That Blind Tech Show 08: Twitterrific on the Mac and Downcast is Back andSonos Gets 1 Bigger. (Transcription provided)

That Blind Tech Show Rolls Again. Bryan brings Allison and Jeff back to the sho to talk about some of the latest Tech news, gidgets and gadgets and the latest from Sonos. We are proud to announce that Twitterrific for the Mac is Back, Downcast just got an update and AOL Messenger is no longer.
Jeff gives us an update on the fire that hit Enchanted Hills Camp above Napa, CA and how we can all contribute and support #RebuildEHC.
Be sure to check the links below to learn more about what the heck we were talking about. :)

Check out the Twitterrific Blog and Subscribe to keep up with the latest from iConFactory
Google Bought Apple or Did they!
Twitterrfic for Mac is here
How to get apps back in iTunes
10 Safari Long Press Shortcut Gestures. Do you remember to ever long press?
Read more about Enchanted hills Camp #RebuildEHCand contribute what you can and lend your support.

Give by phone: Call Jennifer Sachs at 415-694-7333

 

See Transcription below.

 

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That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network.

 

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Transcription:
That Blind Tech Show: Twifferrific on the Mac and Downcast is Back andSonos Gets 1 Bigger. (Transcription provided)

[Music]

Alison:
Sonos One's which are the newest iteration of the play one, are the ones that have Lady A built-in.

[Music]

Alison:
I did put the Eyes Free Fitness app on my phone and I'm hoping that you know buying some of the workouts for that, I will literally have no excuse not to, not to do it because my phone is always with me no matter where I go.

Bryan:
Somebody in New Zealand had something about unboxing one very early before the rest of the world which.....

Alison:
Oh yes Jonathan was very very happy that you know when he get, when these items come out he gets them a day ahead everyone else because New Zealand is a day ahead.

Bryan:
He should let people know that.

[Laughter]

Alison:
He really doesn't gloat about that enough, but yeah.

Jeff:
So Alison you use your phone on a daily basis.

[Laughter]

Alison:
The face ID, I'm still, I find myself still kind of getting used to this new thing called face ID.

Jeff:
I want to see the Grinch again this year.

Bryan:
So you want me to come visit?

[Laughter]

Big smiles okay, three, two one, welcome back to yet another episode of that blind tech show.

I know it's been a very long time since we've been here in fact you've probably heard a lot of us on other great technology podcasts.

I know our friend Allison Hartley recorded one of her regular tech doctor podcasts as well as she was on with the great people over at main menu.

And you may have heard Jeff Thompson on with AT Banter and I believe he's got another podcast coming out with the good folks over at Mystic Access and you may have heard me on Blind Bargains but we finally got the band back together again and we're here to talk you through some of the holidays and the goings on now, so I'm going to go ahead and say yeah how you doing over there Allison.

Alison:
I'm doing okay, it's the day three of a four-day weekend so I'm just kind of milking the the time off work for all it's worth, I've been reading good books that I'll talk about later and eating lots of food, lots of pie, so much pie.

Bryan:
There's never such a thing as too much pie.

Alison:
No never.

Bryan:
What about you Jeff, how has your Thanksgiving holiday been?

Jeff:
Well pie is a continuum.

Alison:
Yep.

Jeff:
It's been great here, I've been bacheloring it, the family's been gone, and I'm living it here with the dogs, happy Thanksgiving, it's Thanksgiving everyday now.

Bryan:
I'm actually down in Florida still recording you see, we're all about bringing you the show.

Holidays don't stop us.

One thing I was very excited though on the plane ride down here, I was very excited some of you might have heard about therapy pigs getting kicked off planes.

[Pig noises]

I'm happy to report there was no therapy pig on my plane down here, just get old Nash in me.

How about you Allison, have you ever been on a plane with a therapy Pig?

Alison:
I have never been on the plane with anything more exciting than another guide dog, I have to say.

Bryan:
What about you Jeff have you ever traveled with any pigs?

Jeff:
No but it, it would wouldn't be that bad if it was therapy bacon.

Alison:
Oh yeah.

Bryan:
That is true, that is true and for those of you not hear about that story it's actually not the first time a therapy pig has gotten kicked off a plane so, go ahead and check that out, it was one of the more humorous stories and, you know, it's great that they stand up for our rights as guide dog service dog users, but seriously, therapy pigs.

[Pig noises]

Now Allison, I think you're probably the only disappointed one because I'm hearing the Soup Nazi said no soup for you, no home pod for you this year?

Alison:
Yeah I mean I have really no reason to be disappointed.

I have speakers coming out of my ears.

[Spring noise and laughter]

Alison:
Quite literally right now cuz I'm wearing headphones but, I am, I am still interested in getting the home pod when it comes out, home pods I should say, cuz I want to get a stereo pair.

I have my Lady A controlled Sonos speakers now, and I'm finding that that is honestly filling a lot of my needs in terms of playing satellite radio and playing any song that I could possibly think of.

I do still want to get the home pods because I hear that the sound quality is gonna be even that much better than the Sonos speakers, but I'm not, I'm not tearing my hair out, if these new Sonos hadn't come out I might have been a bit more disappointed, but I'm okay.

Jeff:
Now you said they're gonna be better sounding than the Sonos?

Alison:
They are, they're going to have more tweeters and better far-field microphones for understanding you, the only limitation in my opinion it's gonna be Siri, I know this is a controversial subject on an Apple themed podcast but, Siri is terrible.

Bryan:
You will get no argument out of me, Siri and I, we're not even dating anymore, the relationship is over and....

Unfortunately this is not surprising news, Apple you know when they used to meet their deadlines, we talked about it this summer, it was a little odd that Apple was talking about this, it almost reminds me of you know back 10 years ago when they used to say there's an attack coming, it's not coming today, it's not coming tomorrow, but it's coming, and I kind of feel that's the same thing with (inaudible)

Alison:
Yeah.

