like this.

So I’ve heard some people say they’re worried about it.

I’ve heard some people say they don’t care.

I’ve heard people say this and that.

I want to kind of put a little perspective in here, though.

First off, even if sideloading comes to everybody

at some point on iOS, it doesn’t mean you have to do it.

People on Android have the capability

to sideload applications, but first you

have to go and enable the functionality.

And secondarily, you have to actually want to do it.

If you don’t want to do it, it doesn’t affect you.

It doesn’t weaken your security because the feature is there.

As far as the EU– so the EU has the DMA, the Digital Markets

Act.

And this is kind of where they’re hitting it at Apple

and Google a little bit too.

They’re going after Apple harder

because Apple has made it a little easier for them to say,

well, the only way people can get on your iPhone

or your iPad is to go through your store.

We don’t like this.

We need to open this up a little bit more,

make it more flexible.

The rumor currently is that, yeah,

they’re gonna turn this on in Europe first

because that law goes into effect in 2024.

So they’re gonna have to do something

if that’s what they tell them they have to do.

I don’t think that anybody’s told Apple they have to do this.

I think they’re trying to prepare for it

and get ahead of it.

As for security, the thing is,

I don’t know that Apple’s gonna take this approach

because they’re a very large company with a PR department,

so they may not say this the way that I’m gonna say this,

but if you decide to go turn on a feature in settings

to side load an app, that relieves me

of the responsibility of what you side load.

That’s not my problem, right?

I don’t mean that to be a jerk about it,

but the facts are, if I have a store,

if I’m running Apple and I have an app store,

and you can go to the app store and download an app,

or you choose, you make a choice,

and I’m not forcing you, nobody tells you,

in order to get Apple Music, you gotta go sideload it, right?

Just about anything you want is gonna be an app store.

If you want to sideload an app,

that is your responsibility.

So say with the Mac, right?

I can choose to go through the Mac app store.

I can go to a trusted third-party developer

that has their app notarized and signed and all of that,

so it’ll just run.

Or I can go outside of those miles

and download somebody’s random code off of GitHub

and force it to run on my computer.

At that point, I have bypassed the protections

that were in place for me.

So that is completely my responsibility.

I think the way that they handle general security

for everybody there is kind of the same way

have done it on the Mac, which is there will be the iOS app store, as there always has

been. There will be a mechanism, maybe not functionally exactly the same, but basically

what we have on the Mac with app notarization and app signing. So, my Mac currently, if

I download, if I go to Rogan Meebuh’s website or if I go to Texas Mandarin, I download their

app from their website because they’re not an app store at all. I have no problems running

their software because one, it’s been signed with their developer certificate and two,

Apple has the notarization, which is, you know, developers send their third-party app

to Apple, Apple scans it for malware and malicious things and if it passes their tests, they

sign off on it and give it an Apple signature as well.

So now you have the developer account certificate and you have Apple certificate saying, “Yes,

we have trusted and verified this app.”

It runs fine on your stuff.

I think that’s the way they’ll handle it on iOS because it seems to me they already have

that mechanism in place with Gatekeeper on the Mac.

Like just use that same protocol there to get that to work for people.

And again, just as on the Mac, you have the ability to stay just in the App Store and

never download or run anything that’s not from the App Store if that’s what you choose

to do.

I feel that it’s gonna be the way to handle it on iOS

for people now.

If you go out there and download somebody’s random code

and put it on your iPhone,

it’s just your risk, right?

You did that.

Yeah, especially now because the Apple ecosystem now

is I mean, people have savings accounts, right?

They have basically banking.

I mean, this is what the malware creators

and virus creators now, they just want money.

They used to be able to–

Yeah, but I wouldn’t panic so much

about that part of it though,

because the thing is the sandboxing rules on iOS

still are gonna be in effect.

So just because even if I go out and say download app from a third party again

Assuming nobody does anything silly with a law that forces Apple to do something less secure

Apple’s approach is gonna be okay. You can go download app if it’s notarized and signed it

I have no problem running, but it still will have to adhere to the same sandboxing

You know rules that apply. I mean we switch from the Mac all the time, right? I can go download

transmit which is a

FTP client right doesn’t matter what that does but I download the app

I open it up and before I can use this app

I have to give it certain permissions because that is the structure Apple has put in place on the Mac to help protect me

Oh this app would like to access files in your document folder. Okay. Well, maybe I don’t want to give you a document folder access

So I say no, right? So it’s not the fact that

Sight-loading instantly means the end of the world at the end of your security

My biggest concern with it really is that we’re gonna see a lot of these larger companies start to pull their apps out of the

App store because they will have a little bit more flexibility in what they can do when it comes to tracking your data

tracking you and

You know amortizing your usage of their app to make money. So Facebook is when it comes to mind

I’m not picking on Facebook particularly but Facebook likes to gather scrape all the data they possibly can so my concern is that we’re gonna see people

Like meta pull the Facebook app out of the App Store pull Instagram out of the App Store

So that they can actually run the code that they typically run on their website or that they would run on Android

It gives them a lot more data about you as a user

Apple doesn’t let a lot of that stuff through the store for them

So they step outside of that now they they’re not up under those restrictions

I’m more concerned about people’s privacy with the apps that they choose to use because

a lot of these bigger companies may move out of the store.

As opposed to, I am about somebody getting a side-loaded application that goes in and

empties their Apple savings account or spins up and gets their Apple credit card.

Because all of that stuff is still secured the same way it was.

You’re not going to be able to go through my Apple wallet and yank all my cards out

of my Apple wallet and get that information because it’s encrypted in a way that nothing

on the system actually gets to read that data.

Same with your fingerprint or face ID information.

It’s not readable by any part of Apple’s system,

including Apple, ’cause it’s encrypted.

All you get back when you do Face ID, for example,

is here’s the face I just saw is what the camera says,

and on the encrypted space side of the phone

where you’re at that information store,

it says, “Yep, that matches what I have.”

Or, “Nope, it doesn’t match what I have.

“Don’t let ’em in.”

So I’m not concerned so much about the security

as I am about people’s general privacy.

Because these bigger apps will move out of the store,

because look, if Facebook moves out of the store,

people will go get Facebook.

If, say, a Marco Arment decides

he’s gonna take overcast out of the store,

well, who’s gonna care?

I’ll probably get it, but most people are like,

“Psh, man, you know, I’ll just shoot out the podcast app.”

But Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

you know, if they move out of the store,

people will have to start sideloading,

and that’s when I get more concerned about their privacy.

All right, everyone, so thanks very much

for checking out our Friday finds,

and if you have questions, comments, or anything else,

you can always reach us at feedback@unmute.show,

and I wanna thank Damasi for joining us today.

Thanks, Damasi.

Thank you.
And Lynn, thank you.
For your assistance.

Sir, it’s been fun.

And we’ll see you next time.

[music]

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Show NotesHere are the Tech headlines for April 27, 2023

Google Authenticator not end to end encrypted
Microsoft acquisition of Activision and Blizzard Entertainment blocked by UK Regulators
Report shows there may be three new Desktop Macs at WWDC 2023
USB-C Apple EarPods
Microsoft Loop now in beta for iOS and Android
Google I/O for 2023 approaching
Multiple phones for one WhatsApp Account
iACast+ Premium content now on the iACast Network

Support iACast by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/iacast

Find out more at https://iacast.pinecast.co

Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/iacast/0d17d3ac-bf29-4975-a961-3518229d6d2a

View Details

In this episode of Unmute Presents, we’re joined by tech expert Damashe, who shares valuable insights on USB security. With the convenience of charging our devices in public places, it’s easy to fall into the trap of plugging and playing without considering the potential security risks. Damashe breaks down the dangers of using public USB ports and provides practical tips for staying safe while charging on-the-go. Tune in to this informative episode and learn how to protect your devices and personal information from potential threats.

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You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.Visit acb.community to learn more about what is up coming.

Support Unmute Presents by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unmute-presents-on-acb-communi

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In this episode, we explore the powerful Mac app called Mac Whisper, which allows you to transcribe audio files into text with ease. Our host Damashe takes you through the application interface and demonstrates how to use it to transcribe a YouTube video into text using the Tiny model.

You’ll learn about the different models available in Mac Whisper, how to select the right one for your needs, and how to use the app to transcribe audio files from your computer or record app audio.

Whether you’re a content creator, a journalist, or simply someone who needs to transcribe audio files on a regular basis, Mac Whisper is an essential tool that can save you time and effort. So tune in to learn more about this amazing app and start transcribing like a pro!

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[MUSIC]

Hey, all. Marty here. Today,

we’re coming at you with our Friday finds.

With me, I’ve got Michael.

Say hello, Michael.

Hello, Michael.

Lynn, say hello, Lynn.

Hello, everybody.

Lynn, why don’t you kick us off with our first story?

Sure. Well, I’ll just quickly introduce myself.

I’m Lynn Schneider, and you may know me as

Kane Prince around the Internet.

And I am a right now sort of an intern, I guess you could say.

I’m interested in branching out

and becoming a content producer.

And I decided to ask the best teachers that I could find.

We’ll do our best to learn to use something.
And so I’m really excited.

I love technology.

You guys probably know me.

I do the ACB crafters on Fridays.

I’m involved in lots of different,

I’m totally blind from birth from anaphylmia.

I was born with that eyes. Yeah.

I’m really excited to be here

and to share some news stories with everyone.

My first news story of the week has to do with

the freestyle libre readers

that many people use for diabetic control,

blood sugar control monitoring.

Why don’t you tell everyone who may not know what a freestyle librarian is exactly just so they understand what it is?

So these readers actually help people

Monitor their blood sugars

without having to stick themselves with needles all the time and

Many people are doing this that they will sync up with your phone

so that you can have access to your readings and

It will tell you if you need insulin or

Actually, I think that they they even you can even get insulin

Injectables that they will actually do the injection for you

So you don’t have to poke yourself with a needle.

So the new technology, the old technology actually,

what people used to have to do if they didn’t have these,

you know, digital phone apps was they would have to take

either a little needle, poke themselves,

and then they’d have to use a little strip,

put that in another machine,

they would have to get a little drip of the blood

and then suck that into the little strip

which goes in the machine and tells you

what your glucose level or what your sugar level is,

which is glucose at that exact moment.

And it would reach you on the screen,

whatever the number is.

And some of them are accessible and some of them are not.

And the ones that are accessible will speak

the what’s on the screen, your glucose number

or sugar number at that moment out loud to you.

Now the new technology, which what Lynn is talking about is you get this little tiny

sticker which you stick on and it goes under your skin just enough so that it can check

your blood and you don’t change it.

It sits there constantly.

And then what happens is you have an app on your phone, which you open up and then when

you hit the app, it automatically draws your blood sugar for you and then gives you the

reading on your phone on the app and then it will keep track of all that information

so that the next time you go to the doctor they can see what your trends are and you

can also obviously look and see what your trends are and see if your blood sugars are

high low and different whatever the case may be.

So with all of that being said so Lynn now what is the problem that they’re running into

these machines?

Well, basically what’s happening is that the lithium ion batteries in the readers, some

users are reporting that they’re swelling and that they’re overheating and sparking.

Wow, really?

Okay.

In rare cases, they’re even catching fire.

So in response, the manufacturer has, which is the freestyle libre, the manufacturer has

is advise people to do a few things.

Basically, they want you to use the adapter that it comes with.

Because what’s happening,

they say is that people are not using

the adapters with the right power wattage.

So this is specifically the power adapter, is that correct?

Right.

So people are using

different power adapters that didn’t come with the machine

and that’s causing the machine to do wacky things, correct?

Right, right, that’s right.
And so they’re fixed to this is use the power adapter

we send you in the box and don’t use any other one.

Right, and they do have some,

there’s like four, they say there’s like

tons of these devices out there.

You can still use them, but there is a recall.

So you should just be aware that there is a recall out there

and you just want to contact the manufacturer.

Visit freestylebattery.com.
Marty and I were discussing this yesterday.

We’re talking about the Bookshare price increase.

And if you’re a Bookshare member who like me pays

for their own Bookshare membership,

you know that Bookshare membership was always $50.

So let’s give them a primer on what Bookshare is exactly,

’cause I guarantee you a lot of people are gonna be,

well, wait, isn’t Bard Bookshare or isn’t Bookshare Bard?

So let’s give them a little primer on what Bookshare is.

Right, yeah, that’s good.

And so there are lots of ways

that blind people can get books, of course.

The traditional NLS National Library Service,

NLS tends to sort of cater to

The people that like to read for relaxation, and that’s fine.

Casual readers.

Of course, you have to have a qualifying print disability.

The thing that separates Bookshare from NLS is that

Bookshare tends to have more academic content.

It tends to have more,

for people who like me are into lifelong learning,

students use it, they get their textbooks that way.

And, you know, students get Bookshare for free.

The problem is it caters mostly to students, but adults like me really like it because

I’m a lifelong learner.

I like to have access to academic things.

And unfortunately, they are increasing their annual fee from $50 to $80.

It’s actually $79.99 or some crazy thing like that.

So basically $80.

So that’s a pretty steep increase, I think, for people who pay for their own membership

like me because I’m not a student, so I don’t get a free membership.

And I guess this is just my little mini rant.

I feel that for people like me, in the email they sent to all the members, they say that

they feel like the people in richer countries should be able to afford the price increase.

And of course, I’m considered being in a high income country.

I am not a high income person.

I can guarantee you that.

certainly everybody is suffering from the effects of inflation.

Yeah, definitely.

We know that every prices of everything are increasing.

They’ve said that they’ve not increased their prices

despite the fact that their costs are going up.

My little mini rant here is to say that many people like me who buy their own,

For example, I bought my own Mantis.

I think people might look at me and say,

“Oh, well, you have the money.”

But it was a hardship for me to do that.

What is the Mantis exactly, just so people know?

It’s a Braille display.

So it allows me to read my screens in Braille and read books in Braille.

It’s just a wonderful device that I hook up to my phone or my Mac,

and it allows me to have braille output.

And the reason that I wanted that

is because I do a lot of volunteer work.

And unfortunately, volunteer work is not considered work.

So I’m not a student–

No, it’s considered work, but for free,

you don’t get paid.

Yeah, exactly.

By the way, this is National Volunteer Week,

so this, you know, as an aside.

I get a 30% price increase,

which is what it comes down to is drastic.

It’s shocking to anyone.

But the other thing that I consider full transparency, I do not currently

pay for bookshare, so I will be open about that, but is the value you get

from bookshare still worth $6 a month?

And when you break it down monthly, it’s like, oh, that’s for all the books

that I get, that’s not a lot, but when you go and take the pricing, almost

double it, it’s sticker shock to people.

It is.

In fact, I was almost wondering, cause I take allergy medicine and it makes

me have really weird dreams. And it was at night when I saw this,

I’m like, I just see that up, it’s going to increase 30 bucks.

So I think that’s interesting about this too, is definitely

like I agree with Michael, it’s going to be sticker shock when

you first hear how much the increase is. But even at the new

number, like if you’re paying, you said what is it 80 now,

Lynn? Is that what you said it was?

It’s going to be 80. Yeah, right. So next time it comes up. Yeah.

Even if you’re at $80 a year, if you were to go to a bookstore and you were to buy

Five books that’s going to cost you on the average $20 a book

And that’s going to be way more

Than $80 a year if you were to go and buy books from the bookstore

You know at right full pop so on one hand. Yes, it seems to

be like a very expensive pay raise or monthly fee raise to the membership. But you could go on there

and you could download 10 books a day, 15 books a day if you want. I mean, you can’t go into any

bookstore and down or purchase and let us see you have tons and tons of money, you know, 15,

20 books a day. There’s just no way. It would be far, far, far more expensive.

Right. So, and I think that there’s this also this mythology out there that blind people don’t want to pay for anything.

And that is in my case, that is certainly not true. I do not mind paying for things. I don’t expect to be given everything for free.

Now, they do say that if you find that it’s a hardship, you can go on the website and ask for a

a discount.

So if you, I mean, they are allowing that, but I just wonder what happened to me, the

cost go up so much.

And I am not sure how many of us pay for our own bookshare because so many people get it

paid for some states, even I think California actually is one of the states where you can

get it the membership free.

So there are, I guess they’re kind of figuring that it won’t impact a lot of people.

But unfortunately, it does impact me and because…

And you know if it impacts you, it’s going to impact other people.

I am sorry to report that if you guys get your discs by mail, well, you’re going to

have to find another way to get your discs sent to you by mail because Netflix is going

to end that program. And the interesting thing is that I didn’t really, I didn’t even know

that Netflix still sent out stuff by mail. I mean, I know that that’s how they started,

but I had no idea that they were still doing it. And the funny part about it is I saw the

story on AOL.com. I was going through my Google news and I saw it there and I saw that it was,

the story was carried on in several outlets, but one of them was AOL and I’m like,

“Gosh, I didn’t even know AOL still existed.”

I know. That’s pretty weird, actually.

Yeah, that was weird. I felt like I was going through a time warp or something.

But yeah, so that’s, they say that people, the people that get their DVDs by mail, they like it

because some of them don’t have really good internets, you know, internet access. I know,

it’s interesting as being on the Zoom calls, how many people just really don’t have good internet.

You know, they’re always breaking up.

It actually does. There’s a few things here. And one is, Les, we were just talking about in the last story, you know, there’s inflation, right? So you look at a digital product opposed to a physical product, right? So a digital product, they put it up there. It’s endless. It’s never going to run out. It’s always there. People can stream it, stream it, stream it. You know, there’s no, there’s no love loss there, you know?

You know, right. Sorry about the physical product. What happens with the physical product? Someone has to, you know, pick the DVDs they want.

Then you have to have people going around and packaging up those DVDs, putting them in the mail, sending them to the people.

And then the people watch the DVDs and they got to turn around and they got to send them back.

And a lot of times I think when you send it back, Netflix was eating the cost of the postage both ways.

Right. Exactly.

So when you look at the money that they’re spending on doing just the shipping alone

and paying people to pull the DVDs and put them back when they come back in, and how

many people really are watching DVDs at this point?

I mean, if you go to a store, like an electronic store, it’s even hard to find a DVD player

anymore, you know?

I don’t own one.

I think I have one on an old laptop somewhere in the house,

and I think my mom has an older TV

that has a DVD player on it.

But what they said was that people still like it

because they say that some films,

like some esoteric sort of unusual films,

they are not allowed to be streamed

for copyright reasons.

And so they could–

You go back to when Netflix started

and their whole business model was, you know,

sending out DVDs to people,

they’d watch them send it back, get more, right?

But as a couple of years into the business,

they decided to start doing a small feature

where some TV shows or some movies

would be available for streaming, right?

And they were kind of the first ones

to really kind of start that.

And in the beginning, it went well, people liked it,

and then they were able to add more and more

to the choices of things that you could stream

because nobody else was doing it.

And as years went on, all of these companies went,

well, wait, why are we giving all our content away?

We can have our own platform.

And then it started all of these companies popping up

with their own platforms and their own streaming services.

So you lose a lot of those shows due to licensing and all this other stuff on Netflix.

So I thought it was funny the other day they were saying, I was looking at the article and it was talking about how one of the founders, there were two founders and one of them wanted to test whether he could send a DVD through the post office.

So what he did is he got a Patsy Cline.

It’s DVD and send it to his friend. I’m like some friend like

Okay, just send me a Patsy Cline DVD

But um, yeah, that was interesting and then

Of course, that’s how they sort of were able to beat blockbuster because people liked

The idea of getting these movies in their mailbox and stuff like that

It was kind of it was interesting and new and of course now it was convenient

I mean, what if you work on Wednesday and you go,

“I’m going to be at home with the kids,”

or, “We’ll have a date night at home,” or whatever it is.

You can order your DVDs, they’re there,

and you don’t even have to go anywhere or do anything.

They just show up in your mailbox and there you go.

Now I will say with them discontinuing the DVD service,

which is not something companies usually do,

but they’re giving you an actual bonus.

And the bonus is they’re not going to change the price

of anyone’s plan,

but they’re going to bump up the quality of the video

that you’re gonna be able to stream at no extra charge.

I think it’s a little bit of a higher quality video.

It’s not huge.

And this could be good or bad.

It may not make a huge difference.

I feel like the only way it’s gonna make a huge difference

is if you’re one of those who still has a giant TV

in your living room and you wanna watch movies that way.

But majority of people are watching movies

like on their phone or their iPad.

And really in those scenarios, I’m not sure that that high quality video is going to make that much of a difference really.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, I mean, it’s sort of an end of an era, you know.

Right.

Now, with all that being said, there’s another story coming out of Netflix and Lynn, what’s that?

Well, apparently they are going to crack down on you guys who are sharing your password.

Right.

So what this means is, let’s say I have an account and I pay and I go, “Hey, Lynn, here’s my username and password.”

And, “Hey, Michael, here’s my username and password. You guys can log on and watch whatever you want, whenever you want. I don’t care.”

Or let’s say you’re a parent and you’ve got kids, right? And you don’t want to pay multiple accounts.

You give your kids the username and password and say, “Get on there and watch whatever you want.”

You know, you guys can just use my credentials to get in there.

Well, they’re cracking down on that because they don’t want to have five people using

one account.

That’s not the point.

They want to have everyone paying for an account or get a family plan or something like that.

So, I’m just wondering, do they have family plans?

I mean, do they have things where you could conceivably?

I believe that they do have something.

I’m not exactly sure what the price structure is or exactly how it works, but I’m pretty

sure that there is a way and I think it’s more money where you can go in and you can

choose a family plan, which would be more expensive than a one person plan or a single

user. And then you have up to, you know, five accounts that you can assign to people. So,

you know, you can assign, you know, account to you and then your three kids can have their

own and your husband can have one or whatever the case is. Right?

Right.

And I’m not sure how their pricing structure works on that.

It would be a kind of a similar thing to other companies

that do the same thing.

Like for example, both Spotify and Apple Music,

they have what’s called a family plan.

And so for example, with Spotify, right?

You can either pay a flat rate for a single user

and then you can have unlimited usage for that flat rate

to listen to as much music as you want.

If you have family and you want to have all your family, kids, whatever,

you pay a little bit more money and then you get to sign up to five

accounts total. I want to say, I think it’s five for Spotify.

So then each kid would get their own login and then they have their own

library, their own, all the things, right?

And that’s not sharing with the whole family.

Only you see your individual plan and everybody else only sees their individual

So that’s how it works for Spotify.

I believe Apple Music is pretty much a very similar way.

And I’m not sure how Netflix is doing it,

but I think they do have something similar.

And I think that’s everything for this week.

Yeah, I think so.

And I really want to thank everybody for tuning in.

And it’s good to be here.

I’ve got awesome teachers and that’s a good thing.

Good thing for me and I hope to see you guys again in another podcast pretty soon.

Sorry about that.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks so much Lynn for being here.

We so appreciate having you.

And with that being said, if you guys have any comments, feedback, we’re going to try

and do this news thing on Fridays.

So if you have any ideas, if you have a story you want to hear, or if you have any comments

or anything like that, feel free to email us at feedback@unmute.show.

And we hope you guys have a great weekend.

Michael, say goodbye.

Goodbye.

And Lynn, thank you very much and say goodbye.

Goodbye, everyone.

Have a great week.

And I’m Marty.

Yep.

And I’m Marty, and we’ll see you guys next time.

Awesome.

[MUSIC]

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[MUSIC]

Hey all, Marty here and we are back with another Unmead episode.

Today, we’re going to be talking all about Chat GPT.

With me today, I’ve got Michael.

Say hello, Michael.

Hello.

I also have Lynn with us today and say hello, Lynn.

Hello, everybody.

Why don’t we start this out with what exactly

is chat GPT for those who don’t know.

So Michael, why don’t you kick us off?

Yeah, so I will share it the best way

that it’s been explained to me

and then hand it over to Lynn

to fill in anything she wants to with it.

The best way that chat GPT or the technology

that is text generation is explained to me

is it is auto-correct on steroids.

Instead of just tapping that middle word

in the middle three words that are above your keyboard,

if you didn’t know if you start typing and you leave it on

above your keyboard on iOS and Android,

three words show up that you can tap to auto fill

and your phone can auto guess what the next word’s gonna be.

Well, this is that on steroids because A,

the prediction of the next word actually makes sense

based on the context of the information

that you prompt the AI with,

and B, it then will fill it in

and automatically form sentences

because it’s aware of proper English grammar,

and conscious of it a lot more than I am.

And that’s the best way that I have learned

to explain what chat GPT is.

What about you, Lynn?

All right, so to me, chat GPT is a brain helper.

It’s a thought helper, it’s a creativity helper.

It thinks very fast.

We don’t like to typically say that AI thinks,

but for the purposes of understanding what it is,

have you ever sort of stopped and think,

gosh, if I could just tell this computer what I want,

if I could just tell this word processor what I want to say

and then have it say it for me.

Work processor, write me a paper.
Exactly, exactly.
Work processor, write me a paper on,

insert subject here.

Yes. When we think about AI, artificial intelligence,

basically what we’re talking about is a tool that helps us.

I like to say, some people would say that it takes over our thinking.

In my opinion, from my use of it,

it helps my creativity, it boosts it.

It helps me to think in different ways.

A lot of times, I will ask it a question,

and it will come back with an answer,

and it was like, “Wow, I didn’t even think that.

I wasn’t even thinking from that angle.”

So it really does help,

I think, to broaden your horizons when you’re doing your work.

One time, I had to write a customer service letter,

and I was really angry,

and I wrote all this stuff into the chat box.

Then I asked GPT to write a professional-sounding letter,

and it came back with a letter that would be written by a person that wasn’t crazy angry.

[LAUGHTER]

It did a beautiful, beautiful job of coming back,

and here is a letter that you could actually send to a customer service.

There’s a lot of processes that you can use for chat GPT.

I mean, really anything, right?

I mean, you can use it for a paper

you may be writing on a certain topic.

You can maybe do it on a marketing project you’re doing

if you’re trying to market something.

I mean, there’s so many different use cases for it.

It’s endless.

So Lynn, what would be like a workflow?

You would start out with some kind of an idea,

you’re writing something.

How would you do your workflow?

You would start out and then go from there.

I think what’s really important and Michael and I are going to probably emphasize this

over and over is something called prompting.

And prompting is the philosophical question, what’s more important?

Having the right answers or asking the right questions?

And when it comes to AI, when it comes to chat GPT and others like it, the important

thing is how you ask the question and you will get better as you use the system.

And so, for example, when I was doing a presentation for bits, which was, I messed up because I

was just had just gotten a braille display and I wasn’t sure what the heck I was doing,

but I had asked it to write a public service announcement about why or how people should

behave around guide dogs. And it wrote basically an introduction, and several bullet points

explaining why you should do this, that, or the other thing, and then an ending. So it

was like, it did that in five seconds. Something that might have taken me a long, long time

to do, especially since I don’t have a guide dog and I really don’t really know a whole

lot about guide dogs, but it cuts the crap. I mean, I like to say that, but it really

gets to the point of what you’re trying to do.

And let’s take a step back for one second. Maybe Michael, you want to explain what prompting

is.

Yeah, so it’s interesting. I’ve fallen into the trap of having a conversation with the

AI when I actually just wanted to go experiment.

So firstly, if you are like, I’ve heard of this, you know, at its time,

I want to go play with this after I hear this podcast from Unmute present.

Uh, I really understand it a little more.

Just, just be aware that you might suck a little bit more of your

time than you expect to.

Um, so be conscious of that.

So a prompt is your information that you share with the AI itself.

For example, I sent a prompt and said, who is Michael Babcock?

And that prompt, my question to it is, is what it came back with a response of.

And it responded and told me as an AI language model, I’m unable to search

the web to tell you who Michael Babcock is.

I followed up with that and said, you are a AI assistant to Michael Babcock,

a founder of a company called PayOnMedia LLC.

We publish podcasts and help small business owners share their voice with the world.

And then I said, ask me some questions about, or ask me some questions that I can answer

to help you better assist me.

And then I hit enter and it asked me, it started asking me questions.

So now I’m going to keep this specific chat open and answer these questions and then

start asking the AI model itself for assistance that I might need.

For example, going back to what Lynn was talking about, can you provide me a

response to a customer service email?

The customer is upset because the product was not provided to them in a timely

manner, explain to the customer that we are sympathetic with the problems that

the customer is having with delivery.

And we are going to resolve their issue to the best of our ability.

Here’s the tracking number and provide them with this USPS tracking number and,

and giving them that information.

That’s a lot of rambly information that the customer is going to be like,

that’s not professional, but Chat GPT wrote a professional email.

And the only way that I have found to be able to really modify the way that the

email comes out, especially the tone, that’s important.

And that’s what will help you stand out from what other people are doing with

Chat GPT is that customer service email.

I said that I said, write me a customer service email.

I started that prompt with write me a customer service email in a polite, but

professional and casual tone, and then gave it the information

that I needed to convey in that email. And that’s how it came

up with the email that I was happy with. And then the last

thing, and then I’ll stop talking and hand it to Marty

Orlin is, I, I think this is a way you can get into building

some interesting things. And when you start, I’ve been adamant

about telling people to start from the end and work backwards.

When you start from the end and work backwards with automation,

and you run into a place where you need a computer program

to automatically rename a file.

So that way it can match a certain file type.

So you can move that file.

Think about how open AI can help you.

And I hear, and I know how I’m gonna transition this,

that chat GPT 4 is better with writing code

and stuff like that.

So Lynn, can you, what is chat GPT 3.5 and 4?

Right, 3.5 is the, it’s sort of an incremental development between 3 and 4.

Right now, 4 is, I guess they consider it under training or that they want to make sure

that it’s good enough before they, I guess, release it to the general public.

I have access to it because I have GPT Plus, which I pay $20 a month for, but I am addicted.

So is chat GPT 4, is that only behind a paywall and everyone else gets 3.5 or how would someone

want to utilize 4 opposed to 3.5 if that’s the newer out of the current technologies

that are out there?

This is a good question and if you don’t have a paid account, I’m not sure.

There’s a combo box on mine because I have GPT Plus and it lets me choose which model

I want to use.

3.5 is only available.

You have 3.5 and 3.5 Turbo for the free customers.

Some paid customers have access to four and some people can get access to four on the

API.

So if you’re using an app that I can talk more about in the near future, then you can

leverage that.

And if you want to try the difference in chat GPT 3.5 and four, and you don’t want to pay

anything, Bing is using a version of chat GPT four.

So if you ask the same question to both chat GPT and Bing, you can see the difference in

responses. So we should explain to people here, you know, how this works because you have regular

chat GPT in a web browser, you have other apps that you can install on your computer, you have

a big other technology companies such as Google and Microsoft that are implementing it into their

software. And I think with all the headlines, people are going what you know, it’s a little bit

kind of hard to follow. So we have it in the browser. So you could go to chat GPT, and you

could just use it strictly in the browser. And then we have, for example, if you’re a Mac user,

you can use what’s called the Mac GPT. And Michael, you want to give a little primer on that?

Do I ever? So Lynn, are you on the Mac? I forget you’re on the Mac, right?

I am. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. So I’m using Mac GPT. This does require a little bit more setup, but you had to go get

API key and there’s some good directions that we can point people to on how to

build a to get this and it’s very accessible to do but you put that API

key in and then you have an app that runs on your Mac and you open it up and

there’s a prompt right there a edit field that you can type it and you hit

enter and then if you VO left arrow once there’s a list there that you can

interact with and go and see the response that chat GPT gave you. Pass the

response is a copy button. So you can copy the response from

chat GPT, which is amazing. And what’s even more awesome about

this is if you are using chat GPT for I believe you can use GPT

for with the Mac app, you’ll have to try it by following the

and I type slash GPT space and then my prompt followed by shift

enter, GPT will fill in the rest of, like it fills in the answer of the prompt right there.

So I don’t even have to pop you and paste it does inline GPT filling. And then I go delete

the prompt at the top. By default, the keystroke is plus GPT space. And so that’s Mac GPT in a

nutshell. And it is it’s awesome. Right. And they do have APIs, right for developers. And there was

was a little shortcut called Super Siri. You would say Super Siri and it would actually

give you a chat GPT prompt. So it’s pretty awesome.

That’s pretty cool. In the same sense, there was I believe Federico Petici from App Stories

had a shortcut that he built that he put out. Michael, I think you played with that a little

bit, right?

Not a little bit. I’m actually racking up a slight bill on my API usage. I’m at 27 cents right now.

Better be careful. It might break the bank. Yeah, I use SGPT quite regularly. That’s the article

I recommend people going to to follow to learn how to set up your API key. So you invoke Siri,

you say SGPT. It says, “What would you like to ask GPT?” And it gives you a hint of some ideas.

What’s really nice is if you give it access to your clipboard and stuff, for example,

you can copy a URL on your clipboard on the Mac, send it to SGPT and ask it for a summary

of the article, which can be really helpful. And then SGPT also has the ability to access your

calendar. So if you tell it, analyze my calendar and tell me how many meetings I have, it can

process that information too. Okay. I could talk a little bit about Google Bard. Okay.

If you want. So, Bard has just opened,

Google has just opened up their AI to the public,

and it’s in beta.

I am on a list, David Goldfield’s list.

I don’t know if anybody knows about his list,

but it’s for the blind,

but he does a lot of stuff with AI on there.

It turned out that Google has released it.

It’s, if you guys hear something, something about Bard,

just don’t get confused.

It’s not the same thing as the,

as the library service reading material.

I heard they’re actually gonna be changing the name

actually.

Okay, I hope so.

Cause it’s kinda, you know.

It’s confusing.
Chat GPT is kind of a yucky name too.

Let’s get a better name guys, you know,

type it in and see what it says.

The problem that Google’s gonna have is that,

you know, Google sort of thrives,

lives and dies by advertising.

So right now it’s free.

Right now there’s no advertising in it.

But most of the reviews that I’ve seen,

the tech reviews say that it really has some work to be done.

What I think is unfortunate about BARD is that with chat GPT,

when it gives you an output of a prompt that you give it,

it will have a thumbs up and a thumbs down.

But if you hit thumbs up,

it’s going to ask you what you liked about it.

You hit thumbs down, it’s going to say, “What happened?

Why didn’t this go right?”

Unfortunately, on a board,

you just get a thumbs up and thumbs down.

I wish they would have a prompt that says,

“Here’s the problem with this output.”

I asked about French fries and I got something else.

Onion rings.

Onion rings, yeah. So I think that having that response,

being able to tell the model and

the NChat GPT or OpenAI that this prompts,

this didn’t work, something,

it gave me an answer that was not right.

In this way, I think people can train it more because they can really give more feedback

about the answers that it gets.

One thing that I have a lot of fun doing with AI is writing stories.

If you are somebody who is creative, you can type in, you’d say, “Write me a creepy story

about a vacuum cleaner.”

It will write you a creepy story about it later.

Some of them are really fun, but it can be just fun just doing that.

Say you have two sides of a political debate, you can ask it to be one side and ask you

questions.

So you’re kind of having a debate with it and it’s presenting the side that you want.

And then you can come back with your own arguments.

So it’s sort of, it is interactive.

It’s very interactive.

I have used it for therapy.

Wow.
You know, I–
Yeah, I would have never even thought about doing that.
Sure, yeah, I’ve used it.

Like, I am so mad at my sister because da da da da da.

Now, obviously you don’t wanna give it sensitive info, right?

You want to sort of be aware and also it gets its facts wrong. They all do. So if you know

I wouldn’t like use it to do an appendectomy on somebody like

You want to make sure I’m right now it does, you know, they even give you a warning that says that it may give

Factually inaccurate info so I

I would say if you’re going to use it to do your graduate thesis or whatever,

you might want to really check your facts.

Yeah. So Michael, do you know how it’s going to be implemented with Microsoft and how they’re

going to be using it?

No, but it’s my understanding that it’s going to be a pretty streamlined system in Microsoft.

And I explained how inline on the Mac at least works. So I could see them doing something similar

or just having a keystroke that you press that you prompt it. And then it could put

put that information into word.

The possibilities are limitless with this technology.

I wanna emphasize a couple of things that Lynn said.

One is, check your facts,

check the information before you just run with it.

I think that’s something that was reiterated to me

when I learned about Spouse Check when I was younger.

Listen to what it says, the computer’s not always right.

And I think that’s important.

And then secondly, it can definitely be a good

mental support tool. Obviously, seek professional assistance if

you need if you need it, but it can’t hurt to ask some of these

questions and get information. Well, let me rephrase that. It

can’t hurt dependent on the the way you use the information

Marty, you mentioned earlier, I couldn’t imagine an angry GPT.

I heard about the other day called a chatbot called chaos GPT.

that’s prompted with the sole intention of creating a plan to destroy humanity.

So like anything, that sounds great to me.

That’s just crazy.

Yeah.

But like anything, a butter knife can be used to spread butter on toast or

stab into someone’s chest.

Yeah.

All about how you use your tools.

So another way that chat GPT is being implemented is into an app, for

example, called Be My Eyes.

And what Be My Eyes is, is that if you need assistance

and you’re someone who’s visually impaired or blind,

it opens up an app on your phone,

somebody on the other end connects with you,

they can utilize your camera on your phone

and you point it at whatever it is you’re looking for

and they can tell you on the other end what exactly it is.

So for example, if you’re in the grocery store

and you’re looking for the chicken noodle soup,

you’re on the aisle, there’s a hundred cans of soup up there

and you can’t figure out which one,

You can get your phone out, you can connect on the app.

Somebody will come on and use your camera and tell you,

“Oh, that one right there, that’s the chicken noodle soup.”

And they can tell you which is the name brand.

And so you know exactly what you’re getting.

So what Chat GPT is doing and what the app company is doing

is they’re gonna implement this technology into the app.

And so what that means is this technology is going to be able

to do the same thing on its own using the technology

without having an actual human come on the line.

Now, if you do have a failure with the technology,

you still can ask it to connect to a human,

but this is gonna be really cool to see

how as this goes along, how smart it gets,

how accurate it will be and all of those things.

So I’m kind of excited to try that technology out

and see how well it works and where we end up with it.

Yeah, they call it the virtual volunteer.

And I think right now it’s only being rolled out to certain people.

I think they’re still testing it and stuff, but yeah, it’s slowly being rolled out.

I’m on the, you can get on the wait list.

And I’m still on the wait list.

I thought I had it, but I had the tab, but I don’t have the, I’m still waiting for

the, there’s a tab that’s this virtual volunteer.

And if you go in there, you can sign yourself up to be, you know, to have that virtual volunteer.

I’m still waiting.

So, but yeah, well, as you get it and you play with it, you can report back and let us know, you know, your

experience and how it works and stuff.

And I really, I just love that we’re having this conversation because I think right now when people talk about

AI, it’s always, you know, it’s gonna, you know, take everybody’s job and eventually

it’s gonna destroy humanity and all that. And the way I look at it, well, that may happen,

but until then, I’m gonna write a mean essay.

There you go. And you know, we’re gonna be coming back to this topic because there’s

going to be continuous new information quite a lot, you know, there’s going to be different

companies, you know, they’re going to be doing stuff, different apps, and it’s going to be

be implemented all over the place.

So we’ll make sure that we keep you guys updated

and kind of let you know what’s going on

as we hear things and figure it out moving forward

and all that good stuff.

So, and in closing, we’ll keep you all updated.

If you wanna reach out to us,

you can reach us at feedback@unmute.show

with questions, comments, or anything else of that matter.

And Michael, anything in closing?

Just stay subscribed. Don’t forget to share this episode with someone if you found it to be useful.

We really appreciate you joining us, Lynn. Thank you for coming today.

Oh, it’s been real. Yes.

Thanks, Lynn. And thanks, Paul. And we’ll see you guys next time.

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[Music]

This is an ACB Community Call presented by American Council of the Blind.

[Music]

This Unmute Present Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2023.

Thanks to Script Talk for visiting us.

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The opinions expressed on the ACB Media Network are those of the content providers and should

not be viewed as an endorsement of any product or service.

Nor does it reflect the views of the American Council of the Blind, its elected officials,

or its staff.

Welcome everyone back to another Unmute.

