Dublin technology club notes 8th January 2024
Good morning everyone and a happy new year. These are the notes of the first
Dublin Technology Club for 2024. So sit back pull out what's left of the
Christmas chocolate and enjoy the read.
12 participants.
5 eager people joined the meeting early for some technology help. Everyone
wished each other a happy new year and discussed the weather and how their
Christmas went. A brief discussion about whether peaked caps or sunglasses
works best for handling the glare of the sun commenced for a while. The
majority of participants came down on the side of caps. The participants also
talked about any technology presents they got for Christmas.
Adrian said that he was considering buying a new phone, but he is still not
convinced to buy an iPhone sadly. He would prefer an Android phone without an
e-sim card as opposed to a physical card. A e-SIM card is a digital card. It
works by the network company providing you a code to show the phone that you
have a sim card installed. For more information on this topic:
https://n.vodafone.ie/support/mobile/esim-support-faqs.html ;
The audio described Hugh Lane' show takes place on the 16th of January at 12
midday according to Martin.
Martin asked about WhatsApp. He sometimes calls people, he says they cannot
hearhim sometimes. He can hear them perfectly. Cearbhall asked if he was
covering the sensor. This led to a discussion on the topic, but the group was
not sure. Albert brought up that hearing aids are causing problems when
connecting to iPhones. He specifically mentioned that music recognition with
Siri is badly impaired when they are connected. It was concluded that it may be
a bug with iOS.
Albert also raised the new feature on the iPhone that enhances conversations
that are hard to hear. To activate the setting do the following: settings,
accessibility, audio visual, headphone accommodation,, transparency mode and
conversation boost.
The conversation returned to hearing aids and how the iPhone automatically
adjust volume. The group discussed the frustration of how hard it can be to
hear people when you are outdoors sometimes. Cearbhall feels that there are
three audio channels present in the iPhone. Adrian said that on Android he can
control all the channels on his Android if he wants.
Mary also said that like Martin people have found it hard for some people to
hear her on calls on her iPhone. She has no problem when she is using her
headphones. Adrian feels that it could be an issue on the other person's side.
Eamon suggested turning off Bluetooth on the iPhone may fix the issue. Albert
said that you can go to settings, Bluetooth select your headphones and select
forget this device to disconnect, other participants suggested disconnecting
instead or turning off Bluetooth altogether. You can also disable Bluetooth in
the control centre of the iPhone. Albert said there was a setting that
automatically choose your speaker, to find the setting do the following:
settings, accessibility, touch and call audio routing.
Albert suggested a podcast from Apple vis podcast discussing volume. The link
to it is:
https://www.applevis.com/sites/default/files/podcasts/AppleVisPodcast1193_0.mp3
Mary said she has recently gotten addicted to a new word game called Zanagrams,
it is like a crossword puzzle-type game. It was developed by a blind American
developer for the iPhone. The link to the game is:
https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/zanagrams/id6444921132
This led to a discussion of blind-friendly Rubix cubes and how they are
engraved so that blind people can feel the colours. Some of the shapes include
triangles. Mary also provided a more in-depth description of how zanagrams
work. The app description says:
Winner of the 2023 Apple Vis Game of the Year award.
Exercise your brain during your downtime with this new unique twist on
word-puzzles you've come to know and love.
Each puzzle contains six clues you'll aim to find the one-word answers for.
Each answer is broken-up into groups of two or three letters, presented as
buttons in the lower portion of your screen, and jumbled for your brain-teasing
enjoyment. Try to spell out each of the answers in the puzzle by tapping
buttons to add them to your spelling.
Zanagrams will automatically detect if you've spelled any of the answers in the
puzzle you're working on, and any of the buttons you used to spell that answer
will be permanently-disabled to narrow-down your choices. By the time you
finish a puzzle, you'll have used every button once.
- Compete against friends by seeing who gets the best score for each puzzle in
its Official mode.
- Play randomized versions of puzzles you've already completed for endless fun!