Bryan:
Apple pod, they're not gonna be out today, they're not gonna be out tomorrow, but they will be out, probably around the same time that the Amazon app comes to the Apple TV.

Alison:
I would, I would say you're probably right there, and I would say that when they do come out they're gonna be a couple of years behind all of the other smart speakers with better AI.

It's really, it's kind of gonna be sad almost.

I really I want to see Apple push forward in this arena, but unfortunately you know, I, I've played now with Google assistant, I've had a Lady A in my life, I have been playing even with Bixby on a, on a Samsung phone, and yes you give something up in terms of your data, and in terms of your privacy, but when you're putting security above all, the AI, and the assistance itself becomes very limited in what it can do, and it's really starting to show in Siri when there are so many more worthy competitors.

Bryan:
Yeah, the Apple really missed the boat on the the home assistant and you know, Tim Cook was wishy-washy on it for several years and now it's just gonna be a speaker, I really have no interest, I mean I'm very happy with my Echo devices, heck, I got a small apartment you know, I've got one in the living room.

They're $30.00 now over you know, the weekend...

Alison:
God Yeah.

Bryan:
I just don't have, I'm like, well do I really need another one, and I'm like, I've got one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and I don't spend much time in the kitchen so you know it's, there's no point really in getting another one but I, you just can't say no at that price and, how was the Google assistant, did you like it?

Alison:
I do, I actually I have a Google home speaker that I don't have plugged in at this point but on the Galaxy I mean it's just, you can just ask random questions and instead of saying, let me check the web for that, here's what I found, it actually just gives you the answer to your flipping question.

Bryan:
Yeah.

Alison:
It's really amazing and then you can ask like follow-up questions and it jives with what you were talking about and it answers intelligently.

I just, you know maybe the home pod speakers will come out and something about Siri will blow us out of the water or something out of the speakers, about the speakers will blow everything else out of the water because they've had a little bit more time, but I'm starting to get a little impatient with Apple's obsession with, I know they want to get it right, and I know they want to have a really polished user experience, but that user experience is starting to suffer because of that need to be so meticulous, and so perfect.

Jeff:
Well I think they've actually, having it come out next year might be a good plan for their stocks in a way because people are buying the eight, or the ten, those are big items, and you're talking about $349.00 here.

It's hard to comBryan when everybody else is you know flooding the market with these $29.00 minis, and dots, and Amazon, what do they have seven different items now in this department?

The Look, the Show, the Tap.

Alison:
Now Google has three, I mean, it's a lot.

Bryan:
And, I'm hearing about headphones, Bose, I think there is a set of Bose headphones which you know, I couldn't afford those, but that have the Google Home built into them so we're starting to see more and more even headphones with these kind of assistants built into them and, I think Apple, you know, they've just been left behind and, not every company needs a home assistant so, I really don't see what the marketplace unless you are a big music listener, you know, or have capitol to spend, I really don't see the point to it, I guess I don't have a fine ear for music because I think the Echo speaker sounds fantastic and everybody I know that's into music says, "Are you kidding?"

Alison:
Oh no, oh God, no no no no no. Especially the Dot.

The Dot is barely passable for spoken word, but even the big Echo, drives me crazy because it tries to simulate fake stereo, but it doesn't quite get it right on the one speaker so, it's, it drives me nuts.

Bryan:
What's the opposite of perfect pitch?

Because that's what I have.

[Laughter]

Jeff:
Either you have it, or you don't.

Alison:
Yeah.

[Laughter]

Jeff:
So with the Sonos, you have two of them, that's the Sonos one you have two of them.

Alison:
Yep.

Jeff:
That does perfect stereo?

Alison:
It does, yeah I have them equal distant from each other on a table, and the stereo separation is amazing, it's really beautiful.

Jeff:
Oh that's great.

Bryan:
Are there multiple different kinds of Sonos?

I've just heard phenomenal things about Sonos speakers, or is there one product line or are there different kind of product lines for the Sonos speakers.

Alison:
There are in the non smart, non Lady A connected Sonos products, there are three, well four technically different tiers of Sonos products, and it all depends on the number of tweeters that are in each speaker, and with all of them you can pair to get a stereo pair with the Play Ones, Play Threes, and Play Fives, but they become very expensive, and they have a sound bar, and they have a subwoofer for the television, but you couldn't pair Lady A with a skill now, to make all of your Sonos products somewhat controllable via Lady A, but the Sonos One's which are the newest iteration of the Play One, they look exactly the same except they have microphones, are the ones that have Lady A built-in.

Bryan:
Yeah well everything, everything seems to be getting smarter except Apple News, which you know, I often go through Apple news and my subscriptions when I'm putting this show together and, lately I've been noticing there's about two articles and then everything goes back six weeks, and they just don't seem to be coming out with a lot of content and as Jeff and I were talking about, a lot of ads you'll see an article, title of an article, title of an article, then an advertisement, and then a bunch of text, this is something about Apple and an ad and everything.

Jeff have you been using Apple News, and have you noticed how down hill it seems to have gone?

Jeff:
I've noticed it's changing a little bit at first, the ads you can't even read the ads because that, all it does is give you description of it, and you have to skip over it, so they're not trying to sell to the blind.

The thing that I noticed about Apple News is Apple shuts down at about four o'clock on Friday, there's no new news, they just kind of rehash the same stuff until Monday, and it's just like looking for an app update.

If I get one on on Saturday/Sunday, someone paid extra to have that pushed out.

Bryan:
Yeah maybe I should go back to Newsify and actually reading my RSS feed for technology news.