We want to just as a quick reminder here at the top, remind everyone that we’re going

to take first hands.

If we have time, we’ll take second,

but also we want to remind everyone to be respectful.

If you wanna get all your questions answered,

be respectful to everyone,

the same as you would want yours to be respected.

Also, if you need to get ahold of us,

questions, comments, anything like that,

you can reach us at feedback@unmute.show.

And today we’re gonna be doing all things script talk,

so that’ll be fun.

And in the meantime,

Let’s get Michael to give us a couple of quick announcements.

How’s it going, Michael?

It’s going well, Marty.

I appreciate it.

And I appreciate each of you for taking time out of your day

for joining us either in the podcast live stream

or here in Zoom.

So as you know, I like to go over some of the content

that we’ve recently published in case you have missed it.

And one of the pieces of content that you probably heard

when you were in the,

when you are subscribed to the podcast feed

is the advertisement that Marty and I threw together

pretty quickly.

I think it turned out okay,

but I do kind of have a biased opinion.

In addition, after that,

we published a interesting piece from a voice,

community members already know very well,

and that is Lucy,

and she came and graciously shared with us

a breakdown of the A-lady devices,

specifically with a screen.

So if you’ve ever been curious, why would I want a screen?

Why do I need to interact with my A-Lady device?

I can just use my voice well worth the listen

to listen to Thursday’s episode,

search for a mute presents on your favorite podcast platform.

And then Marty did a demonstration of a new tool

to about a hundred starts at about $130

and it’s a USB microphone that he bought

and he really likes because it’s quick and easy

to get a decent sounding recording.

It’s called the Sennheiser profile microphone.

and you did a review of it and a recording.

And if you’re interested, you can go listen to that.

That was published on Sunday.

So that’s a quick recap of what we’ve published recently.

And remember, you can search for unmute presents

on your favorite podcast platform.

Marty, why don’t you introduce our guests today,

which people are excited to hear from?

Yes, I would like to introduce Jenna Reed,

director of marketing to talk to us all about script talk.

And Jenna, thanks for being here and take it away.

Thanks so much, Marty.

Welcome guys.

If you have any questions, let’s try to wait till the end.

But if something I say is not loud enough

or it’s confusing, please don’t hesitate to jump in

and I will answer and try to clarify.

So our company, we’re fortunate,

we’re based on the West Coast of Florida.

So we’re down in Florida.

We’ve been around now for over 25 years.

A lot of people might not know that, but yeah,

we started out in Veterans Affairs.

We’re still available with our script talk station,

with veterans to help them.

And that’s where we got our start.

So we’ve since branched out to,

oh, I think we’re in over more than 20,000 patients

are now using script talk

and more than 7,000 pharmacies throughout the country

are now using script talk.

So you might ask, what is script talk?

Some of you might have one, if you do, yay.

If you do not, I’m gonna go through it

and I’ll tell you the easiest way possible

to get one if you don’t have one.

So, Scriptalk is a free service, absolutely free guys.

I promise, no charge for the labels,

no charge for the device.

There is no charge and it does not run

through your insurance company.

This is a free service that is provided by the pharmacies

to ensure your independence and safety.

So what they will do is they will do a small circular,

it’s called RFID, Radio Frequency Identification Label.

So they have a simple software program

that we provide them right in their computer system

where they are gonna program this label

with all of your information.

So you will be able to hear doctor’s name, dosage,

medication, everything that’s gonna be on this label.

So without further ado, you know you’re getting

a demonstration.

So let me turn on the device.

Device, if you don’t have one, it’s similar,

I would say to an old school CD Walkman.

It’s about the same in size.

It’s white, it’s got a smooth surface.

And on the side of it is a little spinny wheel,

and you’re gonna spin that to turn it on

and to control the volume.

I’m gonna crank it up,

so hopefully it doesn’t blow anybody’s ear drums out.

Script taxation ready.

So that little circular label that they’re going to give you is typically on the bottom of your prescription bottle. I’m topping it.

So I’m going to set that down right on top of this machine.

And then in the front of the machine are three buttons.

You’ve got a circular read button and then beside that are your next and your previous buttons.

So say you only want one piece of information or you want your doctor’s name or the prescription number.

You can quickly jump through to access it.

But for my purposes today, I’m going to go ahead and play the whole thing for you.

Patient John J. Smith, medication, homoxysil in 250 milligram capsule instructions.

Take one capsule three times daily. Quantity 30 capsules. Prescription date January 10th,

2020.

expiration date January 10, 2024.

Refills remaining zero prescriber.

Dr. Ben Casey scriptability pharmacy to reorder this prescription dial 800 555 1212 prescription number 123456 warning important finish all this medication unless otherwise directed by prescriber.

Warning, this medicine may be taken with or without food.

Warning, may cause diarrhea during treatment.

If it persists or becomes severe,

tell your doctor or pharmacist.

Warning, persistent diarrhea due to colitis

may rarely occur weeks or months

after using an apionis.

All right, you guys are getting the hint.

The cool thing about this device is it runs on batteries

or you can plug it in.

And how do you get this device, you might ask.

Well, basically when you tell the pharmacist

that you want this, they are gonna fill out a simple form

with your information and they are gonna send that to us

in Vision America and Florida,

and we’re gonna ship this device out to you for free.

You can keep it as long as you need it, no cost.

All we ask is when you’re done with it,

if you’ll send it back to us

so that we can pass it on to the next patient.

Now, for those of you who are a little more tech savvy,

we have apps too.

Now I’m bad, I have an Android,

I know a lot of you guys are going to have iPhones,

but I’ve gotten the Android.

So I’m going to open it up.

It’s yelling at me.

Now, if you have an iPhone, it’s going to automatically

have your NFC near-field communication enabled,

so you don’t have to worry about this.

For my phone, I have to go in and enable it.

And so it’s going to walk me through doing that.

I’m going to turn that on.

So the cool thing about–

Please bring in prescription tag.

Because it’s a slightly different voice,

but it works identical to that station.

So you have two options with the app.

You have a full scan feature, which is cool.

It’s gonna go through all that info,

just like that station did,

or you have a quick scan feature,

which is just gonna hit that high level info.

So if you have an iPhone,

you’re gonna take that medication

and that label on the bottom

and you’re gonna hold it up

to the top screen of your phone

and it’s gonna pick it up.

Now I have an Android, so mine’s a little different.

I’m gonna hold it on the back of the phone

the camera. Amoxicillin 250 milligrams capsule. So that’s your quick scan. It’s just going to

give it to you really quick. Now the full scan feature, let’s do that real quick. Tag is not

valid. Do you want your report? I’m not supposed to do that Doreen. Obviously the tag is valid,

it just read it. Prescription information, patient name, John J Smith, medication, amoxicillin 250

milligrams capsule instructions take one capsule three times daily so as you can see it does the

exact same thing it’s just a lady’s voice instead of the man’s the cool thing about the app as well

is it has a my meds button so under that my meds anything that you full scanned on this app

is now on a list for you so say you’re going into your doctor’s office you have an appointment

coming up. And I know personally, I can’t print out some of my medications. I don’t even try.

I just everything’s the same. But if you’re going to a new doctor or a specialist, and they want to

know what you’re taking, you know, you can pull up this MyMeds and just hand your phone over and

they can see everything that you’re on. So that’s a cool thing about that feature. And also have a

pharmacy. So say you’re on the road, and you need to find us for talking to you at a local pharmacy,

it’s got a lookup function so you can find the pharmacies near you. And then as a side note,

our website and visionamerica.com also if you scroll down to the very bottom of the front that

homepage also has a pharmacy lookup. So you can go in and you can enable it to automatically know

what your zip is and it’s going to pull up within I think like five, ten, twenty mile radius of you

all of the pharmacies that offer script talk.

And then this app also has a help feature

that will walk you through how it works.

So that is the gist of it.

So basically there are two ways to get signed up.

You can go to your pharmacist and you can request it.

I can say that some of the big ones that we’re in,

we’re in all Walmarts.

If they’re not aware of it, they should be,

or you can call us directly.

And we will work behind the scenes to get you set up.

So think CVS has spoken Rx, Walmart has script talk,

depending on what area of the country you’re in,

their chances are very good

that you’re gonna have a pharmacy near you

that does offer it or can offer it.

Now, if you’re using a smaller mom and pop

independent pharmacy, we obviously can’t guarantee that.

But what we can do is if you give us a call

and give us their information, we can call and educate them

and explain to them that they have patients

that are interesting in getting this

so that we are more than happy to set them up.

It is a very cost-effective program.

We’re not looking to make a ton of money on it,

so it’s cost-effective for your pharmacist to offer this.

And at the end of the day, to me, safety is priceless.

So I think that is pretty much all of my information.

We do have it available in translation.

So if you or a friend or family member

or your neighbor speaks Spanish,

if the pharmacist has a translation key,

that’s a separate service,

we can also provide the script talk station unit in Spanish.

We actually do a total of 25 different languages.

So that’s pretty cool.

If you do have some musical vision

and you just want large prints, we can also do that.

We work with a lot of the mail orders

and the bigger pharmacies to provide,

it’s a large print label, Booklet Style,

that’s physically attached to that bottle.

And it’s like a wave or flag that comes off

and it’s got up to 22 point font.

And it’s gonna have all that key information as well.

So we do that.

And then probably not as applicable,

but I’d like to mention it is our dual language labels.

So that would have English as well as

one in 25 different languages.

Again, that’s a Booklet style label that’s attached.

And then we also have Braille, which is nice.

We do the grade two contracted Braille.

So it’s just kind of like a cheat sheet

to let you know what medication you have in front of you.

And then I know a lot of folks that like that Braille,

also like having that RFID or script doc tag on the bottom

so that they can access all of that information

whenever they need it.

Finally, we offer controlled substance safety labels.

These are for your stronger medications.

There’s a lot of risks inherent with taking those.

So that one is kind of cool.

Again, it’s a booklet style label that attaches.

It’s gonna have all those warnings and key information.

But the cool thing about that label,

it also has a QR code so that when you scan it,

it’s got a pretty cool audible video associated with it.

That’s gonna kind of remind you, take it during the day.

Don’t take it with alcohol.

Just those key reminders of how to take

those stronger medications safely.

Awesome, thanks, Jenna.
Yeah.
Yeah, we really appreciate that.
Go ahead, Michael.
We really appreciate that.

And I think Marty has some questions.

I have some questions.

And if you listening on Zoom or Clubhouse have questions,

raise your hand and we’ll get to those.

What were you gonna ask, Marty?

So I guess my first question would be

when it comes to scanning the bottles,

I know that you can put it right on the machine as well as have the app.

Do they always put the labels in the same place?

So you’re not fun,

the laying around with the bottle trying to figure out where the label is to get

the machine or the app to read it.

They do typically, um, because it is circular,

they’re going to gravitate to put that on the bottom of that prescription bottle.

Now, if you have a package, that’s not a traditional bottle,

they will put it on there as well. A lot of times,

there’s like a little hang tag that they’ll stick on.

So it’s gonna stick out.

So you’re gonna feel that sticking out

and it’s gonna have that label on it.

So it should be pretty easy to locate it when you’ve got it.

I guess my second question would be

if you have a medication that may not come in a bottle,

for example, like either eye drops

or maybe a medication that’s like a patch

or something like that,

would do they put the sticker on the outside of the package,

not directly on the actual eye drop bottle

or whatever’s inside the box if it’s like a patch

or something like that, right?

Typically it will be on the outside of the package.

You can talk to your pharmacist and see if they’d be willing,

like if it’s an eye dropper or something like that,

if they’d be willing to put it right on that little bottle.

Now it depends on the size of the bottle

as to how easy it is for them to get it on there.

But you can always talk to your pharmacist

and make a request if you’d like.

Cool. Awesome. Michael, what do you got?

Yeah, I do see we have a couple of hands, so I will jump over to Sheila and get

those here in a moment, but I have one question that I bet one, maybe a couple

of listeners are wondering about.

You mentioned that you work on the iPhone and you work on the Android.

Do you guys have any plans or are you in the process of working on the

blind shell classic two at this time?

We are, we’re actually in touch.

We are not on them yet.

I think the real Sam is one we’re working with.

I want to say, what is the other one?

I think there’s another one out there too.

And of course I’m drawing a blank who we are in talks with those developers.

So we’re looking to get integrated in their systems so that when you, you know,

we’ll be a part of their, um, their operating system so that you can

find us on there as well.

Beautiful.

Thank you very much.

Sheila, who’s our firsthand today?

Yes.

Go ahead, Beth.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, I was when, uh, can you hear me?

Yeah.

Yeah, we can hear you.

Yeah, yeah.

I was wondering, like with the device, you were saying that you wanted us to send it back

when we’re done, but how are we going to remember which medication is what

if we don’t have the device?

No, as long as you’re on the medications and you have the labels,

you do not have to send the device back.

You know, for some reason, you’re not taking those medications, or perhaps you’ve changed pharmacies

one of the rare pharmacies that does not offer script talk and you’re not actively using it,

then we request that you send it back. But as long as you’re actively taking those medications

with the script talk labels on them, we will touch base with you every six months and we’ll

touch base with you like right after you get your labels just to make sure everything’s going

smoothly, but we’re not going to like hound you or anything like that to send it back to us.

Because my, I have Lewis family drug that’s the, because I’m in Northwest Iowa that’s in,

I think it’s in South Dakota, so I don’t know, I hope they use Scrip Talk, but

yeah, that I would have to give them your number, I guess.

Yeah, so you can ask them. I would also encourage you, if you want to give us a call, and I will

give it out now, I’m sure it’ll come up. Our phone number, you can find us, obviously our website,

is E-N-V-I-S-I-O-N, america.com.

Okay.
There’s a pharmacy lookup in there by your zip code.

And also you can call us at 1-800-890-1180.

And we have a wonderful patient advocate care team

that works the phones.

We’re here Eastern time from 8.30 to five weekdays.

And they’re great.

Okay.

And if you guys want to get that as an email,

you can email us feedback@unmute.show

and we can shoot you off an email

with all the pertinent information that you would need.

Yeah.

So if you call us, we can talk to your pharmacy.

If for some reason they do not offer it,

we can educate them.

Or we can now look for a pharmacy in your area, Beth,

that might offer it.

I know you’re tied into them and you love them,

but if for some reason they do,

you do our best. – Yeah.

Thanks a lot, Beth.

Who do we have next?

Thank you. – Hi, Diane.
There we go, I think you can hear me now.
Yeah. – Hey, Diane.
Yeah, I think that certainly from my experience,

the issue with this program and maybe others like it

seems to be, I gotta get my phone,

quiet down, hold on.

It seems like advocating to get pharmacies to sign up for it is the issue.

I’ve been trying to work on my mail order pharmacy for years and I know that someone

named Caroline, I think her name was Caroline, has told me that she had been in touch with

them and that they were interested, but that it was going to take several months for them

to work out the contract.

So apparently, if they’re still doing it, if they really are interested, it’s been a

long time.

I haven’t heard anything.

And I’m kind of wondering about your use of the word “rare” to describe the number of

pharmacies that don’t have this.

I would think there would be quite a few if you’re looking at small, independent pharmacies,

large chains.

you know, I understand but I, you know, is it really that difficult to get to convince these

smaller pharmacies that they should do this? I guess it must be.

We do our best to educate them and bring them on board. Some of the smaller pharmacies,

we can get them signed up quickly. Some of the larger ones like mail orders do take a little bit

of time and longer. But what I can say, if there’s a particular pharmacy that you’re interested in,

The more patients that want this service, the more we can push them to offer it.

To us, it’s an easy sell. We believe in independence and safety. To us, we will push

and we will advocate. You guys can advocate. We’ll give you brochures. We do everything we can.

But at the end of the day, these pharmacies, we do what we can, but we can’t make them.

Yeah, and well, the website is loaded with information, especially that the pharmacies

can look at. You know, and I’ve, by the way, mine is pharmacy advantage, if anyone’s interested in

advocating. So I guess that’s my concern is that it seems to be a hard sell for, you know, some of

the pharmacies. Diane, um, gosh, you’re probably not comfortable giving your phone number. I was

gonna say, if you want to call us, we can update you on what’s going on after the fact.

Diane, if you want to email us at feedback@unmuedotshow,

I can get your information to

Jenna and she could contact you.

Yeah. I’ll reach out to you.

Because is that a hospital system?

Yeah, they operate through a hospital system.

I’ve been working with them on the marketing side,

so I can say they are coming along.

Okay.

As far as I know, it’s soon.

So I mean, when you were talking about a big system like that, yes, unfortunately, sometimes

some of the contracts take a little while to work through.

But we are getting there and we are equipping them with brochures and all that kind of good

stuff.

So they’re coming, I promise.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Who do we have next, Sheila?

And thank you, Diane.

Darcy.

What have we got in Clubhouse?

We have Janet here in Clubhouse.

Go ahead and unmute Janet.

Hey, Janet.

Hello, everybody.

Good morning or afternoon, Twel.

Hey, M&M.

I just wanted to say a great job, Jenna.

I’ve had my script talk for, I don’t know,

a couple of years from my pharmacy.

And the question I have is, if you use the app on your phone,

do you need to sign in or anything?

Or how’s it going to know that it’s from you?

Basically, the best way I can describe it

is it’s a basic platform.

So it doesn’t have to have your name or your information.

All of your information is in that actual tag.

And this is just a reader.

This is just going to understand what’s on that tag.

So it’s gonna have all your–

Oh, okay, okay.
So once you have it downloaded on your phone,

it will ask you to register with us

just so we know you’re using the app

and we have your basic info,

but you should not need to sign in every time.

So unless there’s an update or something like that,

you should just be able to keep rolling with it.

Okay, I was just curious as well.

So thank you very much.

My pleasure.
Y’all have a great day, good job.
You too, thank you. – Thank you.
All right, EG, you can unmute.
Thank you.
Hey, EG, how you doing?
Hey, Michael.

I had a quick question.

I tried to look up.

Alexa, stop, sorry.

For example, who is your reminder?

What’s your name?

I tried to go to the website, and I must have done something wrong because I got a bunch

of envisions but not yours.

Is there, what was the website again?

It’s E-N-V-I-S-I-O-N-A-M-E-R-I-C-A.

Okay, that’s the part.

Okay.

Yeah, there’s a lot of Envision Healthcare and Envision is a lot of different things.

Yes. Yeah. Now, if you’re putting us into the search engine, I would say E-N hyphen,

Vision America. We’ve got a hyphen in our official name, which throws us off a little

bit.

All right. Having a hyphenated last name, I understand that well. The second part is

I talked to my pharmacy about, and I use a large regional grocery store chain pharmacy

here in Texas, and I have talked to them about doing large print, and they said they don’t

do that. But so I wanted to go to your website and see if I could see if they were in at the

corporate headquarters in San Antonio if they if they were based. It’s a TB food chain. And I

don’t know if that’s one that you would recognize or not. So yes, it is one that I recognize in one

of our big, bigger partners. So yeah, okay. Because then it hasn’t gotten down to the store

level yet. So thank you. Yeah, I have actually a question to extend on eg’s question. So if they

are in the system and they’re a large format pharmacy like you say and they’re working with

you, if they’re not accommodating him at the local level, is that something that he can do to

go through you to help him get the labels or whatever he may need?

Well, we can do is if they don’t have the large print labels, I do not believe HEB offers them.

However, what I would encourage is if you are with one of these pharmacy chains and you want

want an option that they are not currently offering, call us.

Give us your information.

Because we are in constant discussions with these guys.

And we can tell them, look, we have all these patients that

are interested in getting it.

So the more of you guys that we can say need this,

the easier it is for us to justify it for them.

Because some of these pharmacists

are going to understand it right away.

But at the end of the day, it’s a business.

So we want to do everything in our power

to push them in the positive direction.

So the more information that we have,

the more of you that want it at that pharmacy,

the easier it is for us to educate them,

that there is a demand for it out there.

One last question if I could,

and that is there’s a big push right now

with my Part D provider to do by mail.

But some of the things like they have to stay refrigerated,

I dropped, I don’t wanna do by mail.

So if I’m actually using two pharmacies at once,

is that an issue or not?

As long as both pharmacies are set up with script talk,

you can get it from both.

It’s not a problem at all.

Basically the only thing yeah, we do is we equipment,

put them with the software to do it.

And then the programming device,

whether it’s a specialty printer

or it’s basically that demo unit that I

demoed for you earlier, that script talk station device,

they can also use that,

the smaller ones to program your labels.

So that’s all they need.

Thank you very much.

It’s a great project.

My pleasure and give us a call if you need any help.

As I said, call us and give us your information

and we’ll let HEB know.

And I’m not seeing any other hands at this time.

Are you Sheila?

No.
Okay. Well, if you have a question,

feel free to raise your hand.

I have a question that came up to me, Jenna.

Well, I was thinking about it

and I appreciate you coming and sharing this.

If I was to have the script talk application

on my phone and I use an iPhone and Android and a blind shell,

so any of those devices,

and I went and I was visiting a friend

and they use script talk as well.

Is that information available to me using the app

or is it tied to a device specific?

Basically it’s just the reader.

So your phone, yeah, your phone or your device is,

like if your friend is visiting you

and they don’t want to bring their device with you

and you have one,

they can use your device to read their medications.

Very good, okay, perfect.

Thank you very much.

But it doesn’t store the information.

Now the only thing that it’s gonna store it

is your app is gonna store that basic information.

So if they use your app to do it.

So Jenna, just to maybe clear up a little bit

of confusion, can you speak to what the difference is?

And when you scan, it just gives you the basic information

and then it’s gone after that?

Correct. – Or if it’s gonna save

the information on your device as a history

of all of your medications, what would be the?

Correct, so when you open up that app at the top

or it will, when you swipe through the functions.

Please present prescription tags.
She’s yelling at me, she wants food.

So there are two options at the top.

Your first option is gonna be your full scan option.

That’s the option that’s gonna read everything

under the sun that’s on that label.

And is that where it saves that information

on the device?

That’s where it’s gonna save that information

under my meds.

And then you can swipe through and you can click on it.

So anytime you want to go back and look or hear that information,

say you have a friend visiting you, hopefully they have this on their phone

for privacy concerns.

I probably wouldn’t encourage them to use your app to scan their medications

unless they don’t care. So, or they can use the quick scan prescription.

The quick scan function is that quick function,

it’s not going to remember.

Okay. I was just bringing that up only for the sake of,

If you’re using the app and someone else is using the app,

you wanna make sure that you’re not getting

your medications mixed up with somebody else’s medications.

So that’s really what I wanted to kind of get clear

to make sure that if you’re gonna help someone

with your own device,

make sure you’re not saving their medications

into your own device,

and then you don’t know which is theirs and which is yours.

And just remember that the script talk station reader

is not equipped to remember anything.

So you’re not gonna get that list

or any of that info on there.

Oh, okay, great.

And I think we have another question.

You do, Beth.
Welcome back, Beth.
Oh, thank you.

Yeah, I was wondering,

it doesn’t read over the counter meds or no?

Not over the counter.

Now, if you wanted to ask your pharmacist

if they would be willing to program a label

for your medications, you are more than welcome to.

But our system is more geared

for your prescription medications.

right. Because sometimes I do like buy things like Tylenol and you know, sometimes I like know the

bottle, but just say if I forget like if it’s Tylenol or leave or whatever. I can’t make any

promises, but you could have a conversation with your pharmacist and see if they’d be willing to

help you. You know, it can never hurt. The worst they’re going to say is no, but I have suspicion

that they might be willing to help. Oh yeah, yeah. Because they’re nice over there. I think they

They will. And the Braille, you just send the tags, the pharmacy puts it on. Is that

like with the Braille, you don’t need any really, you don’t need the app or the device,

right? No, no, the Braille, it’s a clear overlay that goes over top of that traditional label.

so that your doctor, if anybody needs to see that medication, they can still read it.

But it’s, yeah, it goes right over top. Now, if you choose to get that electronically,

both RFID in conjunction or in addition to, so that you can use it with script talk too,

then that you would need the device for. But for the braille itself, you don’t need it.

So the pharmacy, like, who brailles it? Like, I’m confused.

They do. We equip them with a printer. And now this is not one of our most popular offerings,

because I know a lot of folks don’t read Braille. If you do, that’s awesome. But we have some mail

orders, I believe that offer it. But we equip them with a special printer that’s going to print that

Braille and then they stick it on that label for you. Oh, okay. So yeah, right in the software that

that we offer them, it’ll translate it into Braille for them.

Does that make sense so that they can print it right to their Brailler?

Oh, kind of like the Braille printer on a computer.

Only this would be smaller, right?

You got it. You got it.

It’s actually a decent size.

It’s called Braille RX.

It’s a decent sized printer, but it’s going to print

basically specific for that label.

So, yeah, we just came out with a new one.

Oh, OK.

Okay. Sounds good. Yeah.

Thank you, Beth. Appreciate that question.

I do have a question for you though, Jenna, real quick.

With the script talk software and everything,

when you’re adding information to the labels,

like when the, I’m sorry, I got distracted.

When the pharmacist is adding information to the labels, that works out great.

But is it possible for the consumer to add information to labels or modify

those details. No, unfortunately it is not. It is specific for pharmacies. You have to have that

programmer and that software and that equipment in order to do it. So once it’s programmed,

now if you have a special request that you want the pharmacist to include on that label, you can

talk with them. You know, if there’s something on there that you want added, you know, they might be

able to work it into the system that they can add it on for you. But once that is put on your bottle

And once you leave that pharmacy with it, there’s nothing. Yeah. Unfortunately,

there’s nothing that you can do. It’s not editable. That’s the word edible. Changeable.

I think I like that word better. Changeable by the patient.

Yeah, sounds good. Thanks a lot. I appreciate that.

My pleasure.

Who do we have next?

Dane.

Hey, Jane.

Changeable is easier to say.

I know.

I know. Editable does not sound right. Edible.

No, no, it does not.

something but edit edit yeah no we’re not okay go ahead hello I like that too uh so I have a

couple questions with do you guys label um insulin vials and if so I know you guys do

insulin pens and um I used to be a insulin pen user and now I’m on this patch system but

Do you label vials and if I am dealing with another pharmacy that doesn’t use you, how do I convince them to use your labels?

Jane, what I would recommend, I don’t want to answer your question incorrectly. I don’t know that we do work with pharmacies to do the vials, but I don’t want you to quote me. I don’t know.

And I don’t want to give you wrong information.

So what I would encourage you to do Jane is give us a call or email Marty or Michael and with your information and have them forward it to me.

And we will reach out to you after to talk to you about this and to work with you on your pharmacy, because we can educate them on our end and see what we can do for you.

And again, I just, I don’t think that they do,

but I can’t say that for sure.

That’s an instinct response.

That’s not a, I don’t know for a fact response.

Does that make sense?

Why would something like insulin be unsure

just out of curiosity?

‘Cause the way they make them,

it’s hard to put labels on something like that.

It might be, it’s just, you know,

the pens I know for a fact,

but I just haven’t had a lot of requests.

I do a lot of the shows and the events

and the things like that.

that hasn’t come across my desk that I don’t want to say one way or the other.

And there’s probably a way that they can do it.

I just don’t want to give them accurate information and say yes,

when I’m not 100% sure.

I don’t know how do they come in boxes.

I’m not diabetic and I don’t have, you know,

well, okay. So yes, these, uh, vials, they come in boxes when it looks like a

regular, um, well, kind of a small medicine bottle.

And I guess the reason there is no reason that can’t put the label on the box.

Okay.

I mean, it sounds like it would be, as I said, I think it would be, you know,

they might be able to do it.

I don’t see that they wouldn’t.

I’m just,

the only thing I would say is I would maybe go on what you said earlier about

something like eyedrops, where they put it on the outside of the box instead of

the actual, you know, eye drop bottle or actual insulin pen, just there may not be enough

room I’m guessing.

Yeah.

That would be my guess.

That’s the way I want this to put it on the, because it’s never going to come out of the

box unless you have to use it, but that’s a different story.

So forgive my ignorance guys.

I haven’t dealt with that a whole lot.

But we’ll put you guys in contact if you want there Jane, just to find an actual resolution

because that could be something that may not be available, but could be available.

And so we appreciate you asking for sure.

We want to get your pharmacy set up with it.

And once they’re set up, then we’ll see about getting it on there for you.

And you said you had a couple of questions.

Were those all of them?

Jane.

I’m assuming so.

Oh, she saw us.

Yes.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thanks, Jane.

Thanks, Jenna.

Marty, do you have any other questions or does anyone else have any other questions at this

time for Jenna before we let her go?

We greatly appreciate you jumping in to share information.

I live in Oregon and a legislative imperative back in 2019

that I was first part of was mandating

for prepared individuals accessible labeling systems.

And that’s the first point that I had heard

about script talk and how script talk works.

So I was excited when Marty mentioned

that he had talked to you.

Yeah, yeah, no, at the federal level, there are guidelines,

But I think it helps tremendously with awareness

and knowledge when the states get active in it as well.

I know Nevada has done something,

Oregon’s done something,

Maryland just pushed something through

that’s waiting the governor signature.

So a lot more of the states are getting active.

Once it’s on the state level and the pharmacy board

can work more specifically with the pharmacists,

that helps bring this into play a little bit more

and helps convince the pharmacists

the importance of it as well.

So one thing I would love to add is if you guys are online on social media at all,

you know, I have fun running our social media accounts.

I look for stories, both entertaining and educational.

So if you’re on any of the social media, I would love for you to look us up under Facebook,

Twitter, we’re also on LinkedIn.

So if you’re not already following us, I’d invite you to do that as well.

And then again, our number real quick, if I may, is 1-800-890-1180.

And do reach out to Marty or Michael.

If you have questions that I didn’t address or I couldn’t give a specific

answer, you know, connect with me after the show, they’ll give you my information

or I can reach out to you directly.

And we will definitely get you taken care of.

Okay.

Hi, Beth.

I see your hand going off.

Go ahead, Beth.

Shanda’s becoming a real professional at this.
Yeah.

So we just went for an Envision American Facebook.

Do we talk to you directly?

I’m sorry.
Have you messaged you directly, I mean?
If you want a message,

I’m the one that usually gets all those messages.

So if you want to say hi to me, you can.

But we have a page that you can follow on there.

Let me pull it up real quick.

And right now, I can do my handle.

My handle at spacebook.com/envisionamerica.

Oh, okay.
And then if you follow us, you know,

like I think Pennsylvania just launched a pro,

yeah, if I can talk right, Pennsylvania just launched

a program to teach students disability inclusion,

which I thought was pretty cool, of something brand new.

You know, Wegmans, we just rolled out

a pilot program at Wegmans.

So if you’re in the New York area, guys,

Five stores are piloting script talk right now.

That’s a new one.

I was recently and did a podcast with a VA or BVA,

I should say.

So that’s on there.

A health system just picked up our dual language

translated prescription labels.

So that’s like a hospital system.

Similar to what I think Diane was asking about earlier.

Not the same one, no, but this is a different one.

But yeah, give you an idea of some of the stuff

that I look, I’m always,

So if you have a story or something you’d like to share,

don’t hesitate to poke me

because I’m always looking for good stuff.

Not just promoting who we are and what we do.

I like to, you know, look for good educational,

fun stuff to share with you guys.

‘Cause you sell other products, I’m sure, right?

Or just-

Actually, our specialty is accessible labels right now.
Oh, cool, yeah.
Now that’s our specialty.

You might’ve heard of the ID main in the past.

We still-

Oh, what?

The ID mate is a barcode scanner, a UPC scanner.

We do not sell it anymore.

We just recently with COVID, we were looking at rebuilding it and the parts were harder

to get.

It was getting really expensive, but that was our bread and butter.

What we founded our company on was a barcode scanner that could help you tell the difference

between like peas and carrots in your cover or, you know, and if we didn’t have it in

in our database that go out to Amazon or jet.com.

I think Walmart might acquire a jet, like Walmart.com.

And it could tell you how to cook stuff too.

So, okay.
We used to sell that, but right now,

our primary focus is accessible prescription labels.

So right now, the same area of growth

is a dual language translation.

So a lot of folks, if you don’t speak English

as your first language, you can get a little scary.

and other sending problems with these medication labels

that you can’t read and understand,

which so many of you guys would be aware of.

So.

Jenna, this is Michael here.

Is Envision going to be at the ACB convention in Schomburg

to allow people to check out the devices in person?

You know it, we will be there.

Charlotte will be there for us this year, I believe.

And then Dave’s son, David Reistrick,

who’s one of our founders, his son Ben,

who now serves as an attorney,

We’ll probably be popping around to help out as well.

So please give them a hard time.

If you go stop by the booth,

there’ll be his first big show for us,

but I didn’t tell you that.

Awesome.

Marty, are you still there?

And thank you again, Jenna, from me.

And unless anyone has any other questions,

I think we’ll go ahead and wrap it up.

Yeah, I just want to say thank Jenna one more time.

We really, really appreciate it.

If you guys need any information about how to contact Jenna,

you send us an email, feedback@unmute.show

and we’ll make sure we get you all the pertinent information.

Other than that, everybody have a great week

and we will see you next time.

Thanks Sheila and Darcy for helping us out today

and we’ll talk to you guys soon.

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[Music]

Hey all, Marty here. Today I’m going to be talking to you about a brand new microphone that’s just

come out on the market. This is called a Sennheiser profile. So who would this microphone be for?

This microphone would be for someone who is looking for a second backup microphone

or someone who does not want to deal with interfaces, software configuration,

all of that stuff that can be a real pain in the rear. So first, this microphone is

constructed really nicely. You can use any regular stand or tripod, which I would recommend,

because if you get the stock microphone,

it comes with a small round tabletop stand,

but that is pretty low to the table.

So you would want to get something

that can get it up a little bit,

otherwise you’re gonna be kind of hunched over

and there’s no adjustment.

It’s one of those just sit it on the table

and that’s about all you get.

I actually put the microphone onto a tripod to get it up and that works much, much better.

But the tripod I’m using is still portable.

The microphone itself is really solid.

It’s metal construction, so it’s really durable.

Also on the back, you’ve got two ports.

You’ve got a headphone jack for monitoring yourself and you’ve got a USB-C port.

USB-C port goes right into any device that will take USB. So you can put it in

a Windows machine, a Mac machine, an iPad, or any other tablet, anything that takes

USB-C. You don’t need any software whatsoever to make this microphone work.

You just plug it in and that’s it. It just works. And then you can use any

software for recording that you would want to use. So if you’re on an iPad or

Mac, something like that, you can use voice memos if you want or any other

recording software. Same for Windows and anything else. So super easy, no

configuration with any software, which is great. Just plug it in and go. Another

Another great couple of details about this microphone is the front of the microphone

has a mute button, which is great.

You can just hit that mute button whenever you need to and it’s capacitive so you’re

not going to hear any loud click noise or anything like that.

It also has a gain knob.

It’s got a mix knob and a master volume knob.

So you have everything you need right on this microphone for making any kind of adjustments,

if you need to mute, if you want to adjust the gain of the microphone, the mix in your

headphones and the master volume.

And that is a great set of options to have right on the microphone, especially when you

don’t have any software.

So you plug it in and everything you need is right on the front and ready to go.

When you hit the mute button, another cool feature about that is if you have vision,

you can see the lights around the knobs will turn red, letting you know that you are on

mute.

So you get a visual there as well.

If you’re not muted, then they go to like a white-blue color, letting you know that

you’re not muted.

So who would this microphone be for?

Someone who’s traveling, if you need a secondary microphone and you don’t want to carry an

interface, a big huge microphone, XLR cables, all of that jazz, then I would say this is

a great companion.

It will just plug in and go.

If you are someone who just wants to get your content out and you don’t want to worry about

messing around with interfaces,

messing around with software,

trying to configure and do all of that stuff,

then this is the microphone for you.

You basically set it up, you plug it in,

and you hit record and you start talking.

Another problem that this microphone actually solves

is if you’re someone who’s visually impaired or blind,

then this would be a great microphone for you.

Everything on here is tactile.

So as long as you know which buttons or which knobs

do what thing, then you’re good to go.

It’s pretty easy to learn and figure that out.

Everything is in vertical.

So the very top button would be the mute button,

and then the next three buttons,

gain, mix, and master volumes, just go down vertically.

So, real easy to figure everything out,

real easy to configure.

You can monitor your headset pretty easily.

You just plug it in and you’re hearing yourself.

So this is just, you know, a great microphone,

good quality sound.

And if you’re looking for something quick, dirty, easy,

no fuss, no must, then I highly recommend this microphone.

It’ll be a great option for anyone.

It comes in around $130 for just the microphone

with that base stand.

And then they have a whole bunch of other options.

So for example, if you wanna get this microphone

with a boom arm, they have that option,

I believe it’s around $200.

And then there’s a whole bunch of other configurations

where you can get it with headphones,

you can get it with a boom arm,

you can get it just the microphone by itself.

So you can check out all the different packages and options they have for sale.

So this is a great option.

I highly recommend it for anyone who wants good quality sound, something easy peasy.

So there you go.

Hope you check it out and enjoy and we’ll see you next time.

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Show Description
On this episode of the iACast, Michael talks with Michael Babcock, and Jason Castonguay about the following topics.

News* First public Beta of Android 14 released * HBO Max now renamed to Max * iOS 16.4, MacOS 13.3, and other software updates released from Apple

TopicWe discuss if the community will be excited about the Optima from Orbit Research coming in 2024. Stay until the end for a surprise!

Picks* Michael Babcock: MacGPT * Jason: Debit and Credit App * Jeff?: Gentler Streak Health app * Michael: Eero Pro 6E routers from Amazon

Automated TranscriptIACast 176 Do we Need another Braille ComputerEdit TranscriptRemove HighlightingAdd Audio FileExport…?

[0:00] Music.

[0:20] All right, I’m back with two wonderful folks this time. We have Michael Babcock. Hello, everyone.
And we have Jason Castingway back with us. Is this your first time on the show, Jason?
This is my first time on… No, it isn’t. I was on previously with the Apple HomePod.
You were on the unboxing, but this is your first time on the IA cast. So, yeah, brand new. So, welcome.
Thank you very much. Great to be here. Yeah, we’re glad to have you and I think we have a pretty interesting show today and I’m really glad to have you here to get your thoughts on our topic today.
So it’s going to be very exciting, but as we always do, we’re going to start with some tech news. But before we even do that, Michael, you and Marty have this little thing called Unmute Presents.
So, um, and it’s been a little while since you guys have talked about it.
So why don’t you kind of refresh people on what that is and what topics you guys have been talking about?

[1:24] Sure. So that little thing called unmute presents keeps growing.
It’s like a kid. And thank you for the reminder, because as I realized, I need to get the episode that goes out tomorrow, edited, uh, putting it off to the last minute.

[1:35] Just a little bit. Anyways. So unmute presents is live on Tuesdays at 10 AM Pacific time.
That’s 1 PM Eastern. and you can get details about that by going to acb.community.
We’re also typically streamed on ACB Media 5 if you’d rather just listen in, but we answer your tech questions and hopefully we’re able to provide you with a solution or a resource to help come to a solution so those tech issues don’t have to stand in your way anymore.
On Thursdays, we publish content more in depth about a topic and those topics typically come from questions we’ve been asked, and we’re starting to produce some more regular content on Thursdays.
So for example, the last Thursday of the month, you’re gonna get a security update, and the second Thursday of the month, you’ll hear more about A-Lady and what’s going on in that arena.
And then on Sundays, we teach you something. I wanna teach you how to do something, get a task done with your technology in five minutes or less.
And yeah, I’ve noticed they’re starting to creep out to about 10 minutes, but the point is, keep them slow, keep them quick, go through it and don’t slow down and teach people how to use their screen reader, but teach you how to get the job done with the technology you’re using.
So thank you for asking, Michael, I appreciate it.

[2:54] Yeah, of course. And throughout all of the IACAST network, you guys can hear Unmute present on our live 365 radio station.
So keep tuned into that. and we have more on that later on in the show.
Really exciting news, so I’m excited to talk about that.

