Talking Tech 22nd April 2025

In the final edition of this 13 year long weekly program: Damo reflects on his eleven and a half years with Vision Australia and explains his new role with the Commonwealth’s Administrative Review Tribunal; He demonstrates his recently acquired fully accessible Air Hover X1 drone; and He explains the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses app change from Meta View to Meta AI.   To access Talking Tech, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Damo shows us his recently acquired WEWalk Smart Cane 2. This includes a description of the cane, along with feature demonstrations including its object detection, favourite locations and more. This product is available from the Vision Store, shop.visionaustralia.org. There is also a reminder to tune to next week’s program which will contain significant news about the Talking Tech program and podcast.   To access Talking Tech, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we cover: A description of the fully accessible Yamaha FGDP30 electronic drumkit Advice of a battery draining issue with the WeWalk Smart Cane 2; and News of the most recent update to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow, you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech. To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we cover: The recently introduced Projects function included in ChatGPT for both the online and mobile app environments; The ‘dictate’ function in the AI tool of Freedom Scientific known as FS Companion; A prototype haptic device for following live sport, known as One Court which was on show at the recent CSUN Assistive Technology conference; Damo’s account of his back up power system, to contend with the impact of Cyclone Alfred.   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we cover: Information about the Vision Australia Alexa Smart Home Program with inquiries welcome at [email protected]; News of the latest updates to the BT Speak from Blazie Technology with further information at https://blazietech.com; News of the Orbit Speak from Orbit Research with further information at https://orbitresearch.com News of the latest software updates from Apple.   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News of the imminent release of Apple software updates. Then from his CSUN discoveries, Damo’s account of: two new distance camera low vision aids, the  Magnibot from Trisight and the Snowpad from Zoomax; A new braille display technology being developed by New Haptics; An AI mobility aid from Make Sense; Finally, we hear of Innosearch AI assisted shopping.   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week upon Damo’s return from the CSUN Assistive Technology conference in California, he begins a series of explanations of various products that took his attention. In this program he covers: The Glide mobility device from Glidance; The Echo Vision smart glasses from Agiga; and The Tactonom Reader Flex interactive tactile graphics reader from Tactocom.   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week while Damo returns from the CSUN Assistive Technology conference in California, Stephen speaks with Steve Monigatti, a Vision Australia Service Development Lead. The conversation includes: Steve’s 18 year history with Vision Australia; His current role; The various activities of Access Technology team members; Vision Australia’s involvement in the Federal Government Job access disability employment program (Https://www.jobaccess.gov.au ).   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week while Damo attends the CSUN Assistive Technology conference in California, we mark International Women’s Day in conversation between Stephen and blind assistive technologist Ramona Mandy. Ramona recalls her time as an Adult  Braille Training Instructor with Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, her 24 years with Humanware and explains her current role with the Monash Assistive Technology Society centre.   To access the program, presented each week by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we cover: News of the imminent roll out of Amazon Alexa Plus; Information about a blindness and low vision oriented Linux Resource at http://blindlinux.com. (Note no ‘s’ before the ‘:’). Damo is off to the assistive technology conference at CSUN in California and talks about his preparation for the adventure. To access the program, presented by Stephen Jolley and Damo McMorrow, you can go to varadio.org/talkingtech To write to the show use [email protected] this Vision Australia Radio program: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate?src=radio&type=0&_ga=2.182040610.46191917.1644183916-1718358749.1627963141See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.