I'm not seeing that much content coming through there, I was I was really excited when Apple news came out because I thought it was gonna be great and I enjoyed it at first, I was using it all the time, but now I'm seeing less and less content and a lot of that content, there's nothing worse than when you're reading an article and like a paragraph into the article, all of a sudden advertisement is starts being read to you...

Alison:
Yep.

Bryan:
It drives me absolutely bonkers, and Jeff you actually said, and I'm curious because I read a lot of television recaps in Safari, where I'll say, Arrow episode, season six episode three recap, and it will, I'll find an article that will describe the action and a lot of times these articles, a paragraph in it starts reading an ad to me, you just got a pop-up blocker, now do you think those pop-ups might block those in article advertisements, or just really block pop-ups.

Jeff:
Actually it's not a pop-up blocker, that is native to the Safari app where you can turn that on or off and it blocks pop-ups.

Now some colleges, if you're a college student, they use pop-up so you might want to beware that you might be shutting off something and not being able to gain access to so, try it out.

What I got was Purify and that's P U R I F Y, it's a content blocker, and when you get that you, you purchase it, and I got it for a dollar ninety nine, I don't know if that was a Black Friday deal or a special over the holidays but, a dollar ninety-nine, it's very popular app according to Nick, my buddy up in Canada, and what it does is it works on your browser.

So what you do is you purchase it and then you have to go into your Safari app settings, go down and just below pop-up blocker, you're gonna find content blocker, and then you have to enable it by turning it on.

Bryan:
Allison, have you ever used any kind of pop-up or ad blockers or anything?

Alison:
I do also use Purify and I find that that eliminates a lot of the ads on the websites that I use.

What I love now also is reader mode for specific websites in iOS11, if you activate reader now, it's an actionable item and you can go to Auto reader and you can tell it that I either want reader to be active on this website all the time or, all the time for everything, so I have some very specific websites for which I just have reader all the time and I never have to worry about any extra crap on the webpage.

Bryan:
Where is that setting where you could set it specifically for an individual website?

Alison:
When you actually turn on reader and you've got reader selected, then there's an actions available, it might even be available for you to select it, and one of the actions is automatic reader when you flick down.

You double tap that and then it comes up with a message that says do you want to enable reader for all websites or just on this domain and, you could turn it on for just on this website, and so like 9 to 5 Mac for example and a couple of other more the, more of the busy Apple news sites, I have since I do so much Twitter reading on my phone, I've got automatic reader turned on and it's changed everything.

Bryan:
Yeah that's something I'll have to, you know I I use the reader all the time, but I, and I remember hearing about, that you know, you hear, about so many new settings but I've never played around with it so, that's something I'm really gonna have to make use of, and by the way if you're out there and if you know of any specific ad popup blocker that might work in individual apps, let us know, you could tweet us in at BlindTechShow or shoot us in an email at thatblindtechshow@ gmail.com, let us know about that.

This next thing is really interesting because I was down here listening, I have an app where I'm able to get any NFL audio feeds and everything, and the one thing that drives me bonkers because my dad's a little older so sometimes he forgets is I'm watching the Washington Redskins game here on Thanksgiving with him and I'm listening to the Redskins radio, the only problem is streaming audio is a good minute and a half to two minutes behind real time, and he keeps commenting about what's on TV and it's just driving me insane, I'm like Dad, remember it hasn't happened again you know, so, one thing that would be nice is if FM radio actually just worked on your iPhone which supposedly it could according to this article, we'll put in the show notes that it's built into the phone but Apple just will not activate it.

Have you guys been following this story?

I know it's been in the news a lot lately.

Alison:
I've heard two things about this, I've heard that Apple for whatever reason has just decided not to activate it but then I've also heard that the newer modems actually don't have the FM radio so it's a moot point.

Bryan:
Mmm okay, what about you Jeff if you've been following along to this?

Jeff:
Yeah I have but, you know it's to me it's like, is it, is it, am I dying for it, I don't know, I really don't know.

Bryan:
I think it'd be nice, just, you know to be in real time.

I don't understand why they can't get streaming audio to be at least maybe you know a second or two behind.

I mean it's just such a significance difference, I've got it put on do not disturb, otherwise I'll get notifications about a score in a game, you know, before it happened.

The fascinating thing is during the, the Yankees playoff run, I went to my local bar with a pair of my head with the headphones with FM radio, and sure enough FM radio would get it like 30 seconds before television would.

[Laughter]

Alison:
So there's no perfect solution.

Bryan:
No, there's not, I'd be like, I'd yell out "damn it" and people were like "What are you talking about, they've yet to throw the pitch".

[Laughter]

So yeah, there's there's no perfect solution.

Jeff:
I like tuneIn radio, I like stuff like that.

Alison:
Yeah.

Jeff:
If there's an emergency or something we got those alarms that go off and everything.

I don't see myself turning it on, I don't know, it's just, it so interesting, there's so many resources, so many different avenues that I can get information that, just one more to be on the phone and then, where's my antenna.

Alison:
Yeah.

Jeff:
You know it's, now that we're Bluetooth everything so, do we have to wrap it in tinfoil?

I don't know.

Bryan:
You just hold it up in the air while you're walking down the street like an umbrella.

[Laughter]

Am I getting a signal now?

Damn it, the signal is better over here.

You know it's funny because the one thing my headphones don't get is AM radio.

Jeff:
I think it's just as important to think about this.

Now do we really want that on there because everyone was so excited when like your Amazon device could make phone calls.

As soon as you make that phone call you're standing there for about two minutes going I can't walk away.

Alison:
Yeah, yeah.

Jeff:
It's not fun.

Bryan:
No no no, like I've said for a very long time, the worst app on the iPhone is the phone, and it's also my least used app.