[3:17] But we have some interesting tech news. And Michael, you found a few things that were interesting today. Do you want to kind of talk about those?

[3:28] Yeah, so I can just give a quick overview because I haven’t really done much digging into it.
But the news articles that I found that we can talk about is the fact that Google launched Android 14 public beta 1 today, as of the time of recording.
Note that on through unrelated resources in this article, it’s been made apparent that there’s not any immediate changes to talk back or improvement.
At least that’s what I’ve heard. I haven’t tried it myself.
There’s also the additional information related to HBO deciding to drop HBO from their name for their streaming service and come, I believe it’s May 21st, will now be known as Max.
So I’m not sure what my credit card’s going to show. Is it going to just show that Max charged me?
That’s a weird charge.
And so that should hopefully give more representation of what type of content HBO is providing, especially with acquisition of Discovery and the other channels that go along with that.
Jason, do you watch HBO Max at all a lot? I do not, actually.
We pay for it and I don’t watch it, my wife did, and we keep paying for it.
Well, I think what they’re probably looking at doing is, they don’t want to call it HBO or Discovery, they just want to call it something right in the middle, and I think that’s a good trade-off.

[4:53] It would be interesting if they called it Discovery Max, kind of just bringing those two properties together, but I think they’re just calling it Max.

[5:01] And, you know, I’m totally fine with that because that’s kind of what the app icon is, is the word max and they just dropped HBO off of it. So, yeah, I did not know that.
So maybe that maybe they knew that was coming ahead of time. Yeah, the word max is very much imposed over the HBO on the icon from what I can remember. I watch HBO Max a lot.
Unfortunately a lot of my shows are ending on there. The Last of Us of course is not ending but his dark materials just ended and you know Westworld was not just ended but removed. So, you know, some of the DC Comics stuff has been up in the air, so I don’t know.

[5:46] Game of thrones is still you know they’re making shows and spin offs of that so i have a lot to watch but i’m a huge fan of HBO and as for the android stuff have you noticed the last couple of versions of android really haven’t been big updates it’s just kind of been.
New version number, a few minor things, but.
That’s funny, one of the headlines I just read was that the back button in Android will now match your wallpaper. And I’m like, yay. Yay. That’s something I’ve always wanted.
I’m a visual person and I don’t know how much I care. No, that was just a headline.
I did not read any details, but I thought that was interesting. Yeah, yeah.
Did you know that Microsoft is also rumored to be changing the print screen key to open it snipping tool. So it’ll be the first change to the print screen key in like 30 years. Wow.
I mean, and you know, we have tabbed notepad and all those things and.

[6:46] And I know people have mixed thoughts on that, but I’m really excited about this Windows having eventually or possibly having the phone link app work with iPhones.
If people haven’t heard about that, that’s pretty exciting. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. And you know, one thing we ought to do either here on the IACast feed or on unmute, if you haven’t heard about it, I’ve been raving about it everywhere, that I love it, is the Windows Package Manager. Have you guys used that?
No. So it’s a little lesson here on the IACast, folks. There’s an app you can get in the Microsoft store called Windows package manager.
It installs a program that you use on your command line and it’s called Win, W-I-N, get, G-E-T.
And you can type WinGet install and you can type zoom.zoom or NVaccess.NVDA or any number of applications and it doesn’t pull them from the Microsoft store.
Goes out and gets them from the websites.

[7:53] Hmm. So like I can install steam for playing video games or discord just from Winget.
That is clever.
Oh, nice. It is fantastic. It’s almost like homebrew.
But for windows. Yes, nice. It’s wonderful.
Like I, I had to reset my computer recently and like I’m not going like because you’d have to go to the steam web page, find install steam. Do you? Uh huh.
When you get involved in that valve dot steam, it’s fantastic.
Oh, and I imagine there are all sorts of commands you can invoke after the wind get command.
Oh, for sure. Probably one of which update. Right. I was gonna say one of which you could search for something.
I wonder if wind get has this thing. Yes, you could do a little search.
Cool. And if there’s like, if you type wind get install zoom, it’ll tell you there’s multiple packages with the word zoom.
And so you can see which one, you know, like, like I was saying, zoom.zoom installs the proper zoom chat.
I mean, zoom meetings platform.
So it’s really neat. I want to do a demo showing this off. So I’m really excited about Windows Package Manager.
I’m always looking for content on Sundays, just saying.
Oh yeah, we may have to do that. So, pretty excited.

[9:22] So, one other thing that has happened in the news that I want to point out is Apple did come out with new versions of iOS, Mac OS, TV OS, even a new update for the studio display.
And it’s like the 16.4 and I guess 13.3 for Mac OS.

[9:48] I want to caution people when you install these, they are not the smoothest of installs.
In fact, my studio display for a short time became a studio brick.
That’s not good. It, um…
It doesn’t even offer the ability to retry the update. It just kind of happens occasionally.
It tries again occasionally while it’s plugged into a computer.
So it just and it’s inaccessible. And all it said was go to app support dot apple dot com slash, studio display slash restore or something like that.
It was like, oh, no.

[10:29] That’s that’s disconcerting. Yes. So So that did happen on for me last Friday during the workday, so that was not fun.
So be aware when you’re doing these updates that things, even though they’re stable, things can go wrong.
I was using, I’m using Xcode 14.3, and there’s a huge bug in that that makes it to where most libraries will not build, and your apps will not run or be distributable to the App store. So, you know, even though Apple and all these companies put out new software, it doesn’t mean they’re stable, guys. So, fortunately, I was able to downgrade to 14.2.
I just can’t run my iPhone apps from like on my phone from that. So, those are all things to keep in mind when you update the your software. You know, a lot of times we think it’s justaccessibility problems that we have, but there’s a lot of other things that can happen too.
So just be aware that when you may think something may be an accessibility issue, it could be something else as well.
Have you guys had any experiences where you update something and it just completely tanks or has issues? Not in years.
I used to, but not in years. It’s been pretty smooth for me.

[11:55] Yeah, it’s been pretty smooth for me as well, but there have been times when I’ve been about to go live with a broadcast and something requires updating.
I’m like, oh yeah, I have time. I know it’s going to be quick.
Oh, well, there was one time in the past where, yeah, it was quick, but it broke a lot of things and I couldn’t go live. I’ve learned, let’s not do updates just before going live.
Yeah, I totally understand that.
Mmm.

[12:29] So, you know, it’s like I was saying, it’s just be careful, be cognizant of what you’re doing and, you know, don’t do things whenever you’re right in the middle of a work day. Yes. Yes.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a big deal. And I unplugged and plugged back in several times and it did the update one other time it failed and then the next time it succeeded, which was great.
And all of a sudden I had a working glowing display again.
So that was very nice.
Xcode is still broken. And interestingly, there is not an Xcode 14.4 beta, to support the new versions of iOS and macOS that are in beta right now, guys.
And I find that very interesting. It sounds like something really got broken on Xcode, that they’re having to really fix.
Or is there something big coming in June that…
Well, it’s interesting because you would think if they have the second beta now of iOS 16.5.

[13:40] There would be an Xcode version now to go along with it and there’s not.
Because technically Xcode 16, I mean, 13, no, 14.3, there’s so many different version numbers.
14.3 cannot test the beta software. You cannot hook up the betas of the phone to Xcode and test them.
So that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that happen.
So I think, like you said, either something big’s coming or they broke something really good.
Or both. Or both. We’ll see. Yeah.
This is very true. It could be both.

[14:24] So, just be very, you know, if you decide to update, be very cognizant, read and all those kind of things.
And talking about iOS and all those things is kind of a good segue to talk about our big announcement for iAccessibility and everything we’re working on.
We just had two apps approved today at the time of the recording, the day of the recording at least. Our iAccessibility app is back in the App Store on iOS. So you can, it’s now working much better. It doesn’t crash like it used to. Has a much, works much faster, Very speedy.
So check it out. download the iAccessibility app and check out the live button.

[15:13] Earlier we talked about our radio station with Live 365 that plays all of our content, between iocast and Unmute Presents. And if you tap on our live button, you will be able to hearthat in real time through the app. It even has player controls and all those things.
So you can enjoy that. You can even get the Unmute Content, Unmute Presents content in the app as podcast form. And the neat thing is you can, if you don’t like Michael or Marty talking, you can speed them up to three X so you can make them talk really, really fast.
And we’re okay with that. Yeah. I mean, that’s really a way to get through a lot of content.
I agree. It’s the only way I keep up with my content. I don’t know about you, Jason, but I have to have my content sped up. I even edit sped up content. Really? Wow. Wow. Yes.
Wow. You know, it’s interesting, you know, I think I use kind of the, there’s a mechanism that can do what Overcast does and it does, it sounds completely natural at 3x and so that makes it kind of nice.
Apple has a built-in algorithm to do really good spoken content very fast.
So the app works great. We’ll be working on push notifications.
And there was a little feature that is no longer working that will be coming back eventually, where you can start and stop our live feed from ASERI Shortcut.

[16:43] There’s some kind of a bug that’s making that not work, but that will be working in a future, bug fix version. So I’m pretty excited about that.
And I also updated the Pocket Braille app, which is the first Braille reference app in the App Store.
The original version came out probably 2012, 2013.
And my watch wanted to talk. And I don’t know how I get my watch to talk because I don’t have voiceover on, so it’s very interesting.
It just happens randomly. It’s so weird.

[17:24] So Pocket Braille was the original Braille reference app in the store.
It has had several versions and it’s been out for a long time.
We just updated it to support newer iOS versions, newer interfaces.
And what’s really neat, and people may not know this, it has an Apple Watch component.
So you could look up every contraction for UEB on the Apple Watch.
Ooh, that is cool. We’ve had a VI teacher actually go, TVI go through and create a Word document with all the contractions which have been gone through and meticulously explored.
And they’re all in the app, on the paid version, in the regular app and the watch app.
You get them in both places.

[18:17] That’s great. I really enjoyed looking around it this morning because I had seen it, originally on the Amazon devices Am I correct in remembering that?
I mean, yeah, I haven’t on Amazon. I don’t remember if I put it on the Amazon App Store or not, Okay, so just scratch that entire thing.

[18:38] Because I remember there was some kind of braille I thought it was pocket braille that that I could ask what a certain letter or contraction was and it would come back It is on the echo, isn’t it, Michael? I thought you and Lauren were working on a skill on the echo, maybe.
I made a braille quiz skill. Oh, that’s what I’m thinking of. Mm-hmm.
Okay. All right. So it’s not exactly pocket braille. Right. It’s a little different. This one has the alphabet, numbers, punctuation, and contractions for UED.
Yes. And that’s what I was looking at this morning, because when you posted the link, I went and grabbed it.
It and I love how everything’s right there accessible through the different tabs on the bottom but you have this nice little about section which explains a lot as well.
Very nice little history button within the about section that explains a lot.
And that was written a long time ago so I hope that it’s still valid and still good information.
Oh, okay. It was more than just a little, you know, few phrases.
It was very nice to just sit there and listen to it, listen to my phone tell me exactly the chronology, so to speak, of Louis Braille, and then coming into the popularity, but then dropping again slightly because of the.

[20:01] I’m trying to remember exactly everything I heard, but different…

[20:09] Yeah, let me just stop right there. Well, I’m glad that it’s useful and that’s the whole reason it’s there is to be a useful resource.
So the interesting thing is, unless something’s changed or there’s more contractions or things that I don’t know about that have been added since 2018, 2019, it’s still really current and that’s what I think is really great about the app.
It doesn’t have to be updated. The content doesn’t have to be updated that much.
Right.
So, um, and that is also on Android. The neat thing is it’s on iOS, Android, and Mac OS for Apple Silicon Macs.
So both of those apps will run on the Mac as well.
So that’s pretty exciting. That is cool.
Cause that means you can listen to the live stream on the Mac.
And if you use my favorite tool, which is not my picks, I’m going to shout it out anyways right now called Sound Source on the Mac, you can adjust the volume of the app independently with a couple of keystrokes so you can always have the live stream playing in the background and listen to us.
Yes, and we do have a good schedule every day.
Yeah, yeah, I was listening yesterday for a couple hours. nice.

[21:27] So, you know, going back to Braille, I guess, to the topic of today, you know, we’ve heard a lot of excitement about this new device that was announced at CSUN, and that is theOptima from Orbit.
And I’m personally very excited about this device, especially learning a few things about it.
One being that it’s going to be built with the modularity from framework computers, and they make laptops that are completely modular.
I think this is the best news we could hear all year long for assistive technology.
What do you guys think?

[22:12] At first when I heard it, or heard about it, I was feeling like, okay, is this going to be another braille device that is the size of a laptop and now am I going to have the ability to leave the braille home if I need to or do I want to be taking braille around with me all the time and then as I read further I, learned about the modularity so I’m thinking there is a lot that is going to be very advantageous having a machine where you can switch things around or opt to leave the braille home. I’m guessing you can. I don’t know fully about how the braille aspect works other than that it’s 40 cell and you can opt for the technology that the orbit readers use or you can opt for the piezo, electronic cells that are, I hope I got that term right, in the typical refreshable braille displays that we’ve all come to know where they’re pretty silent.
Right.

[23:31] So I would love to see one, but I think it just has the opportunity to put braille into more hands and have it with someone on the go.

[23:51] I agree. Yeah, what are some thoughts that you are having, both of you?

[23:59] So I first heard about Framework on Daily Tech News show a few months ago.
It might’ve been a year back, but it’s been a little while. And I didn’t think anything of it until I heard about this announcement.
And I said, what was that computer that I heard about Tom talking about that you could just build to your specifications? often when.

[24:23] I’m thinking about this from a VR counselors perspective. Often when a client has equipment purchased from them, their situation changes.
Maybe not right away. Maybe not six months down the year down the road or a year down the road, but that 18 months, 24 month mark, maybe they’ve graduated school or maybe they’ve moved on to a new position in either their current workplace or they move somewhere else.
And maybe your previous situation required you to have an HDMI port, and now having multiple USB-C ports is more important to you.
Instead of having to go out and purchase new equipment, the same equipment the client is already using, comfortable with, and already has in their hands can be upgraded or modified,and you can just swap out the ports.
And maybe as a VR counselor, you know that because your client’s needs will likely change in the not too distant future, you purchase them the device with all of the accessories so they can swap out and fit the best scenario while you’re in that situation. So I’m super excited. I want to see what it’s like.

[25:35] Full transparency, AT guys, we do sell Orbit products. I have no additional information on on this product. I haven’t actually gotten to see it.
I don’t know future sales plans. I don’t know if we’ll be selling it.
I suspect we will, but I’m not certain.
But the whole concept of it though is really exciting because what will this allow a blind user to do in the future? Because it’s running full fledged windows and it has an attached Braille display.
Right. Now, I guess my question is, I mean, this is the whole topic of the show.
We’ve had the Pac-Mate, we’ve had the Elbrail, we’ve had all these things in the past.

[26:17] But do you think that this one is going to make a splash or do you think it’s gonna be like the others?
And do we really want or need something like this?
I mean, we have all these tech devices, like we have VR, and yes, there’s the niche that buys VR devices.
We have all these different things that are very nice to have, but they don’t really make a big splash.
Like, you know, everybody buys a note taker, but no, you know, but when it comes to like the Pac-Mate or the El Braille or things like that, they just don’t measure up to the same qualityor quantity as the note taker.
So do you guys think that this will, you know, you know, be the one braille device to rule them all or not at all.

[27:08] Do we know if, for example, the processor can be modular? I believe so, yes. Now see, that…
So you can start with an i5, go up to an i7, and they say they’re going to support i9s.
Okay, now see, that to me just answers the question, because it’s not static.
You’re not stuck with a device that quickly becomes obsolete because it just doesn’t have an upgrade path like that.
And with this, you have the ability to keep up with everybody else.
Maybe you can—I just think it’s kind of amazing that you can keep the same laptop, just switch things out like that. That is really cool.
That’s the whole concept of the framework environment. So it makes sense that they’ve partnered with framework to, make this happen because it’s a way to keep electronics out of the landfill that become out of date and keep your technology upgradable and be able to swap it out.
Maybe this week you need your computer to be more powerful than you do next week when you’re just consuming media.

[28:21] I guess my big question is, though, when we talk about this modularity. Let’s call the main system with the keyboard and all that the Optima core, right? The main part with I guess the motherboard, the keyboard, and, any other main parts and then everything else is modular, right? But what happens when we get like, I don’t know, DDR6 memory or the next generation of the processor lines and framework has to come out with new parts with faster bus speeds for the modular components. How will that affect you know like maybe you could go from an i5 to an i7 to an i9 of the current generation but will you be able to go to the next generation of those parts, the faster, you know.

[29:14] Versions of those that are coming out in 2024, 2025, 2026. Is that going to be an issue? And I think that’s one question we’re going to have to ask closer to time.
As the upgradability to newer specs, you could always upgrade from i5 to i7, but is it going to be limited to that one year’s group of parts?
Hopefully, the display itself is modular. So if you do have to upgrade the main device, you don’t have to purchase a new display.
So it makes it a lot more affordable upgrading path.

[29:50] So those who don’t know, this is not available right now. It is not going to be available until January of 2024.
So things could change. And in fact, things are changing because originally they had no cursor routing.
A note that originally they had no thumb keys and it was made apparent after they got feedback from listeners that, Hey, we want thumb keys.
So they’re taking that feedback and going back and, and, and designing it the way that, that the consumer actually wants it.
So hopefully they produce that one product that gives us what we’ve all wanted in a, in a modern day Braille display and can make it affordable.
That’s what I’m curious about is what are we looking at for a price point?
I’ve not looked at framework computers. I don’t know what the price of a framework is.
Hopefully it’ll be slightly cheaper than that because you’re gonna have to tack on the price for the braille display. So you’re gonna be paying more than the base framework anyways.
So yeah, we’ll see. I’m real intrigued by it.
I’m guessing it’s gonna be the price a note taker at least.

[30:56] And there will be that difference between the Orbit Braille technology and the traditional.
So that might factor into people’s spending as well.
So would you guys replace your Windows laptops or your Mac laptops with one of these?

[31:15] Not replace it. I might get one to go alongside, but I’m not going to replace it because you don’t have Hazel on Windows yet.
Right. Yeah, I don’t think I’d be able to replace it, but I would definitely love to have one.
I have an older Windows machine, and I think this would be, at least since Mac is my primary OS of choice, the Braille, the Optima would serve as a nice Windows replacement.
Maybe we’re not the best audience to ask that question to. I think most of us are all Mac users.
Well, it’s so I’m using Windows on a regular basis on my Mac with parallels.
And if I could eliminate that, I will tell you, a parallels has been the best experience with Windows that I’ve ever had on the Mac in the entire time that I’ve used it.
But if I could have a dedicated Windows machine, I think this would be an amazing one because a if I had a display hooked up to this Mac Mini, I could just swap it out over to this other other device. B, I’m like, I’m envisioning it.
Hopefully it has some decent Bluetooth on it or it’ll have the USB A port.
So I just swapped the dongle and I’m still using the same keyboard and I just have it sitting on the back part of my desk. So I would definitely be interested in one of these.
Although maybe it wouldn’t be in the back of my desk because if I want the Braille, huh, I have to rethink that actually.

[32:44] And I guess that’s the big question, especially for Mac users.
You know, how can we integrate this into our workflow?
Can it be used as a terminal mode for our iPhones or Braille or Macs?
You know, it’s very interesting because if you can, then you’d have like the best of all three worlds, iPhone, Mac and Windows all with your devices and you know, your Braille display would be a Windows computer.
Yeah, that would be actually kind of cool. Uh-huh.
So I guess kind of the short answer is, yes, there is a place for this device.
Where, but my thought is, what makes this stand out compared to the L-Braille beyond just the modularity? I know this is a hard question, but beyond just being modular, what stands out about this to you guys compared to those other devices?
I’m thinking so far the fact that it is not tied to any specific screen reader, as far as I understand it.
And, Oh goodness, what else? Um, it is integrated. So are the other devices, but it’s, it’s, uh.

[33:58] It’s mainstream attention, I think, because it’s using mainstream hardware that yes, you set aside from the modularity, but really that, that is a big thing too, because you can’t upgrade the Elbrail once you get it.
I was looking at the Mantis Q40 because I’m really interested in that device.
Maybe not looking at that anymore, especially if we can get information about pricing, because honestly, I’d rather a full-fledged Windows computer in my Braille display.
Like that’s just intense to think about. Yeah, you know, I would love to see how big this is.
I wish I was at CSUN because I’d have loved to see how big this device is compared to the Mantis Q40.

[34:40] I’ve seen a Mantis here, you know, it has a full keyboard. So I’d be curious to see what the difference is in the sizes.
Yeah, that would be interesting. I have a Mantis here and I use it.
Just more recently started using it with my Mac. I used to use it independently to write things up.
And it is really, really nice to have a braille display right there while you’re computing, doing all sorts of things. The other day, I went to spell something. And I’m thinking, why am I asking the speech to spell it when it’s right in front of me in braille?
It’s like obvious that I’m still kind of new at this because I’m used to using in other ways.
So, and a part of the reason why, if anyone cares, is because I just didn’t have the workspace to accommodate the laptop and a braille display. And more recently, I got one of those add-onkeyboard trays. So I was able to enhance my workspace. It was pretty cool.

[35:42] Yeah, you know, and it’s very interesting because I think that’s kind of the big thing.
I’ve always looked for a good Braille display and see, I would love one personally that I could just put near my Mac that is just a line of Braille, like, or, you know, two or three lines of braille, that’d be nice too.
But no buttons, maybe thumb keys, but no routing buttons, no nothing.
I don’t wanna edit, don’t wanna do anything with it, just want to use it for reading.
Uh, and I feel like even like the, um, some of the smaller devices that I’ve seen are way too big to almost be like if you wanted a, well, pocket-sized Braille device, pocket Braille.
They’re all a little too big for that. And so I feel like we just don’t have, a good size for that, but I think what’s really happening is we’re trying to get one size fits all with these computers and Braille.
I mean, anything to get people to use Braille is the way I look at it.
But I think that the options for Braille is very limited. And I think that this is just going to add that one more king size, candy bar to the assortment of candies.
You know, just was Easter. So, you know, candies.

[37:07] It just adds one more mix. To the mix of devices, and I think that’s a good thing.
Choice is always a good thing when people are looking at devices to purchase and I think that this is going to be a good device.
You know, I think that other devices were too, the Elbrail and the Pacmate were too static as to what they did.
So I think that this is going to be a very dynamic, very modular, very innovative device that I think people are going to really enjoy, as long as the longevity and the pricing can keep up with it.
Yes, and we hope for good support too, because I think that’s some of the problem too with some other devices where people get them, they’re all excited, but when they run into problems,it’s pretty slow going to get resolution.
Right.

[38:14] You know, I think it’s just time is going to tell where we go from here and we’ll just have to really watch it.
But I think the interesting thing is that we’ve decided, I think from this podcast, we’ve decided this is going to be a useful thing and we’re going to be able to really from it, but it’s just going to have to be one of those wait and see things.
With any of these big projects like this, I just worry that people invest a lot of money.
I still don’t know anything, and if you guys do, I’d be very curious.

[38:56] We don’t know anything about what’s going to happen with Envision with their glasses because the Google Glass was discontinued.
So what does that look like for the future of the Envision users?
I know they’re going to probably have to look for more hardware choices, but you know, those are always big things to worry about and to think about, you know, what happens if themanufacturer stops making the item.
So yeah, it’s, I think it’s as those of us who are enthusiastic, you know, tech enthusiasts, we sometimes pay the price for being on that leading edge.
It’s like, oh no, this didn’t work out too well, but it sounded really cool.
But I have high hopes for this.
I think, especially if the display can be removed and used in other ways, and then—or left in and used in all sorts of ways—I just think that gives it a whole range of motion that maybe wasn’t available before.
In previous kinds of iterations like this.
Exactly. I agree. Do you have any thoughts on this, Michael?

[40:11] I’m just intrigued to see where it goes. I think technology, I think accessibility being in the mainstream form, like in the mainstream of technology is just going to result in positive changes for all of us.
And I think we just all need to have a voice during that change to ensure that everyone is accounted for when accessibility is brought up.

[40:35] I agree and you know i think we brought it up on the show before but it feels like accessibility in mainstream.
Is still very prevalent but i feel like you know with blind shell and other devices were starting to see the specialist companies take a big seat back at the table and say.
Look you’ve gone the mainstream route it works for some but it doesn’t work for everybody so let’s.
Combine mainstream and AT and see what we can do with it. Wouldn’t you guys agree? Definitely. Yes.
I think that’s where we’re seeing the most power out of all this is, when we combine all of these things together, like Android on the blind shell, or framework with the Optima, or things like that.
That’s where the intersection of mainstream and specialist or assistive technology is really going to change the industry.
You know, and we even see that with Be My Eyes and OpenAI. I’m still very excited to try that out. Me too. Me too.
You know, Be My Eyes, if you’re listening, my email is.
I want to I want to throw this out at you guys, because there’s something I don’t think anybody on any podcast has really thought about with that technology.
And it might blow your mind.
So Taylor and I go bowling every Sunday.

[42:01] And what is the most inaccessible of thing about bowling? Entering your name on that stupid machine.
Entering your name, but also viewing your scores. And why is that?

[42:18] Because it’s all visual. It’s all visual, but it’s a huge table.
Ah, right. It’s a huge table that shows frame by frame what the score is in the total at the end.
It’s like a big spreadsheet.
Now how can OCR, typical OCR technology, even come close to interpreting that? Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. You get a couple of pictures of that table, tell Be My Eyes to give me the score for Taylor and break it down frame by frame and it will give you each frame how much she scored and what her total score is.
So, and it’s very like with the, what we were talking about with bowling, you know, you could ask, be my eyes to look at and say, like you’re saying, Michael, uh, what is Taylor’s score in the eighth frame?
And, you know, that’s powerful stuff. And that kind of goes back to what we were saying with the intersection of mainstream and AT really coming together, because I never thought about that until last weekend when I thought, you know, I bet being my eyes would be fantastic for this.
Mm-hmm.

[43:32] Well, it’s not my pick, but I will say SGPT gives you a glimpse into how things can be, processed with GPT and then handed back to your phone.
And all of that data can be, can be presented to the user in an easy to consume audible way. And that’s just with version 3.5 of GPT.
So I, uh, yeah, uh, again, be my eyes. My email address is, have you used SGPT, Michael?
I, it is a everyday tool that I’m using. Yes. I need to use it.
I need to try. Yes you do. Yes you do. Me too. Yes you do.

[44:11] Well, but I think you’re going to try out my pick first. Just saying.
Well, with all that being said, let’s move on to that. So Michael, do you want to go and give us your pick and where people can find you online?
Certainly appreciate that. My pick is a wonderful tool called Mac GPT.
And I don’t know if you’ve played with this yet, Michael, you do have to create an API key and I followed the directions that Federico provided in the SGPT article.
Yeah, that’s right.
I actually read an entire article before going and doing something and everything’s working well.
The reason I like SGPT is for the inline ability. So I can be in drafts or in email and by default it uses the plus but I switched mine to slash because that works with my workflow better.
So I type slash GPT space and then the prompt. For example, write me a professional but casual email that lets this person know that we appreciate their feedback.
However, unfortunately, the workflow that we have for our chapter meeting is going to be this moving forward. Hit shift enter.
Take your hands off the keyboard, wait about 30 seconds and you have a email you just delete the prompt off the top and there’s your email and you do it right there inside the mail.
Again, that’s with the Mac GPT.
Just Google that real quick and you can get it. You can find me at payom, P-A-Y-O-W-M on any of your favorite social networks.
Check out Unmute, Present, and Technically Working wherever you’re getting this podcast out.

[45:37] And you’ll find me after this episode downloading MacQPT. All righty then.

[45:43] Jason, what is your pick and where can people find you online?
Sure, my pick for today is something that helps me a lot in the financial aspect of my productivity and it is called Debit and Credit.
It’s a Mac and iOS app, helps with all finances, finances, keeping track of your expenses, does all sorts of other things that I haven’t played with yet because I’m still pretty new with it.
But I’ve actually replaced the Checkbook Pro app that I was using.
I loved it, but it was Mac only. This is Mac and iOS. And if you perform an operation, it syncs across to your other devices. So it’s very easy for me to jot down an expense while I’m out.
I don’t have to worry about trying to remember it when I get back home.
And you can find out more about the app from debitandcredit.app.
You can find me, Jcast, on Facebook, Jcast432 on Mastodon, and Jcast is spelled J-C-A-S-T.
And I’m also Jcast on Twitter.

[46:58] Fantastic. And, you know, I have to throw this in here because he came and crashed the party, the podcast party.
We have Jeff Bishop with us and, hey Jeff.
Hey guys, I know I figure you know, I figure I should at least come late to the party right right, As long as there’s still food left over, right?
There’s food left over but none for you. Jeff. I see you just wanted to come and share your pay.

[47:29] Yeah, well, you know I was kind of working you know, it’s one of those things yeah, So yeah Since you are here. Um, do you have a pick for us and where people can find you online?
I do actually and you know, I am a big proponent of Supporting the developers that do the right thing, right? We know that that accessibility is really important and inclusion and and,Making sure that apps are accessible and all of that. And one of the things that’s also really important is, Health and doing things for our health. Well, there’s a new version of gentler streak that’s out.

[48:06] You know about this app guys. No, I do not Yeah, well it is a app that really simplifies tracking of health data and it presents it to you in a way that’s really more human understandable.
And they have gone through and made both their watch and iOS apps fully accessible both for low vision and for voiceover users.
So much so that I went ahead and bought a lifetime subscription to the app.
So yeah, it’s good. I really, really like it. I’m just really starting to use it.
And it’s got a little bit of a learning curve to it, although it kind of guides you through the process.
It sort of will start examining your health data and it asks you about your specific goals and then it gives you prompts and guidance on what it thinks you might want to do.
And it’s really, I think it’s all said in the name. It’s a gentler approach to exercise and health.

[49:08] So if you haven’t taken a look at it, give it a try. I think you’ll be really impressed, especially if you’re using a voiceover or a lot of the low vision features on your iPhone.
So that’s my pick. You can find me on all kinds of places, Twitter and Mastodon and all kinds of things.
But best way and probably the quickest way to reach me via email, jeff at jeffbishop.com. That’s probably the easiest and quickest way and probably the one that you’ll remember most quickly. So jeff at jeffbishop.com. Thanks guys.
Thanks Jeff, and I’m sure I’ll be talking to you tomorrow morning about a certain TV show that we talked about on last IACAST. Oh don’t even get me started on that. Oh my god.
Oh, I know. I can’t wait. I will be up tonight. I have a meeting until 1030 tonight, and then I will stay up for half an hour, and I’ll stay up to midnight watching episode nine.
Yes, episode nine. It’ll be great.
Yes, it kills my productivity early in the morning when I get to work, but that’s all right.
It’s worth it. It is. It very much is.
So and Jeff, stick around, because I think you’re going to enjoy my pick for this episode.
And that is, there’s a little story to it.
We’ve started with the Eero 6 routers, and I love Eero, great routers.

[50:27] But because of our apartment and the saturation of Wi-Fi and whatever they build these walls out of, we don’t get full saturation of internet throughout our apartment.
And so we thought, well, let’s try something else. So we tried the Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro.
Don’t do that, don’t do it. It had worse reception in the apartment.
And so I said, let’s go back to what we know mostly works.
And so we got the Eero 6e Pro routers. We got a two-pack.
It says it’s supposed to cover up to 4,500 square feet, which sort of, I guess if you have line of sight and not as much Wi-Fi saturation, it will do much better.
But these do a much better job. they’re bigger than the other Eros I’ve seen.
They look just like the smaller Eros.
But you get that Ero Plus subscription that is fantastic, one password, and encrypt.me and all these other things. They come with Ero and you get more control over your network than you do with the Google routers.

[51:37] Just always a huge fan of the Eero’s and the pros, both the base station and the extender, have ethernet ports unlike the regular Eero 6’s. So and come to find out the Eero 6 only had 500 megabits per second that they guaranteed these go up to a gigabit of Wi-Fi. So you know the one thing thing I like about Eero, I look at the Ubiquiti stuff, it’s hard to find in stores, it’s hard to get your hands on. So Eero, they got them there the same day from Amazon, it works with the A-Lady, just a very good experience. I’ve always had good luck with them. So huge fan, check out Eero Pro 6E routers. They are the more expensive ones, but they will do a really good job at giving you the internet you need and you can hardwire into them and just fantastic routers.

[52:39] Did you get the 25% off coupon by trading in any Amazon device?
I did not, but there was a discount that they were doing already on them, so I did get somewhat of a discount.
Okay, okay. Because you could turn in an old first generation Echo Dot and get 25% off a three pack of the six E’s. Wow, I didn’t know that. Yeah. Wow, that’s really neat. So if you’re out there listening, that’s a very good deal that Jeff just mentioned. So good stuff. I’m such a fan of Eero devices, and they have, you know, that dynamic DNS where you can set up your home network with a with DNS that won’t change. And you can do all those things with that plus subscription that you pay yearly for.
And it’s just fantastic. great, great deal.

[53:33] So, as for people can find me online, I’m Mike Doeys on most of the socials, Mastodon, MikeDoeys.social, sorry, the other thing’s my website.
And you can find me on Twitter, Mike Doeys, and I’m on Facebook as Michael Doeys all over the place.
So, you know, it’s easy to find me and you can email me at MikeDoeys at iCloud.com.
And check out my other show, Programmatic. I record usually Friday nights and it’s out the next week.
We just did episode five and we’ll record episode six this Friday.
So very excited about that.
And a lot of good things. So we talked about our apps, you know, iAccessibility and Pocket Braille all out.
So really a lot of news this week and it’s been a great show.
So I want to thank Michael, Jason, and our party crasher, Jeff, for coming this time.
It’s been great having all of you guys and we’ll see you all in about two weeks. So thanks everyone.

[54:34] Music.

[54:41] Thank you for tuning in to the IA cast. We hope you enjoyed the show and found the conversation to be insightful and informative.
If you have any feedback or comments, we’d love to hear from you.
Please send us an email at feedback at IACast.net.
You can also follow us on Twitter at IACastNetwork to stay informed about new episodes and other updates.
Don’t forget to check out more great podcasts on the IACAS network.
IACAS.net.
Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you again soon.

[55:08] Music.

Transcript

View Details

In this episode of the Unmute podcast, the host Marty and his guest Lucy discuss the Amazon Echo Show and its features. The Echo Show has a screen, camera, and a screen reader called Voice View built into it, which enables those who are blind to use the device. The screen allows users to access YouTube videos, watch Netflix, and Hulu, and identify products by holding them up to the camera through a feature called show and tell. The Echo Show comes in different sizes ranging in price from $39 to $260, and the different models are distinguished by the size of the screen. The Voice View screen reader can be activated by asking the device to enable it or by holding down the reset button and placing two fingers on the screen. The gestures used to navigate the screen are similar to those used on a smartphone. The Echo Show can also be used to call into Zoom meetings and can be hooked up to smart home devices. The hosts recommend purchasing the Echo Show on Amazon and suggest considering the size of the screen when choosing the model. The episode ends with Lucy sharing her email address for any questions or feedback.

Transcript:[MUSIC]

Hey all, Marty here,

and we are back with another Unmute episode.

Today we have our good friend Lucy back,

and she’s going to be talking with us about

a lady and all of that fun stuff.

So Lucy, how are you doing?

I’m great. I’m excited.

This is going to be fun.

So what are we going to be talking about today?

Today we are going to talk about the Echo Show and what you can do with it.

Awesome. Sounds great. So take it away.

Okay. So there are quite a few things you can do with this device that you can’t do with the other

lady A devices. And the reason is that it has a screen, a camera, and a screen reader built into it

called voice view. And that’s for those of us who are blind, who can’t see what’s on the screen.

And so we can enable that and have it read to us what’s on the screen.

So the the you call it the screen view.

Is that what you called it?

What did the screen reader was?

What was it called?

Voice View.

And that’s the screen reader, correct?

Yep.

Awesome.

OK, cool.

All right.

So in a little bit, I will attempt

to demonstrate some of the cool things I’ve

learned about the device.

But we all know how demonstrations go

when we want them to go well.

Yeah, definitely.

Good luck.

Yeah, I know, I’m just saying. So first, let me just talk a little bit about what this device is.

It’s obviously an Amazon Echo device, and it’s also called Alexa, or as I like to call them

in my other shows, I do Lady A. So.

Now, these come in different sized screens, is that correct?

Yep.

Yep.
So you could get a, you know, depending on your needs,

you can get different size screens, right?

Yeah, let me, yeah,

I’ll talk about that in just a second.

So like I said, there are two features

that distinguish this.

And one is that it has a screen and a camera

and this allows you to perform quite a few things

that you can’t do on the other Echo devices.

For example, you can access YouTube videos,

You can watch Netflix and Hulu if you have those accounts

or Amazon Prime Video if you are a Prime member.

And you can also do what is called show and tell.

And it will identify products by holding it up to the camera

and reading the barcodes.

And you can even call into Zoom meetings with this device.

However, this is kind of difficult

and I’ve only had minimal success with it.

The other feature that distinguishes the Echo Show from the other Echo devices is that it has the built-in screen reader apart from the one that allows all the other devices to talk.

And this is called Voice View, like I said.

So there are currently several different models of the show, and all of these have different generations of them because they come out with new ones all the time.

So the way that these are distinguished

is the size of the screen.

So we have the Echo Show 5, which is the smaller one,

the Echo Show 10, and the newest one that I know about

is the Echo Show 15.

And so they come in different colors

and they range in price from like the five inch one

I found today for $39, which is kind of cool.

Wow, that’s cheap.
Yup, and the 15 inch one,

the most expensive one I saw was $260.

And this one comes with Amazon Fire TV built into it

and it has a remote and all that cool stuff.

So, and so obviously the difference of all these models

in this is in the size of the screen.

And I think also the quality of the camera.

And I have the eight, the first generation.

And as far as I know,

mine can do most of what the others can do,

except the newer ones also have

an indoor security camera feature

and it has motion detection,

but I don’t really know about these things

because I don’t have that on mine.

So I don’t know about them.

So they have a camera, like I said,

which can be turned on and off.

And a lot of people like to keep their camera off

because of privacy issues and things like that.

They think that Amazon is watching them, I don’t know.

Doesn’t it come with like a little cover

that you can like put over the camera

if you really are that uncomfortable with it?

Or it has a switch also that you can turn off.

I don’t know about a cover, it might,

but I don’t know about that.

but you can turn off the switch.

Well, that’s good.

At least they are thinking about people’s privacy

and how uncomfortable it would be.

So that’s cool that they implement that.

Yeah.

So when you get these and set them up,

it starts speaking in a female voice,

but you can change it to a male voice if you want to,

like with all of the devices,

you can do that with a simple command.

I don’t particularly like the male voice,

but it’s just a matter of preference, I guess.

So, and I think I said this on my prior podcast episode

that there are five wake words that you can use

for all these devices and they are Alexa,

Amazon, Echo, Ziggy and computer.

And mine happens to be called computer

that I’m working with today.

So I have five devices and so I’ve used all the wake words.

So I guess that means I can’t buy anymore.

Yep, you’re done.

Once you use all the wake words,

it’s time to take a break, right?

Yep, I guess so.

So the Voice View screen reader that I talked about

can be activated in two different ways.

First by just asking the device to enable it.

And also you can manually hold down the reset button

and place two fingers on the screen.

And I can’t seem to get that to work,

but anyway, just saying.

Okay, so let me see if we can

demonstrate a couple of these things.

So let’s do the show and tell

and see if it can read this product that I have.

Cool, sounds good.
Computer, tell me what I’m holding.
Let’s see.

(upbeat music)

I think that’s sparkling ice water. For more info on this product, say, computer, details.

Computer details?

Zero sugar. Sparkling ice coconut pineapple is a fruity.

Flavorful sparkling water made with zero sugar. Each bottled water contains only five calories

for guilt-free refreshment. Better for you ingredients.

