Steven Scott

Trying not to be a bad blind person laughing at those poor folks who don’t like the MacBook Neo because it doesn’t have a backlit keyboard.

Had to take a day away from the computer today just to come up for air. Claude is such a powerful tool and I am learning so much but it is incredibly overwhelming yet incredibly enjoyable. Always take breaks! I’ll be back at it tomorrow though. Working on some cool projects that I hope to share more on soon.

My new MacBook Neo arrives today. I am very excited to see how this performs. Based on the reviews already out I’m guessing it is going to be absolutely ideal for the vast majority of folks. But of course I’ll be reviewing it from the blind user perspective, so Voiceover will be put through its paces. Anything you’d like me to test let me know.

Quick early thoughts on the new MacBook Neo.
1. The design is perfect if you want small and lightweight. It’s only 0.6 inch smaller than the Air but it feels so much neater.
2. Despite the size, the keyboard is the exact same Magic Keyboard as we have come to know and enjoy on MacBooks and separately as standalone keyboards.
3. The sound from the speakers is very decent considering their size and they are very loud too with no distortion (although it’s early days so I’ll check back on that). It’s less bassy than the Air or Pro but still very usable and I would argue ideal for Voiceover users.
4. The screen is fairly redundant to me but I am impacted by light and this screen goes bright. From what I read it was low brightness compared to the Air and Pro but I immediately had to turn the brightness down.
5. Setup was quick and easy and it’s been updated since the last time I did it but it was smooth despite a number of what would appear to be unlabelled buttons or graphics which was surprising but it didn’t impact me enough not to be able to continue. I do feel though that there is a real inconsistency to screens and dialogs that I don’t feel with Windows.
6 And finally for now, Voiceover. What’s it like I hear you cry. Absolutely fine and great in terms of respnsiveness. Performance is good - no lag or hanging. Although, and this may make you smile, when I opened Safari and opened ChatGPT it said “Safari not responding” and then around ten seconds later it opened the site and got on with it. I fear we may have to live with that a little longer.

More thoughts to share and more testing to be done but that’s my initial thoughts following setup.

If anyone notices Claude being slow tonight - that's my fault. Sorry not sorry :)

Almost finished the Item Chooser addon for NVDA. Anyone willing to try it out for me before I consider releasing it? I do think it is incredibly useful and might help some folks. Drop me an email to Steven@doubletaponair.com and I’ll send it over to you. #blind #BlindTech #NVDA

So yes I’m hooked on vibe coding. Expect me to bore you all on this topic for quite some time! https://youtu.be/EWrosGXbcoM?si=DH01WQdEOT8W4ijO

Anyone out there have a suggestion of a way to share something directly somewhere that isn’t platform specific? For example, if I find a link on my iPhone that I want to share to my PC but I’d like to find a way to just put it somewhere I can access anywhere, Mac, PC or even an Android phone? I also use Apple Notes but that is also platform specific unless you’re prepared to fight with iCloud on PC, and I’m not. I know there are a lot of options for this kind of thing but I’m wanting to get the blind take on it. #Blind #BlindTech

Excited about tomorrow's Double Tap episode. Possibly our biggest guest yet from the world of tech. Stay tuned.

I finished my new home office setup in terms of the desks etc, so now I’m setting up where all the tech lives. I don’t know why I enjoy this so much!

Downloading a local LLM to my more than capable Mac Studio to try out running it on device rather than constantly be paying for the cloud. No idea how this will go but it’s a fun project!

As we come up on our 10th anniversary of Double Tap this year I’m whittling down our archive to something more manageable. Since moving to video in 2024 our archive has increased in size massively - a whopping 27TB. Clever compression and smart archival is bringing it down but it’s a job for sure. Glad for a few days off to get into it.

Had a nice time at Sight Village today chatting with many friends. Recorded a ton of conversations so check out the podcast this Saturday for our Double Tap Sight Village Special. #blind #AssistiveTech #SightVillage

I’m joining the #blind recording brigade of those who have Zoom recorders. While I don’t rate their i-built mics very highly for interview recording, but I totally get how good they are for musicians and such, i will be able to add my own microphone via XLR and for once actually know the damn thing is recording! I’ve opted for the H4e - I was tempted by the H6e but honestly I doubt I’d ever use the ports so this seemed the sensible choice for me.

I’m aware that #FastPlay is a fantastic audio player and is rightfully getting rave reviews. I am clearly missing it but I’m wondering if someone can tell me if it able to play audio at 2 or 3 times speed. I often use QuickTime on the Mac to play audio double speed by using the J K and L keys and I’m looking for something similar on the PC. Does Fast Play do this? Thanks!!

Apple is 50. On Double Tap we celebrate by going back to the start with the man who started it all. Steve Wozniak joins us exclusively for a very special conversation. https://youtu.be/CUvuxi9z4Kc?si=ktkgff004HFcqFH4

So I’ve managed to make a right old cows ear of my screen reader setup. Tried to downgrade from NVDA beta to good old regular NVDA but I’ve killed it entirely. Delete everything and start again I say! Well uninstall the NVDA installs I mean!

Excellent John Oliver episode this week on AI. Hard truths but important to be discussed.

What’s all this about a spaceship launch? Why is everyone so excited? What am I missing?

Listen in for news on Aira’s meta glasses rollout and Orbits pricing of its new devices. @doubletap@tweesecake.social

Was looking forward to playing with Playlist Playground in the new iOS update. However it seems to be a US only feature. Boo.

Just discovered my latest obsession - Landman. Thourougky enjoying this one.