I wonder if I could take it out of the dock and put it on like page nine.

[Laughter]

Alison:
You could yeah.

Bryan:
Yeah, you know it's funny yeah I've been down here in Florida like I said for a week and everything, so I've been in a lot of automobiles which in New York City you know I'm not in cars a lot, and I've noticed my phone still thinks I'm driving sometimes.

Alison:
My phone thinks I'm driving when I'm not even in a car, like I'll be laying in bed and all of a sudden that do not disturb while driving thing will pop up and I'll be like I'm just reading a book, can you go away?

[Laughter]

Bryan:
But do you have a waterbed so maybe you're moving.

[Laughter]

Jeff:
Too much coffee.

Alison:
Unfortunately no waterbed, but it's crazy I wish, I have it set on activate manually, so it should not be popping up at all, but it's driving me nuts.

Bryan:
Real quick for a millennial crowd, water beds were beds with water in them in the 1980s.

[Laughter]

Look them up.

Jeff:
California has regulations on waterbeds.

Alison:
Yeah.

[Laughter]

Right.

Jeff:
The other thing is someone told me about the notifications you know that, while you're in a car if you turn it to what is that the Bluetooth setting in your car mode, that that's supposed to trigger it, I don't know sometimes that some things are on, some things are off, I don't know.

Bryan:
Yeah, and I've got mine set the manual where I'm supposed to be able to turn it on, I have read in a lot of places and I think we may all be running different versions of betas, or some people may be having this problem, others may not and supposedly some people claim it's fixed in a certain beta.

I don't even know if I'm running that beta, I think I'm one update behind, you know there's been so many betas out that I can't keep up with them, and a lot of updates coming out too, I notice all the time I seem to have like 80 to 90 updates every few days cuz, I self update, what about you?

I know you guys self-medicate, do you self update?

Alison:
Well I'm constantly working on self improvement, self updating, oh oh you mean apps, yeah.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
The apps, I like to make sure tha,t I like to read those little release notes, and the worst is we update our app fairly regularly, we're not going to tell you what we're doing.

Alison:
Nope.

Jeff:
If you get a self-improvement app, would that be self defeating?

[Laughter]

Bryan:
I don't know, you know what, email us and let us know what you think.

You know a lot of people are big fans of the Star Wars saga, but have you guys been following the blindfold game saga.

Alison:
It's been it's been rather epic.

Bryan:
It has, there's been multiple parts you know.

We had, we even had my favorite was Blindfold game Strikes Back you know.

Alison:
And they did to their credit.

Bryan:
They did, they struck back hard.

I'm a, you know I am a big fan of the games.

Blindfold Uno, I've bought plenty of them, I know some people don't like them, I think Marty does a phenomenal job and, God I love the trivia games, and there's nothing like when you've got a, you're sitting in the store you got a few minutes to kill.

I've actually set my Blindfold Uno to unlimited scoring so I've got like thirty thousand points in there, it just keeps...

[Laughter]

Every time the computer gets within ten thousand points of me I think it's cheating you know, but, he really does a great job with a lot of those games.

Marty is a businessman and he makes these games you know, out of his love of making games for the community as well as to make money and...

Alison:
Sure why not.

Bryan:
I couldn't believe what, when Apple was telling him he needed to roll them into tab less apps in the App Store.

It really seemed like Apple didn't know what they were talking about I, you know you could Google Marty's website, I'm not sure the exact site but blindfoldgames.com probably, or just google it, and he's got a blog that'll explain everything that happened if you're not aware of it but, I was really shocked at the stance Apple took against him starting out.

Alison:
I can summarize briefly if you'd like.

Bryan:
Sure.

Alison:
I've been fairly involved in reading about it.

So essentially what happened was, and there's a whole detailed timeline on the website.

Bryan:
Start with episode 1.

Alison:
In episode one Apple was going through the review process for some iOS11 related updates for Marty's games and they noticed that a lot of the games used the same template.

Now Apple technically has a rule that apps cannot be clones of one another, and not looking at the content of the games which are all different decided that these games are too similar and so we're going to have to reject these updates because they have the templates are too similar and you have to make the the gameplay different.

Well the whole beauty of the blindfold games is once you know how to play one, you can pretty much figure out you know, several more, so Marty defended himself and said look while these templates are all very similar, the content within them is very different, but Apple didn't want to hear it, they heard, they're like 80 apps is too much.

You have to compile them into less.

Bryan:
A handful, yeah.

Alison:
Amounts of apps.

So Marty's stance, with which I agree, is that then that would make the apps too large to download because they all contain different voice files, and sound effects, so they're already you know pretty sizable downloads anyway, and it would hurt discoverability.

For example if all the card games were in one app, somebody might only play one or two, and that might hurt his chances at making more revenue, and the man has got to be able to make some sort of money off it.

Bryan:
Sure.

Alison:
I get it.

So eventually it came down to a lot of members of the community myself included, advocating with Apple to make them understand that this is a different type of situation than just the average you know, Yahoo up there trying to clone a bunch of flappy bird apps for example.

And it worked, they understood, they eventually understood and had a conversation with Marty about, hey we understand that these games are different and now it's it's okay, when the review was passed and Marty at one point he was going to be taking down the games because he just didn't have the resources, either financial, or time wise to do the rewrites that Apple was starting with, so I'm really glad that this ended up, ending happily, and I got into some, some real Twitter spats with a couple of people who really think that, that oh, it's just blind people whining.

No, it's, it's people advocating for games, which are truly different in the App Store, and yes blindness does have a little bit to do with it because we have a shortage of accessible games as it is, so don't take our choices away.

Bryan:
Would you summarize saying basically that Marty basically after the the Clone Wars beat the Empire?

Alison:
He did.