Made with colors from natural sources. Sparkling ice is made with better for you ingredients

and bursting with real-

Okay, stop. Okay. Yeah, so that was pretty good.

Definitely.

Some things are not as easy. All right, let’s try one more thing. Computer, what am I holding?

Let’s see. Remember to hold your item about a foot above

the countertop and centered with the camera. Yeah.

I read the following words, non-GMO, sweeteners water infused with clementine essence, water

and.

Yeah, but let’s try it one more time.

Computer, what am I holding?

Let’s see.

It looks like dugout mugs.

No, no, no, no.

Sugar jets.

Let’s see.

All right, one more time.

Computer what am I holding?

Let’s see

It looks like retro deco solidus no, that’s certainly not right well gee

I got it to read this one earlier. It was hint water

Time flavor yeah

And now it won’t read it so darn it. What is it looking for this the barcode on the item you’re holding well

Well, you know, I thought so, but then other times it does read some things on the label.

So I have tried it with documents to see if it can be like an OCR and I haven’t really

had any success with that.

So I am not really sure to tell you the truth.

It’d be interesting because one thing I would be curious to know is if it is looking, for

example, for the barcode, if you can’t see the item you’re

holding, you would just have to kind of turn the item around

until hopefully the device picks up whatever it’s looking for.

And that’s what I was doing. And, and the first time you use

this particular skill, they have a tutorial that you can access

and it tells you exactly what you need to do in order for it

to read this, you do have to know where the camera is, and it’s in the upper right hand

corner of my device. And so, you know, you have to center it with the camera and do all

kinds of turning and up and down motions. And it will tell you, you know, if it’s not

seeing it, remember to move the item up and down or remember to hold it a foot from the

device and whatever. So the reason I think that it does read the barcodes is because

it said for more details, you know, say more details. So and I think that it was giving the

details listed probably from the barcode. Right. So that’s what I think. But I…

That or maybe it was doing what you were saying is maybe it is reading the text on

the face of the item. So maybe it can do both. I don’t know. Yeah, I guess we’ll figure it out

some point or another, right? Yeah. So anyway, it’s interesting. And, you know, I’ve had

limited success, sometimes better than others. I don’t know if it has to do with the lighting,

probably. Probably has a lot to do with it. But anyway, so, you know, that’s something that you

kind of play with and practice with. So it’s kind of cool if you live alone and you don’t have

anybody to help you read something and you need to know what something is.

Yeah, that’s great actually.

You don’t label things like me.

Yeah.

All right. Okay. So let’s see about this voice view thing here. Computer enable voice view.

It must be on the e-

Oh, there it goes.

Three unread messages.

46 degrees.

Mostly sunny.

Discovery.

Huh, unread messages from what?

OK.

I don’t know, but let’s see what we’re doing here.

Dropping to find out if food is ready to feast on.

Say hello.

Try computer.

Dropping on the kitchen.

Now is that on the screen?

Is that how you’re able to navigate?

Yeah.

And the gestures are very similar to those on a smartphone.

or tablet, the flicking and double tapping and things like that.

And from what I understand, it it appears to be a lot like

the Android screen readers that talk back.

Is that it?

Android’s talk back. Yes. Yes, I thought. So.

So let’s just see computer.

Open Prime Video.

Here’s Prime Video.

Okay, so let’s see what’s on this screen.

Back button Harlem season 2 Amazon Originals Prime Movies Prime TV Shows Prime TV Shows

Back button The Power season 1 No Traces ZDZ Jones in the 6th season 1 Carnival Row season

[BLANK_AUDIO]

The back prime TV show, back button.

All right, let’s see.

Back button, Harlem sees Amazon Prime Movies.

So just using finger gestures to swipe on the screen.

Yep, I’m flicking to the right on the screen and then I double tap on TV show.

and read a few of those.

Now I just double tapped on movies.

Oh, cool.

So the gestures are very much like a smartphone.

Yes.
Reggie, read two.

Creed, die hard.

Mrs. Harris goes to Paris.

Let’s just double tap on that.
Loading.
Okay, so yeah, you can watch movies

and all that good stuff.

Cool.
So yeah, and you can open YouTube on there

and you can search for things,

whatever you want on YouTube by using,

when you hit the search button for YouTube,

an edit box appears and a keyboard pops up.

So you have your letters

And you can change the way you type on the keyboard

just as you can on a smartphone by touching the letter

and then double tapping it to activate it

or just swiping around and finding the letter

and taking your finger off and that will activate it.

That’s how I have mine set up.

Oh, cool.

I think it’s great that they keep the gestures

very similar to a smartphone

so that it’s not a huge learning curve

if you’re already familiar with a screen reader

on a smartphone.

So that’s pretty cool.

Yeah, it is very cool.

So like I said, you can also call into Zoom meetings with it.

It’s kind of clunky because when you open Zoom,

you have to put in the meeting ID

and then the password for the meeting.

And so I have been able to get into a couple of meetings,

but I wouldn’t, I don’t know, I wouldn’t recommend it.

It’s just, you know, it’s kind of-

So just out of curiosity,

let’s say that you received an email

and in the email it was click here to join the meeting

and you click that, would it automatically open or no?

No, no, at least not that I’m aware of.

You have to have the meeting ID and yeah,

Okay, well.

Yep. But, you know, at least it can be done. So yeah, so that’s about it, actually, that

is different from, you know, the regular devices. There are some games and skills that are,

are just for the Echo Show devices.

Maybe next month I can talk about some of those.

Yeah, that would be really great.

I’m sure people would love to hear about the skills.

Yeah.

A lot of people are always wondering,

what are they and how do they work

and how could they benefit them?

That would be great for next time we can

definitely dive into the world of skills.

Oh yeah, there’s just thousands of them.

Yeah.

So if people wanted to take a look at and pick up one of these devices, where would

they find them?

Well, the best place would be Amazon.com.

And in the search feature, just type in Echo Show.

And there you will find all of the different sizes that we talked about and the price range.

And like I said, there are different generations of them.

I think the newest one of the eight and 10 are second generations.

And the five, I think is third generation by now.

So, um, you know, um,

is there anything people should be looking for when they go to kind of decide if they

want to pick one of these up, which would be kind of the best one for their needs?

Well, I guess, you know, depending on what you’re going to use the screen for, if you

have some vision, you might want to choose one of the ones with the larger screen because

that will give you, you know, a bigger field.

But like me, I didn’t really care and I don’t know why I bought the eight.

I don’t know why I did that, but I could have, you know, easily gotten the five and been

perfectly happy with it. But, but yeah, I think that’s really the only thing and just what you

want it to do if you get the newer one, if you want the motion detection and the inside security

camera. That’s another thing that I don’t care about. But

and you could actually, if you had an outdoor, like a ring doorbell, which is also made by Amazon,

you could make it so the screen on your A-lady could see the camera and the outside.

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s cool.

That’s really cool, I think.

Very cool. Yeah. And I mean, you can hook up all your smart home devices to this,

just like you can with all the Amazon devices, Alexa devices.

Prime movies.

Oh, be quiet.

I said…

Well, that is awesome. So everyone, if you want to go and take a look at these,

check them out on Amazon. And if you decide to get one, you’ll have to let us know how it goes.

And Lucy, if people want to get ahold of you or see more about what you’re doing,

how can people find you? All right. You can email me at elucy4083@gmail.com.

And let me know what you think of the device if you happen to buy one, or if you have any questions,

that I probably won’t be able to answer. No, I’m just kidding. So yeah, that’s it.

All right. Well, thanks so much, Lucy, for coming and giving us an A-Lady update,

and we appreciate it. And we’re looking forward to seeing you next month and talking

all about skills. So thanks, everyone. Have a great one, and we’ll see you next time.

[Music]

[MUSIC]

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You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.Visit acb.community to learn more about what is up coming.

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In this episode, we explore the Blind Shell Classic 2 and how to navigate it. We start by discussing how to check for notifications, including a high-pitched beep that indicates when you’re at the bottom or top of a menu option. We also cover how to use the number pad to cycle through options and how to delete notifications.

Throughout the episode, we provide step-by-step instructions on how to access and navigate the various menu options on the Blind Shell Classic 2. We also share some tips and tricks for using the device, such as pressing and holding the back button to hear new notifications.

Whether you’re new to the Blind Shell Classic 2 or a seasoned user, this episode is a great resource for anyone looking to improve their navigation skills and get the most out of their device.

Transcript:

[Music]

On the Blind Shell Classic 2, if you press and hold the back button, you’ll hear something like

[Music]

One new notification, 7.18 pm.

That tells me that I have one new notification, the time and the fact that I am back at my home screen.

In most places on the phone, you can press the top left button to hear something like

[Music]

One new notification, one of six.

You hear that there are six options.

We’ll use the number pad and tap the numbers two through six to cycle through the options.

7 18 PM Friday, wifi state, not connected.

Bluetooth enabled, no connected devices.

Signal strength, 50% 4g battery state, 100% six of six.

So that high-pitch beep means that you are at the bottom or top of a menu option.

I want to go back up and see my notifications.

We’ll press number one.

One new notification.

One of six.

We’ll press okay.

Message sending to five, four, one, four, three, five, one of two.

And though I only have one notification, it said one of two, because if you press

the last option that’s available or the up button once, delete all two of two, you

can press okay to delete all.

No item.

No notifications.

One of six.

[MUSIC]

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Transcript

[0:01] This is an ACB Community Call, presented by American Council of the Blind.

[0:10] Music.

[0:17] This Unmute Presents Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2023, and I did something a little different to the podcast file.
Did you notice? The opinions expressed on the ACB media network are those of the content providers and should not be viewed as an endorsement of any product or service, nor does it reflect the views of the American Council of the Blind, its elected officials or its staff.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another Unmute. We wanna remind everyone here at the top, we wanna have everyone have their first questions answered.
So we’ll get through all the hands first. And once we get through everyone’s first go around, we will take second hands.
Also remember to be respectful to everyone as you would want your question respected as everyone else. So be kind.

[1:08] Also, we have a big announcement today. We wanna let you know that on the 18th of April, we’re gonna be having a special event with Script Talk.
They’re gonna be coming and demonstrating their devices and talking about how you can get involved in getting a Script Talk for yourself, if that’s something that you want or need.
So that’s gonna be April 18th right here. So stay tuned for that.
And as always, if you need to get ahold of us, you can reach us at feedback at unmute.show for questions, comments, or anything else.
And Michael, what do you got for us today? I always have something as Marty mentioned, raise your hand if you have a question, we’ll get to your questions in a moment.
Actually we have a hand raised right now, just so you know.

[1:53] All right, thank you very much, Patricia. Appreciate that. I do want to go back and let people know that on Sunday, Marty and I chatted with you briefly about the new voice isolation functionality, which is one of the several new features available in iOS 16.4 that was released on last Monday.
And then on Thursday, we sat down and we chatted about multi-factor authentication with my friend Damasi and talked about the different types of multi-factor authentication.
He did a, in my opinion, great job at breaking down why you need to use multi-factor authentication and some things that you might want to be aware of, especially when you’re wondering, well, what’s right for me?
What do I need to use with the tools that are available to me?
And then we did also break down that elucid YubiKey, which is something we often talk about.
And that’s available on the Unmute Presents podcast feed.
Last thing that I will mention before we jump in and ask Patricia who our first hand is, Because we…

[2:58] Have a new thing and I will personally shout out the first person who goes over,
Keyboards

[3:03] and connects with us over there cause we’re going to start pushing it more.
So if you’ve, if you have an Instagram account, you’re interested in Instagram, we have no content over there right now. Uh, but the first person who follows us there, I will say hi to you. And uh, yeah, that’s, that’s all I got for that. So Patricia, who do we have first on the list today?
All right, Jewel, you are first up. Go ahead.
Hi, Joel. Nice. Hi. I have a question I’m not sure that you can help with since it’s a keyboard command question for iOS.
I switched from an iOS, from iPhone SE to an iPhone 12, like I mentioned.
And when I did so, the voiceover command switched on me.
So it was control option, so the far left and the one right to the left of the spacebar, but now it’s using the one to the left of that, the first and the third keys.
And I’m wondering if there’s a way to change that back, because it’s still doing the same with the old phone, but it’s doing this new command with the new phone.
And it’s driving me nuts because I’m so used to the other command.
I wonder, because I’ve had this happen to me on the keyboard before, and all keyboards can be different.
Is your keyboard specifically in iOS mode?

[4:25] It is a Logitech K380. So I don’t know that it is specifically in iOS mode, but it’s the same keyboard with both phones.
Right. That’s strange. I’m not changing anything between the two phones.
Yeah, I’ve not heard of that. So what you’re saying is like the command and option keys are swapped on the other phone?
Yeah. So with the SE, it’s the one, the far left was control, and the one just to the left is a space bar.
But with the, 12, it moves over to the third key, which is the one to the left of that other one that’s being used, which I thought was the function key. So it’s confusing me. Yeah. Unfortunately, I’m not 100% sure on that one. If someone else has an idea, Marty, do you have an idea? Because I don’t.
The only thing I could suggest is or ask, I would say is both phones are updated to this equal same operating systems and all that good stuff? Yes, both are on 16.4. Hmm. This is Chanel.

[5:27] Yeah. So one thing you can actually do is use the caps lock key and that should work irregardless of the keyboard layout, regardless of what they’ve changed, you know, the bottom look keys to, um, by default voiceover, you know, is set to use both caps lock and control an option. I, Well, I don’t know if it’s that way on iOS, but I would think and Caps Lock is, you know.

[5:53] I use that on my Mac all the time and I know it works on iOS as well.
Okay. Either way, it will take some adjustment. Do you know if the Caps Lock, if I use that, is it going to affect how Caps Lock works?
You just double, you just double tap the capsock real quick.
And like Chanel, I use it on my Mac as well, because a lot of the web apps that you come across will use control option as modifiers.
So that way you don’t have to do control option tab followed by control option in the keystroke.
And so you can navigate web apps. So that’s a, thank you for bringing that up Chanel, but yes, that might be.
And then that will, as you said, work consistently across.
Navigation

[6:34] And I do believe by default, it will work without having to make any changes. So thanks Julie.
Thank you. Before we go on to the next question, I do want to say that about 90 seconds ago, Blaine Anthony followed us on Instagram. So I promised I would shout out whoever followed us. So if you are Blaine, thank you for following us and being the first follower. Who do we have next, Patricia?
Next we have Desi. Go ahead.
Hi Desi. How’s it going?
Good morning, Michael, Marty, and everybody. As everybody has probably heard, I’m heading to Nauseam by now.
I am moving from Phoenix to Franklin, Tennessee, toward the end of the month.
And I’m going to be needing to learn a lot more routes that are very unfamiliar to me at this point.

[7:21] And I do have Bose Frames to use with any of the GPS apps that I might decide to use.
But I’m just really kind of looking for an opinion on what is the best GPS type app to use for getting walking direction routes that seem to be reasonably accurate.
My first suggestion would be BlindSquare because you can set it to identify what’s around you as you’re walking.
So for example, you’re walking down a block and it will say, you know, 100 feet to your left is whatever coffee shop you know 200 feet to your right is once you figure out the area you can turn it off or tame it down so it has a lot of options to be able to to adjust how much information you wanted to yell at you or not yell at you.

[8:14] But that is a good one for a new area and definitely cruising around and figuring out what’s what.
You could even have it on while you’re driving around or maybe on a bus or in a cab or Uber Lyft, any of those things. And it’ll identify what’s around you.
And you’ll be able to get familiar without necessarily having to be walking everywhere.
So it has some good use cases for, you know, learning your way around the area.
Yeah, that’s good. And also, what about the Explore app from GoodMaps?
Has anybody used that?
Well, the thing about GoodMaps is, as far as I know, it’s indoors.
I think they do have one that’s outdoors also, but I just don’t know how good it is, actually. I’ve never used it.

[9:03] Well, I would assume, and you know what, assuming Mike got a person, but because Mike May’s involved with it, I would think that it’s probably pretty good since he’s a blind user himself.
But yeah, okay, well, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Yeah, no problem. Good luck. And we’ll have to hear how it goes once you move and how it all goes.
The thing is, you know, contact your local, you know, whatever council of the blind or
Instagram

[9:34] whatever is in that area, get a mobility coach and have them teach you the routes you need to do while you’re there.
That’d be the best way to start out.
Yeah, well, while I’m there, it’s probably going to be pretty permanent.
So I’ll be there for a while.
So, there you go. Thanks a lot. Good luck. Thanks.
Before we go on to Sharon, are there any hands in Clubhouse?
There are, Herbie has his hand up.

[10:01] Okay. I’m mute.
And we’re just not hearing her be able to hear him in the other room.
Yeah, we’re not hearing. Are you hearing me now? Yes, we are.
OK, there we go. I need to know how to use my loopback anyway.
Can anybody teach me? They’re just kidding. So I was going to be good and not to say ask anything.
But then, Michael, you mentioned the I word Instagram. So I have two questions. One, you can easily answer, probably. And the other one is going to be a bit more involved.
A, how exactly do you follow somebody over on Instagram?
And B, how exactly do you use Instagram in the first place? Because I have that app and it’s always confused me quite a bit.

[10:45] So, let me be fully transparent with you there, Herbie. Firstly, to follow someone, if you, there is a search edit field, I believe that you can type in their username.
And then one of the first elements on their actual profile is going to be a follow button.
Or when I went and followed Blaine, I hit the, it actually said follow back because they were already following us.
I don’t know about using Instagram and I will endeavor to share some thoughts slash tips next week if someone reminds me, because I will forget, because I am using this as an opportunity to learn to use Instagram myself and hopefully reach a wider audience and experiment with it.
So I will share my findings with you in the future, Herbie.
All right, so is that the search under the followers and following, or is there a different search? I believe that is the correct search. Yes.
Updates and Reading

[11:36] And then are you under unmute presents? Yes. If you just search unmute presents, all one word, you should find it right away.
All one. That’s what I did wrong. Okay. Yep. All one word.
Cause Instagram works a lot like your other social media.
Right. You can use at to tag people. So it’s at unmute presents all one word.
All right. Very good.
I was lucky to get that.

[11:56] Who is next?
All right, next we have Sharon. Go ahead. Hi, everyone. First of all, I want to say thank you for the scroll bar tip that you gave.
Oh, yeah. No problem.
Yeah, that was really helpful. I’m using that all the time. So, I have two quick questions.
I don’t know if there’s a way to have Apple notify me when they’re going to do a minor update.
I just go in the settings and look periodically, but it seems weird to me that they don’t have a notification for that.
And the other thing is, I got a summary, a news summary from CNN every morning, and I do a two-finger swipe down very gently to get it to start, but every once in a while, I lose it and I get popped into Apple News, and then I can’t get back to it, and I don’t know what to do about it.
Well, addressing the first question about the notifications on updates, I would suggest following one of the big Apple websites.
You have a bunch of them, 9to5Mac’s really good, MacRumors is really good.

[13:06] They will always tell you when things come out pretty immediately and you’ll know right away.
They have a lot of other good information on there as well on a daily basis.
That’s typically what most people do. So that’s why Apple themselves don’t really do it all that much because everyone does it kind of for them.
So I would suggest- again on the website please. The first one I said was nine so it’d be like the number nine.

[13:31] Two and the number five so it’s nine t o five mac mac.com and just you could go on there and you’ll see they have tons of stuff if you have an rss reader you could put it in that another one I would suggest would be mac rumors they’re really good as well uh and there’s a bunch of others so Okay. Those two will get you where you need to go.
They got tons of great information and things like updates that are coming out.
They’ll tell you right away as soon as it comes out.
Okay. And then the other part about the news.
So were you trying to use the app switcher? I didn’t really get what you meant about the second you keep popping into news.
And then what happens? I’ve opened up a link to CNN. It has CNN morning news or whatever.
And I get over to where it starts to read heading one, and I want to read all, and I do two-finger swipe down, but if I do it too, not gently enough, somehow it jumps me out of it, and I’m back in Apple News, and I don’t know why.

[14:36] Yeah, I think you just got to be a little bit more cognizant about your gestures.
That’s the only thing I can really suggest. Michael, you got anything?
Yeah, go for it. Yeah. And this happens to me all the time. Sometimes when I do the flick down, the two finger flick down to read, it accidentally triggers the back gesture, like the scrub gesture to go back a previous page.
And I think that’s what’s going on for you. Oh. That happens to me all the time.
Windows Shutdown

[15:04] Okay. You’re not alone. So, and if that happens, how do you get back to where you were?
You pretty much just have to find it again.
There’s not really a forward. Yeah, it’s just kind of like, you know, noodling around it just to get yourself back.
It’s kind of unfortunate, but it’s kind of what we all have to do and different.
But I think that’s what’s happening for you.
Okay.
Have a good day. Yep. Thanks. Good luck to you. Thank you. Next, we have Beth. Go ahead. Hey, Beth.
How you doing? Yeah, I was wondering if this is a Microsoft question.
A lot of times I had a problem when I do Alt F4, it seems like my computer has not shut down.
So I then turn the power off and then try again, but it hasn’t been shutting down lately with Alt F4.
I don’t know if that’s a Microsoft question, if that’s what that is.
If… Yep.

[16:06] So I can help you with this, Beth. And I didn’t know that people were doing this.
So full transparency and I will help.
I’ll tell, explain to people what’s going on and then the best way to shut your computer down to make sure that it’s shut down.
It came to my attention probably about two or three weeks ago that a lot of times what people have been taught to do is to go to their desktop and then Alt F for it.
And then this pops up a dialogue that asks if you want to shut your computer down, restart, go to sleep, whatever you want to do.
And you press up. He doesn’t do that.
Right. So you press up arrow to shut down and you press enter.
What often happens at this point, if an application is open that’s preventing the computer from shutting down, you may not be notified dependent on the screen reader.
So what I suggest to people is after about 10-15 seconds, you sit there and wait for a second, press your Alt Tab key.
What’s going to happen is you’re going to see something that will set, well, you’ll be told something that will say something like, Notepad is preventing Windows from shutting down.
Then you can tab to the Okay button, and that will allow you to shut Windows down, and it will not save anything that you have in Notepad.

[17:20] If you tab to cancel and you press Cancel, that will cancel the shutdown process.
I think that’s what’s happening with you, Beth. So try after a couple of seconds after you hit Enter on Shutdown to Alt-Tab and see if there’s something that’s preventing it from shutting down.
Another way, if you don’t want, for people who are like, I don’t want to go to the desktop to Alt F4 out of the desktop, which it makes sense why people have been taught to do that because you quit applications with Alt F4.
So why not quit Windows with Alt F4? But Windows key plus X, like X-Ray, anywhere within Windows will pop up a menu.
And on this menu, you can go down to shut down or sign out is what it says. And it’s a submenu.
Press enter on that sub menu and you can go down to shutdown, restart, sign out, sleep, whatever you want to do.
That will allow you to do it right there from that menu as well.
Like with a lot of things in technology, there’s a lot of ways to accomplish things.
Hopefully, Unmute will be teaching a bit more about Windows in the near future.
Wink, wink. Yeah. I’m thinking of maybe with system access, It seems like they have these users for them, but if I have a problem, they don’t respond.

[18:38] Like, oh, no replies. I’m thinking of kind of in my head, kind of thinking of getting JAWS, because it seems more people know about JAWS like if I have problems.
System access. A lot of people don’t know about it. A lot of them do.
Yep. And I discovered too, if you pay $99, right, a year, that’s cheaper than getting JAWS than system access.

[19:04] So I have to think about that. Yeah, so JAWS does offer the home user license, which is $99 a year.
So that can be a lot more affordable too for some users.
Right. Yeah, because I’m just thinking system access has like bunch of described movies and shows And I’m wondering if you can do that with with jaws because I don’t want to get rid of something that you know I’m gonna miss like those shows like all in the family and some of those old.
Be My Eyes In Canada?

[19:36] Descriptive ones so those are separate from Jaws, so you would still need to pay for access to the Saro tech network in order to get access to those So yes, that is separate.
Okay. Okay, thanks. I’ll try that. Try that exiting and see how that works.
They’re shutting down.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Do we have any hand in clubhouse? We do.
Andrew, you can unmute and talk.
Thanks for bringing me up on stage.
I have a couple of questions. One is I just found an article a couple of weeks ago.
I think it was like March 14th in regards to Be My Eyes out of Denmark.
And their movement towards incorporating AI into their app.
And right now, at least according to the article, it will only be available in the UK and the US, I’m in Canada.
I’m just wondering, have you seen that? Are you familiar with it?
And is there any more information that I could gather about how that would work?
There was. Perhaps no. Yeah, actually, they are implementing it.
I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for them to get into all of the different countries, but they are currently working on implementing it.
The short version of this story is They were approached to use the software in their app, and they worked out something where.

[21:03] They’re not getting charged to use it.
There’s a great 30-minute story with those guys on Blind Abilities, which came out, I wanna say, about a week or two ago.
It’s probably pretty close to the top of the feed, but it’s a great conversation with them, and they give you the insider on the whole new app that’s coming out. So I would check that out and you’ll be able to hear probably most of what you’re looking for there.
Yeah, I appreciate that. The other quick question I had is, I recently got an iPhone 13 mini, and I find that and it seems to kind of almost remember a gesture. For instance, I might tap the phone once with two fingers and it turns off the speech. Or I might do another gesture and it’s not really performing that gesture, it’s scrubbing out the screen or what have you.
And I’ve increased the time interval between a double tap or what have you to what I think is appropriate. It seemed like that’s what I was doing on my other phones.
But it still seems to… It’s like you said, it’s almost like it remembers that I’ve tapped it once, and then if I tap it again, it’ll perform that double tap back or what have you.
I’m wondering if you’ve experienced that.

[22:25] What it sounds like to me is that you may be accessing or activating an action that might be on your rotor. You might want to go in and take a look at your rotor and see what’s on there.
And if there’s something that you want to stop it from doing when you’re using gestures on the the screen, you can just take things off the rotor, add things to the rotor. A lot of people will hit the rotor and not realize they hit it and then they activate something they didn’t mean to activate. So I would take a look at that and see if there’s something that’s happening
Changes in Zoom

[22:58] there and you can either eliminate or add things to the rotor.
Yeah, I’ve had that happen in terms of… It changes my English to whatever, a different voice and I’m like, okay, I get the road or somehow. So I’ll try to look at that and see if that may be causing. So I thank you very much. Appreciate you letting me speak.
Yeah, no problem. Have a great day. Good luck to you.
Okay, we do have some hands in June. But I want to make sure are we cleared in clubhouse? Darcy? We are. Okay, good. All right. So next we have Roberta followed by Rachel. Roberta, go ahead.

[23:31] Hi there. Um, I have a question about the zoom app on my iPhone using voiceover. I used to have in the upper left area of the screen, it would show my avatar or the avatar of the person speaking.
And that is not there anymore. Now I have a button that says tap to speak. Any thoughts?
It changes zoom way too often. And it’s like a grocery store. When you figure it out, they change it all around on you. I don’t know. Wait.
Yeah, I mean, I have not seen this. It might be worth looking at in your settings Why? Oh, I see. I see. Oh, so that’s how it works. Yeah, so that’s how it works.
At when you’re not in a Zoom meeting under meetings and see if there’s an option to always show I like that. Oh, and then you guys are going to be doing everything with us, right?
Yeah. And then, yeah, I’m going to be going back to my office.
I’m going to be doing all the work and doing all the stuff. And then, you know, I’m going to be doing a lot of stuff.
Keyboard on iPad

[24:14] The view that you want versus a tap to speak view So, yeah. So, yeah, I’m going to be doing all the work.
And then, I’m going to be going back to my office. And then, I’m going to be doing all the stuff.
Because that is strange and it sounds like a view got changed.
So, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, I’m going to be doing all the work.
Now, in order to actually change settings in the Zoom application, when you’re not in a meeting on a mobile device, you do have to be signed into a Zoom account.
So if all you see is sign up or sign in, then go ahead and sign up or sign in, and then you should be able to modify any settings.
Okay, I’ll take a look. Thank you. Hey, Rachel, go ahead. Hello, my question is, I have a new iPad.

[24:49] And I don’t remember the model, so I apologize, but it is one of the newer ones.
And I have a Logitech keyboard that came with it. It’s part of the cover.
Um, my problem is when I hit the enter key, it is automatically putting me into the calendar.
Doesn’t matter if I’m in pages, typing, putting me into the calendar and my up and down, right, and left arrows are not working, are not working the way they are supposed to work.
Do I double tap each one of these or what am I doing wrong?
Um, so I, I might have something for you to try and Marty might as well.
But I’m gonna jump in here real quick with the arrow keys.
I don’t know why the enter key is dropping you into calendar, but it would be interesting if you press your left and right arrow keys together, does, and I don’t expect you to know right now,
AudioVault

[25:40] but try that and if voiceover says quick nav off, then try navigating and see if things work the way you expect them to.
Okay, and then how do I turn it back on again?

[25:52] That’s a toggle, so you simply press left and right arrow keys again. Okay.
Yep, give that a try and see if it helps with your navigation on iOS with a keyboard.
Gotcha. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Yeah, let’s give that a try and we’ll see if that works. Who do we have next, Trish?
We have Maria. Go ahead, Maria.
I’m sorry, it’s Marie. Marie, go ahead.
Hi, Marie. You are muted right now, I believe. Yes, she is.
Okay, I hit it again. I hit it twice, I guess. Okay, I have actually a comment for Beth and some other users.
There is a website called audiovault.net and it’s free and there are multitudes of both TV shows
Comment on phone

[26:35] and movies all audio described. They’re mp3 files and you can download a plethora of movies and TV shows for free. Perfect, well thank you. Again that’s audiovault.net correct? Correct. All right well we appreciate that and uh who do we have next there Trish? We have no one in Zoom. Is there any everybody in class.

[26:56] Not currently. Oh, righty. Whoa. Let’s go ahead and, uh, Marty, do you… Oh, go ahead, Trish.
We do. See, we appreciate it. All we have to do is say there’s no hands and then people raise their hand.
It’s that stuttering couple of seconds to fill that 10 seconds for someone to raise their hand.
Go ahead. That’s how it always works. Go ahead, Chanel. Yeah, sorry.
And then it, well, it took me a…
I’m on my phone and I’m not very good with finding things on the touch screen, but I But I just wanted to say, speaking of phone, if you have your phone set to receive automatic updates, that will also help.
Now, I know some people may not like to do that. I think it was Sharon who wanted to be able to know, you know, what Apple releases, even the minor updates.
And I would, for me personally, the best way to get that is to have automatic updates on.

[27:51] And your phone will notify you as well. when I just forget where I turn that on.
I can go look real quick, but I didn’t have a chance to look before.
I think it’s in. It is under settings, general software update, and there’s a checkbox to turn on automatic updates. Is that the one you’re talking about?
Yeah, that’s the one I’m talking about.
Yep, and in iOS 16.4, there’s also a separate checkbox there.
If you’re familiar with the Apple TV, this will be familiar for you.
Now, if you’re interested in getting beta software for your iPhone, You simply check the box that says that you want to get beta software.
And then there’s three radio buttons. There’s none, developer, and public.
If your phone is enrolled in the developer program, then you’ll get developer betas when they come out in June.
If you are getting the public betas, then you’ll get the public betas in July-ish, which
Homekit

[28:43] is what historically they’ve been available.
Or you can just skip all that beta nonsense and just wait until the new 17 comes out in September, but it’s a faster and easier way to be able to opt into Baydals now.
That’s a lot faster. And if you’ve never seen that before, it’s because it just came out in this last update.

[29:00] So that’s a new feature. Awesome. So you want to go turn that on if you’re interested.
Yeah, I’ll go check that out.
Who is next, Trish? All right, we have Jeff. Go ahead, Jeff.
Hey, Jeff, how’s it going?
Hey, it’s going well, good. I guess if I didn’t have a question, it would be going better. However…
This is only kind of loosely related to, you know, computer stuff.

[29:24] So I added a smart plug, it was successfully able to add it to the home app, used to be called HomeKit, I think.
And the switch itself, the plug, you know, I can tell the S-Lady to turn it on or off.
However, the item that I have plugged into it still needs me to use that app to do the powering on and off.
It sounds like all of the things that you have aren’t all compatible with the same system.
Yeah, like now it’s an AV receiver. So the only other thing I can think of is maybe there’s some sort of power limits or whatever.
Go ahead, Darcy. You’re probably going to bring up the same thing I was thinking of.
Well, I was thinking, I mean, not all devices. I mean, you can imagine, like, if you think about all the devices that you have and you unplug them and then you plug them back in, they don’t always turn back on right away, right? Like that you have to turn them on. And when you use a smart plug, you’re essentially doing that, right? You’re essentially unplugging it and plugging it back in. So you actually, you’re better off with a smart plug to use devices that are always on.
Like for example, I have a smart plug and I have it plugged into a fan, right, in my bedroom and I have that to come on at night. But it’s an old fan with like a physical switch. So when it, when the.

[30:47] The smart plug comes on, then it comes on. But if it was something that had to be turned on with a remote control or whatever, it’s not going to necessarily do that. All that happens when you when you turn on the smart plug.
Is the device gets power. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to turn on.
And one thing that I can suggest, and funny you bring this up because we, Demasi and I talked about on another show we host called Technically Working.
Recently, we were talking about HomeKit and home automations.
If you have an app for the AV system, as Darcy was saying, the HomePlug might not be the best solution.
But if that AV system doesn’t show up in home app, look into something like home automate, home automation or home bridge.
That’s the word I was thinking of, because those tools could bring third-party services into the home app that would connect to your AV app possibly and allow you to control the power through the home app with automations as well, if you need to automate some of that too.
Right. And even if you’re talking about something that doesn’t actually have an app, like some sort of AV thing, you might be able to get like what they call an IR blaster, which is basically something you can point to your device and it can mimic all the remote control codes.
Old Speaker Tech

[32:05] So there’s there’s other options, but I don’t think as far as an AV receiver goes, the smart plug is probably your best bet, like Michael said.
All right. Well, thank you for your help. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for bringing the question. We appreciate it.
And Home Assistant is the other one that I was thinking of that I couldn’t get out.
So home home bridge or home assistant or pool tools.
Who do we have next? Trish? We have Jesse. Go ahead. Hey, Jesse.
This is my day for asking questions.

[32:33] I have a pair of Sonos play one speakers that I bought like in the oh, maybe 2017, I want to say.
So they’re still being supported right now. But, you know, I’m cringing at the thought that before too long, they won’t be supported anymore.
And I’m wondering at that point what to do with them. And also because I am moving, I also have a pair of the original HomePods, the big HomePods.
And my thought is to keep the HomePods because I’m pretty much an Apple person.
I’ve got my iPhone 14 Pro.
I have an iPad Mini 6 and I have my Mac Mini.
So it would seem like it would be smart to keep my HomePods.

[33:34] But does anybody have any thoughts about when these things do become obsolete?
What is the best thing to do with them? I do specifically for Sonos because I’ve been watching this and it’s been an interesting adventure to watch, especially with Sonos’ transition from the S1 to S2 software, which is their new app that they released, I believe, mid last year.
Two things. Number one, if you decide that, hey, I like Sonos, I like that ecosystem, and if you were unaware, I actually have HomePods and Sonos playing together with each other, So I can use the advantages of Siri, but also push audio to the Sonos Ones that I have throughout the house as well, and listen to that all with my voice using Siri, which is pretty cool.

[34:21] And so what you can do with the Sonos Play Ones, if you’re like, hey, you know, I do want to upgrade to this new speaker that Sonos released that’s a competitor to the HomePods themselves, at least that’s what a lot of tech people are saying, is Sonos offers a trade-in program.
So you can take your older Sonos devices and trade them in for about 20 to 30% of the value.
So it’s not a lot, but it gives you a little bit of money and it puts newer devices in your home and allows you to, to responsibly send those other devices and get them disposed of and save you a little bit of money.
That could be a solution. A lot of times what I will do is I re-home electronics.
I have an audio mixer here that I am advertising at a very low cost to someone on Facebook because I know that there’s people out there who need this $500 mixer, but they might only have $150 and it’s literally just sitting behind me doing nothing.
So that’s another solution as well.
And then of course you can reach out if it’s something that has batteries, obviously I do recommend reaching out to your local waste management facilities and ask if they have any recycling programs for batteries and other electronics.

[35:31] Yeah, okay, but now what about my home pods? Mm-hmm, Kikos.
Is that what I’m… Yeah. Well, you know, any electronics that you have, you can always, you know, hand me down to a family member or possibly a good friend.
And you can also check with, you know, other organizations that may not have funds to buy all that stuff.
So a donation to a nonprofit that’s using it towards helping people in whatever way that you may support, we might love to have a couple of donations to use with whatever they’re doing.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Apparently, on one of my HomePods, I have it sitting on an end table and I must have spilled coffee at some point or other.
There’s a little bit of a coffee stain on the bottom of it and I’m trying to figure I don’t think people are going to mind too much about a small coffee stain or something like that on them.
Oh, probably not.
Yeah. But the other thing about the home pods though is won’t they also eventually become obsolete?
The older ones, because now they’ve got the new big ones out and.

[36:40] Well, here’s the thing is yes. In terms of the software, it may not be running the current version of the software.
So it’s not going to be running the current version of the software.
Because yes, in terms of the software, it may not be running the current same software that’s on the new ones, but you can still connect them and use them to play music, which is going to be far better than what majority of people probably have or can afford in their home.
So they might just love them just for the fact of being able to play great sounding music on them.

[37:12] Yeah, yeah. Because I’ve been wondering, but you know, this is the really sneaky thing about having everything be connected by your phone or whatever, or the home app, because they do become obsolete.
Back in the day when you could play your records on your stereo, this is aging me, I know, you could keep your speakers and stuff for as long as they would play for you.
I’m having a hard time adjusting to this culture of…
After four or five years having to upgrade to whole new speakers when the ones I have are working perfectly fine,
Back to GPS

[37:55] but I want to be able to do the latest and greatest stuff.
Well, there’s technology for you in a nutshell. Thank you very much.
Who do we have next, Trish?
I can definitely relate to that though, Desi. So we do have three hands.
Before we move on to Beth, is there anyone in Clubhouse?
There is not.
Okay, Beth, go ahead and unmute that.

[38:20] Yeah, I know you were talking about, or somebody was talking about GPS.
Is that blind square or whatever? Is that in iOS or is that just in Android?
You can see I tried Soundscape a long time ago, and it didn’t seem to work really good.
Like it wouldn’t say this is on your left, or do you have to program it to work like if you want.
I want to get to say to like an apartment in my complex and I’m not sure where it is.

[38:53] Okay, to answer your first question, it’s definitely on iOS. So you can get it in the app store. I don’t have an Android device, so I’m not sure if it’s on Android or not, not, but I’m sure you could easily look it up. Yeah. You can just ask Michael and he’ll tell you.

[39:08] Yeah. The other thing is, you could go into the settings and you could adjust it to whatever your needs are.
If you’re in a new place, you can have it giving you lots of information all around you so you can get familiar.
And once you’re familiar with the area, you can tame it down and not have it giving you so much information.
I will say that if you are trying to navigate and you’re trying to get from point A to point B, you may want to tame it down a little bit because otherwise it can be a little overwhelming that it’s throwing everything at you while you’re trying to navigate to somewhere.
So if you’re just cruising around and you’re just trying to identify yourself, it’s great.
Shokz QUick Tip Multi Point Pairing

[39:55] But if you’re trying to actually navigate from point A to point B, you might want to tame it down because it can be overwhelming otherwise. Yeah, yeah, I have iOS. I just thought that, you know, there’s certain apps in Android that there’s not in iOS. So it’s called Blind Square. I had that name right, correct? Correct. Okay. Okay, thanks. Yep, no problem. Good luck. Okay, next we have Jewel. Go ahead. Welcome back, Jewel. Yeah.

[40:25] I just had a quick tip for everybody that I found out recently.
If you have Aftershock headphones, they can connect to more than one device.
So when I switched to the iPhone 12, I decided to keep my SE because it is busted on the back and it has a bad battery so it’s, you know, no trade-in value.
So I’m keeping it as an iPod touch. However, I tried switching my headphones over to it and found that it will connect to both.

