Friday 1 August 2014

Talking Tech for July 29 2014 - notes posted 1/8/2014

OwnFone Now has Braille labelled buttons

 

Last week OwnFone in Australia (similar to overseas) made their 3d printable custom phone available with Braille buttons.  You can have 2 to 4 Braille labelled buttons for pre-dialing.

 

http://www.ownfone.com.au

 

Some Info on Android

 

Last week, the Adaptive Technology Consultants at Vision Australia received their Nexus 7 tablets.

 

This means that staff will not only be able to demonstrate iPads, but Android tablets as well.

 

In relation to this, here is a good site to start off using Android.  The website is still being level;per, but has enough food info hopefully to get the beginner Android user up and going.

 

Inclusive Android can be found at:

 

http://inclusiveandroid.tk

 

Indoor Outdoor Weather Station

 

The Netatmo Urban Weather Station consisting of a metal cylindrical  indoor and outdoor module wirelessly links to your iPhone giving you the following information via the Netatmo app:

 

current temperature,

Min temperature,,

Max temperature, and

Humidity.

 

In addition:

For indoor: comfort level, CO level, air pressure, and acoustic comfort.

For outdoor: air quality, and feels like.

 

In the box you get the indoor and outdoor modules,  2 ’aaa’ batteries for the outdoor module, usb/mini cable, USB wall charger, universal plug adapters, screws to wall mount the outdoor module, velcro strap, and a getting started  guide.

 

Set up was accessible: i.e. installing batteries in to the outdoor module, plugging the indoor module in to its own USB style wall charger, downloading the free Netatmo app, and going through the guided setup for the weather station.

 

The app updates information every 10 minutes from the indoor and outdoor modules, and if you want a “now” reading, you can touch the top of the indoor module which will send the current reading to the Netatmo app.

 

As the account within the app is actually on the Netatmo website, and this is where data is sent via the modules, you can check your weather station anywhere via the app or the netatmo website.

 

A couple of points to note:

 

when first connecting the indoor module to your wireless network, you have to touch and hold until  the blue light flash’s.

there is no on button on either the indoor or outdoor module, a green light comes on when both are on (power conducted or batteries installed).

When both the indoor and outdoor modules are setup for the first time, wait for an hour or so for the temperature reading to be accurate.

Besides the data you can read concerning temp etc in the Netatmo app, the graph and event screens are not accessible.

The current weather forecast on the main app screen where the data appears is also not accessible.

 

Overall, the amount of info you can get from the Netatmo Weather Station is great.  I don’t need to see graphs or events, and I can get the current weather forecast from other apps.

 

The Netatmo website is not very  accessible.  Better off just using the app.

 

Online Apple Store link to purchase the weather station:

 

http://store.apple.com/au/product/HB683PA/A/netatmo-urban-weather-station?fnode=0001050701

 

Netatmo app for iOS:

 

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/weather-station-by-netatmo/id532538499?mt=8

 

Last Week Apple had its Quarterly Financial Call

 

Mention this in passing, iPhone sales increase, iPad sales decrease, but still Apple made over billion dollars in profit.

 

Wondering if the reduction in iPad sales is just a reflection of overall tablet sales going down, rather than just the iPad going down.

 

10 ways to control your iOS device with your EarPods

 

I find it is always good to go back and revisit what you can actually do with the Apple Ear pods.  These tips taken from TUAWB.

 

The clicker on the Apple EarPods has 3 buttons, a Centre button, and two Volume buttons on either side.

 

The volume buttons control: yes: the volume.

 

The Centre button is where all the Magic happens:

 

Press once to play/pause media.

 

Press quickly twice to skip to the next track/chapter.

 

Pressed quickly  twice and hold to fast forward media.

 

Press 3 times quickly to go to the previous track/chapter.

 

Press quickly 3 times and hold to rewind media.

 

Press once to answer/hang up an incoming call.

 

Hold down for 2 seconds to decline an incoming call (didn’t know this one smile).

 

Switch from a call to an incoming call press centre button once to put previous call on hold, talk, and press centre button again to return to initial call.

 

Switch from a call to an incoming call and hang up on initial call, hold down centre button for 2 seconds.

 

Hold down Centre button to use Siri.

 

 

 

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