Bryan:
Yes.

Yes.

[Laughter]

A Star Wars theme, yeah, no, not to make light of it, it was great that Apple reversed it's course and, Jeff, any comments?

Where you following along on the Blindfold saga?

Jeff:
I was more or less following Allison on Twitter, I'm stalking again Allison.

Alison:
Oh no.

Jeff:
But Jonathon Mosan wrote a letter, other people in the community got going on, it was nice to see everybody come together for that you know, like some people were pretty negative, they were saying like "oh yeah, they come together this, but not for jobs"

Alison:
Some people were jerk faces about it, and I will call them out for that.

Jeff:
Other people were saying like "Oh Apple, they played the blind card to Apple" it's not that, it's like Allison just explained, it's more like that.

It is kind of neat to sit back and watch how different people rise up to certain things and other people take sides, you know the bottom line is the guy is doing something. he has to make money.

If he bundles them all up, and you only like one of them, you're not going to buy 8 you know, it makes sense, business sense for him, and I'm glad Apple saw it that way.

Bryan:
I think he's got a great price plan, because you know, yes, he's got a ton of games you know, nobody buy them all.

You could test them out, you know he gives you a free amount of games with each one which I think is fantastic.

How many mainstream games out there allow you to test it out before buying it?

Alison:
It's true.

Bryan:
So basically what we are saying Marty, "Stay Strong!"

Jeff:
And may the Force be with you.

Bryan:
You know something that just came to the app store new and I, I've gotta actually take a look at this, because I haven't exercised since last millennium, The Eyes Free Fit, you know Blind Alive some of you may know it as, I looked up Blind Alive, i couldn't find anything related to exercising. But if you look it up under Eyes Free Fitness, and this just came to the app store last week, and I looked through it, you gotta buy the programs, but it looks like they got a ton of different exercises in there, and I know they've been around for quite a while and on a lot of podcasts.

Have either of you guys ever done any of their exercise programs?

Alison:
A long time ago I bought Cardio Level 1, and it is really great, and really descriptive.

I did it a couple of times, I'm really bad with sticking with exercise routines no matter how accessable they are.

So, it's really a motivation issue, its not an issue with the workouts themselves, but now I did put the Eyes Free Fitness app on my phone and I am hoping that, you know buying some of the workouts through that, i will literally have no excuse not to do it because my phone is always with me no matter where I go.

Bryan:
Yeah.

How about yourself Jeff?

You're an outdoor mountain man, have you ever indoor exercised?

Jeff:
I was actually testing her website with her so I got to get a few of those and she was next to me in the booth at ACB in 2016.

It was in Minneapolis, it was really fun, it's really great that she's taken it to this level now that, you can even hook it up to your health app inside your phone too so....

Bryan:
Wait a minute, there's a health app in the phone?

[Laughter]

Jeff:
Page 9 Brian, Page 9.

Alison:
Page 11 yeah.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
It's next to all of my pizza services.

[Laughter]

Jeff:
So I suggest if people want it, it's Eyes Free Fitness, it's well described, that's the whole intent of it.

She uses people who are professionally trained to come up with these exercise routines, but then there's also some stretching ones, and all that stuff.

So it's pretty versatile, and they got some Yoga stuff in there, and then there's....

Alison:
Pilates.

Jeff:
Yeah, lots of good stuff in there.

Bryan:
Yeah, yeah, my only complaint about this app and what she does, is she makes the rest of us look lazy.

[Laughter]

Can I set a New Years resolution in November, where that's my plan is to, exercise and, you know, a lot of people say they want to get in better shape.

I would just like to get into a shape so....

[Funny sound effect and laughter]

Alison:
See it's a good time for me to get back into this because now I'm walking everyday with Gary with our neighborhood in Napa being so walkable that I actually am in a little bit better shape, so I feel like these exercises would be really great, you know especially if on the weekends when we walk less, it would really help me to get in even better shape. I'm still a far cry off from where I want to be and I still eat to much, but that'll never change.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
I don't even eat that much, I just eat all of the wrong things, I've learned if I like it, it's bad for you.

Alison:
Yeah, that's kinda where I'm at too, I don't find that I eat these ginormous portions, I mean although I do like a healthy portion of food, but yeah, it's not the good things.

It's a little light on the leafy green vegetables and such, although I like fruit.

Jeff:
You know one of the main things about exercise and all this stuff that we're talking about is the mindset and it takes a while to get your mind wrapped around it.

I've been using a trainer for, it'll be coming up on a year and I finally got my mind wrapped around it after 10 months.

I mean, it really takes something, I used to be in really good shape, I used to do a lot of stuff, I used to run and all sorts of stuff.

But I am not being chased anymore so... you know.

Bryan:
It's may favorite line, "Do you still run?"

"Only when chased"

[Laughter]

Jeff:
Yeah, I think people who want to get back into it sometimes it takes a little commitment.

You can buy these from $19.00 to $25.00 or something like that, but you have it, you can do it in the privacy of your own home, it's accessible, and it describes all of the stances, all the positions, well described steps, so if that's what it takes to get your mindset involved in it, it might be a good start for you.

Alison:
Yeah.

Yeah can get as of out of breath or sweaty as you want, as quickly as, however quickly it takes and it doesn't matter because it's just you and yeah.

Jeff:
But make sure you have your phone notifications for driving set right.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
Either that or in my kind of condition make sure you have 911 on speed dial.

[Laughter]

I got a good work out there, you know we're recording this the day after Black Friday, it's not even Cyber Monday yet but you'll hear this after Cyber Monday, and it was a low tech Black Friday for me because I got some clothes and everything, no technology but I wanted to ask you guys, what about yourself Allison was it a techie Black Friday Cyber Monday for you or no?