[40:57] So I’m keeping the old phone as an iPod Touch basically as a dedicated book player because it has 128 gigs of storage and the new one only has 64 gigs. So it’s going to be all my books and stuff.
So you can connect to more than one device. You’ll want to connect the one that is you’re going to want to use like Siri and phone calls and stuff for second because that way when you hit the side button on the headphones, it will connect to the second device.
But then you can use the first device to listen to things and just pause it from the device.

[41:36] So just that I mentioned that. And if you need assistance with doing that with your aftershocks headphones specifically, because the procedure can vary dependent on the model itself, feel free to reach out to either shocks or the individuals who you purchase them from, or look up the Aftershocks manuals, several of which are available at atdais.com.
And that is great. I do, I forget about that because I just use it with my Shox quite regularly.
So what I do is I have my iPhone, well, I have the blind shell connected to my Shox headphones, and then I have my iPhone connected, and then it will not play audio from both devices at once, but it will switch between devices, and it is almost like magic.
Iphone 12

[42:21] Yeah, it’s really cool. And you don’t even notice it.
Yeah. Thank you, Joel. Appreciate it.
I’ll mention that the steps that I mentioned are for the open move.
So I’m not sure what would be for other models.

[42:34] Yeah, they’re very similar, but button placements can can alter.
So appreciate you sharing that with us. And thank you, Joel.
And we do have someone in Clubhouse now. All right. Let’s jump over to Clubhouse real quick.

[42:46] All right, Cindy, you’re up. Hello. Hello, how’s it going? Good, how are you?
Good, good. Um, okay. I have a iPhone 12 question.

[42:57] My iPhone 12, when I’m like typing or calling somebody, the voice is real slow.
How do I change that? Because I tried to go into settings and stuff.

[43:11] And I couldn’t figure it out.
You have to go to settings, accessibility, voiceover, And then there’s going to be a voiceover speed.
Shuting Down WIndows

[43:21] Down there and you flick up or down or you can slide it to adjust how fast or slow you want voiceover to speak.
Okay. So one more time, it’s settings, accessibility, voiceover, voiceover speed. Okay.
Thanks. Yep, no problem. Thank you. Hey, next we have Doc. Go ahead, Doc.
Hey, Doc, how’s it going? It’s going pretty good, but I understood you had a different way to shut down Windows.
Yes, sir.
So instead of going well, it depends. How do you currently shut Windows down?
I do Windows M followed by old F4 and then enter on shut down.
Beautiful. Okay.
The other way that I was mentioning to people is if you hold the Windows key and you tap X like X-Ray, anywhere inside of Windows OS, this will pop up a menu and going towards the bottom of the menu, I believe it’s the second option from the bottom, is a sub menu that says sign out or shut down.

[44:31] And if you choose that sub menu, then you can sign out, shut down, restart your computer, put it to sleep, whatever you want. And then of course, because it’s a menu, you can get familiar with the quick nav keys to be able to quickly type the letter to take you to sign out or shut down and then open that menu and then choose the option you want on that menu screen. Okay, so you can go right straight to Windows X-Ray. Yes sir, hold Windows key down and tap the X like X-Ray. Okay, yeah because what I was having to do sometimes in the other way it would not shut down certain programs.

[45:12] And then what I was, you know, it would say pause, canceled to go back and save your work and stuff?
Mm-hmm.
And then what I do is to hit Windows and start typing Task Manager.
But then the list got, like for Outlook, for example, is one that famously wouldn’t close completely. It would be so far down the list, it was very laborious to try to find it that way.
So did you try hitting Shift-Tab by chance when you got that screen that told you that the apps were preventing you from shutting Windows down and there should have been a shut down anyway button and press enter on that.
And that should skip. Oh yeah, sure.
Okay. Yeah, I know I had to bypass that, but Windows help desk suggested doing the task manager.
Question About BlindSquare

[46:09] And actually closing whatever program was not functioning properly.
Gotcha. And I appreciate that. So yeah, give that a try. Try Windows key X, go down to sign out and see if that- I’m gonna try that.
Perfect. And in the last 10 minutes we have here, do we have any other hands in Clubhouse? Darcy, thank you.
It doesn’t look like it. Nope, not right now.
Alrighty, what about Zoom, Trish?
All right, we have two hands. Chanel, go ahead. And you’re right, we’re almost at the 10 minute mark.
So I was just wondering again, I’ve heard you talk about BlindSquare And I thought that only told you what’s around.
Does it also give you point by point directions?
I mean, turn by turn or whatever, sorry, using wrong terminology.
As far as I know, it does, used to anyway, unless they’ve changed it.
It has a lot of functionality.
All of the features of being able to tell you what’s around you was kind of a secondary feature too, that it also will navigate you around.

[47:11] There was a lot of controversy in the beginning because people got annoyed with how much information it would throw at you and they didn’t realize that you could turn things on and off.
Yeah, I kind of got frustrated with that too.
And I turned, yeah, so I, and I thought it, okay. Anyway, it’s been like a year since I’ve used it.
Yeah, it’s been years since I’ve used it also. And so who knows how much it’s changed since I’ve used it last.
This is Joel. The BlindSquare app itself does not do turn by turn.
However, if you have a P.O.I., you can send it to another app from there,
Thermostat inquiry

[47:46] like Apple Maps, Google Maps or Open Maps Outdoor.
So and then they’ll do it simultaneously. Oh, good to know.
So so Blind Square doesn’t actually have the navigation directions, but you can send the direct or you can send the point of interest, which will then give you the turn by turn directions with Blind Square running at the same time.
Perfect. Thank thank you for clarifying that, Joel. Appreciate it.
Trish, who do we have next?
Marie, go ahead. Hi Marie!

[48:18] Okay, I have a question this time. My beloved VIP talking thermostat recently bit the dust, and I’m using one now.
It has a digital display, but it also has buttons. And I’m using it fairly well, but occasionally I have to call Be My Eyes and say, okay, what’s the setting?
Because I have it too high or too low.

[48:40] Of all the ones that are controlled with the apps, like the Alexa ones and the Nest thermostats.

[48:50] Are there any of them that if your wifi goes out, is there any way that you can control them manually or directly from an app, maybe through cellular on your phone?
Only if it would connect over data.
So what that means is a lot of times when you’re not home, so say like you’re traveling to visit a family member, and you want to log onto your thermostat from their house and set it so that by the time you get home it’ll be the temperature you want it to be. If the thermostat has that capability, you could turn off your Wi-Fi and see if you could log into the thermostat over cellular data.
Okay. I really don’t like being dependent on having a Wi-Fi device without some kind of manual or or are different.
Like on the Nest, it used to have a manual control on it where you would rotate it right or left to do the adjustments and then push the button.
But I don’t know about all the other ones. A lot of them are flat now and some of them have buttons, some of them are touchscreen. They’re all a little bit different.
So you’re gonna have to just kind of check and do your research.
I mean, another thing too, is you can call your power company.
A lot of times they have grants where they’re giving them away for free they come install it for you.
So you might want to see what they have for those options. Then you wouldn’t even have to pay for it.
If there’s one that’s compatible with your needs.

[50:16] But I’ve heard the power companies a lot of times, they can then program those devices on their own without your control.
They’re trying to get you to save power. And I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just heard that. It could be just a rumor.
Just a quick back to the Sonos speakers. I have a house full of Sonos speakers and I have a Play 5 and two Play 1s.
No, four Play 1s that are probably 10 years old. They still work fine. There’s no reason.
There’s no reason they may be obsolete, but that doesn’t stop them from working.
And I have a Sonos One that is three or four years old and it works with the new software, it works with the new assistant, everything.

[50:55] So I wouldn’t be concerned. I love my Sonos speakers. Yeah.
I mean, if you like the Sonos speakers like you, I’m really fond of Sonos ecosystem.
As I said, you can upgrade your older speakers to get those newer ones, which will then play with the HomePods.
For example, if I tell Siri right now to play what’s currently playing here on my desk in the living room, it’ll play it on the Sonos that are in the living room because they’re all tied together with AirPlay.
So yeah, Sonos is great. And I’ll tell you, if you send us an email to feedback at unmute.show, and if someone listening to the podcast has some ideas, we can help facilitate sharing that information along with you about accessible thermostats.
I’ve heard great things about the EcoBees, but I’ve never asked if they have buttons or knobs.
So if you listening have any ideas, then we’d be glad to share that information along and you can send an email to feedback at unmute.show as well.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys very much. You’re welcome.
No problem. I have an idea. Okay. Hey, this is Ann. Hi Ann.
My thermostat, it just so happened that my company had it. I didn’t even know, but I really liked my thermostat because every time I switch from 78 to 80, and then 80 to 82, or whatever, the way it’s made, it just clicks.
And so when I click.

[52:20] And then at the top of it, you can feel little indentions. So then I know when I click it to this particular indention, it’s on 80, or I click it back to this other indention, it’s on 70, and that’s just five clicks. So I don’t know what kind it is, but.

[52:43] If you can look around for, if you don’t want everything talking to you, you. Um, you know, um, that that’s just clicks.
It’s not talking to me. It just clicks when I turn it.
That is the statement of the day that I really appreciate. And I can’t express to you how much, if you don’t want everything talking to you, that is why I’m learning how to use a Braille display right now. So I agree. Sometimes it’s annoying when you have things talking all over the place.
Yes. Yes, it is. Well, thank you for that suggestion, Anne, and definitely appreciate everyone.
Marty, it looks like we are coming up on the top, so I will let you wrap things up.
All righty, well, thanks everyone for coming. We wanna remind you that two weeks from today on April 18th, we’re gonna be having a special event, which is gonna be Script Talk.
So if you’re interested in hearing all about how you can get your medication bottles to be read out loud to you, then come check that out. It’ll be a good one.
Also, if you want to get ahold of us, feedback at unmute.show is our email address and questions, comments, or anything else. You can reach us there.
Everybody have a great week and we will see you.

[53:56] Okay, go. So real quick, going back to this windows X shutdown thing.
So does that shut down the computer differently than shutting it down from the desktop? No, no. Okay.
It’s just an alternative way to get there. The Windows X menu has some other options in it as well, but it’s a similar process.
It’s actually closer to going to the start menu, pressing up and then going over to shut down.
OK, one of the things I will mention real quick, too, if you are wearing USB headphones when shutting down your computer, most of the time, another indicator you will get is it will make clicking sounds like it’s turning off.
So that’s another indicator to know if your computer has shut down properly.
So just throw that out there as well. It’s quick. And I have one quick question, if I may.
If you use the Windows X, will it shut down all the programs that are open?
Or is it still the same process if you were to use the Alt F4?
Yeah, it’s still the same process. It’s just a different way of getting to the same menu.
Okay, thank you.
Yep, no problem. And appreciate everyone joining us. We’ll be back next Tuesday.
Again, feedback at unmute.show. And we look forward to having Script Talk on the 18th.
Have a beautiful day.
You.

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In this episode of Unmute Presents, hosts Marty and Michael discuss a new feature called voice isolation, which can help you get better audio quality by blocking out background noise while on a phone call. Michael demonstrates how to enable this feature on iOS 16.4 and provides a step-by-step guide to activate voice isolation. He also shares some useful tips on how to re-enable this feature on every phone call. Tune in to this informative episode to learn how to master voice isolation and get crystal clear audio quality during your phone calls. Don’t forget to share your feedback at feedback@unmute.show and visit acb.community for more information about their weekly live show every Tuesday at 10am Pacific Time (1pm Eastern).

Transcript

Marty:
[0:05] Hey all, Marty and Michael here. Today we’re going to show you voice isolation.
This is a new feature that was released in this previous update that just came out a couple of days ago.
And what it is, is if you have a lot of noise around you and you need to really get better audio out of your microphone, this will block out the sounds around you such as outdoor sounds like if a fire engine goes by or if there’s a lot of traffic anything like that.
So Michael is going to show you how to enable this and Michael take it away.

Michael:
[0:44] Full transparency initially I was going to bring my phone into the recording but well I kind of lost my adapter so I’m going to walk you through the process of enabling voice isolation on iOS 16.4 while on a phone call.
Out by making a phone call. So what we’ll do is we’ll start by telling Siri to call someone real quick.
Call 458-666-3342. Calling plus one 458-666-3342.
This will now call a number and the phone is on like I’m making a phone call to someone. Now if I take the phone away from my head, you’ll be switched over to speaker.

[1:29] So what I need you to do is find the time in the top left corner of your screen.
Three finger flick up and you’ll hear that you’re in your control center.
If you explore the screen you’ll see something that says Video Effects towards the top of the screen. If you slide your finger to the right it’ll say Off.

[1:47] Continuing your finger to the right will say Selected Phone.
And if you slide your finger or flick to the right again you’ll hear Standard.
If you double tap on Standard this says Selected Standard button.
And then you can flick to the right and there’s an option that says voice isolation button. Double tap on voice isolation button and this will then be selected.
Wide spectrum, as of the time of recording, is not available on actual phone calls. So, though it shows, you can’t actually enable it.
Do a scrub gesture. This is two fingers sliding fluidly from the right back to the left and then to the right again.
Or use your single finger and swipe up from the bottom to do a home gesture.
Press your home button if you have an SE and this will take you back to your control center. Do this again to get back to the in-call screen and now people can hear you a lot more clearly on their phone.
Quick note, it appears that you do have to re-enable this every phone call that you want to use it on. We hope you found today’s demonstration to be helpful.
If so, please Please feel free to share your feedback at feedback at unmute.show.
Remember every Tuesday at 10am Pacific Time, that’s 1pm Eastern, Unmute Presents is live. Visit acb.community for more information.

[3:15] Thanks to Andre Louis Shorts Collection for the music used throughout this podcast and zap splat sounds for the sound effect used as the transition.

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Transcript

[0:07] Hey there and welcome to another Thursday episode on the Unmute Presents podcast.
Michael here, and I’m joined by a commonly heard voice around, well, around my voice and around the unmute parts.
This is Demasi and today we’re talking about two-factor authentication, second factor authentication, or 2FA.
And Demasi, have you heard people call it something else aside from that, that people might want to keep their ear out for and listen up on?

[0:37] Yeah, sometimes you may hear it referred to as well as a multi-factor authentication, which in some places those terms actually do mean different things, but it’s sort of like, you know, Googling has become a generalized term for searching the internet.
People often use all of those terms that you mentioned as well as multi-factor to mean the process of putting in a username, putting in a password, and then having something that you are, uh, that you either have or that you’re given at the moment of needing it to act as a second factor or a, uh, extra additional layer to your logins on the internet.

[1:16] And people hopefully have a form of this on their bank accounts at minimum bank accounts and email addresses. I would say, is there any other minimum things you would say? Of course, ideally anything that, that offers it, but what at minimum would you say people have it on?
My bank forces me to have it and my email forces me to have it.

[1:36] Yeah, so I and I would start with those two actually like anything that touches any kind of money any kind of financials where if someone was able to access that maliciously, it will cause you serious pain.
You want that on so any financial institution and as Michael said my bank forces me to have it on.
And there’s also extra safeguards in place with most banking you know applications and websites where if you’re logging in from from an unknown location like there’s gonna be some extra hoops you have to jump through which is good it can be annoying when you’re in a rush but it’s good because they’re protecting you it’s not just like oh we’re gonna let you sign in for South Dakota even though we’ve never seen you anywhere in that part of the country before.
We don’t want that to happen. Other places, right.

[2:25] Email of course and the reason you want it on your email account is simply because that is kind of the key to everything else.
If people are able to access your email, they can easily one just by perusing your inbox and deleted an archive folder depending on which email service you’re actually using.
They’ll be able to see prior emails from services that you use, which just gives them a direct connection like, oh you’re a Dropbox user, okay.
So now I’m gonna go to Dropbox.com, I’m gonna put in your email address and say I forgot my password and because I’m in your email, well look I can get in.
So that’s another reason to have email set up.
I would say any accounts also that allow for direct drawing, so it’s not directly a financial institution, but anything that can directly draw from your financials.
So think your iTunes account, for example, right?
You don’t really have a whole lot of authentic. I mean, you do, but once you’ve set things up to your liking for your convenience, you know, just run up a tab in the Apple store or the app store.
So, you know, you want that to be protected things like, you know, I’m trying to think of other services.

[3:39] You’re a better seller for that.

[3:40] Your play store, your, yeah. You know, your internet account bill.
Because again, you know, or cable bill, cable account, because again, those things can easily cost you money because you have payment information stored on file. And there are things people could potentially want that they will make you pay for. So, you know, if you ever…
Internet provider or cable provider that you use and somebody wants to watch that big fight coming up or the next You know Wrestlemania or whatever like, you know, they’ll just charge it to you or watch it and you know now you got a Extra $57 charge you weren’t looking for or I mean you can even charge an Apple TV because they’re pushing their app so you that is a concern that people have an all-in-all of your a lot of your Um, cable providers are also enforcing a form of two FAA and not calling it that.

[4:32] So what we talk about today may sound familiar. And if it’s something you’re familiar with, hopefully some of the knowledge will help you be informed so you can explore additional options in more secure ways.
And I’ve seen this happen to mossy with spectrum, sending me a text message to my phone number that’s registered with the account.
And then saying, we can’t make any changes until you give us that code.
Now I called spectrum. So I knew who I was calling. I verified my pin number, which is our security pin that we have. But in order for me to make another change, I have to give them that code that they text to the number.
That would be a form of two FAA, right?

[5:10] Yep. It is in a sense, because you still can’t do an action without that, you know, external piece of information, right?
Like it’s not just, Hey, what do you know? like give me your birthday and then we’ll let you do whatever you want to.
It’s like, no, we’re going to send this. And if you don’t have access to that phone in order to give them the code and you don’t have that, which means nothing’s going to happen. So that is a form of that.
I see this oftentimes, too. sometimes we’re just logging into services that don’t directly offer.
2FA, but however they are providing a form of 2FA, I just didn’t have an opportunity to set it up and choose what method I would like to choose.
You know, I log in, I put in an email, and I put in a password, and then they’re like, oh, you know, you’re logging in from a different device.
Here’s, you know, we just emailed or texted a code to your number on file, and you need to enter that.
So those are all things that you will generally see, and oftentimes companies are trying to make that process of two-factor or or multi-factor, that’s really where you’re getting kind of to the actual meaning of multi-factor authentication because we’re making you verify in several different ways that you are the person that should be able to access this account and do whatever, you know, changes, upgrades, et cetera, that you wanna do inside of that account.
I wanna go back one second, because one place that you really should probably have two-factor on your account, and they’re kind of enforcing it on a low-level way, I’ve seen with a lot of people, is Amazon.

[6:34] Because again, once your payment information is in Amazon, if someone gains access to your account, they’re buying whatever they want to buy.
Like Amazon does not ask you to authenticate yourself a second time.
Like go into Amazon and purchase something.
The minimum they’re going to ask me for may be to log in again if I’m on the website.
If I’m in a mobile app that I’ve managed to add to my Amazon account, or as a malicious person I’ve managed to gain access to Michael’s Amazon account through an app, they’re never gonna ask me again for a password or anything like that unless Michael goes and changes it.
So therefore now I’m just buying stuff with Michael’s card. I can add a new address to have it shipped where I want it to.
So Amazon for sure. And what I have seen with Amazon, again, this is a form of multi-factor authentication for you where you have to put in your username and password, but before you can continue on into your account, they’re either sending a code to your phone, or now what they’re doing a lot with people is just sending a link that you have to click that verifies like you got this and you also approve this.
And they’re giving you information as to where the log in occurred, the type of device, et cetera.

[7:43] So those are all things that.
A good company that either one, if you want to look at it from an altruistic standpoint, they really care about their customers and their safety.
Or if you’re more cynical, like I am, you’re going to look at it from the standpoint, they’re cutting down on customer service, support requests, and, you know, having to having to replace a whole bunch of money that somebody maliciously, you know, basically stole from someone by forcing you to have to go through a few extra hoops, especially when signing in from an unknown device.

[8:12] So you mentioned something when we were talking about multi-factor authentication and how if you had a choice, you may pick, you may have picked something different, but you were in a hurry. So you just got a text message to verify that you were who you were.
What type of choices does someone have?

[8:28] What choices does someone have? So, generally speaking, the most broadly found options out there are going to be SMS messages where you’re going to give them a phone number and they’re going to send you a text with a code that you have to enter.
This also can be done in some places I’ve seen where you can use an email address, so they’ll just email you the second factor code and you have to type it in.
Bye. Thank you for watching. And I’ll see you in the next video.
Next, I would say, would be in a more secure, would be an app of some sort, a 2FA code generator.

[9:04] And that takes the form of probably the most widely known of these at this point is Google Authenticator, where you scan a QR code.
And basically what’s happening on the backend, on a very high level is your phone that scans, the QR code contains a secret that your phone stores.
It basically is matching up the time on your phone with the time of the server.
And that way, because these codes change every 30 seconds, in most cases, some I’ve seen do 60, but usually it’s 30 seconds so that they match up.
And they’re called time based. Wow. One time.
These were the call time based authentication is really what it is.
So you want the server time in your phone’s time to be matched up because your phone will generate a code that says 1 2 3 4 5 6 and the computer on the other end that you’re authenticating to the server that the website is on or that the app is you know connected to also needs to be to verify that code and they’re using some cryptography in the background to kind of generate what should the code be at this you know during this 30-second interval.

[10:11] Generally although it’s not widely spoken about you usually have about 35 seconds for those codes so if you catch it say at the three seconds when you see it and there’s three seconds left in that 30 second cycle most systems will honor the code you know a few seconds over because obviously you got to look at it and then type it in right and it would be horrible if we just get caught in this weird loop where you can’t get the code in because you keep timing out so most cases you will have a couple of seconds over that 30 seconds but thereafter that is not gonna matter if you punch it in or not because it’s no good to you and no good to the server because it’s not calculating anymore.

[10:52] That is more secure than text messages for a couple of reasons.
It does not make you bulletproof. Let’s be clear, nothing about two-factor is bulletproof.
There are several situations here recently where companies have been breached due to social engineering practices and people have been tricked into typing in, say, their six-digit code that was generated by an app.
So it’s not bulletproof. You still have to be aware of what you’re doing.
But it is more secure because, one, it’s on a device that you have versus a text message, which if someone is able to hijack your SIM, most of us honestly probably are not targeted for that, but the easier those things become, the more likely it becomes more widespread.
So let’s say if you happen to breach a cell phone carrier, for example, and you’re able to access customer records, well, why not do a little SIM swapping while you’re in there? I mean, you’re already in there, right?
Might as well have some fun.
But generally speaking in the security industry, time-based one-time codes are considered to be more secure than text messages because text messages are just sent in the clear.
Like there’s no encryption on them. There’s no nothing. So they can be, there are different ways people can impersonate you or insert themselves in the middle of that conversation and be able to grab a code via a text message.
Email, I think, would be a bit more secure because most times the connections between your email client and this server and the mail server are going to be encrypted.

[12:21] But time based one time passwords tend to be more secure. And again, Google Authenticator is an app for that.
Authy is a pretty decent app for that. I’ve not personally used it, but I know a lot of people that have and they liked it. And it offers the ability as well to sync across devices, which can make life a little bit more convenient.
Their security seems to be fairly well, you know, fairly pretty good as well. I hope so.

[12:45] That’s dangerous. Bye.

[12:49] Microsoft Authenticator is also another option that a lot of people have used, especially if you’re in the Windows world.
Not being a full-time Windows user, I’ve never used that as well myself, but hear good things about it from people in the security space.
So, you know, I tend to trust their opinion because they’re managing other people’s security.
Also, a lot of the password managers, I can’t say all of them because there are a lot of them out there that I’ve never even heard of, But for example, one password and bitboard and both offer the ability to store one time passcodes in your vaults alongside the items that you’re using to log in with.
And there’s a bit of a, you know, it’s a personal perception situation.
I do have some of my I have a lot of my two factor codes stored right alongside the login item in one password because it makes filling those in easier.
I’m still going through the steps. The security level is still there protecting my account, but it just makes it a bit more convenient for me.

[13:50] However, my Gmail or Workspace account two-factor code is not in one password.
I keep that out in a whole separate app.
Similarly for say my bank, or at least a business bank I use, because they allow me to do this.
I don’t have those codes stored there as well. The next level up I would say for this would be YubiKeys, or I say YubiKeys and what I really mean, YubiKeys have kind of become the Google of security keys because everybody just refers to them as YubiKeys.
There are other brands out there that exist, but security keys are the next level up in security.
And what makes these a little bit better than the other two options is, one, you have to have this device in your hand so it lowers the opportunity, the risk of phishing, because even if, let’s say someone gets you to go to, PayPal with two Ys, P-A-Y-Y-P-A-L.com, and you have two-factor setup with PayPal, but it’s just a six-digit code.
If everything looks okay to you and you don’t check that URL, you could give the attackers all the information they need, your username, your password, and your two-factor code at the moment for them to turn around and immediately use it to log into PayPal, right?
This could happen. It has happened to people, not with PayPal necessarily, but it has happened.
Whereas with a security key, if you were to go to payypal.com.

[15:14] And let’s say you put in your username and your password and now it’s asking for the security key because that’s what they see on their end, it’s not going to work because the security key that you have connected to PayPal, they’ve exchanged a cryptographic secret that’s only held on your device and held on PayPal’s server like you know you have a secret key that signs a thing PayPal has a key that signs a thing and the only way to decrypt it is to have the the opposing private key so it’s not gonna work simply because the security’s gonna be like well I don’t recognize you don’t have a site stored for you don’t have a entry stored on your key for this site so it instantly red flags if nothing else has thrown anything up now security keys are not the most easiest thing to deal with Not every site that offers two-factor even offers it as an option.
And, you know, they can be a little expensive to buy into because recommendation, including my recommendation, is if you’re going to go down that path is using security keys, have a minimum two.
Because and I’ll tell you a good reason why there is the, I have one on my key ring, Michael has one on his key ring.
And you lose your keys or you can’t find your keys. Or as Michael did one day, you know, you hand your wife your keys because it has the Jeep key on and she drives off and then he’s like, oh crap I can’t get into my stuff.

[16:30] One day?

[16:31] My YubiKey’s on my key ring. Where’s the one day I knew about it where it’s like oh, oh my, no.
But another reason is, so one of the security keys that I have had, and I’m gonna say it was the second one I actually bought. The first one I bought, I bought a $25 YubiKey.

[16:50] Works quite well, has NFC and USB-A. I bought a second one as a backup, and when I switched computers, just to give you a little bit of background.
So I switched computers. I have a Mac Mini that’s now running as a home server.
I have a laptop now, a MacBook Air.
So I stuck the YubiKey because this computer never leaves my house.
And it was one of the small nano keys that’s meant to stay in a USB port.
This one happened to be USB-A.
They also make USB-C versions of this. You do not want to put these in a computer that moves.
Right, this Mac Mini does not move. It’s not leaving my house.
And if someone breaks into my house and has physical access to the Mac Mini, I promise you I got a lot bigger problems than that they’re gonna look at this weird USB thing and be like, oh, I guess I can log in as this guy now.
They’re like, oh, I got a new Mac Mini.
But I had this key out for some reason one day, I think I had been moving the computer around or something. I dropped it and it cracked.
So that key is no longer working.
If I only had one key, I would be locked out of a lot of things at the moment.
So you always want to have at least two now my recommendation if you want to go down to YubiKey or the security key path I do purchase YubiKey.
I keep saying YubiKey They are not the only brand that exists But they are the one that I am most familiar with because they are what I have owned All right, they they are what I do own.

[18:09] You’ll see good Tyson, which is a similar thing if you’re looking for something That’s not YubiKey So actually the Google Titan Google Titans keys were available.

[18:18] I don’t think Google is actually selling those anymore There was a hardware vulnerability discovered in their keys that they were selling.
This is about four years ago. So if you see Google Titan security keys anywhere, and they’re not being sold direct from Google because they may fix it and bring them back, I don’t know. But as of what I know right now, they’re not for sale by Google. Don’t buy them. Don’t ever buy a used key.
Do just don’t do it. Buy them brand new.

[18:47] YubiKey does have keys that are 25 bucks and they have a and these are the Yubikey security series is what I believe they are called.
But you can very easily determine whether they’re the right key or not, because they will have either USB-A or USB-C as the connector for plugging into a device, and they will also have NFC in them.
Those are good. I have one of those is one of the first ones.
That’s actually the first one I bought, because I was like, I don’t know about a security key thing. I’m not going to spend 50 bucks on them.
And then I don’t like it. Or is it accessible or does it work?
Like, how do I use this thing? I got a touch a disc. Where’s the disc?
I don’t know any of this stuff So here’s the thing. They basically look like little very very thin flash drives And there’s a little circular indentation.
That is where you put your finger when you plug it into a computer or tap it on the back of your phone For NFC to authenticate and it says touch the disc on your thing.
So they are very usable. There’s no screen there there are nothing like the What were commonly referred to as like the footballs back in the day where you would have a little token on your keyring that?
Generated the code on the device and you will have to look at it Like I was terrified at one point when I was getting a job.
Dealing with IT that they were going to give me one of those things and I wasn’t going to be able to sign into anything because I couldn’t see the code on the thing because nobody made a talking one.
Not sure you would have wanted that anyway, blaring out your code.
Your code is 123456. It’s like, oh, we just own that guy.

[20:14] But security keys are a reasonable solution if you want to go there again, I really suggest buying two.

[20:22] Now, just for anybody that is really interested in them, you don’t have to go out immediately and buy two.
Because most services, and I’m thinking Google, Dropbox, many other services, GitHub, if you happen to use GitHub.

[20:36] But a lot of services will allow you to add a key, and I’ll take this from the Google standpoint, because just about everybody has a Google account of some sort.
You can add a key and still have other means of providing two-factor, right? You have to actually go through some Herculean steps to force Google to only allow the use of security keys on your account.
So even though I have a security key, two security keys on my Google account, I can’t always fall back to a six digit code with the app that I have that code saved in.
Or if I had my phone number in there, I can have them send me a text message.
I don’t have that turned on.
So you can start with a single key to see if this is something, a part of your life that you want to start to, you know, implement tighter security if a security key is going to be the way you want to go. You can’t buy one.
Spend 25 bucks and try it out with something like Google or Dropbox or any service that doesn’t quickly restrict you to only using security keys.
Now, there are some systems where once you put a security key in, you’re done. Like there’s no more fallback failover solutions like your security key is going to get you in or you ain’t getting in.
So if anybody’s interested, you can definitely try that. There are a couple of middle tier.

[21:53] I’ll say middle tier. I kind of feel like they sort of fall in between the two-factor apps with the code generators and a YubiKey or a security key, excuse me. I keep saying YubiKey.
A security key. Those are systems sort of like Duo is one that comes to mind for me as well as Microsoft Authenticator has this capability as well.
You’ll see this with Google if you have a Google app installed on your mobile device and you sign in from an unknown browser or something, it will send a push notification to your device where you just approve it.
It says we’ve detected you’re trying to log in near and it’ll give you a location and sometimes a browser type and all of that device that you’re signing in from and then there’s a yes or no button or approve or deny button depending on the application.
That is still multi-factor authentication or second factor authentication because you still had to put in the username and password to get there.
Those are definitely more convenient.

[22:49] Again, sort of like security keys, not every service is going to support that, however.
And even the ones that do tend to use their own applications for this.
So you’re not really going to have that integration with push across the board for a lot of your services unless you’re working in an enterprise or you set this up in your own small business or something like that.
Because, yes, Microsoft Authenticator will send you a push for your Microsoft account. Google’s gonna want to use their app to send you a push for their service.
EBay wants you to use the eBay app to get a push for their service and so on and so forth, right?
That kind of reduces the convenience especially if you’re like me where I don’t have Microsoft Authenticator installed anywhere. I barely have any Microsoft apps installed at all. So no pushes from them.
Security keys are what I use for my Microsoft account.
So those are the kind of the different, you know, methods of two-factor authentication.
And there’s some others that, you know, are more stringers that really aren’t common, but the most common ones are going to be get a text, get a code via text message or link.
You know, also usually sometimes you will have the option to use email as opposed to a text message.

[24:00] A one-time code or general six-digit code authenticator, such as the Authy app or Google Authenticator or you know adding it to your password manager.
And then security keys are going to be the primary ways and the primary choices that you’re mostly going to see. Security keys less so than the other two options.
Text messages and authenticator apps are the most common ways.
If you have an option go with the authenticator app. Some services only give you text messages. Take the text messages. You may hear people say oh it’s so insecure and is, you know, there are a lot of gotchas in that situation.
One, you have to be targeted enough for people to really go through the effort to try to SIM jack you. Hasn’t happened to me yet.
Highly unlikely that it ever will, unless doing this on mute show really makes me famous and people can have more money than I actually have.
You know, they’ll be sadly disappointed if they get into anything, but hey.

[24:58] But any kind of security is better than none. Locking your door is better than not locking your door. Think about it that way.
Also, use what you’re comfortable with is the main piece of advice I give people.
If you’re most comfortable with a text message because you know you’re never going to possibly lose your phone, you’re always better to recover, hey, do that.
If you’re going to do an authenticator app, investigate options for backing up that data or storing that data in a secure location to recover.
Times with the security, with the apps, with the authenticators, you’re gonna get you know anywhere between 5 to 20 recovery codes from the service that you’re setting that up with.
Save those somewhere secure, password manager, encrypted disk, print them out and stash them in a safe.
Do something because those are your backups to get you in if you you know drop your phone in the lake and now you don’t have your authenticator app but you still need to log into Google so that you can initiate the process to recover your phone. Right. You know, you want to be able to do that.

[26:02] I’m glad you brought up the security codes because I was going to mention that.
Um, and so if you get that opportunity, definitely download those, save them and explore what multifactor authentication works best for you to mostly before we wrap it up today with our very interesting show, and I say that in twofold, how the editing comes out and all the content is, um, do you have anything else you want to share?

[26:31] I don’t just generally, you know, set up two factor wherever you can, whenever you can make use of it. Because here’s the thing, if nothing else, you know, you can’t be held responsible for what a company decides to do with their data and how they handle it.
You know, you can do all of the right things, have a great, super strong password and all of those things.
And if somebody gets breached and is able to, you know, if they’re storing your password and securely on their server, that’s not your fault.
There’s nothing you could have done about that. and in most cases we have no way of knowing it until they get breached.
But if two factor is in place for you, at least it offers another layer of protection for your online account in case your password is ever leaked in any sort of breach.
And it makes you less, you know, you’re not as low hanging a fruit as those who don’t have it on.
So, you know, lock your door. It’s like you go out in public, you lock your car doors because people walk by and they just yank on car door handles. If a door opens, they’re in there. If a door doesn’t open, they tend to keep walking.

[27:33] Stay secure. And we will check in with Demasi next year and see if that statement about not having a lot of Microsoft apps is still accurate, uh, give him a year with parallels and maybe he’ll start using them.
Check out Technically Working for more information on that. Unmute is live on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. Pacific time. That’s 1 p.m. Eastern Sundays.
We bring you something to teach you. And then Thursdays we go in depth with people like Demasi. Thanks for joining us, Demasi.
And how can people reach out to you if they’re interested?

[28:11] You can check me out at bedrockinnovations.com slash contact.
If you are on Mastodon, Uh, do me a favor and just go to, uh, demasi.yourownpay.com, and that’ll get you to my masternown location. Uh, if you mentioned me on Twitter, I still will get a notification. So, uh, I may reply.

[28:33] Thanks for joining and thanks for listening.

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Introduction:
•
Marty shows how to share an article from Safari using VoiceOver
Steps to Share an Article:
•
Open an article in Safari
•
Go to the bottom toolbar
•
Locate the Share icon in the center
•
Do a single finger double tap to open the share sheet
•
Choose from different ways to share the article from Safari
•
Options include texting or emailing the article, saving it in notes, or in a read it later app
•
Other options include copying, printing, and more
•
Peruse the share sheet and enjoy exploring the different options
Conclusion:
•
Following these simple steps will allow you to easily share articles from Safari using VoiceOver

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Show Description
On this episode of the iACast, Michael talks with Taylor Arndt, and Jeff Bishop about the following topics.

News* Be My Eyes adds virtual Volunteer with GPT 4 features to interpret images. * Optima modular Braille laptop from Orbit * Magna Magnifier from Orbit Research * Aira Explorer App replaces Aira Legacy * Google Glass 2 enterprise discontinued. * WayAround 4.2 released witht new translations and Android bug fixes.

Picks* Jeff: Ninite Pro * Taylor: iPad Air for note-taking * Michael: Star Trek Picard Season 3 episode 5

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[0:01] If you’d like to set up a list of favorites for ACB media, these directions should help you while using the Blindshell Classic 2.Press and hold your back button. 7.45 PM.
We’ll press down. Call. One of seven. I want option number four, so I’ll tap that.
Applications. Four of seven. Press OK.
Internet browser. of eight and I’m looking for media that’s option number four media four of, eight will press ok camera one of six and then option number four internet radio four of six press ok popular stations one of five and you can check these different categories out but what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go down to search search hit ok search that sound means I can type so I’m gonna write a by pressing the number two once.
Capital A.
Wait for that click. So I’ll write C, which is the number two, three times.
If you press the down button, you can get it to click sooner.
So that way you can press B, which is the number two twice.
Press okay. After you hear that last click.
Loading.

[1:18] ACB mainstream. One of 14. Now there are 14 streams for some reason, multiple ACB media of some of the channels are showing up. So here’s the process I use.
Because the favorites works in a last in first out model, I have to add the favorites backwards.
For example, if I add ACB media 10 now, it’ll be at the bottom of the favorites list, and then I add ACB media nine through ACB media one, if you want ACB media streams to be the top of your favorites, then you will need to consider what order to put your favorites in.
Note though, putting your favorites in order won’t be changed at all.
You may just have to go down to get to the first ACB media option.
So I’m going to go ahead and put these together by finding ACB media 10.
ACB media 10 convention information, which at the time of this recording is option number three.
I’ll press okay. That’s going to start the playback of the audio playing ACB Media 10 convention information told you three of 14.

[2:34] You want to hear some audio from the stream because it might take a couple of seconds You want to make sure that you’re favoriting a stream that would be something that is working. So we’ll press OK The media stops and you hear save to favorites.
Press OK.
Playing ACB media 10 convention information. Three of 14.
The phone then repeats the name of the channel and it tells you that it’s playing.
So after 10, I want to put nine.
I’m going to go ahead and jump to ACB media nine. Playing ACB media nine live to 14 of 14.
And within this application, I know that ACB media nine is option zero.
In the Internet Radio application, you can press 1 through 0 to jump to the search result and start playing that after you’ve started playback.
And now all of the favorites have been saved in the proper order.

[3:34] Music.

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Damashe:
[0:04] How’s it going everybody? This is Demasi Thomas. Based off of a recent conversation on, as of the time of recording at least, a recent episode of the Unmute show that me andMichael Babcock recorded, go check that out at Unmute.show, including to get the episode to hear more about the situation that this tip here is going to help mitigate.
Now before I get into showing this screen time tip here, I do want to mention that since recording that original episode of Unmute with Michael, it has come out that there is a potentialworkaround to putting this in place.
However, I’m gonna continue and record this tip anyway for a couple of reasons.
Number one, I said I was gonna do it. And Mike’s depending on me to record it so that he has some content, all right?
Number two, I do expect that Apple will probably close off that workaround if that is being put in place by someone intentionally. So we’re going to get into it here. I’m going to unlockmy iPhone.

Voiceover:
[1:07] 220 APM. Settings. Search.

Damashe:
[1:10] Search field. I’m already in Settings. So I’m going to go to Screen Time.

Voiceover:
[1:13] General. Button. Screen Time. Button. Settings.

Damashe:
[1:17] And also feel free to make use of this tip for managing any other screen time stuff and putting it behind the passcode.
I have some experience with this simply by managing my kids’ iPads and restricting some of their activities and setting down time. Now what we’re gonna do, I’m gonna quickly navigatethrough here.