- Use hints to reveal the next group of letters in a word when you get stuck.
- Zanagrams contains 20 free puzzles, spread across two Puzzle Packs, totalling
120 anagrams you can play as many times as you like.
- Once you've fallen in-love with the game, you can purchase more Puzzle Packs,
choosing from our huge selection of both themed and unthemed Puzzle Packs.
- 100% accessible with Voiceover.
- High-contrast color options available for low-vision users.
The game is free with optional in-app purchases such as free hints and more
games.
Marti brought up that she finds the quick-fire quiz on Alexa to be great fun.
Albert also brought up an older game called Bop It. It is a device that you
pass around to play. It has a number of physical buttons you need to interact
within a particular way.Some of the things it asks you to do include spin it,
flick it twist it and press it. You have to do these commands as quickly as
possible. It can be single or multi-player. To purchase it see here:
https://www.smythstoys.com/ie/en-ie/toys/games-puzzles-and-books/board-games/family-board-games/bop-it/p/180164
The group briefly discussed audiobooks they had listened to recently. These
included profit song by Paul Linch and beesting by Paul Murray.
Eamon said he recently downloaded two manuals to his downloads folder on his PC
but cannot get them to play on his Sense player. The sense player is the
following: https://hims-inc.com/product/senseplayer/
It costs approximately 800 euros. The reason to go for it over an iPhone
according to Michael is that it has a better battery life than the iPhone.
Michael said he prefers not to do everything on his phone. It has its own
voice system. He also said that it is a very easy device to use. You can
navigate it very quickly. It is based on Android. It has no screen only
buttons to navigate and audio. Some demonstrations of the HIMS Sense player can
be seen at the following links:
https://youtu.be/fP95_vfr0pE
https://youtu.be/8dlsCHcCQKM
Martin asked if it is easy to download WhatsApp on a PC. Adrian said that you
go to https://www.whatsapp.com/ and download the Windows version. It brings up ;
a QR code you take your phone and scan it. to connect the PC version to your
account, you cannot use it without having it on your phone according to Adrian.
You can also download a whats app application to your desktop as well according
to Adrian. Revolute also works similarly to WhatsApp when you want to connect
the accounts on your PC with a QR code according to Brian.
Adrian provided a number of shortcuts to help with zooming and controlling the
pc these were:
ctrl + alt + space = temporarly zoom out
hold ctrl + alt + move scroll wheel on mouse = quick zoom in and out
windows key + escape = exit magnifier
win key + plus sign = start magnifier
win key + plus sign = zoom in
Adrian asked if anyone had tried the new microsoft co-pilot app. According to
him you can send a picture alongside a question unlike be my eyes which
requires you to take the picture and then ask the question. The co-pilot app:
https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/microsoft-copilot/id6472538445
Marti asked how to automatically switch your phone to the loudspeaker, to do
this do the following: "Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Call Audio Routing"
Eamon asked how to use a virtual card on Revolute. He asked what the difference
is between a virtual and a disposable card. A disposable card can be used for a
one-use purchase. Adrian said that this is if you are not sure of the seller of
the product you are purchasing. To obtain one select cards in the Revolute app
and select disposible cards to get one. Follow the in-app instructions to to
finish the process. Virtual cards can be added to Apple Wallet to enable card
payments with your phone and online purchasing with Apple Pay.
Eamon asked what the trust pilot website was. Adrian said that it is for
gauging the trustworthiness of certain websites. It is highly rated. Adrian
said that he uses Google Maps to see the rating of stores you purchase from.
Eamon asked if anyone had used Google Translate before and if it was easy to
use. Ger said that he has and it is easy to use. Mary also said that it is easy
to use. Adrian said that there are self-contained devices that do the same as
Google Translate. You can also add it to the new action button on the iPhone 15
to quickly engage it.
The meeting started to slow down at this point. Hope you enjoyed the notes
today.
Regards
The note taker.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