Alison:
No cuz I, I bought what I want throughout the year, I don't, I don't have the the impulse control to wait three months for something to go on sale on Black Friday, I just buy it when I, when I have the money and what I want it / need it.

So Black Friday / Cyber Monday are always kind of a bit of a letdown for me cuz I'm like, oh this thing's on sale, oh wait, I already have it, this thing's on sale, wait I already have it.

]Laughter]

Bryan:
Got it got it got it got it got it need it you know.

Alison:
Yeah.

Jeff:
I just went shopping at Allison's place, I just walk to her house.

[Laughter]

I'll take that, that, that.

[Laughter]

Ain't got it, ain't got it, ain't got it.

Bryan:
You know it's not a big tech year for me because I'm not upgrading, I do need to get a new key chain cuz I have one of those key chains with the Lightning charger and for some reason the Lightning charger broke off of the key chain so, one of the things I heard somebody talking about was you know I've got all these kind of what I call lipstick chargers where you have to plug the cord into the charger.

I heard they now got a charger out there that has the lightning charger built into it as well as a USB built into it and I think I'm gonna probably get something like that.

Alison:
Send me that when you find it.

Because, send me the link, yeah because that is something, you know, I love my anchor batteries.

I have the ones that are like even 20 thousand milliamps witch are a little bit bigger but I just put them in my purse, but yeah you've got to have the little the cables for your Apple watch and for your micro USB devices and your, your lightning cables all together and it's just it's a little bit much, it gets to be a little bit much to carry around.

Jeff:
Jack really makes a couple of these.

One is a six thousand, one is a ten thousand fifty claiming that X needs more power so they made that one.

They do have two cords, one is the Lightning port cord and the other is for all the Android stuff, your mini USB plug, and there's a third you can plug a USB into it so you technically you can actually have three by both outputs going at one time.

My concern since their dedicated cables on there, are you committed to that if, what if the cable goes bad you know, I, I don't know but it does get a 4.5 out of 5 ratings on Amazon.

Myself I like the big ones.

Alison:
Oh yes send me that one.

Jeff:
Cuz size does matter.

Alison:
It does.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
Hey hey, this is a PG podcast.

[Laughter]

Alison:
What, we're talking about, we're talking about batteries.

Bryan:
Oh.

Jeff:
I must admit I like big batteries.

Bryan:
I've heard that about you.

Now Allison you've had the iPhone for a while now what are your thoughts?

Alison:
I basically really like it, it's nice and fast, I like the size, I have it in a leather case because it's glass on both sides and I do not trust myself with glass on both sides and I have dropped it and the leather case has saved me a couple of times.

The face ID I'm still, I find myself still kind of getting used to this new thing called face ID.

I find that it's very accurate.

I find that even when it doesn't get your face it learns from the experience and it has been consistently doing better but it's not as fast as touch ID, the gestures for bringing up home and app switcher are pretty fluid and elegant I think.

Bryan:
Are you used to doing those after having the press on the home button for so long or does it take a little training yourself?

Alison:
I'm used to it now, I've had the thing now for a couple of weeks so I've gotten it back into my, into my muscle memory now that this is just what you have to do because there's no home button and luckily I'm not using any other older devices to confuse me, that's convenient but yeah it's it's never going to be as fast I don't think.

Jeff:
So Alison you use your phone on a daily basis?

[Laughter]

Alison:
Pretty much almost every minute of every day.

Bryan:
Are you happy with the purchase, are you happy with the upgrade?

Alison:
I am because I wanted, I wanted the latest and greatest technology and now I've got it and I realized that sometimes that comes with some caveats so I am happy with it, there are some times though when I have just become resigned to entering in my passcode.

For example if I'm laying in bed and I want to unlock my phone, I don't want to have to sit up put the phone all the way in front of my face, get face ID to authenticate me, wake up the husband, wake up the dog, so I just enter in the passcode and it's that's even become a little bit faster.

Bryan:
My dad was having trouble with his phone recently and I finally found out what the problem was.

Alison:
Yeah.

Bryan:
He's running an iPhone 4.

[Laughter]

Alison:
Oh for goodness sakes.

Bryan:
Yeah, I said....

Jeff:
Wait, you, you said it's running.

Bryan:
Yeah, barely, yeah he can make phone calls that's about it,
I said no wonder you're having so many issues with everything else and yeah, he's getting ready to get a new one because my mom did order the iPhone 10 and he's gonna get the hand-me-down.

I guess he's gonna move up to a 6 which is all he really needs.

Alison:
Yeah.

Oh that'll be quite an upgrade for him.

Bryan:
Oh yeah, yeah, so but, my mom's got the 10 coming, she's got the, she ordered it online and has the two to three week wait so, I will not, not get to play around with it while I'm down here and everything but I've been you know listening to you on with Dr. Robert Carter not to be confused with Dr. Richard Kimble.

Not that anybody but me.

Alison:
Not to be confused with John Kimble yeah.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
I thought of Richard Kimble immediately but I'm probably the only one that did that so but you know you guys had a great walkthrough of the iPhone 10 and somebody in New Zealand had something about unboxing one very early before the rest of the world which...

Alison:
Oh yes Jonathan was very very happy that you know, when these items come out he gets them a day ahead of everyone else because New Zealand is a day ahead.

Jeff:
He should let people know that.

[Laughter]

Alison:
He really doesn't gloat about that enough no but yeah.

Bryan:
Allison did I hear you do laundry every now and then?

Alison:
Every now then, you know I, the house-elves or my husband will not comply and I have to do my own.

Bryan:
Are you testing out that new GE, was it the GE product that you're testing out?