Voiceover:
[1:37] Words, headings, family, heading.

Damashe:
[1:38] There’s the family section and I’m gonna scroll past that and I want to find.

Voiceover:
[1:45] Use screen time passcode.

Damashe:
[1:47] Use screen time passcode. Now this is for my device because I didn’t tap into one of my family members devices. I’m gonna double tap on use screen time passcode.

Voiceover:
[1:56] Passcode, zero of four values entered.

Damashe:
[1:57] And I’m gonna enter my passcode. Yes, yes, I know you’re hearing my passcode.
Trust me, it will be changed.

Voiceover:
[2:02] Five, two. So we’re going to enter. enter.
Passcode zero four values entered.

Damashe:
[2:10] I’m going to re-enter that passcode again. This is just a four digit pin.

Voiceover:
[2:14] One, one, five, two, one, eight.
Text field is editing. Screen time passcode recovery. Heading.
If you forget the screen time passcode, you can use your Apple ID to reset it.
Apple ID. Text field is editing. Email. Character mode. Forgot Apple ID or password.

Damashe:
[2:29] Button. Now I’m going to choose to skip this particular option.
Because the idea here is that I want to make sure that no one will be able to recover this passcode from me.
Let’s see if they offer me an option.

Voiceover:
[2:48] Don’t let me skip, let’s tap OK.

Damashe:
[2:51] Okay, so hitting OK didn’t work, let’s hit cancel. Alright, yes I’m sure.

Voiceover:
[2:58] Apple ID gives you a secure way to reset the screen time passcode if you forget it. Skip. Button. And I want to skip. Passcode. Four values entered.

Damashe:
[3:04] So hitting cancel there is what allowed me to not put in that recovery step.
Now, this is where the temporary workaround that I think Apple will patch will come up.
People have said, and it’s been reported I have not yet tried this, but however, people are saying that even if you take the step that I just did that says I don’t want to use recovery, skip thatstep, it still gives you the option.
So be mindful of that, but I do feel that that is probably an unintended behavior that Apple will fix.
So now I have my Screen Time Passcode set. I’m going to go to the settings.
And we want to go to Content and Privacy Restrictions. I’m going to double tap there.
Now I have a profile in place that already has preset some of these options here.
So I will show you where you need to go. I’m going to scroll all the way to the bottom.

Voiceover:
[3:58] Background activities. Allow.
TV provider. Driving focus. Reduce loud sounds. Cellular data changes.
Passcode changes. Allow. Demd. Button. Account changes. Allow. Demd.

Damashe:
[4:06] Button. Now this is currently demmed out because of a profile that I have installed.
But this is what you will want to activate in order to protect this is you want to use your screen time passcode to prevent account changes.
Right now what this does just so you’re aware is it’s gonna dim out a lot of things for you that you’re gonna have to go to screen time and unlock using your passcode before you can saygo change your Apple ID information or anything like that.
But that is a way to mitigate against someone’s taking your phone having learned your passcode steal your phone because this will be a malicious activity.
Activity and then using your phone’s passcode to reset your Apple ID password thereby locking you out of your Apple account, So that is the tip that I shared in the Unmute episode withMichael.
That is how you do it. Unfortunately, I can’t take you all the way through the process because I already have this particular feature locked down using a profile on my device. Maybe I’ll doa video on that one.

[5:08] But there you go. Just to repeat those steps, you’re going to go on the screen time. First, you’re going to scroll to the bottom and select choose use screen time passcode.
Use a good four digit code that you don’t share with anyone.
Mine just happened to be my month and day of my birthday, but I’m gonna change that as soon as I start recording.
For my cases, I did not want to use my Apple ID to recover my screen time passcode, so I hit cancel and I hit skip again.
Right now there is a workaround that is allowing, still allows that password recovery or that PIN code recovery to happen via your Apple ID, even though you’ve said that you don’t wantthat.
That is what I expect Apple to patch up and tighten that up.
There’s probably unintended consequences.
From there, then you’re gonna go to content and privacy restrictions and scroll all the way down to the bottom. And I started at the bottom and worked my way up backwards. So flickingleft if you’re flicking.
After you get to the bottom of that screen and you want to toggle account changes to on so that it’s protected by your screen time passcode.
Hopefully this tip is helpful and we’ll catch you next time.
Be sure to check out the Unmute Show at Unmute.Show.

[6:22] Or tune in live on Tuesdays on the ACB Community Call at 1 p.m.
Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific, or just visit acb.community.

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In this episode, Michael and Damashe share tips on how to protect your personal data while socializing. They start by discussing how to protect your phone from being accessed by strangers, such as by using screen curtains and setting up a screen time passcode. Damashe emphasizes the importance of not handing your phone to anyone and instead relying on others in your group to take pictures if necessary.
They also discuss the benefits of using screen time to prevent unwanted account changes, and how to set up a separate passcode for screen time. Damashe shares his experience using screen time to secure his kids’ iPad and notes that this added layer of security can also be applied to iPhones.
Finally, they discuss the importance of using a strong passcode to unlock your phone, and how to make it more complex by using alphanumeric passcodes. Damashe shares his own experience of using T9 input to create a word-based passcode. They remind listeners to keep their passcodes for screen time and phone pin different for added security.
Overall, this episode provides useful tips on how to protect your personal data while socializing and enjoying your time with friends and family.

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Notes:
In this brief announcement episode, Marty informs listeners that there will be no live Tech Talk call today. He emphasizes that this is just a reminder and encourages listeners to check out previous episodes, such as Lucy’s discussion on A-Ladies and the quick tip on scrolling with voiceover.
Marty also mentions the upcoming episode with Michael and Damasi, where they will be discussing safety and security. However, the main purpose of this episode is to let listeners know that there will not be a live call today.
Listeners who were looking forward to the live call will appreciate this timely and clear announcement from Marty. Tune in to this episode for a brief update on the Tech Talk schedule.

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Show DescriptionOn this episode of the iACast, Michael talks with Michael Babcock, Marty Sobo, and Debbie Hazelton about the following topics.

News* Bing AI gives incorrect information or gives outrageous answers * Netflix looks at rausing prices for users that share passwords. * We discuss what can happen if you are reported on Mastodon

AdThe iACast Network Live Stream

TopicTechnology is expensive, and so it is important to research technology before spending your money on it. This episode goes over some techniques for making informed choices when buying a technology based device.

Picks* Michael: Servant on Apple TV+ * Marty: iOS Access for All by Shelly Brisbin * Debbie: OKO by Ayes on the App Store Neck pouch – Guide Lights and Gadgets * Michael: Star Trek Picard Season 3

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In this episode, Michael Doise and Marty Sobo talk about the different homePods

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Description: In this episode, Marty provides a quick tip for Mac users who rely on VoiceOver to navigate their computers. He demonstrates how to use the Caps Lock key to make interacting with web pages and apps easier and less cumbersome than the traditional method of using CTRL and OPTION.
Key Points:

To navigate with VoiceOver, use the VO keys (Option and Control) and the space bar to activate apps or other items.
To interact with something, use CTRL OPTION SHIFT and the up or down arrow.
Using this method can be difficult and like playing Twister with your fingers.
An easier way to interact is to use the Caps Lock key instead of CTRL and OPTION.
To navigate, hold down the Caps Lock key and use your arrows.
To interact, hold down the Caps Lock key and the Shift key and use the up or down arrow.
This method is much simpler and less cumbersome than the traditional method.

Additional Notes: This episode is a useful resource for Mac users who rely on VoiceOver to navigate their computers. The tips provided by Marty can help users streamline their interactions with apps and web pages, and make their computing experience more efficient and enjoyable.

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Show DescriptionOn this episode, Michael speaks to Marty, Debbie, and Michael about the following topics.

Twitter removes access to their api for free users.
Google and Microsoft implement their own GPT AI solutions as The New Bing and BARD

AdCheck out Debbie’s podcast, This Time Around.

TopicThis week we discuss whether theblind community should purchase mainstream devices, or look at new assistive technology solutions. Devices that are mentioned include:

Victor Reader Stream 3rd generation,
BlindSHell Classic 2
Ruby by Freedom Scientific
Compact 10 by Optelec
iPhone
iPad

Picks* Marty Peak Designs Tech Pouch * Michael Babcock: Vocaster 2 * Debbie Mantis Q40 and Zoom Podtrak P4 * Michael Doise: All New HomePod

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Unmute Presents – Picking The Perfect Mac- Understanding The Pros And Cons Of Each Model

The Your Own Pay Podcast Network
Unmute Presents

Transcript

Marty S:
[0:06] Hey all, Marty here and I am with Michael Deust today. Say hello, Michael.

Michael D:
[0:11] Hi everyone, it’s great to be here.

Marty S:
[0:13] So today we’re going to be talking about state of the Macs.
We’ve been getting a lot of questions from people about, I want to get a new Mac. What Mac should I get? What’s the difference in this Mac?
What’s the difference in that Mac?
So Michael and I are going to help guide you through all of the the different Macs that are available.
So Michael, which one do you want to start with?

Michael D:
[0:37] Well, I think we should start at the bottom as far as pricing goes and work our way up. What do you think?

Marty S:
[0:45] That sounds great. So with that being said, it sounds like we’re going to start out with the Mac minis.

Michael D:
[0:50] Yes. So we just got new Mac minis this year.
We talk all about those on different podcasts already, but it’s pretty incredible.
They start out with the M2 and at $599.
And I think that’s one of the cheaper Mac minis we’ve seen in a while, don’t you think Marty?

Marty S:
[1:11] Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s definitely the biggest bang for your buck, I would say for the power that you get right out of the box.
So a lot of questions that I’ve been getting is, for example, if I get the Mac mini, the base model, what will that do for me?
So do you wanna talk about what it comes with and kind of where you’re at at the 599 price point? If you start out with a Mac mini by the way, it’s gonna be 599 for the base model with no upgrades. And then Michael, you wanna take it away from there?

Michael D:
[1:44] Sure, so the base model, it’s 599. You get the M2 chip, which means it’s gonna be very fast. You’re gonna get a lot of specs.
You’re for sure gonna get eight gigs of RAM.
And the only one piece of information, I’m not sure. I think it’s 256 gigs of hard drive.

Marty S:
[2:02] Yeah, the base model comes with 256 SSD.

Michael D:
[2:06] But it only comes with one. So if you’re looking for faster speeds, you may not want to go for the base model. So what that means is on the higher models, they have two chips for the SSD.
And so like if you get 512, it’s two 256 gig chips.
And I know that sounds technical, but just think more expensive, faster read and write speeds to the hard drive.
So you can think of it as remembering things faster or processing data faster from your storage. Correct.

Marty S:
[2:39] Now, let me preface this by saying really quickly, if you’re someone who is going to be doing day-to-day tasks like browsing the web, email, listening to music, even maybe if you’re going to do some audio recording or editing your photo stuff like that.
You know, the base model is still going to be super fast.
I mean, it’s going to do everything you want to do and more.
So just because it has slower read write speeds on the hard drive, that just means that if you’re doing higher end things, you may see the slowdown there.
But if you’re doing day to day stuff, it’s going to be plenty powerful for you.

Michael D:
[3:19] Well, even think of it like this, and a lot of people don’t think about this.
I know a lot of our audience will not be doing this activity, but copying images off or onto a flash drive or between folders on your computer or things like that.
Those images nowadays can get pretty big, so those are things to consider.
But again, most people won’t notice this.
And one thing to keep in mind, you can, there are some programs or apps that you can get in the store that will work on that are on iOS that will work on the Mac.
So if there are iOS apps or games that you like that work on iOS, they will run on this machine at that price point, which, you know, when you put it like this, it’s kind of interesting that a $599 Mac mini is cheaper than some iPhones.

Marty S:
[4:11] I know that’s crazy. Actually, it’s cheaper than most iPhones.
I think the SE comes in around $500, I think.
So that’s the cheapest phone. I mean, what is it?

Michael D:
[4:23] I think the SE is around 430 to 450. Okay.

Marty S:
[4:25] But even then, look, you’re getting a brand new Mac computer.
I mean, if you were to buy, you know, any of the higher end iPhones, you’re spending almost double that, you know?

Michael D:
[4:38] Right. Right.

Marty S:
[4:40] So also I want to say that this is the absolute base model with absolutely no upgrades whatsoever.
So you can go in and you can upgrade the hard drive and you could upgrade the RAM. The RAM can go up to 16 gigs and then you can update the hard drive.
I believe on this model you can go to two terabytes now.

Michael D:
[4:59] Is that correct? Yes. And then there’s the option for the M2 Pro Mac Mini, which brings it to a whole new level.
Basically, we’ll talk about this Mac in a bit, but it’s almost to the level of the Mac Studio, which is really impressive in a Mac mini case.
It also does, these can get up to really good Wi-Fi speeds, good Bluetooth, and they’ll have HDMI support.
If you want to hook it up to a TV on the M2 Pro models, you can do that and it’s going to look great with the HDMI 2.1, so it’s gonna be work extremely well.

Marty S:
[5:41] Also on the chip, the higher end chip, I believe you can go higher on the RAM, is that correct? Or are you still at 64 gigs? 64 gigs, right.
So, and then I believe you can add more hard drive space. I wanna say up to eight terabytes.

Michael D:
[5:55] Yes, and actually we were wrong. It’s 24 gigs of RAM on the M2.

Marty S:
[6:00] Okay, 24, okay, gotcha. So you can go the jump. If you get the Pro processor, you’re going able to go up from 16 to 24 gigs of RAM, correct?

Michael D:
[6:13] No, if on the base model, you can go from 8 to 24 on the M2, and on the M2 Pro, you can go from 8 all the way up to 64. Okay, gotcha.

Marty S:
[6:23] Cool. And then hard drives, you can go, what’s the upgrade specs on the hard drives?

Michael D:
[6:29] On the M2 Pro models, you could go up to 8 terabytes. Awesome, there you go.

Marty S:
[6:33] That’s a lot of hard drive space.

Michael D:
[6:35] Wow. Yes, it is. And a lot of money.

Marty S:
[6:37] Yeah, that probably cost a ton, I bet. Okay, awesome. And who do you think this machine would be good for? Who would be using this machine?

Michael D:
[6:44] The M2 Pro machine, if you want to use it for a server, or if you want to use it for music editing, or for doing production work, this for base amounts, this will be great.
Some developer work, you could do that on here. you can do some basic, you know, you could play some games if you want to do that.
So this is more of a higher-end machine. Now keep in mind, you know, you’re not going to see any UI stuttering on any of these machines, so don’t worry about that. You know, that’s all going to work.
It’s just in what, how fast it’s going to be able to do tasks.
That’s where we’re at in computing now, folks, and I think that’s amazing.
So you’re going to lower in development, lower in games, music production, and.

[7:38] Video editing can be done on this machine.

Marty S:
[7:41] Yeah, and one thing to note as well, which a lot of people don’t realize, on the higher-end machine with the upgraded chip, you also get two extra Thunderbolt ports.
So that allows you to have four instead of two, which is on the lower models.
And for those who aren’t sure what that is, Thunderbolt is similar to USB-C, except that it’s faster data transfer transfer speeds and it also carries data, video and power.
So for example, if you’ve got a display like the studio display, which Apple has, which has everything built into it, basically you plug that into Thunderbolt and you’re good to go.
It’s going to carry video power, data, the whole nine yards.
So it’s really convenient for that.

Michael D:
[8:28] And you could tell it’s a Thunderbolt cable cause it’s a very thick cable.
So it’s very interesting.

Marty S:
[8:34] Yeah, definitely. Okay, so next case.

Michael D:
[8:39] So I think we should move on to now the laptops.

Marty S:
[8:43] All right, so then if we start at the low end of the laptops, we’d be going to the MacBook Air. And I believe there’s actually two models of the MacBook Air, correct?

Michael D:
[8:52] You know, I think, yes, there are. They still have the M1 and now the M2 MacBook Airs.

[9:00] The M1 model is, I think they only have one version of that, and it’s $100 less, so it’s right at $1,000.
The M2 MacBook Air is right at $1,100.
But i’m going to be honest with you and say this do not just don’t go with the m1 it’s not worth the m2 air is a beautiful.
Beautiful machine. It is newly redesigned. The M1 Air still uses the older wedge shape design.
The M2 is a very nice design. It’s the new, it’s more boxy, but it’s flat all the way through. So it’s built like the newer, new MacBook Pros.

Marty S:
[9:44] Yeah, the design language is just the same. It’s, if you look at it, it’s kind of like a small version of the MacBook Pros.

Michael D:
[9:49] But there’s no, unlike the MacBook pros. There’s no vents, there’s no anything.
Now one thing to note on this is the speaker quality is noticeably different.
Some say it’s terrible. I think it’s decent for what you get.
I do think it’s less of a quality than the MacBook Air of 2020 than the M1 MacBook Air.
But you know, they had to make a compromise somewhere. And with that design, it the speakers are in the hinge, which is kind of interesting.

Marty S:
[10:21] Now something to think about right here, I will say, you know, you get this machine and the compromise, maybe you don’t get as good of sound out of it, but the portability you get it’s super lightweight.
It’s easy to throw in a bag. It’s easy to take with you. It’s got a great battery life.
And when you’re at home, even or on the go, you can use any headset earbuds.
So you can do plug in headset and use, you know, full size cans.
You can use any headset you want to use there. It has a headphone jack, 3.5 inch millimeter, and it has Bluetooth as well.

Michael D:
[10:56] Yep.

Marty S:
[10:56] And on the Bluetooth, you can use AirPods or any other Bluetooth earbuds you choose to use. And if you’re at home, you can Bluetooth to nice speakers and get a good sound that way.

Michael D:
[11:08] Now something that a lot of people do not realize about the MacBook Air.
And this kind of blows people away when you hear this.
It’s thinner than an iPad in the Magic Keyboard case and cheaper.
Think about that. It’s you know, the iPad is supposed to be a tablet.
It’s thin and you put it in a keyboard case and it should be light and thin. But it’s not.
The iPad Pro in that keyboard case is thicker and heavier than the MacBook Air, which can do a lot more.

Marty S:
[11:38] Right. So on the MacBook Air, it comes in a 13 inch display.
That’s the only size it comes in.
It starts out just like the Mac mini. You got a 256 gig hard drive on the base and you’ve got eight gigs of RAM on the base. And both of those are upgradable.
16 gigs of RAM is the max on those. And I think two terabytes is the max on the hard drive on those.

Michael D:
[12:06] That’s 24 gigs of RAM is the highest.

Marty S:
[12:08] Okay, 24 gigs. 24 gigs, there you go.

Michael D:
[12:10] Okay. Now one thing that’s interesting about this that you might wanna take note of, if you’re doing professional work, it will do great. It will do great.
But after about 10 to 15 minutes, it will slow down. And the reason is there’s no fan.
There’s no cooling system fan built in.
So you’re just using the processor so it will throttle if it gets too hot.
So that means it just slows it down to keep it from burning up.

Marty S:
[12:40] And do you want to talk about what port? We did talk about the headphone jack already, so I believe there’s also two USB-C ports.

Michael D:
[12:47] Two USB-C ports, the Thunderbolt ports, actually. Right. And it also has one MagSafe port. And that’s different from the MagSafe from the phones.
And it’s very, they call it MagSafe 3. And it’s a kind of a.
Blast from the past if you used older MacBooks.
So it’s MagSafe is the magnetic charger that attaches you can charge it through USB-C and I highly recommend I have a MacBook Air and I absolutely love it.
I highly recommend you get it with the 35 watt charger You can get a 60 watt that’ll charge it much faster, but the 35 watt has you plug it into the wall and it has two thunderbolt ports on it.
So you could plug your computer into that with the MagSafe cable and your phone.
So technically you have three ways to charge something with that one with your computer and the adapter so that’s pretty cool.

Marty S:
[13:46] Yeah and the thing to note about this which is really great is that MagSafe adapter for powering is great because then it leaves both of your USB-C ports open for other devices.
If you’re doing audio and you need to plug in an interface or any other kind of thing that you would need to do external hard drives or anything like that, you still have two available ports to you for now that they’ve added that Mac safe adapter, which is not how it used to be on the M one.
I believe you just have the two USB-Cs and one of those you have to use for charging.
So that’s really something to think about keeping the back of your mind, which is a really nice upgrade. It’s actually a pretty big deal for people who are doing a lot of production work and stuff like that.

Michael D:
[14:30] Now one thing before we move on, I do want to say this about Mac laptops.
Mac laptops are some of the only computers that will give you the same performance plugged in or not plugged in. And I think that’s kind of a big deal.

Marty S:
[14:43] Definitely. All right. And that would be the 13 inch MacBook So moving on, where do you want to go next?

Michael D:
[14:53] So let’s go ahead and go to the next tier up, which is not the pro lines yet, but let’s talk about the let’s go to the back to desktops because this is kind of the mid range, right? Let’s talk about the IMAX.
And the iMac is a very nice sleek design.
It’s a 24-inch machine, and it’s running an M1 processor, and not the Pro or the Mac’s, just an M1.
So basically, you’ve got a fan-cooled M1 in the form of a desktop. And…

Marty S:
[15:31] So for those people who don’t understand or are new to kind of the Mac world, I just want to say that the iMac is a computer that’s been around a really long time and it’s an all-in-one.
So what that means is you have your display.
In this case the display on the M1 is 24 inches and then you have basically the mouse and the keyboard and then the ports and everything around the back.
So that’s it. It’s kind of like the screen the mouse and the keyboard and everything’s inside the screen.
So So it is a desktop, but there is no tower or anything like that.
So it’s all inside the screen.

Michael D:
[16:10] It’s basically an iPad on a stand. That’s really what it looks like.

Marty S:
[16:14] Yeah, pretty much. That’s true.

Michael D:
[16:16] I mean, the design is exactly an iPad on a stand without a screen.

Marty S:
[16:22] So who do you think this would be for?

Michael D:
[16:24] The iMac is for casual computing users that want a family computer that anybody could just sit down at and browse the web and check email.
It can do a lot of the things that you can do some audio editing.
You could do some low level development work and some gaming.
But again, this is an M1. It’s still going to be a great computer, but it’s an M1. It’s not a pro, it’s not a max. You’re not going to be able to get that awesome computing power out of it. So I would definitely.
Only get that if you want a computer for like the family. And, to be honest, you could probably get the Mac Mini, which is an M2 now for $599 by a keyboard and mouse and get your own monitor and come out cheaper.

Marty S:
[17:12] And you can get your choice of a monitor and, you know, you can get a larger monitor or a smaller monitor.
You have kind of whatever choice of monitor you’d want to get.
And you also have the option of getting something like a super high end monitor that plugs in Thunderbolt and possibly has a hub built in and speakers and all that stuff.
Or you can just get a super basic, you know, HDMI monitor that will just do the job. So that’s kind of the gotcha about the iMac is it is what it is.
You know, you can’t really change anything.

Michael D:
[17:43] And you can’t upgrade it. The old iMacs, you could upgrade them.
You cannot upgrade this one.
So my kind of, my view on the iMac right now is if you want an iMac wait, we’re gonna get more, I’m sure this year.
But I would wait definitely on an iMac.

Marty S:
[18:02] Yeah, I’d probably agree on that. All right, well, so we’re talking about desktops.
Do you wanna go to the studio next, which is an interesting situation right there?

Michael D:
[18:12] Yeah, let’s go on to the studio and then we’ll go back to laptops again.
The studio is, the Mac Studio is a, you could think of it as two Mac Mini stacked on top of each other. Take off the stand and take off the bottom part and just lay them together and you’ve got a Mac Studio.
They do that so they could put a lot of metal for cooling for the higher end processors. So on those again.
I’m recommending waiting because you get an M1 Max or an M1 Ultra.
The M1 Ultra is a great chip. It’s basically two M1 Max chips which is, you know, they’re all in one chip.
It can do a lot. I think it can still only go up to eight terabytes from what I remember, but it can go up to, I think 128 gigs of RAM. I think that’s the case.

Marty S:
[19:14] Maybe not only on the highest end one, I believe on the on the on the on. Yeah. On the lower.
I believe it’s 64 gigs before. That’s correct. Yeah. Also, because you get so much more space in the tower. Basically, they’re doubling the height of the Mac Mini is what you can compare it to.
They put ports in the back and the front, which is kind of cool because I always thought it was kind of weird that they put all the ports all the way in the back of the Mac Mini, it would be so much more convenient to have ports in the front so you can just plug something right in right away if you need to instead of having to reach around the back and do all that.

Michael D:
[19:50] Now there’s a, the one thing is we don’t wanna cause any confusion here because the M1 Mac’s version of that Mac Studio, those ports are USB-C.
The M1 Ultra version of that, those front ports are Thunderbolt from what I remember reading.

Marty S:
[20:06] I believe that’s correct.

Michael D:
[20:07] So, yes, it does have more ports and I do not believe it has the USB-A ports like the Mac Mini does.
The Mac Mini is built to be used with a lot of different hardware, whereas the Mac Studio is, you know, USB-C, Thunderbolt focused.

Marty S:
[20:26] Well, this is built kind of more for higher end work. Yes.
So, people who are doing higher end are going to want as many ports at the highest level, which means fastest data transfers and all that kind of good stuff.
So people aren’t going to be buying USB type things, they’re going to be buying Thunderbolt or USB-C things.
So data transfer for hard drives, for video, whatever you’re doing is going to be much faster at a higher level.

Michael D:
[20:54] And you’re going to use probably a Bluetooth keyboard and all those kind of things. So So all those things are, you know, the M1 Max, M1 Ultra, they’re great chips, they’re gonna run well. I’m using an M1 Max 16 inch computer.
So that M1 Max is great. And because it has better cooling, you’re gonna get even better cooling support than you do on a laptop.
So the Pro machines will throttle, but we’ll talk about that in a little bit.
I still recommend waiting if you need something good like this.
I think we’re gonna see another Mac Pro this year.

Marty S:
[21:28] Everyone’s waiting to see actually what’s going to be with the higher end computers.

Michael D:
[21:31] Mm-hmm. We’re hoping for a Mac Pro, but that would complete Apple’s transition.
They said there would be a two-year transition to Apple Silicon, but there’s still one Mac left that’s Intel and that’s the Mac Pro.
Which I don’t recommend anybody getting.

Marty S:
[21:46] Correct. It’s ridiculously expensive for outdated technology at this point.
But with that being said, should we go back to the laptops?

Michael D:
[21:55] Yes. So let’s go to the…

Marty S:
[21:58] Why don’t we get the elephant out of the way and talk about the 13-inch MacBook Pro?

Michael D:
[22:02] Yeah, I was about to say the computer that should not be the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
And I guess if some people really like that form factor, that’s great.
But you know if you buy a MacBook Air with an M2 chip, you know, you’re it’s it’s a MacBook Pro with an M2 Not a pro just an M2 So I don’t really understand why that’s needed right with the old case I believe it even still has a touch bar.

Marty S:
[22:34] It does still have a touch bar I kind of look at this computer is similar to you know an iPhone SE They have the same design language as an iPhone 8, but it has new technology inside.
So even though it’s old on the outside, it’s got new updated technology on the inside, which basically means it has the M2 processor.
So this machine is good for somebody who wants to get into, I guess, you know, a MacBook Pro at a low level.
You still get the touch bar, but they didn’t change any of the design at all.
It’s identical to what those models were when they came out originally.
So you’re still only getting, I believe, two USB C ports, I want to say. No Max.

Michael D:
[23:21] That’s correct. That’s correct.

Marty S:
[23:24] And you get the touch bar 13 inch screen.
And there you go.

Michael D:
[23:29] I’m not really sure It would be a good workhorse machine day-to-day tasks things like that The only advantage it has the two advantages it has over the air is this one It has a fan so it won’t throttle down after 20 minutes Number two is it has better speakers it has the Two speakers on each side so if those things are very important, then that’s a good machine to look at Yeah, now here’s something to think about.

Marty S:
[23:58] You know, Michael just was talking about fan, no fan.
Now, the thing about this is that if you’re somebody who is on a budget, but you’re doing some pro stuff, like for example, you’re doing rendering and you need to export files and things like that, and your computer is going to be at a high level of processing power for a period of time, every time you’re doing some kind of a big export or a big render or something like that, you might want to really consider this computer over the 13 inch MacBook Air because the 13 inch MacBook Air without the fan is gonna start choking when it gets really hot where the 13 inch MacBook Pro with the touch bar is gonna have a fan that’s gonna kick on and keep that machine running at that max level without starting to choke.
I mean, that could be a big deal for some people.
If you need a machine to do that kind of task and you’re on a budget, that’s something to definitely think about.

Michael D:
[24:58] Well, I’m just gonna be very honest and say that that is an option.
However, looking at statistics, it’s not a terribly big difference.
If you’ve got tasks that are taking longer than 20 minutes to render, then you’re probably not on the right machine anyway. Does that make sense?
You know, I can render a one hour 1080p video on that error and it takes about five to ten minutes.
So if you’re doing 4K and you’re doing all that kind of stuff, then you probably should have.
Yeah, because you’re looking at time is money at that aspect, right?
Because if you’re kind of doing that for a job as a living or trying to become a creator, you need that better hardware.
And after about 20 minutes, that’s when the MacBook Air starts to really slow down.
And it’s going to still do a good job even while slow. It’ll do better than any Intel Mac would.
But also, once you start configuring that 13-inch MacBook Pro and you get it to the specs that you need, 16 gigs of RAM and you get your 1 terabyte, 2 terabytes of hard drive, then you’re already starting to look pretty close to the next computer we want to talk about, and that’s the 14-inch MacBook Pro territory.

Marty S:
[26:21] Yeah, so 14 inch Mac, MacBook Pro, they were designed, redesigned to these computers about a year and a half ago, I want to say, when they originally came out with the, let’s see, it was the M, they started out with the M1 Pro and Max, I believe is what they were called.
The base model, this is still the same configuration at 512 on the hard drive to start with, and I believe it’s 16 gigs of RAM to start with.
And they introduced a whole new redesign to this.
It’s got way more ports on it. It’s got a higher resolution display.
It has larger screens where before you started out at 13. Now you’re starting at a 14 inch display.
It does have that camera bump up in the top center of the display.
You get a high notch. You get a higher end camera there.
So the design is really, it’s really nice.
It’s not as lightweight as what they used to be, but you’re gaining back all of the ports, which is what everybody really was asking for, especially at that pro level. They would rather have all the ports on board so that you don’t have to worry about carrying around a dongle or anything like that.
So you can basically pick up your machine and your charger and go and be ready to go wherever you’re at. this past keynote.

[27:49] They announced these same machines, but they upped them to the M2 chip.
So you want to talk about that, Michael?

Michael D:
[27:58] So I’ve got several things to say about these. The 14 and 16 inch both have the same screen.
And what’s of note here on the screen is that they are iPad Pro level screens.
They’re using the Pro Display XDR technology, which means they’re using…
What’s that?
Basically, you get the full blacks, but you get like… It just turns on the lights for certain zones.
So if you’re watching a movie, you get the full black color where it’s dark and the full white colors where it’s white.
And you do see, they call it blooming around the areas, but that’s for low vision, that’s negligible.
It’s still an amazing screen. And there’s even a program called Vivid that makes the screens even better on those machines. I absolutely love these computers.
So you have the good screens. You’ve got the, you basically have two HomePods, one on each side of your keyboard. The speakers are that good.

Marty S:
[29:08] Yeah, speakers sound incredible on these machines.

Michael D:
[29:10] Incredible speakers. You’ve got three Thunderbolt ports.
You’ve got a MagSafe port, just like on the MacBook Air. And you’ve got the high impedance headphone jack. So you get really good quality audio from those.
And you get an SD card slot and an HDMI connector.
So you could hook it up to a TV. And this one even has 2.1 on the new Macs. So.
There’s Wi-Fi 6E on these new machines. There’s Bluetooth 5.3, and they can be configured up to 8 terabytes of space and 96 gigs of RAM on the M2 Max, which is better than the M1 Max.
So, these are fantastic computers.

[29:59] And, you know, I love my studio display, and I use it all the time.
But sometimes, like if I use a computer for a long time, though that sharper 16-inch display is so much better than the 27-inch regular LCD display that the studio display is using, and it’s just fantastic.
I don’t even really notice the camera notch anymore.
It blends in, you get used to it. The track pads on a Mac are still top notch.
I’ve still yet to find a Windows computer that has as good of a trackpad as a Mac.
The keyboard is finally back to being amazing. The battery life, I think it’s 21, 22 hours for watching video from what I remember for the M1 Mac or M2 Mac’s computer.
So it’s pretty fantastic what these machines can do.

[30:58] And the power you get in these machines, you’ll not see anywhere else.
And they do my developer workflow. I can have several simulators and Android emulators going, virtual machines going.
And I’m only running 32 gigs of RAM, which is on more than any other computers have had. So that’s pretty fantastic.

Marty S:
[31:18] Yep. So these machines come in 14 and 16 inch displays.
And other than that, they’re the same.
You can get the specs the same. They come the same. Everything on these machines start and end the same way. The only difference is the size of display 14 or 16. And they’re excellent machines. I mean, they’re workhorses.
You know, they’re really awesome. So if you’re looking for a super high-end machine that can do it all, you know, you want to pick up one of these machines.

Michael D:
[31:52] The only thing I would recommend is if you’re getting a 14-inch stick with the M2 Pro.
And that’s because the M2 Max needs a little bit more of a heating area, a way to dissipate heat, and you don’t get that as much in the 14-inch machine.
So the rule of thumb is typically if you want the Pro, go 14-inch.
If you want the max go 16 inch, just for the amount of heat that the 16 inch, I mean the M1 and M2 max will put off. So just depends on what you buy.

Marty S:
[32:25] All right, well.
That is the Mac lineup as of today.
So it’s a good primer. If you guys have any questions, thoughts, still are unsure what you should get, you can always email us at feedback at unmute dot show and we can try and answer any questions you still may have.
Hopefully this will help. I want to say thank you very much to Michael for being here and helping us get through all of the Mac lineup. So thank you, Michael.

Michael D:
[32:57] Sure thing, anytime.

Marty S:
[32:58] And you want to tell people where they can find you and what you do?

Michael D:
[33:01] Sure. So I’m the host of the iACast podcast, which is part of our great network we’ve built with the wonderful folks here at Unmute Presents.
So you can find me on the iACast and all over the place. And I’m Mike Doeys on Twitter. And just look for me on Mastodon and other places. So I’m always around.
You can email me at mike.dois.icloud.com if you have any questions.

Marty S:
[33:27] Awesome. Well, thanks a lot, Michael. And thanks, everyone. and we’ll see you next time.

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DescriptionIn this episode, Michael unboxes the 2023 HomePod with Michael, Debbie, and Jason.

Transcription[0:00] Music.

[0:16] And welcome to another unboxing on the IACast network. All right, we’ve got a few folks with us today.
I’m just going to go through names because some folks are here, but listening and they’ll come in in a bit.
We have Michael Babcock, we have Debbie Hazelton, and Jason Castingway.
Did I say that right, Jason?
Jason You did. Jason Great.
And we have Lauren Flinner listening out on Team Talk. We’re back on team talk, folks. Imagine that.
So we’re here to unbox a new thing. And I’ve been excited about this. I got it yesterday.
I have put off unboxing it for a day, which is amazing for me.
So it’s a home pod. It’s a white home pod.
And the shipping box, I took it out of the shipping box, but it was interesting.
The shipping box from Apple doesn’t have tape, guys.
It just has a little cardboard pull tab that you pull apart and then the box just splits down both sides. You pull it down.
I was like, wow, that’s cool.

[1:30] I think my iPhone, I think my 14 Pro might have been that way.
And it looked like it would look like it was in a flat rate box, but it wasn’t.
Right. interesting, isn’t it? Yeah. And then, you know, Apple started putting these pull tabs, on all of their products. It’s very interesting. And so there’s no tape. And all you got to do is just find one of these pull tabs and yeah, gotta love that binaural sound right there. You know, oh yeah, Apple packs things in such a way that I often say they could pack my lunch. I wish they would. I would love for Apple to pack my lunch.

[2:13] You guys are hearing this in binaural audio, or you should be. If you’re not wearing good headphones, I would. So I just pulled these two pull tabs off, and that’s all I had to do. Like no tape, no nothing, just pull tabs. Then I turned the box over to be right side up because the pull tabs are on the bottom and then all I have to do is lift up and the top part of the box comes off and there’s a home pod underneath. The inside of the top part even has some supports to hold the home pod in place so it doesn’t move around in there too. Now the top of the home pod where the screen is so it is, is definitely indented and it has a little pull tab.
You pull the little protective area off.
And the difference on this HomePod is I’ve heard that it has two volume buttons, but I can’t see those.

[3:16] Hmm. It says they’re engrained or engraved or something, but I can’t visually see those.
But it’s definitely in, like, it’s in the screen is definitely like indented into the machine, into the HomePod. And it is definitely shorter. It’s not as tall.

[3:42] Okay, so that’s interesting. And the bottom also has a pull tab as well.
Now I have heard reports, there we go, just something satisfying about that.
I have heard that these home pods have a different base to them.
So they’re not supposed to leave a white ring on wooden surfaces.
However, I’ve heard that after a day or so they still do.
But this is definitely a bit smaller. It’s still pretty heavy, but it has two less speakers and two less microphones and a slower processor and Wi-Fi.
Maybe not so a processor, but an older Apple watch processor.
So below the home pod, we have where it sits in the box.
We have a little removable plate and the power cable is wrapped around this little area.
Under the box, like where the instructions would normally go.

[4:41] So you just open this up and I don’t want to rip this because I don’t like ripping Apple boxes. There we go.
You do that and then you have the power cable, which is completely detachable by the way, folks.
It does not come attached to the HomePod. And what I like is it’s very easy, once you get everything out, to put everything back in the box, way it belonged. That’s really nice because sometimes boxes you get stuff out and it’s just difficult to put back in. Also, yes one thing that’s interesting, that’s true, is there’s no twist ties or cable ties on this cable.

[5:28] The other thing that’s interesting is this cable looks like it belongs like when you plug it in, the end of it looks like it’s built into the home pod so it’s to mimic how it looked on the previous home pod. Kind of like they would do with the iMacs too the the cable was molded in such a way that, when it was plugged into the iMac it would look like one piece. Right. They’re so smart.
There are Apple.
Does this go in? They are.
Now it does appear to only go in there one way so you cannot reverse it. It will go in, from what I can tell, only one way. Yeah.

[6:20] Yeah. But you plug it in and it just feels like it belongs with the HomePod.

[6:27] Okay. Very nice. So I mean, it’s smaller.
Let’s see. I’m going to put this down and I’m going to go try to get the other HomePod if my headphones once we’ll let me go that far.

[6:47] And it’s interesting, you can squeeze it and it does have some give.

[7:00] Oh, that’s interesting. The base on the old one is…
…declined. Like, it’s inset.

[7:13] And the cable feels very similar. And this one’s quite old and it looks a little off white with age.
And are they using a power cable that looks proprietary or at least it’s not USB-C I’m guessing right? No it’s kind of that figure eight kind of look. Oh okay. So I’ve, officially stacked two home pods one on top of the other to compare them and the.

[7:56] They are very similar in size they really are. The old one has a screen on on the top, like it just looks like they slapped a plastic, piece down on top, whereas the new one, it’s kind of inset into the device.
The old one has more of a hole at the bottom, kind of like you would expect, like a subwoofer to kind of have that little area to kind of breathe bass out of.
The new one does not.
So I think that the reason why I’ve heard the old one is a little more bassy, is because it has that room to have that base come through.
Have that base come through. The old one is definitely heavier, which is interesting.

[8:49] Also, interestingly, the mesh has a little more give on the new one than the old one does.
Like, if you press on it, it will kind of give a little more.
Hmm. Hmm. But the bottom of the old one is definitely heavier.
That’s very interesting.
Okay, so…
We’re gonna see if we can plug these things in. Have you ever heard two HomePods together, like two of the originals together?
I’ve heard that’s really cool. I have not.
I’m never gonna.