Alison:
Yeah so, so I have purchased the GE talking laundry box and actually we were in the market for a new washer and dryer anyway so we got the compatible washer and dryer and I've actually been doing a lot more of my own laundry and enjoying the heck out of it now that we have this talking machine because it's so easy to set all you really have to worry about is the start button and the little knob that controls the settings because the different wash cycles, because it verbalizes everything, you turn the knob, it verbalizes if you're on like cold wash, or towels and sheets, or casual wear, or bulky items, and you press Start and it says starting load on bulky items with an estimated 70 minutes remaining and there's a button on the box that you can press if you need an update of what, of time remaining and the dryer is much the same you just mess with the one knob, you can set your cycle and it just works.

Our old washer and dryer we had the little arrows marked, but the one thing would spin, and there was another arrow that you could accidentally move, and Jeremy was really the only person who could set it without getting the other thing to spin, so I'm glad to be able to have some agency over my laundry once again.

Bryan:
And this works with all GE washer and dryers I believe right?

Alison:
So on the website it does say that it is, should be compatible with most, it should be compatible with the ones that have the ports in the back, the technician ports, but then it says these are the compatible models and it lists just a couple of different models.

Slightly more expensive, that are compatible, I think that you can get this to work with older GE models if it has the port for technicians to hook up, but it's better I think in terms of the software working is optimally as it can if you can buy the the newer ones.

Bryan:
Yeah full disclaimer if your washer and dryers from 1974 and is GE.....

Alison:
Probably not going to work.

Jeff:
I do laundry and the thing on my washer and dryer mostly my washer is, there's that plastic cover that covers things up so you can't really tell the dial, so I took a needlenose pliers, it was excruciating sounds but I got that piece off of there, then I put some little markers on there, so now I just put my finger down there and I just turn it and everyone uses it that way so, yeah I don't recommend anybody to take a needle nose and tear that apart unless you know what you're doing but, yeah that's how I access that.

Bryan:
Yeah when you're like me and you live in New York it's great because I've got like fluff and fold where they pick it up and deliver it and it's pretty cheap and yeah I'm spoiled like that I think I've mentioned that on the show before.

One of the things we did want to mention to the listeners if you do not have knfb reader you're just making your life harder, and it's a phenomenal app, I believe and don't quote me on this but I believe it's on sale at least through Christmas for about 50% off.

Normally it's $100.00, I believe now it's $49.95.

Go ahead and get that app, you'll make your life a lot easier if you want to read your bills or anything along that.

Jeff:
I really think if you're a student that that's the app to have.

Seeing AI is a good app for a convenience, it's just a quick shuffle through the mail, but if you're gonna do bulk reading or if you want to save it and all sorts of things, you know, that's a workhorse the knfb reader app.

Alison:
I agree.

Bryan:
Yeah luckily I think all of us have easy names to pronounce, but I have a friend named Keith Strohak, and every time I tell Siri call Keith Strohak, it says did you mean Keith Sholstrum, did you mean Keith Beyer.

It drives me bonkers, I have to go in and manually do it and I will put this link in the show notes.

Did you know that you could teach Siri how to save names properly?

Jeff:
Mm-hmm.

Alison:
Yeah.

Bryan:
Okay I was the one who didn't.

By the way ask Siri to pronounce Charlize Theron because I heard that's another name that she can't pronounce.

Alison:
Oh boy.

Bryan:
Yeah so if you're if you're one of those people and your name is Mustafi Mustafasin or something, go ahead and read this link and you know, maybe you could teach Siri how to read your name and everything.

Jeff:
The trick about it is that it asks you for the first name and then it asked for the second name, well I didn't know it was doing that so I said Laurie Thompson that's my wife, and then I said Laurie Thompson again.

I wondered why it asked me twice, so every time she calls, are you sure you want to call Laurie Thompson Laurie Thompson?

I left it I thought it was kind of cute.

Alison:
That is.

Bryan:
Now Jeff was a great guy and he posted you know happy holidays to everybody on the Blind Abilities Facebook page and I chimed in with my typical bah humbug and he thought that was you know the happiest he's ever heard me, and that's because he didn't hear how mad I was that my old Grubhub app that I've been running for several years because GrubHub has refused update is now officially dead.

I finally had to update it and I don't know what I'm gonna do because this happened shortly before I left New York.

I kept getting server error, server error, and I could not do anything so I had to update the app, GrubHub prepare for the barrage because I am gonna be hammering you every day now with fixing your heading navigation.

I don't know.

Alison:
Now that your life depends on it yeah.

Bryan:
Yeah you know.

Jeff:
It's time to get that Blind Alive app, get that exercise going.

Alison:
Yeah.

Jeff:
Screw GrubHub.

Bryan:
I still gotta order dinner.

I still gotta order dinner and everything.

Alison:
Try Postmates, try Doordash, you said Eat24 doesn't....

Bryan:
Doordash I just heard about so yeah that's one I want to check...

Alison:
Yeah Postmates is also very good.

Unfortunately in Napa our only choice really is Eat24, and that only has a couple of options.

Bryan:
Yeah you know one of the other things I plan to do when I get back from Florida is, because I've been running my old laptop here my Mac air, and it's so nice because it's running Sierra, and things have been running so smooth, as soon as I get home one of my first acts to do, I'm rolling High Sierra back, have you guys, I know Jeff's been playing High Sierra, Allison, are you still using High Sierra.....

Alison:
I am and for the limited number of things that I do on my Mac it's absolutely fine, I haven't really had any problems.

Bryan:
Editing text, when you're working with a lot of text and emails or documents and everything, it just befuddles me and everything, you know sometimes you gotta use the option key, and I did report this to Apple, quick nav does you know, when you use quick nav with words, it does not follow the insertion point, we did test it it is getting kicked up to engineers, there is a navigation problem with quick nav in Hi Sierra.