[9:32] I have not heard that yet.
Jason, you don’t have one, do you? I don’t, unfortunately.
Okay, so we’re going to plug in the new one first and we’re going to set it up.
Oh, can’t wait to hear the sounds. I know.
It’s all about the sound. It’s booting up.

[10:29] Okay. Did y’all hear that? Yep. Yes. That very bassy sound.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[10:44] We’ve got so many cables over here for work management and all that kind of stuff, so, So just trying to move things around.

[11:01] .

[11:08] My voiceover is acting kind of strange, so I’m just letting you guys know it’s reading all my punctuation. I wonder if I turn this on. Oh, she.
Close button.
More info button set up button. Center the home pod in the frame period heading home.
Home pod heading. Well that was funny. I just had it pointed at the home pod. I wasn’t really playing it anywhere. Yeah, it picked right up on it. Mm-hmm. Living room three continue,button use home pod as Apple TV speaker question mark heading close button close button close, button. Apple TV will use home pod for all audio output period. You can change this later in HomePod or Apple TV settings period.
Uses Apple TV speaker button.
I don’t know that I want to do that just yet. Not now button. HomePod heading voiceover on.
Eero common now common new device common a new Apple common incorporated period device has joined to Chopolis.
Oh, it is reading.

[12:21] So it turned on voiceover on the HomePod. Yes, I heard that.
And it got your Wi-Fi info and everything. Well it yes it does that just like a new iPhone and my eero, Said a new device is joined your network Yep Close fuck, Home pod is ready heading close fucking done fucking, Batteries widget comma staff and that’s all guys, That’s amazingly fast. I just set up a home pod.
I mean, how long does it take to set up a Google speaker or anything like that?
Yeah, there’s a little more involved. Uh huh. So let’s see.

[13:14] Play.

[13:24] Let’s see play play play play okay so flicking is not doing anything.

[13:35] Okay hey siri turn off voiceover voiceover okay try again i turned voiceover off, Yeah, ours uses a Siri voice.

[13:51] What’s the weather? I can’t tell your location because of your settings.
Where would you like to hear the weather for? Austin, Texas.
It’s currently clear and 17 degrees. Temperatures are heading down from 17 to 10 degrees tonight.
I think it’s set to Celsius.

[14:14] Don’t know what happened there. That’s kind of interesting. Cause I don’t have my home set up like that.
So fun times, right?
We thought it was, we thought we were free and clear. Guess what?
Maybe a couple, or maybe it’s still catching up in the background or something. I wonder.
Yeah, that could be. Maybe ask if it’s Celsius or Fahrenheit, see if it knows.
What’s the temperature set to? Oh, it cancelled. That won’t work.
I found some web results.
Are you set to Celsius or Fahrenheit?

[15:00] Oh, okay. What is the weather temperature set to, Celsius or Fahrenheit?
It’s 62 degrees right now.
Okay, now I did it. Oh! What’s the weather in Austin, Texas?
It’s currently clear and 17 degrees. Temperatures are heading down from 17 to 10 degrees tonight.
Okay, well. That’s interesting. Thank you for sharing. Oh my gosh.

[15:36] So, let’s see if I can fix that in the home settings.

[15:42] Wow, you know from my job I do a lot of testing with You know different things and so I think my my devices are just confused, Hmm So let’s see if I could find the HomePod.
And be thinking about, you know what? I know something we can play. We can play.

[16:24] I know what we’ll play. We will play this one show called Unmute Presents.

[16:48] OK, so I’ve got that playing on my phone. So we’re going to airplay it.
This is the real Michael, it says. Right.
With the fake Michael and my TTS friends.

[17:15] I go here and I decided in this unmute presents podcast to put together something a little different.
If you didn’t listen to the past Tuesday’s episode, our live call that we had on February 7th, go back and listen.
One of these voices, maybe both of these. It’s got some good bass.

[17:37] It does, yeah. We don’t get something more Lollaping recorded for Thursdays.
And in about 30 seconds, it’ll be the Fake Michael.
Should we try this? Let me know what your thoughts are. Is this something that you could listen to, especially when it comes to audio books or, I don’t know, for you affiliates out there.
Newsletters?
Good morning and welcome to Unmute Presence.
There’s the Fake Michael. Yup. I’m your host, Fake Michael. Oh, that’s so funny.
Hi everyone. It’s great to be back for another exciting episode of Unmute Presence.
Presence. I really like that voice. Yeah. She’s very articulate.
Is that Lauren? No, that’s the text to speech.
Okay. That’s Bailey on 11 AI. Or 11 Labs. and smart glasses to get home.
So that’s how it sounds with voice and some music.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it was just, it was so easy to set up.
Now let’s see if I could plug in and get set up the old HomePod.
This might be your shortest unbox cast.
I know.
Because they made it so easy to set up.

[19:00] It took longer to set up for the unbox cast than it did for the unboxing.

[19:09] I got too many cables.

[19:15] I am tangled in cables over here. Oh, the other home pod is sad.
It fell over somehow.
Oh, it’s feeling left out. Right.

[19:37] Yeah, the new one is definitely lighter. Like the color on it is definitely, it’s not much taller, it might be the same.
They look different for sure.
But the new one is definitely a lot lighter in color. I don’t know if that’s an age thing, or a, you know, this thing is just been used a lot, moved a lot, you know.

[20:08] Okay, this one’s booting up now.
I see that and I don’t see anything happening yet.

[20:19] It’s jealous, you got the new one. It’s like, I’m not gonna turn on for you.
Right. What’s the weather? It’s currently clear and 64 degrees. Today’s high. It knows how to do it.
That’s right. It’s like I’m going to outdo that new one.
But the other one, the new one did say that until you asked about your city and state, and that’s when it went back to the Celsius.

[21:07] Interesting.

[21:21] Now that’s interesting. It did let me pair them up as two speakers, even though it was not a stereo pair.
It says living room. That is interesting. I wasn’t. I didn’t know it would do that. Wow, I wasn’t.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if it would do that either because they’re different.
It’s an AirPlay 2 thing, I think. So, let’s hear what it sounds like having both of them paired up together.
It’s kind of hard to tell which one’s which. But I think they’re slightly out of sync with each other.
Yeah, I thought I was hearing just a little bit of that. Yeah.
So, it might be good if one was in one room and one in the other, but if they’re together, you can hear that difference.
Right. Let me see if I can just have…

[22:31] How do you… Okay. Let’s stop that. Come on now.
Let’s stop that. Come on now. I don’t know how to un-pair them.

[22:54] You know Apple tries to make everything so simple, but.

[23:00] You know, Okay, I think I got it. See that’s a lot more low end heavy.
If you didn’t listen to the past Tuesday’s episode, our live call that we had on February 7th, go back and listen.
And one of these voices, maybe both of these voices, will sound very familiar to you.

[23:29] Music.

[23:35] This is what happens when we don’t get something more long form recorded for Thursday’s episode, and Michael gets bored and decides, should we try this? Let me know what your thoughts are.
Is there something that you could listen to?
Okay, so let’s go turn that off and let’s go turn on the other one.

[24:00] And we’ll just play the same thing again.

[24:10] So this is the real Michael here and I decided in this unmute presents podcast to put together, something a little different. If you didn’t listen to the past… Maybe a little less space but not, detrimentally so and more clarity more high end. Yeah more clarity for sure.
I think it sounds better. Yeah, you could hear it too. Yeah, I think I’m…
Oh yeah, and there’s a tambourine there that I forgot about.

[24:48] Thank you to André Louis for the music, by the way. Oh yeah.
So do y’all want to hear the music again through the old one and compare them one more time?
Sure Cuz I think it’s very fascinating I like hearing my voice.

[25:09] Cuz like like you guys said I don’t know that I heard the tambourine on the old one very well Right?
Hmm, interesting. Yeah. It just wasn’t out there like it was in the new one.
I kinda forgot about it.

[25:31] Or, I don’t know, for you affiliates out there. Newsletters?
Good morning. Real Michael here, and I decided in this Unmute Presents podcast to put together something, a little different. You can hear it.
If you didn’t listen to the past Tuesdays… Yeah, but it’s a lot more suppressed.
…call that we had on February 7th. That’s interesting. Go back and listen.
One of these voices… Well, there it is. …both of these voices…
Yeah. …wasn’t very familiar to you. This is what happens…
Yeah, it’s almost like… Yeah, it’s almost like… It sounds compressed.
Yeah, yep, I’m gonna use that word too. Mm-hmm.
For Thursday’s episode, Michael gets bored and decided, should we try this?
Let me know what your thoughts are. Is there something that you could listen to, especially?
So what are your thoughts?
It’s not much of a difference, I don’t think. I think, yeah.

[26:24] Yeah, somehow I didn’t think there’d be much of a difference, but it is noticeable, especially what I’m hearing through your binaurals.
Yes. It somehow is very obvious that way. And although the new one is smaller, I’m still hearing a very decent amount of bass.
And there’s more clarity in the high end. And yet it’s brighter. Yeah.
Right. More clarity. Yeah, it’s brighter in a way. I mean, I think it might have less bass on certain songs.
But I think that it’s definitely, I tried to keep it to, Michael, do you have any other recommendations of things we could try playing?

[27:12] If you give me a second, I can just send you that song without the voice. OK, that’d be great.
Just give me a few minutes, let me find it. That is very interesting though.
Yes. And I thought somehow the setup was going to guide you through, you know, having it go through some sort of audio thing where it wants to listen to itself in a certain area to like perfectly equalize itself, but it didn’t seem to bother itself with that.
Or maybe it’s…
It does that when you’re as you’re… if you move it, it will do it. It doesn’t do that.
It didn’t do that on the original one. It learns no matter where you put it, which is amazing.
Wow. So it’s not anything the user has to worry about. It’s just a background sort of learning thing or adaptation.
Wow. Cool.
And I wonder, have you ever tried moving the original to a smaller room or a bigger room, to see if it sounds different?
I’ve never done that. It does.
And different surfaces make it sound different.

[28:29] Okay, so I’ve got this file from Michael.

[28:35] Tell me if you need it a different way.

[28:43] Okay, so we got it. Let’s see.

[28:51] Apple, this is one of your flaws. I can put it in Dropbox or email it if that makes it easier for you.
I don’t, they need an AirPlay button.
Well let’s see, I wonder if I can just go to my control center and really guys, it’s, It’s set to bedroom, but you’re playing through the iPhone speaker.
Apple. Come on, guys. Apple fail.
But hang on. Hang on. There’s supposed to be a feature. Oh yeah.
Where you can center.
Wow. There you go.

[29:34] Oh yeah. Where you can send it. Wow. There you go. Oh wow.

[29:40] Music.

[29:45] Very clear. And of course, it’s in the foreground now. It’s not being ducked by Michael’s voice.

[30:00] So we’re really getting to hear it now.
Right. Sounds great.

[30:07] Nice.

[30:10] Music.

[30:30] Touching it to the top, it should.

[30:34] Okay, now that I have it open here, can I pick the device? So it said on the living room.

[30:46] Let’s set it back to…

[30:56] It does not wanna change it. Okay, I’ll just close the app and I’ll open text messages.
Problem solving at its best, folks.

[31:10] And it went back to the living room home pod. It says you want to listen on this home pod, because it sounds better.

[31:23] I really like that little track. Yes.
That is a nice I can put it in Dropbox Michael if that has AirPlay features if you can’t I don’t know if I have Dropbox set up let me go back to my, iPhone speaker.

[31:42] Music.

[32:01] I’m going to restart it from the beginning.

[32:09] Music.

[32:23] You know, interestingly enough, I don’t feel that the difference is so much that I’d say, hey, I want more bass and I want to hear it on the old one, I think I would just stick, with the new one.
Yeah. And some of that high end is muffled a little bit on the old one.
Which is strange. Not what I’d expect.

[32:49] Music.

[32:57] I actually guys, I feel like there’s a little bit of low in… I feel like there’s a little bit more sound on the old one, but I could be wrong. But I’m going to de-pair these two again and see if we can do that.
So I’m going to go iPhone speaker. A little more sound on the old one? Hmm. I mean on the new one.
Yeah, I feel like there’s more on the new one. Yeah, I do too. It’s more precise.
Yeah, it’s more full. Yeah, yeah. I hear the tambourine more on the new one.
I feel like the lows are a little more defined too.

[33:46] They may not be as low, but they’re more defined in my opinion.
I’ll tell you what, Michael, you can buy me one and send it to me and I will tell you if the lows are more defined.
Yeah, I want to start going, buy me a home pot.
I tell you what, Michael B, I’ll send you those two items and you can, we’ll have a trade.
You can buy me one. Hmm. Now I gotta see if I really want those, you know.
So what do you guys think? Do you think that we’re losing anything from the old HomePod?
Nope. Oh, wait. We’re supposed to be able to get the temperature in here. Let’s see.
Oh, yes. What’s the temperature in this room?
Sorry, I can’t do that. Yeah, you can. It may need a firmware update.
Oh really? I don’t know if that’s for sure, but I believe I read somewhere that you need an update for it.

[34:57] It’s currently 17 degrees. Nope. Hahaha.
And on that note, I’m going to jump off and go make some dinner.
So I’ll catch up with y’all later. I don’t think I keep my apartment that cold.
That’s cold. Hahaha. Yes. Alright folks, that’s going to do it for this unboxing.
I want to thank everybody for being here. I think this was a lot of fun.
And we’re curious what you guys think.
So reach out to us online and let us know which HomePod do you feel is better, the old one or the new one? We’ll have this out to you guys in the IACast feed soon.
So stay tuned and we’re very excited to have new content, back at you. So thanks, Debbie, Jason and Michael for being here and we’ll see you on yet another Unboxed Cast soon.

[35:46] Music.

[35:53] Thank you for tuning in to the IACast. We hope you enjoyed the show and found the conversation to be insightful and informative.
If you have any feedback or comments, we’d love to hear from you.
Please send us an email at feedback at IACast.net. You can also follow us on Twitter at IACastNetwork to stay informed about new episodes and other, updates.
Don’t forget to check out more great podcasts on the IACast Network.
IACast.net. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you again soon.

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Michael walks through his process for quickly posting a blog post
He uses a keyboard commander to start the process
He uses text expander with date math fill-ins and date fill-ins to automate some of the steps
He also uses the clipboard manager with LaunchBar to speed up the process
Michael highlights the benefits of using these tools and how they make a huge difference in his productivity on the Mac
He mentions that he is still learning more about LaunchBar and how it can help improve his workflow

He invites listeners to visit payone.live for more information and to join the Unmute Presents show every Tuesday at 10am Pacific Time/ 1pm EasternYou can tune into this call live every Tuesday.

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Show DescriptionOn this episode, Michael speaks to Marty, Lauren, and Michael about the following topics.

Twitter bans 3rd party apps.
Microsoft makes Soundscape open source.

AdCheck out the Unmute Presents podcast also on the iACast Network.

TopicThis week we discuss the latest in AI, which include Auphonic, DALL-E 2, Whisper AI and ChatGPT

Picks* Marty Play for macOS * Michael Babcock: Launchbar 6 for Mac * Lauren Adjustable Laptop Stand from Amazon * Michael Doise: The Last of Us on HBO

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Damashe and Michael are discussing social media and how it is changing. Michael mentions that he uses YouTube to learn and is starting to post more content to teach people. Damashe mentions Lyre as a good app for RSS and mentions Net Newswire on iOS as a free app to get started with. Damashe also mentions external feed services like FeedBin which allow you to subscribe to users, lists, or hashtags on Twitter and can be synced with an RSS app. Michael mentions the ATIA23 conference and asks Damashe if he has played with VN on the Mac.

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[0:03] Hey all, Marty here. Today I’m coming at you with a quick tip, a messenger tip. So in messages, when you are in the body of a message,
at the very bottom, you’ll notice there’s all these little icons that do different things, such as Apple Pay.
Some of them have little stickers, all different kinds of things.
If you ever get tired of looking at these things and you want to clean up your app a little bit and make it cleaner, All you have to do is take your finger, put it on the space where you enter text,
swipe once to the left, you’ll find a little icon that says apps. Double click that and that will hide all of those little icons. And then you have a super clean interface. If you want to bring the
apps back, all you have to do is put your finger back on the space where you enter text, swipe once to the left, find that little apps icon, double click it, and it will bring back all those little apps if you want to utilize those once again.
[1:19] Feed. We are there every Tuesday 10 a.m. West 1 p.m. East and if you’re not signed up you,
You can get all the information you need at acb.community.

Marty

Track 3:
[1:32] And we’ll see you next time. Thanks a lot.

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Unmute Presents – Live To Recording Process
Transcript

Jingles

Marty:
[0:05] So Michael, we get tons of questions, especially recently, people ask us about the process and how we edit our shows. Specifically, you know, we do the unmute call every Tuesday.
And then once that show is over, we, you know, edit it, publish it, put it out, and we do all those things, you know. So that would be probably a good primer as that’s one of the front facing projects that people see.
Because of the live show that we do on Tuesday. So why don’t we start with walking through and maybe answering some of the people’s questions about that process. So what we do is let’s say
say we start with a live show in Zoom and we broadcast that out to the world and everyone can come that’s live and we’re doing it straight out.
Once we’re done with that and we go off the air, then the editing process and everything starts with the backstage and all the behind the scenes magic happens.
So why don’t you talk about your workflow from that point once we go off the air and Give us a primer on your process.

Michael:
[1:27] Yeah, so it starts a little bit before that actually and it starts way back in May
I created a zoom room that is always the same and Maybe it was June somewhere around there and the first thing I did as I said always record to the cloud.
Being part of ACB community you have to keep a recording on file and everyone’s call is recorded
So I set it up to automatically record because as we all know I am horrible about remembering to do the things I need to do But that also gives me the added benefit. So let’s go back to where you brought us to we get done with the call and then about.

[2:01] 15 ish minutes later. I get an email from zoom that says hey your cloud recording is available
You can click this link to download it So I click that link and I download what turns out typically to be three or four different files.
Which is the audio and video versions of our call? But the video version is typically black because none of us use video
So I just disregard that and the sound quality is going to be a little lower than than people would probably want to listen to.
So then the next thing that I do is I grab that audio file that I downloaded and I bring it into Reaper and.

[2:36] I have a Template and Reaper that allows me to trim out the silence very quickly,
So for waiting for someone to unmute I can pull that silence out so.
So the listeners on the podcast don’t have to wait like everyone else had to, to get
someone unmuted and to get them on the call. And then I add some compression and I use a tool called RX Isotope Repair Assistant.
And that gives us a constant sound that we are sounding like everyone sounds like they’re pretty level and voices are good.
In Reaper, I render the file to a Dropbox folder, which is tied to my Alphonic account. And I’ll talk about Alphonic in a moment.
When I render the file, I check a checkbox that says, add this item to a new track, or add rendered content to a new track as an item.
And then I render it. And that means that I take the edits that I made in Reaper and I save them as a file. Typically Flac, a lot of people use Wave. You don’t want to save at MP3 right now, but ultimately that’s where we’re going to get to.

Marty:
[3:47] Let me stop you right here just for a quick sec because I want to just make sure that people kind of understand this. This is a very important piece that we’re forgetting to put in so that people really understand. So the ultimate goal in the end is to make it sound like,
we’re in the same room, right? So we use Zoom and mostly we use Zoom and its recording features.
That’s kind of more like an insurance policy and it is actually really good. And we do actually use that a lot of the time. But we also record locally. And so what that means is, I’m recording,
locally on my own system, and you’re recording locally on your own system. And that’s going to be the highest best quality. And you don’t hear, you know, all of the hiccups from the internet,
you get all that cruft, that all goes away.
So if that happens, all good without any issues, then we take our local recordings and that’s what we edit from.
Those are gonna be the best sounding, the best quality files, and that’s what we go with most of the time.
There are times that we do use the Zoom, sometimes you just can’t get around that.
But for most of the time, the ultimate goal is to try and sound like you’re in the same room. And the way you achieve that is by recording yourself locally.

[5:16] Whoever you’re recording with, if that’s possible. Once you have all of your recording done, you take the.
Local files that you’ve recorded, and those files are
what goes to Michael, and then he edits all of those local files.
Unless there’s a major issue, then, you know, we have that zoom recording as an actual insurance policy, like a backup
if we actually have to use it. So, okay, now go from there.

Michael:
[5:40] So so that’s all good and that’s how we’re recording this podcast that we’re talking about right now or that we’re talking on right now,
so I can do things like this and I can move my audio over here and I can do different things with Marty if I Wanted to and you guys I’ll hear him in a minute in a different place than where he originally was don’t worry
I’ll fix it in your headphones, but with our zoom calls on Tuesdays though
I first of all are you recording locally on those calls because that is a call I do not record locally and I just use the zoom recording for because we won’t have local recordings for all the participants
Are you recording locally on those?

Marty:
[6:16] I actually am not recording locally on the Tuesday call. That is the only time I actually don’t record.
There is a lot that goes into that and there’s a bunch of stuff going on in the background. And realistically, that is the one situation due to having, we got Zoom going on, we got Clubhouse going on, we got people calling in.
There’s just so much stuff going on in the background that that’s the one time I do not record locally due to all of that, you know?

Michael:
[6:45] And that’s why I grab just the Zoom audio for our call and I do some compression and some
post-production to make it sound like, you know, yeah, we’re not going to sound like we’re in the same room on the Tuesday call, but we’re at least going to get the highest quality audio that we can,
while working with multiple different audio sources. So, so and so might call in from an iPhone,
someone might call in now from a blind shell or someone might just call in from a landline, And we want all those levels to be consistent. So what I do is I render the file in Reaper and that goes into.

[7:19] Dropbox and then I use offonic which gives a literal normal level of volume for everyone’s audio
It’ll boost the silent ones it reduces the loud ones to give everyone a consistent sound.
This then puts an mp3 file in my dropbox, which is moved to the ACB media folder
So ACB media has access to the file and then I go to pine cast and I upload the audio from pine cast to.
The so pine cast is our podcast host. That’s where we send the files to and how your podcast app gets it,
So I click on or I select the unmute podcast feed itself and I add a new file and I put any notes that I want to in there for the show notes and,
then I choose the mp3 file for the
edited episode when I hit publish your podcast app is made aware of the fact that there’s a new episode and then you can go listen to it and it served to you from the pinecast server so I don’t have to worry about keeping those up and everything.
So hopefully that’s a good overview. Does that all, I mean it may not all make sense, Marty, But does the process make sense?

Marty:
[8:26] Yeah, definitely. I think that it’s a good kind of overview of how it all works. So we’ve got the editing down and I think people understand or at least kind of have a bird’s-eye
view of that. So once editing is all done, then we have to get it out there so that everyone can receive the edited version into their podcatchers, which is the term that we use. But what that
actually is is the podcast application that you use. So depending on who you are, you can,
if you’re on Apple, you can either use Apple podcast app that they make, which is on all of the Apple devices and that’s free. And then there’s a bunch of other third party apps that are out there. Myself, I use Overcast. I believe Michael, you’re still using Overcast. And so yeah, whatever,
application that you use, it’s all the same. You could get the same. You put in the unmute presents feed and every week, as long as you’re following subscribing, whatever they’re saying these days,
I don’t know, they change it every other week, I feel like. So as long as you’re doing that, you’ll receive the new podcast every time we push it out. Now two things happen. There is is a version that goes to the actual ACB feed.

[9:52] Then there’s a version that actually goes
to the unmute feed. And the huge difference there is in the editing,
it’s the same exact show. Once it’s edited, both of the identical shows
go in the both feeds.
The difference is…

Michael:
[10:09] There is one difference in the file and and you would only know this if you subscribe to the ACB community.
But one of the acb members, uh, because what I typically do for our podcast is I cut out the acb disclaimer I should maybe leave it in there
But the way we have it set up is there’s music playing as we go into the episode
So that’s why I cut that disclaimer out So what rick or one of the acb members does rick or larry or one of them over there? is they add that disclaimer to the beginning of the podcast and then it goes out so there’s that one modification made
and that’s the only difference. Everything else is the same.

Marty:
[10:45] So in the ACB feed, you will see the unmute show there, but then you’re gonna get a bunch of other stuff from the ACB community, from other calls that happen throughout the week.
So in the unmute feed, you’re only gonna get the unmute call, but we also drop other content into that feed as well.
So you wanna be following, subscribing, whatever it is these days there if you wanna get other content from us. But yeah, that’s kind of the primer on that.
So you got anything you wanna add to that, Michael?

Michael:
[11:21] Yeah, no, I think that’s a good explanation of it And so this podcast episode that you’re listening to you’re either going to find it on youtube as a random piece of content,
Because michael’s trying some weird marketing things or you’ll find it in the podcast feed But it’s not going to be in the acb community podcast feed. It’ll only be in the unmute presents podcast feed
That’s the same with sunday’s content Uh is sunday will only be in the unmute presents podcast feed It will not be found in ACB community and that’s why if all you are subscribed to or following or or whatever,
To is the ACB community and that’s how you get our replays and you’re like Why don’t I don’t get these Sunday shows are talking about these Thursday shows,
That’s because those are only published to the unmute feed not ACB community. I.

Marty:
[12:07] I think that’s pretty good. What do you think, Michael?

Michael:
[12:09] Think that is good and And, uh, you know, the cool thing about recording locally is I can move people around and make them dance between your headphones.

Jingles

Michael:
[12:18] Anyways, that’s it.

Marty:
[12:20] Yeah, it sounds like you’re spinning around in a circle with your audio. So anyway, if you guys have any questions for us, if you want to hear more about any kind of audio stuff, the way we do our process or anything else for that matter, we got a new email address,
which is feedback at unmute dot show.
So that’s feedback at unmute dot show. So you can reach out to us there. And if you have questions or you have suggestions, anything like that, there you go. So, all right, that’s it for now and we’ll see you later.

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You can tune into this call live every Tuesday.Visit acb.community to learn more about ACB Community!

In the latest Unmute Presents call, we discussed various topics related to technology and accessibility. We covered the topic of moving apps on IOS, the fact that Zoom is now available on the BlindShell Classic 2, which is a smartphone specifically designed for blind and visually impaired users, Computer Audio, Tweescake, the importance of using passkeys and two-factor authentication (2FA) security keys to protect your online accounts, creating image descriptions, the latest apps and features available on the iPhone 14, smart homes, and tips and tricks for using Outlook and Excel more efficiently. Remember, if you have any feedback or questions about our call, you can reach out to us at feedback@unmute.show

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Show DescriptionOn this episode of the iACast Michael Doise, Michael Babcock, Lauren Flener, Marty Sobo, and Taylor Arndt discuss CES and the latest items from Apple that were announced this week.

Resources from this episode:* MacBook Pro 14 and 16 inch refresh * Mac Mini * New HomePods

Picks* Michael Babcock: Hazel for Mac * Lauren Flener: HEB Coffee * Taylor Arndt: ATR2100-X microphone * Marty Sobo: Lookup for iOS * Michael Doise: The Last of Us on HBO

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In this episode, Marty and Damashe discuss the ins and outs of iCloud encryption. Damashe explains the difference between regular encryption and advanced data protection, and the implications of each. He also discusses alternative options for those who may not want to use iCloud encryption, such as using a UB key or storing sensitive information in a secure note within iCloud Keychain.
Marty and Damashe also touch on the importance of two-factor authentication and being mindful of what information is stored on cloud services. Damashe also mentions how Apple Watch can be used as an authenticator for added convenience.
Overall, the main takeaway from the episode is the importance of not forgetting passwords when using advanced data protection, as it can result in losing access to all stored data.
Please note that the following is an automatic generated transcript using AI. Any errors or discrepancies may occur.

Michael:
[0:07] Welcome back to another Unmute podcast. Happy Thursday. I am here with Marty and we have a special guest here. How goes it Marty?

Marty:
[0:16] Pretty good. Hey all, how’s it going? Well, today we do have a special guest, friend of the show and personal friend of ours, Damasi say hello.

Damashe:
[0:25] Good afternoon. Happy Thursday to everybody.

Marty:
[0:28] So today we’re going to be talking about encryption, specifically iCloud encryption, which was introduced about a month or so ago in a recent update.
So Damasi, do you want to start with explaining what this is and how it works?

Damashe:
[0:48] Yep, so in December, and I am a terrible, terrible preparer, because I don’t know the
exact date but I do know when iOS 16.2 was released, iPad OS 16.2, Mac OS 13.1
and whatever version of audio OS for the HomePod and tvOS is out. They were all
updated in December. With those updates Apple introduced what they call advanced data protection for iCloud.
And what this really means at its bare bones is that Apple is giving you the ability,
to now take control of holding your own encryption keys so that they no longer have access to the things that you have stored in iCloud,
that they previously had access to.
This does get a little down in the weeds a bit because there’s data Apple has always never had access to.
So your health data, your keychain data, if you use iCloud keychain, they’ve never been able to access that data. They’ve never had access to it. They’ve never had the encryption keys to that stuff from day one that they introduced it.
However, they’re bringing those protections forward to other services, which include iCloud Drive, your photos, and some app data, depending on whether or not the developers choose to take advantage of the APIs that are exposed for them.

Marty:
[2:16] Well, maybe we can take a step back just for a quick sec and for those maybe who don’t know or maybe don’t understand
Maybe we can explain what exactly encryption is.

Damashe:
[2:28] Encryption is at a very basic point, and excuse me, anybody that really gets down and understands this a lot, but to kind of simplify it the way I explain it to people is encryption is scrambling your electronic data
so that it cannot be read by someone who does not have the key. And you can think of the key simply as a password. You know, that’s simplifying it a little bit,
but you can think of your key as a password. So a very quick example, if I have a file on my computer, just a regular plain text file, and I write in my credit card number and all of that information, social security number,
if I wanna make sure no one else but me can read that file, then I am going to encrypt that file with some piece of software that will basically scramble that data.
So if anyone comes along and opens up that file, all they’ll get is gibberish. The only way to get that file back into a readable state would be for me to enter a password that then would unscramble that data and allow it to be read.

Marty:
[3:27] And how do we know if this is something that you would want to turn on or not? How would I know? Do I want this turned on? Do I not want it turned on? How would
this benefit me or maybe not benefit me and get me into trouble that I might be in a bigger hole than I would want to be in.

Damashe:
[3:46] That’s a very good question, Marty. So we’re going to start with some reasons why you may not want to do this and some of the caveats to think about before
even going down the path of exploring turning it on because it’s not for everyone. Apple has introduced this because a lot of people do need theseprotections but not everybody does. One caveat to this is if you turn on,
advanced data protection for iCloud you then become responsible for your data 100% Apple syncs it for you, absolutely.
And they also make sure, you know, they do a lot of double checking and ensuring
that you have certain things in place before you turn this on. And I’ll cover some of those a little bit later,
but you don’t need this if you’re just a casual user and you don’t feel that you have to protect your data. It’s entirely up to you,
but be aware that if you do this, like you and a trusted recovery person are the only people that will be able to help you get back into your data.
So if you lose your phone or you lose your iCloud password, Apple does have in place the trusted recovery person that can help recover your account.

[4:59] But you’re not going to have a link where you can go to apple.com or iCloud.com and click I forgot my password and restore the data that was encrypted in iCloud Drive or restore the data that was encrypted in Health.
And I’ll give an example that many people unfortunately have experienced.
If you wipe a device and you did not have an iCloud backup or you wipe a device and you don’t have the ability to unlock your keychain, because let’s say for example, and I had this happen to somebody recently, they lost their iPhone, where their iPhone got damaged.
They got a whole new iPhone replaced.
They signed in with their Apple ID and all of that stuff.
For whatever reason, this person could not remember their old iPhone password,
and they didn’t have another Apple device to pull a password from either, so they were not able to access their key chain, which means anything that was stored in their key chain is now lost to them forever, because they did not have a way to access that.
And Apple does not hold a key to get you back into your iCloud key chain.
So they lost their key chain data. They weren’t using key chain as their primary password manager, but any data there is gone.
The health data that they had stored is gone, because they were not able to unlock their iCloud keychain
because they didn’t have the key that was being requested, which in this case was the password from the previous phone that they had lost maybe a week ago, something like that.

Marty:
[6:21] And it’s just with encryption on or with the encryption off.

Damashe:
[6:25] So that scenario I just described with the keychain, that is whether you have this advanced data protection on or not for iCloud, because again, Apple does not hold the keys for your iCloud keychain.
They do not hold the keys to decrypt your data. So only your devices have the ability to decrypt the data in your keychain and in your health.

Marty:
[6:45] So, the lesson to be learned here is don’t forget your password.

Damashe:
[6:48] Exactly, exactly. Or make sure you have a device you know the password for. Now, with advanced data protection on, this person would have lost access to anything that they had stored in iCloud as well.
So any files that they stored in iCloud Drive would have been lost, their photos would have been lost to them because they would have also been encrypted.

Marty:
[7:08] And there’s no way Apple can help you if you have this iCloud encryption turned on, right?

Damashe:
[7:14] That is correct. Apple has no way. It is what they call trust no one encryption, which means things are encrypted. They can be synced. They can be shared.
They can be, you know, you can, anybody can gain access to this data once it’s encrypted this way, and nobody can decrypt it. It’s up to you and your trusted devices.
Whereas the way things stand for everyone today
that does not have this feature yet turned on,
or chooses not to ever turn this feature on,
is Apple has the ability to help you get back into your account. Apple has the ability to help you restore your photos
because your data itself is encrypted on Apple servers, it’s just that Apple has the key.
And to give you a different sort of perspective of that, think of when you own your house versus renting a house.
Typically when you own a house, you and whoever you give a key to are the only people to have a key to enter your home.
Whereas typically when you’re renting a home or an apartment, you have a key, somebody else you give a key to will have a key, but your landlord also has a key.
So if you lock yourself out of the house, you can call your landlord up and say, hey, sorry, can you come unlock my door for me, please?
So I don’t have to break a window to get in. Well, up under the advanced data protection rules, there’s no landlord to come bring your key and let you in.There’s no locksmith to come pick your lock and get you in either. And there’s not a window for you to break either. So you’re just locked out of your house.

Marty:
[8:32] Yeah. So again, the lesson to be learned here is absolutely do not forget your password or you are going to lose all of your data.
So don’t forget your password, write it down, take a picture of it, do whatever you got to do. Don’t forget your password. if you’re going to turn on iCloud encryption.

Damashe:
[8:52] Yeah, and I would also say for people, you know again, It’s your choice whether or not you choose to turn this on.
I will turn it on at some point because I need to really truly understand like how it works and where are those rough edges that you know cause problems or things that you have to consider and I probably have a very good document on what gets encrypted, how it works, how they handle sharing because you’re still able to share, you know, iCloud data.

[9:15] Documents, you’re still able to share photos and things like that and they handle those situations and they’ve done a very good job at architecting this. However,
If this is at all a thing that you’re like, I don’t know, I’m not sure, or you’re concerned,
or anxious at all about losing access to your data and not having any other means to recover
other than a trusted person, don’t do it. I’ll put this caveat in right now.
So I don’t personally know how the trusted recovery person works because I have not set this up yet. So I don’t know. I don’t think they have the ability to just, you know, hop into your iCloud data whenever they feel like it. have the ability to help you recover your account.
However, if you don’t have a person like that around that is trusted enough for them to be that support person to help you back in if you get in trouble, again, don’t do it.
If you’re one of those people who are like, I don’t have anything to hide. I don’t care who sees what. It doesn’t matter to me.
Don’t do it. You don’t have to do it. It’s not a thing you’re being forced to do. It’s not a thing that is even easy to do. Because Apple does make you jump through quite a few hoops to ensure that you understand what you’re getting yourself into.

Marty:
[10:24] So for those people who maybe like options or for those people who maybe,
this sounds scary and they don’t want to dive in, let’s talk about maybe a couple of options they could do aside from iCloud encryption.
We’ve got, you know, other services, other applications. And so if we were going to have a secondary option, what would your
suggestion be for a secondary option? I know a lot of people really are into the UB keys and stuff like that. Maybe you want to talk about that and how that works a little bit if someone wants a secondary option instead of using this Cloud Encryption.

Damashe:
[11:06] So the iCloud encryption is just that. It is encrypting more of your data is always encrypted. I want to make sure everybody’s clear about that.
And Apple is just Apple currently has a key, right? If you go to the advanced encryption, then they don’t have the keys, which means Apple can’t turn your data over to the FBI or whoever else may come knocking
from a government or law enforcement agency,
or even to malicious hackers, right?
You know, they can’t give it to them. They’re like, well, we can’t give you Demasi’s data because we don’t have, I mean, we can give you the data. We just can’t help you decrypt it and read it
because we don’t have the keys. If you’re looking for a little bit more protection first,
you should always have on two factor. I think Apple is really at the point right now, it’s very difficult to have an Apple ID without having two factor set up.
They are introducing more advanced two factor methods at some point, those are currently not out as far as I know.
If you are a person that you don’t want everything encrypted or iCloud is not even the primary place that you store a lot of data,
but you are concerned about encryption or protecting your data that goes across the internet through the cloud, again, I want to be very clear.
Any cloud storage servers I’m familiar with, whether that be iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, all of these companies do encrypt your data while it’s moving across the internet.
So no random person in a coffeehouse should be able to read your information.
And they also encrypt your data.

[12:29] Typically it’s encrypted at rest, which means while it’s on their server, it’s not actively moving, It’s just sitting there. It’s still encrypted.
Again, it’s like iCloud, though.
Dropbox has the keys to Dropbox. Google has the keys to Google. So they could read your data. They can hand your data over.

[12:44] If they are breached at any point by a malicious actor, and the malicious actor manages to gain access to those keys, then, well, now this person has access to your data.
So be mindful of that. And I always tell people, be mindful of what you put on a cloud service. because any employee of that company has the ability to probably read that data. Most certainly their IT staff has the ability to read your data.
Maybe the frontline customer service person that helps you reset your password can’t, but there are people at the company that can read your data. So don’t put anything there that you are truly afraid to have get out into the world.

[13:21] Now, an option for having some level
of better protection for your data, again, just to start with Apple, right?
ICloud Keychain. Apple never has had access to iCloud Keychain. So, you know, safe to store your passwords. They can’t read them. They can’t hand it over to anybody.
They also have secure notes inside of your iCloud Keychain. So if there’s information, again, I go back to something like maybe a social security number or, you know, the super secret combination to your vault that’s in the closet.
You know, maybe you put that in a secure note in iCloud Keychain, which means it’s protected.
You have access to it. and by all means you should really be able to access that from any device that supports iCloud and iCloud Keychain. So that is a way to securely store that information for you.

Marty:
[14:09] And when that note be the same kind of note that you would say, for example, open up your your Apple Notes app and make a note there,
put some kind of sensitive information, and then put a lock on that note.

Damashe:
[14:21] Not exactly the same because I’m not quite 100% sure how the notes encryption works,
like what the underlying architecture to that is. I don’t know if Apple could unlock that note for you or not. Inside of your keychain, however, a secure note is just a edit field where you type in a bunch of stuff.
There’s nothing fancy. There’s no shapes, no check boxes, no none of that sort of stuff in a secure note.
And I know for sure Apple could not access that data. in your notes application, however, you do have that ability, as Marty mentioned, to encrypt a note
or lock a note with a password or touch ID or face ID, which is in a lot of cases a reasonable
protection for you because if someone else accesses your device, unless they have access to your password that you used or your face or your finger, they’re not going to be able to unlock that note.

Marty:
[15:13] One thing I’ve been enjoying a lot, which is pretty convenient, is actually using my Apple Watch as an authenticator to get in instead of having to punch in a password all the time,
or maybe using my face all the time so that’s a good way to go if you have an Apple watch.

Damashe:
[15:32] Apple Watch tells with, you know, unlocking your, I use it all the time to unlock my Mac, to unlock my password manager, which is one password,on the Mac all the time, because I use a Bluetooth keyboard.
So my laptop is about a foot away from me.
So I don’t have to lean up if I could just double click Apple Watch that is a handy feature.

Marty:
[15:53] Yeah, I love it. I use it all the time as well. Cool. Well, this has been a great primer on iCloud encryption. And Damasi, thanks for coming and help us explain all of this.
So if people want to find out more about what you’re doing, How would people check out your work and what you’re up to?