Alison:
That's unfortunate.

Jeff:
Yeah I'm using the beta's and you know it keeps on changing so I don't really complain about it I just keep using it and I know, I know it'll get better, so I just putz with it.

Bryan:
Yeah well Jeff you said you're running the latest beta and it's, you've noticed an improvement so, maybe it won't be the first thing I do when I get back to New York you know, maybe I'll give it one more update.

I am not running the beta so I never run the betas on my computer and the word to the wise if you value productivity do not run those betas.

Alison:
Yeah, or have a partition on your hard drive or a separate hard drive on which to run them.

Jeff:
Oh my MacBook Pro [Inaudible] I'm not doing the betas on that so I can always go back to that if I need to but, you know I I usually forget that I'm slowly tweaking my muscle memory like you said Allison, and pretty soon I'm just readjusted.

Changes happen and I don't know.

Alison:
Yep.

Bryan:
Chit chit chit chit oh wait, do we have to play now to use that song?

In a more positive segment, I know we've rolled through some some negativity here, we don't want to be negative all the time but you know these are just some things that were pissing Brian off now because, Brian's been known to get pissed off.

I always like to hear you know, what you guys watching, what you're reading, you know especially the holiday time of the year, there's a lot of great content out there.

Netflix just seems to be piping everything out.

Allison what you watching, what you reading?

Alison:
Well I'm still trying to work my way through Narcos, I have not had as much time for for Netflix recently, but I've been reading this really great book, I'm not sure if it's available on any of the freebies, unbarred or well book sure it's not free but it's practically free.

I got off of Audible it's my Brandon Sanderson it's called "The way of Kings" it's part of the Stormlight archive series, it's an epic fantasy series, long long books, the first book I think is 45 hours long and I'm about 2/3 of the way through it, and it is absolutely amazing it's quite frankly taken over a lot of my life this holiday weekend.

[Laughter]

But it's amazing.

Bryan:
Well we're thankful that you were able to fit time in for the podcast.

[Laughter]

Alison:
I did, I did have to interrupt my reading to....

[Laughter]

Bryan:
That 45 hours, that might take me 4 and 1/2 years to get through.

Alison:
Well I read at speed, I'm not gonna lie, I cranked it up to 3x and I can understand it just fine, so I'll get through it pretty quickly, but there's then two other main books, and then a little novella in the middle to read so.

Bryan:
That's a, that's a big....

Alison:
It's gonna be ten books so...

Bryan:
Wow, wow, what about yourself Jeff, you been reading anything, watching anything?

I know you've had some time alone there or are you just thinking in the dark?

Jeff:
I really got nothing, I guess I am thinking in the dark, family's been gone and I've been catching up on a bunch of other things that I hadn't been able to get back t,o and yeah, I got to get back to it so sorry you don't have anything to contribute.

Bryan:
That's okay Jeff.

Jeff:
Oh sorry.

Bryan:
I just finished down here with my parents you know I, they they were very nice and they watched, because their sighted with described video, the second season of Stranger Things, and the first season if you have not seen it as phenomenal I said to myself I don't know how they're gonna do a second season.

It was really good so, it was very enjoyable, if you have not checked out Stranger Things on Netflix, you're definitely gonna want to check that out.

I know we're gonna watch another series on Netflix that just came out I'm blanking on the name, the guy that was in Dumb and Dumber, not Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels is in it, it's a Western that just came out on Netflix.

I'm hearing great things about it of course I'm, like I said, God, Godlessness, or Godless or something, it's a Great Western, and I've heard from other people it's very good and everything and, yeah I've still got the same four books.

You know it's so funny I'm one of those people that loads up all the audio digital content to all the devices for the travel and then I end up listening to podcasts that I have on my phone.

[Laughter]

During the travels so, like I said this is a That Blind Tech Show, we're gonna wrap it up here.

We are at Blind Tech Show on Twitter.

thatblindtechshow @gmail.com if you want to email us in let us know what you think, let us know what you like.

You can download our feed through the Blind Abilities podcast speed of your podcast player of choice, victor reader stream or download the Blind Abilities app.

Allison what do you have coming up the next few weeks leading into what's that holiday Christmas?

Alison:
Just a quiet Christmas at home, gonna take maybe a couple of days off and just probably still be reading the Stormlight archive honestly, although I, although I may do a reread of Harry Potter, I lead such an exciting life.

[Laughter]

Bryan:
Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that.

What about yourself Jeff, family coming back or have they given up on you?

Jeff:
My folks for 17 years they've been going down the Texas but they stayed up this year for the holiday so I got to go to spend time with them Thanksgiving.

We were all up there and so they're here so we're gonna have Christmas there and my daughter and grandkids will be coming up mid-December, we try and offset it each year and so yeah, a lot of lot of family holidays and I want to, I want to see the Grinch again this year.

Bryan:
So you want me to come visit?

[Laughter]

Yeah I'm not a big holiday person so Thanksgiving I guess is our big holiday and, we just wrapped that up down here and Thanksgiving, I'll be heading back to New York in the next few days and you know, it's funny I'm sitting here in shorts and it's 80 degree weather so it doesn't feel like November, and then I'll go back to the 30 degree weather and, yeah amazingly Nash is not even shedding that much here in Florida, you would think he would get rid of that winter coat, but he is panting like it's August.

This is That Blind Tech Show, maybe we'll have one more before the year hopefully, you know, all of our schedules have been so crazy we haven't been on a regular schedule, we plan to hopefully eventually get on it, but for now we are out.

When we share what we see through each other's eyes, we can then begin to bridge the gap between limited expectations and the reality of blind abilities.

For more podcast with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at BlindAbilities.

Download our app from the app store Blind Abilities, or send us an email at info @blindabilities.com, thanks for listening.