Damashe:
[16:12] So the best way to find me is go to bedrockinnovations.com or drop an email to hello at bedrockinnovations.com.

Imaging

Marty:
[16:22] All right. And thanks to Masi once again. We appreciate it.
Always having you on to explain some of this hard stuff. And to everyone else, if you want to get ahold of us,
you can reach us at unmutepresents at gmail.com.
And we’ll see you next time. Thanks.

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this is a podcast Marty and Michael were on.
You can subscribe to the IA Cast in your favorite podcast app
Our demoCast will publish tomorrow morning and Damashe will share with you about loopback on the Mac.

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Show DescriptionOn this episode of the iACast Michael introduces Marty Sobo, and Michael Babcock who discuss their podcast called Unmute Presents, which is joining the iACast Network.

During this episode, we discuss the removal of Microsoft Soundscapes from the app store, and the fact that it is now open source.

Microsoft Soundsape on GitHub

One interesting news topic that we discuss is the new AI voices for Apple Books.

Digital narration for Audiobooks – Apple Books

Out last news topic was that Amazon may evaluate what Echo devices they sell as Alexa costs them $10 Billion a year.

We also discuss our tech predictions for this year in this episode.

Picks* Marty Sobo: AirBuddy for Mac * Michael Babcock: BARD Mobile for BlindShell Classic 2 * Lauren Bradford: DCanes * Michael Doise: ChatGPT

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Show DescriptionOn this episode of the iACast recorded in September of 2022, Michael Doise, Michael Babcock, Taylor Arndt, Leslie Dickson, and Jim Barbour discuss the latest tech news, and compare the OrCam devices to the Envision Glasses.

Links* OrCam * Envision

Providing FeedbackWe love hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to feedback@iaccessibility.net. You can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find us on Reddit, and all around the web. Also, don’t forget to check out our YouTube page, and for all things iACast, check out our iACast page. If you’d like to help support us, you can do so via our PayPal and Patreon pages.

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This transcript was auto generated.02] This is an ACB Community Call presented by American Council of the Blind.[0:10] Music.

[0:18] This Unmute Presents Community Call was hosted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023. Welcome everybody to another Tuesday.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and everyone had fun and had a healthy, happy holiday.
Want to remind everyone that, make sure that you respect everyone the same way that you would want to be respected with your questions and give everyone the same opportunities as you would want.
We’re going to go firsthand through.
And then if we have enough time, we’ll take people’s second questions. So you can go ahead and raise your hands and get that going.
Uh, it’d be interesting to hear if anyone got any new gadgets over the holidays or maybe any new gadget services.

[1:08] Also, I want to introduce you to Michael Babcock and he has a couple of announcements for us as well. Hey Michael.
Hey Marty. Are you saying people don’t know me? You’re introducing me. Anyways, I’m introducing you. Yeah.
Yeah. I don’t know who I am. So I got some new gadgets that I can fill people’s ears with if we don’t get any hands But a couple of the announcement well, I got one new one, but it looks like we do have a hand But I will go through the announcements real quick We did publish a couple of podcast episodes to the unmute presents on.

[1:39] ACB community feed and and there was a little bit of confusion with that this morning So if you want to get all of the content that we publish including the content on Thursdays more longer form content and Sundays
more shorter form content in your favorite podcast app just search for unmute presents and you’ll find one that says unmute presents on ACB community
that is the only podcast feed that we have our podcasts or our unmute present shows are also published to the ACB community podcast feed so I think that’s That’s where some confusion may have arisen earlier today, but just search for Unmute,
Presents and you’ll find Unmute Presents on the ACB community with Marty Sobo and Michael Babcock as the hosts.
Speaking of that podcast on Sunday, I published a,
Different style. I’m not sure that I’m sold on that style. So if anyone listened to it, I’d love some feedback on it But a different type of of Sunday type of content, which was talking about day one journaling My intention was hey, let’s start New Year’s out with a brief overview of the day one journaling app for those who may be,
Interested in journaling and documenting their their life and experiences This usually lasts for about three to five months for me and then I lose track of itSo I’ll be fully fully transparent about that though be kind of cool to get a a.

[3:06] 365 day journaling streak so, you know, we’ll see what happens with that and then on Thursday We published a episode where Demos Demosy Marty and I talk about our audio,
setups and what we’re doing for audio and how we’ve been,
Configuring our devices and then of course we have last week’s call with Michael Dois that was published last Tuesday in the podcast feed.
Just a couple more things real quick and then we’ll get into it.
The next Tuesday, the 10th, we will have a individual from Raz Mobility to come talk to us about the Mini Vision 2 phone, which I’ve been playing with it over the last couple of days and I kinda like this phone.
It’s kind of cool. Doesn’t have a lot of the added features that some of the other devices have, but it is a very durable form factor and the buttons are big.So I’ll hint at that.
And if you want more information about the Mini Vision 2, feel free to join us next Tuesday. And as I said, RAS Mobility will be here.
That’s all the announcements I have. Sheila, do we have any hands?
You do, Cindy.

[4:15] You may unmute. Hello, Cindy. Hey, Cindy, how’s it going? Good. Michael, I got my charger card for my headphones. Now I have a question. You said it was going to work out of both ears,
but it’s not. Is there any way to fix that? So what do you mean? You’re not getting audio out of both ears? Right. And are you using it wired or wirelessly? I’m using Bluetooth,
yeah. Okay, so you’re using Bluetooth. And what are you playing content on? Is it your phone?
Yeah, my phone. Okay. And it’s like music that’s only playing out of one ear? No, it’s everything music, shows, movies, whatever it is. So and voiceovers only coming out of one ear as well?
Um, I haven’t used voiceover yet, but okay. Okay. Well not okay. Um, it sounds like there may be a balance Setting and accessibility that we may need to change.

[5:18] That is that is unique because it should be playing out of both ears and I promise you it’s not as as problematic as it seems to have been so.

[5:28] Give me a call. I will be in tomorrow morning starting at 7 a.m AM our time. So give me a call and we can help troubleshoot it.
And if we need to, we can get a replacement headset out to you because, uh, it should be playing out of both channels out.
Is it playing out of only the left or right channel?

[5:46] The left one. Okay. Yeah. Give me a call tomorrow and we’ll do some further troubleshooting. Okay. All right. Thanks. Perfect. Cindy. Thank you for coming in. We appreciate it. Who is next? Uh, there, uh, no, Belinda. Sheila.

[5:59] Beth, you may unmute. Hey, Beth, how are you doing?
Hi, happy new year. Happy new year to you. Oh, I have a question.
Yeah, I play on my computer. I have Groove Music, that’s a Windows.
It plays my music maybe for about sometimes a half hour, sometimes an hour, sometimes a little more. Then it says like groove.
It says groove music can’t cannot play send feedback and you have to send feedback to Microsoft I guess to Microsoft but I don’t know how to do that because I you know, they,
I guess they act like you have to have an account with Microsoft.

[6:48] But so you gotta Like should I call the help desk or run it? So you can call?
Microsoft accessibility with that What it sounds to me like though is Groove Music is getting to a file in your music list that it can’t play the file back. It doesn’t have the ability to play that file format.
Do you know if it’s happening with the same file every time?
I don’t know. It doesn’t say like a certain file. It just says Groove.
Yeah. So, so here’s what I would try doing. Next time it happens. Are you a JAWS user? NVDA user? using zoom?
Um, I use, um, system access. Okay.
I don’t know what it is in system access in NVDA and in JAWS. There is a option to read the entire screen with JAWS key or NVDA key plus B
for box, and that reads the whole dialogue box, that message that tells you the file cannot be played should have the name of the file that cannot be played,
in that message itself, even if System Access isn’t reading it out outright.
So what I would do is A, reach out to Microsoft Accessibility. If that’s the path you want to go down or B, see if you can get the name of the file that it’s having problems playing and either remove it from your groove music library or from your music playback list.
Because as I said, it sounds like it’s trying to play a format it can’t play.
Oh, okay. Yep. Yeah.

[8:18] Because it stops playing everything. Exactly. Yeah, so hopefully one of those will help you there, Beth.
Okay. Okay, thanks. Thank you. If anybody has any tech questions, raise your hand. We’d also love to hear if you got any new gadgets over the holidays or any gadget services, anything like that.

[8:36] So who do we got next? Rick, you may unmute. Hey Rick, how you doing?

[8:43] Rick Troiano, you can unmute, sir. While we’re waiting for that, Belinda, do we have any hands in Clubhouse?
We do not at the moment. Okay.
There we go. Okay. There you go. You got it. Good job. Okay. How you doing? Can everybody hear me okay? Yep, we can hear you.
Okay, great. Here’s what’s going on.

[9:06] I have an iPhone 13. I’m all updated, downloaded, all that kind of stuff. When I go to access the bar, and I say to Siri, open bar, Siri gives me all kinds of weird stuff,
like stuff about space or it will just say hello or it just it’s it’s really acting weird and it’s,
only on bard it’s only when i can go to access a bard uh in this update series had some issues with iOS 16.2 on the phone.

[9:59] Whatever they have done, they kind of screwed up some stuff in the background. Well, they sure did.
Yeah, you’re not the only one. A lot of people have been having serious problems with this update. So hopefully in the next update, they’ll resolve some of these issues.

[10:16] Sometimes it doesn’t always recognize the app you’re trying to open. What I would suggest is try restarting your phone. Do you ever restart your phone, like shut it off, turn it back on again? Do you ever do that?
About twice a day. Oh really? So you’re actually shutting it off, powering it down, turning it back on again. Powering it down, turning it back on, yeah.
And you’re not getting any other luck with it working. It just does the same thing. It doesn’t recognize BARD.
It doesn’t recognize BARD. I have to do it like three or four times, or I say something else and then I go back to Bard and it’ll recognize Bard.
Until they fix it, you might want to move the Bard icon to somewhere that you can access it easily to get it open with a double click. I know that’s not a perfect solution, but you might just be,
battling a losing battle if you just continue to try and get Siri to open Bard.
Yeah, I didn’t think about that because I have like 14 pages. So yeah, maybe I’ll move it to my My home page something that could also help you as well without having to move your apps around to that
I do in I’ve never had good luck with Siri. I mean every once in a while she works well for me, but if you didn’t know.

[11:39] Directly above your dock. There’s that page changer where it’ll say like page one page two page three If you double tap on that now, it’ll bring up your spotlight search.
And then you can just put in B A R and towards the top of your screen, you should be able to find right there.
So you could also do it. You can also do from your home screen, a three finger swipe down and you’ll get that same search box. Yep.
Okay, the gotcha with the home screen why I don’t typically recommend that too much is you can’t be too high on your screen Or you’ll bring down your notification center. So.

[12:16] Okay. Yeah, either way three fingers swipe down from about the middle of the screen or one finger double tap on that page Which will bring you into spotlight Which is where you can search type in bar or just a couple of letters and then it will find your or a Bard right there towards the top of the screen.
One last tip for Braille screen input users and I appreciate Herbie for bringing this to my attention because I was not aware of the fact that you could do this but if you switch to Braille screen input on your rotor,
you can actually start typing B-A-R right there and then it’ll say Bard Mobile and you can two finger flick to the right to activate Bard as well.
So hopefully that helps you in the interim.
It doesn’t solve the problem but it gives you a few other solutions.
And that search function will work on any app. So you could just hit that search box, type in anything you want and open anything from right there. So that just might be faster if you have a lot of pages of apps.
Yeah. All right. Thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
All right. I will. All right. Who do we got next? Scott.

[13:21] Hello, Scott. All right. I have a possible answer for this as a follow-up. All right, Scott. Let’s hear it.
The actual name of the app is Bard Mobile. I usually have pretty good success telling Siri, open Bard Mobile.
Oh, yeah. That might be a good…
Yeah, if he’s just saying Bard, he’s not saying the full name, maybe it’s confusing. That’s probably out. I’m sure it’s my guess, my immediate guess anyway.

[13:50] Because if you give the exact name of the app, then it might, I think, usually now some…
Now here lately though I’ve noticed that especially with 16.2 I’ve noticed that sometimes if,
If you say the exact name, it won’t… Or if you say the name of the app and what you think may be the exact name, it probably is. It’ll sometimes say something like, I will need to do something or I will… I couldn’t find…
Or the closest thing I found to it, like it thinks you’re looking up a location or something, some sort. you know, it’ll do something unexpected. Even if you say open this or that, it’ll still come.
Siri seems to be a little more, a little harder to hear lately. Maybe it’s, you know, if you realize how old it is, it’s like 12 years old, I think. She is the oldest smart assistant.

[14:51] Yeah, Scott, if you didn’t know in this new current update, you can now just tell Siri to restart your device and it will restart it. You don’t have to go into the menus and all of that.
So for those of you who need to restart, you can ask Siri to do it now.

[15:09] But I, but I did, but of course, as far as getting the barred app, you know, to, to get it to open the barred app, it might be helpful to say open barredmobile. So yeah, that’s a good tip.
Try that and, and let’s see if that works for you. Thanks, Scott.
All right. Linda, do we have any questions in clubhouse? We do. We have Kim. All right. Hey, Kim, how’s it going?
Going good. Can you hear me? We can hear you loud and clear.
Oh, okay, because my button said mute and I thought.
Does that mean I’m unmuted? Just a tip for the person who’s having trouble with BARD, I still haven’t updated yet. I’m on 15.7 and every time I think about it, I hear about a new
problem. But what I do, there are some apps that I just never close and BARD is one of them. So all All I have to do is go to my app switcher to get to Bard.
But there’s like four or five apps that I just never close if that’s any help.

[16:15] Well, thank you. Now, I will make everybody aware, and I’m not sure everyone experiences this.
This could be an intermittent thing, but in current 16.2, which you haven’t updated to yet, so you’re lucky, when you’re on a phone call, the app switcher doesn’t always work.
So if you’re on a call and you go into the app switcher, you get stuck and you’re not able to switch through the apps using the app switcher. So just be cognizant of that when you’re- I didn’t even know you could do that.
Yep, you can do that. Yep, you can do that. Yep, yep.

[16:50] I’m gonna stay here until I absolutely have to update, I think.
At some point you will, but if it’s working for you, then do what makes you feel the most comfortable. There’s no reason to mess it up if it’s working for you.
Okay. Thanks.
Thanks. Have a great day.
You too. Anybody else in Clubhouse? Not at the moment.
All right. Back to Zoom. All right. Pam. Hey, Pam. How’s it going?
Doing well. If we can just get through this weather situation today and not have a tornado, I’ll be happy. All right. Hopefully that’ll happen for you.
What?
I wanted to suggest to the one having problems with getting the Bard app to open. Now, I will confess I very rarely ever use Siri and I’ve always been that way.
I just I use her when I have to, when I’m in a big hurry, whatever, or if I don’t know where to look up something.
But something I have heard other people say, And it makes sense to me and it they say it works and that is when you open.

[18:05] Bring up Siri. Don’t just Immediately plunge in and say open such-and-such.

[18:13] Wait a second or two because,
Sometimes if you jump right in in, Siri will not hear the first word or a couple of words that you said. So you bring up Siri,
you’re still holding the button down, and you wait a couple of seconds and then say open whatever.
Because if you don’t, Siri might say, well, what do you want to know about such and such? So you might want to try that as well.
And I can only suggest that because I’ve heard other people say that it worked for them. Yeah, especially if you’re using Bluetooth headphones of any kind.
You definitely want to wait that one second in the beginning because a lot of the Bluetooth headphones have what’s called latency, which is a little bit of a delay.
So if you jump right in and you hit the Siri button and just start talking, It might not catch the first few words that you say. So you might want to start Siri,wait a second or two, and then speak.

[19:21] Got it. Thanks. Thank you. Do you have someone else? Go ahead. Sorry, Bill.
Triple G. Greg, you can go ahead.
Hey, Greg. How’s it going? Hey. Hi, Michael. Hi, Marty. How are you? Hey, hey. Happy New Year to you.
Happy New Year to you. Two quick ones. One, have you heard of a monster microphone? And if so, are they any good?
Got one for Christmas. And then the other real quick one is, and you’ve probably addressed this before, and this is probably an iPhone update issue.
Every time I dictate something on the iPhone, like say I put in something like, Sheila is so cool on my iPhone.
It messages who I ever send that message to. It messages like twice or even three times sometimes.
So it double dictates or triple dictates. Sheila is so cool.

[20:19] And I’m just wondering if that’s a bug fix that I can fix with updating or if anyone’s heard of that. So I think Sheila’s just tapped your phone so she can re-emphasize it.
Especially if it’s only when you say that line.
No, no, it’s when I say anything. Have you have you updated to whatever the current is? What do you know what operating system you’re on right now?Which one?
I’m on 16, the first version of 16. Yeah.
Yeah. You might want to try and bump up to 16.2. If you’re on just the first version of 16, there’s been a lot of bug fixes.
It’s not perfect at 16.2, but it does actually fix a lot of stuff. Another thing I can suggest is if you’re going to text someone and you’re having issues doing it totally through Siri, I would say go into your messages and go to the body of the message,
of the person that you want to send a message to and dictate that way into it. So for example,
you would go to Sheila, you know, in your list of messages, then go down to the message box, and then you can dictate the message that way. And hopefully that will solve that problem. It works better that way than trying to do the whole entire thing through Siri.

[21:41] Okay, okay. And by the way, Sheila, you’re really cool. Any words on Monster?
I was just looking at this microphone. It looks like a dynamic microphone, which means it’s going to pick up your voice if you’re close to it like this, or if you back up a little bit.
So it’s a good microphone. It looks like I have no personal experience with this microphone, But from everything I was able to see on it, it looks kinda kinda handy. It’s it’s for karaoke. Is that correct?

[22:14] I guess so or for just talking on the community. I’ll try it out.
The only issue is I don’t think it has a headset with it, so I’d have to plug in.
Most of them don’t. Is that particular microphone USB only or is it USB and XLR or only XLR? Do you know what it is?
USB and XLR, I do believe. Yeah. I would look on the bottom or maybe on the side of the microphone and see if there’s a headphone plug-in on there.
If there is, then what you do is you get a regular headphones that have that kind of plug that sometimes they have a small version, sometimes they have a larger version, but on that one,
it sounds like probably, my guess would be a small version. What you do is you take your headphones,
you plug it into the microphone, then you take the microphone, plug it into the computer via USB, because I’m assuming, which is dumb of me, by the way, don’t ever assume that you don’t have an an interface unless you do.
But if you don’t, then you plug the mic directly into the computer.
Then what you do is you can monitor your headset through the microphone.
Your volume, your mix, and all of that stuff. You can mess around with that once you get it plugged in and see.
If you do have an interface, then of course you plug the microphone into the interface, interface into the computer, headphones into the interface, and then go from there.
Okay, okay.

[23:37] And if I have questions, I’ll just bug Michael someday. Yeah, let us know and we’ll do it every weekend to help you out.
I would say if it doesn’t work right out of the gate when you plug it in, you might need to go into your system settings and maybe change a couple thingsin your audio output so that it’s actually going out to the right place. That might be the only other thing you have to do.
Okay, thank you. Happy New Year.

[23:59] Happy New Year to you, good luck. let us know how that microphone works out for you.
I yeah people will be hearing it tomorrow night on open mic. So yeah, all right sounds good Thank you. Yep,
All right. You ready for zoom? Yes, we are gala. Hey dala. How you doing? Hey guys, okay So I have a question maybe some maybe somebody can help me,
Okay, is there any Gadgets that would work on the tv?
For that place to describe to you what it actually complex.

[24:32] It’s kind of like the movie theater. Okay, there’s a couple of things here. So first of all, do you do streaming or is this just on your regular TV?
It’s on a Maruko like Disney Plus and Netflix and stuff like that.
Okay, so not every single movie has all of the closed caption or closed caption and description and all that, you have to make sure that you have it turned on,
and also that whatever show or movie that you’re watching has that available to you.
Also, are you using a Roku box? Is that what you said you were using to have all your apps and stuff on there?
Yes, sir. You might want to go into the Roku settings itself and see if there’s a couple of things that you can turn on.
I know Roku also has the voice option where you can use your voice on the remote control to be able to open apps or look for different things on there and use your voice if that’s easier for you.
So a lot of those settings are actually in the Roku settings itself. And then you would just have to make sure that the show that you’re watching offers,
the extra descriptive translation and stuff.
Awesome. And just so you know, not every show has that. So.
Okay. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. That, that works. Yeah. Yeah. No problem at all.

[25:59] Okay. Bye. Yep.

[26:02] Right. We have Herbie here in Clubhouse. Hey Herbie, how’s it going? You’re supposed to be on vacation.
No, that’s not till next week. Oh, okay.
I’m flattered you want to send me off that much sooner. Wouldn’t you rather have two weeks than only one week?
No, I’d rather actually have none because I am too much needed around here. But that’s neither here nor there.
You never know, I might still try to be on the call next week I’ll actually get to join in at 10 in the morning instead of at noon.
So there you go. I hope you’ll be in your time zone, Marty. Yeah.
One thing to mention though is Greg, if your microphone does not have a headphone jack, you can still use your current, or even if it does, you can still use your current headphones
that you have plugged into the computer. All you need to do is once your mic is plugged into a USB port, leave your USB headphones plugged in and in the control panel, go to sounds and go to the recording tab and set your default mic to the monster mic.
That’s all you need to do.
You’ll still have your regular headset for your input and your monster mic for your output and you’ll be a roaring success.
I think the only thing you can’t monitor yourself when you do it that way though. First of all, you can and if you really want to monitor yourself, which is that is a really personal preference thing, I find most people actually don’t like to do that.

[27:30] Including myself. But if you want to, there are two ways. One, again, if the mic has a headphone jack, then you can do it that way.

[27:38] But the other way is on the microphone properties, if you go to the properties button and you go to the listen tab, you can check the box and route it through your headset.
There is a latency, but it will let you hear yourself if that’s what you really want to do.
But I do find that most people because I have this discussion a lot when helping people with station playlists You know, I mentioned there’s something about them having to hear themselves through the mic and then most people with my experience I really don’t want to hear myself.

[28:12] That really comes down to a personal preference thing and it also comes down to do you even have a regular set of Corded headphones too for that matter that would even plug into the mic
So there’s multiple ways to solve that problem, but thank you her because I appreciate that because yeah, it you can you can have different inputs and outputs on both windows and Mac depending on whatever pie. Yep.
So, yep. So really boils down to personal preference and what you want and what equipment we have access to and stuff like that.

[28:45] So and it’s painful because I’m actually having to give windows advice today, but to see, know, top goes. But, yep.

[28:55] Thanks, Harvey. Della, I want to go back to you and your your message because the irony so I was looking on,
Roku’s accessibility website and they post a picture of the button you need to press four times to enable accessibility Which seems to be a little?

[29:18] Overhanded I guess or a little out of touch because a picture doesn’t help However, I did do some further research and there’s a star button which is directly.

[29:29] Below into the right of the up down left and right navigation pad So it’s going to be on that row of buttons below that navigation pad on the far far right hand side if you press that fairly quickly and.

[29:44] In steadily four times Then your TV will start speaking to you and it will tell you you know What elements you have highlighted on the screen and how you can?
Interact with those devices. It is the screen reader for Roku is what it’s called used to be called accessibility guide and that’ll allow you to go in and when you’ve went into something like Disney plus and Disney plus is great about this.
I would say most of their titles have audio description. You can always go to ADP dot ACB dot org to search a specific title to see if the audio description is available.
But once you’ve started playing a piece of content that has that audio description, if If it doesn’t immediately start playing, press that center OK button, choose the languages option and then you can choose English, AD or different language AD if you need that,
other language with audio description and it’s available.
So hopefully that’ll help you with jumping in and using the screen reader on your Roku device and getting started. Again it’s that button on the far right below the up down left and right pad.
You press it four times and it will start talking to you.

[31:00] And my mom goes, yeah, no problem. And on those remotes are is it the same on every Roku remote? Or is it just a specific model? Do they all keep them the same? How does that work on the,
road? Okay, unless your device is super old, the Roku remote are pretty much the same. So you just,
press that button and you should four times and you should be good to go. How old is your Roku that you have? Oh, goodness gracious, probably seven years old. Oh, wow. Okay. They last but you You should be good to go if you have any problems.
There is a Roku accessibility webpage that isn’t the most accessible.
Gotta appreciate that. But it definitely is available if you need any further assistance or reach back out to us, okay, Dahlia?

[31:44] I really appreciate it. Thank you all. No problem, good luck. Thanks for joining us.
Do we have any other hands anywhere? Cause I’m not seeing any. No, not here.
All right, and Belinda?
Perfect. So Marty, I’ve been playing with automation lately. Oh boy, here we go.
We do have one here, just hang on a second and I’ll get to them.
And I’ve got one here too now. Let’s take zoom while Belinda’s getting her hand on class. Teresa, go ahead.
Hey Teresa, how you doing?
Okay, I have a question. Okay. It kind of has to do with the e-reader from the NLS issued out.
And I was, the other day I downloaded a book from, from Bard in Braille and it’s got several volumes, but it started at the second volume instead of, you know, the first, you know,
like volume two of 10 volumes.
I said, wait a minute, what’s going on here? That was kind of strange.
I don’t know if I need to go back in and delete it and then try again or what.

[32:50] Yep. I would just go delete the book that you downloaded and then try to redownload it and hopefully then Start with volume one if it doesn’t then get the BR number,
For that book or the title and reach out to your local library and let them know that it’s skipping volume one,
Okay, you know because I haven’t even gone into it. I hate to think how many other volumes got skipped.

[33:15] Besides just number one. Yeah, it could just be a computer glitch too. You should be good to go I have not seen that happen. But for me the first thing I would do if that happened is to.

[33:26] Delete the book and then redownload and see if that fixes it. Okay, I’ll do that then.

[33:34] No problem Certainly, all right. We have Ray here in Clubhouse. Hey Ray, how you doing?

[33:43] Good morning Marty Michael Belinda and Sheila have a question recommendation if you have one about that playing DVDs on a Windows 10 and also using JAWS.

[33:55] You have a DVD player right now on your machine or you don’t have one We are or not. We have one, but I’m not sure which one we’re using but it’s a little difficult to use but Something that’s more accessible and easier to,
Maneuver and navigate so you do have a DVD reader in your computer though, correct?

[34:16] Okay, so what I use on Windows is VLC,
It’s by a company called video land. It’s a nonprofit organization Organization if you just search for video land or VLC you’ll find it and then when you go in there,
You can go into the menu option and choose open DVD and open the DVD and start playing it from there,
Your spacebar will work as your play pause,
Your previous and next chapter will be your arrow keys and then to turn the volume up or down You just use up and down arrow keys. Okay. Well, thank you so much I’ll give that a try and great show and everybody have a happy new year,
You too, thank you very much.
Thank you. All right, you’ve got another hand in here, Tim, you can unmute.
Hey Tim, how you doing? Happy New Year.
Oh, happy New Year guys. Wait for my computer to stop talking to me. Okay. Um.

[35:12] I have a problem with CIU’s theory. I’m very low vision,
but I also have Parkinson’s and I can’t do voiceover because I can’t do the gestures.
I mean, I’ve tried and the gestures just don’t work for me because I think my banger say too much.
Yeah. So what I will say right out of the gate here is you are a perfect candidate to use a voice control and voice control allows you to use your whole phone with your voice. So you can open apps, close apps, do whatever you need to do, dictate all of that.
So you should definitely take a look at voice control and that’ll help you a lot be able to use your phone more than you are now.
Oh, I’ve never heard of voice control. Yes, built into your phone. It’s for people just like you who maybe can’t use their hands as good as they would like.

[36:18] And even if you’re someone who has low vision or no vision and you need to use voice over, you can audio, which means with your voice, do the voice over gestures so that you can hear what’s on the screen.
So for example, if you’re on your home screen and you have voice control turned on, you can say, you know, swipe right and it will then say Safari, swipe right.
It’ll say mail, you know, swipe left. It’ll go back to Safari again.
Open mail. It’ll do all of those things for you.
So and it does work with voiceover and you can use the voiceover gestures auditorily and it will do all the things you need it to do.
Okay, now of course, well I use the Bluetooth headset and I use Siri to make all my phone calls and texts and all that stuff.
But the problem I keep getting is my stupid phone. I’ll ask, I’ll say, call so and so and it will say which one, you know,
or it says, or I ask it something.
It’ll say, here’s what I found on the web.

[37:33] And of course, I can’t see anything on my phone.

[37:37] How do I get Siri not to, I’ve tried to convince Siri that I’m blind and not to do that.
And it just keeps, it just keeps doing that. So a couple of things I’ll say here.
One is you wanna try and put as much information for a person into one contact.
So for example, Jim Smith, you wanna put the home phone number in there and also put mobile phone number in there.
And there’s, you could label both of those with the little dropdown menu. And then when you go to call Jim Smith, you can say, call Jim Smith home, or you can say call Jim Smith mobile.
But let’s say you maybe have a couple names that are similar.

[38:27] There is in your contacts also a space for a nickname that you could put whatever kind of nickname you wanna put in there.
So for example, maybe Jim Smith is your best friend and his name is Jim Smith, that maybe you call him Bubba or something like that.
You could put Bubba in the nickname and then you could just say call Bubba home or call Bubba mobile and it will do that.
Okay. You might need a little help with that from someone just to help you get it going the first time, you know, with the moving some of your contacts around and things like that if you have trouble with it.
But once you get it sorted out, it’d be much easier. And it’s called voice control.
Yeah, it’s called voice control in the accessibility settings. Okay, that’s just about okay.
Yeah, you can actually tell Siri to enable voice control now, too. Yeah.

[39:27] You should be able to use voice control no problem with an iPhone 11.

[39:36] Okay Also, but is there any way to stop Siri from saying, you know which one or I mean like like the other day I was trying to get it to call Best Buy.
It’s the same call Best Buy in South Charleston.
Yeah you’re gonna have something that broad you’re gonna have a little bit of issue with because for example when you say call Best Buy there’s so many of them. You might want to try and narrow down your search to the location where you are so for example, where do you live like what’s the city you live in.
I live in Cross Plains, West Virginia, third world state West Virginia.
So you would want to say call Best Buy.

[40:22] In and put your city, you know, I do that. And I say, Well, the one that’s here is in South Charleston. If you wait, if you if you do wait a couple of seconds, it will list a list of them. And she’ll start from the top and say, there’s this one,
do you want to call this one? And you can say no, it’ll go to the next one. And then you say yes on the one it wants you
wanted to call. Okay. Yeah, well, it just usually just shows me that when I touch on those and nothing happens. Yeah. If you
wait for her, she’ll talk you through it. It’s just that you’ve got to be a little bit patient. What’s that? I think that might be broken in one of the later versions. I know exactly what you’re talking about. But I also know he’s talking about to where serial just pop up on the screen and give you the list. And she,
now that I think about it hasn’t actually been reading that list to me. That may not be working properly right now.
Okay. Well, it won’t, it won’t read the list to me.

[41:26] Yeah. It’s supposed to, it’s supposed to. And hopefully that’s one of the things that they can fix in the near future.
This is one of the incidences where, where I would definitely recommend reaching out to Apple accessibility and letting them know the challenges that you’re facing, including the fact that Siri is displaying results on the phone, but you can’t interact with those results.
And it would be helpful for her to prompt you for which one you’d like to call and actually ask you by name or list them off.
Because I think I have observed what you’re saying.
I live in a small enough area that most of the time when I tell Siri to call business, it’ll call it right away.
But I do remember what Marty was saying, where Siri would say, which one? We have Walmart here and Walmart here. And then you could tell it which one. And it hasn’t been doing that.
Yeah, I tried to tell them to call best buy.

[42:18] In South Charleston, which is where the best buy is. So it’s not ideal, but a solution for that in the interim could be to add that specific best buy once you know their phone number to your contacts, and then you should be able to call,
best buy and it will call the one that’s in your contacts.
Okay, well, like I said, I just got a new television. But I’ve talked to, I finally got them and talked to them and they sorted out the problem.
Well, good. I’m glad to hear that.
And, uh, good luck with, with Siri. Hopefully some improvements will come in the near future. I hope so.
That thing drives me crazy. Yeah. Siri is having some problems right now and everyone’s experiencing different issues. So you just got to be a little bit patient.
Hopefully they’ll get the Siri issue resolved sooner than later.
That’s the hope.
And experiment with voice control. Okay, thank you. Yeah, good luck to you.
Okay, thanks. All right, we have a race in Clubhouse. All right. Triple D is back up.
Hello, Greg. Hey, Greg. Hello. Hello.

[43:28] I have a quick question just about TV. Michael, what was the thing you said to do on Roku-enabled TVs?
Does it work even if you don’t have Roku built in?
Then I just wanted to get your opinion on a TV that they saw, did at convention last summer, the Hisense X class TV.

[43:57] I don’t know who makes it. I think it was. I think it’s a Best Buy. Hisense I think is a Best Buy brand. Yeah, yeah.

[44:05] So I wanted to know if you have experienced that and if that’s going to give me any, as far as having a built-in screen reader or audio description, if that’s going to give me any advantages. So thanks.
One thing, Greg, I will tell you right away is that if you’re going to use an external box like Apple TV or like a Roku or something like that, then the actual TV you get isn’t
going to make a huge bit of difference because you’re not actually going to use the interface inside the TV that comes with it.
You’re going to be using whatever box you decide to buy, whether it’s, like I said, Roku or Apple. what you’re going to be using, not what’s actually in the TV.
Now, if you really want to get Roku, what a lot of people do is they actually get a TCL TV that actually has Roku built into the
TV. That’s what they use is the Roku software. And then you don’t need to buy an external box, you just get the TV. And then you get the Roku remote. And you just use Roku directly within the TV. If you’re going to use anything else, Apple or,
any of the other ones, then it’s just gonna be about which box you buy.
And then the TV itself is really gonna be about what size you want and the kind of quality of picture you can see the picture at all.

[45:27] And Hisense does also bundle Roku software. I just looked it up with some of their TVs.
So that I don’t specifically have any details about that particular model. You mentioned Greg, maybe worth searching Hisense on acbmedia.org to see if there was a podcasted version of that specific session in order to answer your question about enabling accessibility.
And then I want to come back and talk on audio description for a moment for people as well.

[45:57] So in order to enable accessibility, what used to be called accessibility mode, I believe, but the voice screen reader, you quadruple press the button that’s on the right-hand side of the row of buttons that’s directly below the navigation pad.
So you have an up, down, left, and right with an OK in it. If you slide your finger down the remote from the down key, you’ll find a row of buttons And then slide your finger all the way to the right and that button will be the button you press four times to enable text to speech.
It’s a toggle. So pressing it four times again will disable it. And I haven’t done this on a Roku in a while.
I believe the first time you do it, it’s going to give you some basic directions for navigating with the Roku interface.
Now when I wanted to come back and talk on with audio description, and I think this is important for a lot of people. It doesn’t matter in I would say 98% of the cases
what you’re using to get the streamed content. If the streamed content allows you to change the language then it’s worth looking in the languages menu to
see if audio description is available. So on my Apple TV remote I believe if I remember right we haven’t set in the settings on Apple TV to always playaudio description when available, but I believe you can get to the languages menu by pressing.

[47:22] The up arrow or the up direction on the direction pad while playing video content.
And then you have like subtitles and then audio languages and different apps do it differently. There’s a little bit of confusion with that, but as long as you can get into the languages settings, then you should be able to choose English or proper language for your needs,
that’s AD or audio description in order to get that to start playing in your device.
So hopefully that helps a little, Triple G.
Did we lose him? It looks like, all right, Sheila, do we have any other hands in Zoom?
Yes, Theresa.
Hey, Theresa. We are not hearing you, Theresa. Theresa, you can unmute.

[48:02] Yep. You’re still muted, dear.

[48:05] Okay, this is Teresa. I’m glad I’m following Triple G because I saw that TV last summer and it had built-in
apps and the remote, when you operated it, it talked.
And I put my hands on it.
Oh, okay. Did you like it? Was it easy to use?

[48:31] Yeah, it was. I didn’t and I even put my name in a drawing but unfortunately I didn’t win.

[48:37] But he said you could find it at Walmart. Yeah, I believe Hisense is a Walmart brand.

[48:44] You just have to find out if you want that exact model.

[48:49] Otherwise, so two things you would if that particular TV that you saw last summer has something specific that no other TV that’s a Hisense has,
you’d have to get that model and try and find that model in Best Buy. If all of the high sense TVs have whatever feature that you’re looking for in it, then you would just have to find out how do
you turn it on, on whichever high sense TV you end up deciding to buy, if you’re going to use their software and not use like an external box like Roku or Apple TV or any of those.

[49:22] Right, but the way he talked, it was like you didn’t need all the, you know, the external boxes, you know, because it had built in apps. I don’t know if these are for the apps or for the streaming
services, or what? Well, every TV, every smart TV has apps built into it. The issue is not every TV’s.

[49:44] Software, which is the system that you would navigate around to find all the apps, click on them and do all that stuff. Not all of the systems in there, the software is great, you know, that’s That’s why a lot of people choose to go with Roku or Apple TV or something else,
just because they don’t always keep up on the software.
It changes year to year depending on the model of the TV. It’s harder to figure it out.
When you go with something that’s really popular like Roku, Apple TV, stuff like that, then you’re gonna be able to keep up more. They’re gonna keep the software updated.
You will get more people knowing how to use those devices because there’s more of them out there.
So, and they also implement more of the accessibility features and things like that.
So that’s why a lot of people prefer that. And if they switch and they get a new TV, they can still keep their same box. They either get a new Roku or take the same old Roku and just plug it into their new TV.
So it’s really kind of a preference to be honest with you.
And it’s kind of funny that Triple G should bring that up because I remember the gentleman that showed it to me, he was talking about how the Macy’s parade would be described and also.

[51:09] The Roses parade and I was following that yesterday and of course I couldn’t hear the description. I mean, I couldn’t hear any audio description. I mean, I could hear what they were
saying when the flows came by, I like to watch the parade, kind of because I have a heart for marching bands. I was in my high school marching band, so I always have a special place in my heart for marching bands. That’s a side note, but anyway.

[51:38] Well, Teresa, we appreciate that. And yeah, it looks like you should be able to find some more details. You can do a search for TVs on ACB media to get more details about that. And yeah, so thank you for reaching out.
Appreciate it.
And Markle and Marty, you’ve got five minutes, guys. Okay, thank you. And I’ll mute, and I’m sorry.
No problem. Thanks for coming. And yeah, we’re at 55 after, so Marty, it looks like we’re clearing hands in Zoom. Is there any hands in Clubhouse?Otherwise, Marty will wrap it up for us. Oh, we’re good.

[52:11] Perfect. All right. Well, thanks everybody for another Tuesday here in Unmute Presents. If you want to get ahold of us, you can email us at unmute presents at gmail.com.
If you have questions, comments, if there’s anything you would like to see or hear about, let us know.
And don’t forget about one week from today, next Tuesday, we’re going to be having Raz Mobility here to talk about their phones.
So that should be a fun event. And Michael, you want to go through the podcast one last time and let everyone know how they can reach out and get those?
Yeah, so if you go and subscribe to unmute presents on your favorite podcast app You can get access to Sunday’s day one content that posted.

[52:56] Thursday’s audio setup that posted and last Tuesday’s repeat of the unmute presents photography session to This call will be in the podcast feed probably in about half hour 45 minutes from when the call ends and then this coming Thursday,
Marty and I are doing a part two of our audio setups And I’m not going to commit to anything on Sunday, but I think I have an idea and we may have a guest presenter,
showing loopback and how he’s using loopback with some of the audio setups that,
Marty and I are working with so definitely get tuned in if you’re interested in that type of content and You can reach out to us at unmute presents at gmail.com. That’s all I have,
I’d like to thank Sheila and Bell for helping us out today. We so appreciate all of your assistance Again, if you want to get a hold of us on mutepresents.gml.com and everybody have a great and we’ll see you in the community.

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