Shaun Preece:
I'm blind. I'm sitting in a garden shed, and I'm wearing sunglasses. That's weird. Let's talk about it. Welcome to Shaun of the Shed.
Announcer:
Shaun of the Shed, an AMI original podcast.
Shaun Preece:
Is this YouTube? I'm like that there's sneezing Panda. How cool is this? Hello. I am Shaun Preece. This is my Garden Shed, and this is the show where I talk tech because technology shouldn't be frightening. Technology isn't scary. Technology is in fact, so damn useful, especially if you're blind or visually impaired like me. Let's take for example the smartphone. Yes, I have in my hand an iPhone, but I'm talking about Android phones as well, whatever the device. When it comes to smartphones, I can quite happily say, "It's changed my life." They have made me more independent because when it comes to accessing information, the smartphone is absolutely amazing because as someone who cannot read printed text, the ability to check my bank statements or shop online or get turn-by-turn directions or read timetables, whatever it may be. Using a smartphone is life-changing.
Shaun Preece:
I know, I'm not afraid to say it. I'm not ashamed to say it, "I love you iPhone." There I've said it. So why can I get this information from a smartphone? Well, the reason is of course, that the smartphone reads it to me off the screen using something called a screen reader which all smartphones have, so if I press the button.
Speaker 4:
12:13.
Shaun Preece:
12:13.
Speaker 4:
Screen locked.
Shaun Preece:
Screen locked. So that perfectly natural-sounding voice, it doesn't sound like a computer voice from the '80s. Shall we play a game?
Speaker 3:
Please like the video and subscribe.
Shaun Preece:
It sounds perfectly natural, and it allows me to get access to any information on the screen. It's fantastic. Now, there is one slight problem with this, and that's when you're out and about in the big city, and you have the environmental noise around you, it gets a little bit more tricky to hear what the [inaudible 00:02:23] is saying. You see, and you end up trying to cram the phone into your ear so you can hear it. Now, I know what you're saying, "Shaun, you are an idiot." All right, calm down. Firstly, you're an idiot because why don't you just use headphones or earbuds and well, actually you're right. And for the most part I do, but the thing is they have their problems as well because when you're wearing regular headphones or earbuds, your ears are covered, and it makes it harder to hear what's going on around you.
Shaun Preece:
And that can be dangerous. You can be walking through the city, and then all of a sudden, where did that come from? And that's why today I want to talk about audio sunglasses. I have here a pair of audio sunglasses, and they have speakers built into the arms. Meaning that the ears are not covered whatsoever. So I can still hear everything that my smartphone is saying, but also still hear what's going on around me. It's fantastic. So let's talk about audio sunglasses. Okay, you beauty, so let's get into audio sunglasses. Now, I think I've given my reasons why I think they are useful alternative to regular headphones when you're out and about for safety reasons, but there may be other reasons as well. You could be one of those people that absolutely hate the feeling of anything stuck in your ears. Maybe they irritate your ear canal, and you just can't wear earbuds for very long.
Shaun Preece:
Well, these again, could be an answer. Or maybe you are one of those people that wear sunglasses all the time just because you are cool or more likely because you are sensitive to light. In that case, why take two devices into the shower, don't carry headphones around with you, simply wear a pair of audio sunglasses, so there is a couple of reasons. Now, whatever your reason, audio sunglasses are really easy to pair to your device. Now, what am I talking about here when I say pair? Well, in order to hear the audio from your device, you need to connect the sunglasses to it, and it isn't just a smartphone. It could be a television or a computer or a tablet or any Bluetooth-enabled device. That's the keyword here, Bluetooth. Now, I'm sure you've heard of Bluetooth before, but if you haven't, don't worry. It's not rocket science, we're not going to go into too much detail.
Shaun Preece:
What I am going to show you is how to connect the audio sunglasses to a device, in this case my iPhone. So all I have to do is go to the setting, and now Bluetooth. And in here I will see a big list of all the nearby devices that I'm able to connect to. Now, when you take your audio sunglasses out of the box and power them on, they will appear in this list. All you need to do then is double tap on the name or if you're not a voiceover user, just single tap on the name in that list, and that's it, you are connected. No wires, no cable, no fuss. It's really easy. We call this pairing. You've now paired the audio sunglasses to your smartphone or television or whatever it may be.
Shaun Preece:
Anyway, that's how you connect them, and let's see how you use them. Okay, so you've got your audio sunglasses, and you connected them to your favourite device, be it a computer, a tablet, a smartphone or even a television. And you're now sat back enjoying your audio like a high-tech cool little fonzy that you are, but how do you control the audio playback? Well, whether you've got the Anker Soundcore frames or the Bose frames or any other audio sunglasses for that matter, the way that they implement the control system is pretty much the same. What they have is a touch-sensitive area built in to the arms of sunglasses. Now, I'm going to talk about this Soundcore frames here specifically. On both sides you have this touch sensitive area just where your temples are, and using that, you can swipe forward or back to adjust things like the volume or maybe jump to the next track or previous track. Or you can double-tap on the touch-sensitive area to stop or start audio playback or even answer a phone call, I didn't even mention that before.
Shaun Preece:
You can also double tap and hold, and that will do something like summon your smartphone's voice system, so the controls work really well in practice. There isn't an issue with the touch-sensitive area, very nice. But if you want to customize those controls, so let's say I want to swipe forward and back on the right side of my sunglasses to adjust the volume, and swipe forward and back on the left side to skip through tracks. Well, to do that you can download your sunglasses companion app. So for example, the Bose frames have a companion app called Bose Music, I believe it's called now. And in the case of these Anker Soundcore frames, they have an app called, rather obviously, Soundcore, so download that from your smartphone's app store. And once you install it, you can change certain features of your sunglasses, turn certain features on or off or change the equalizer.
Shaun Preece:
Maybe you want more bass or more treble, I don't know, whatever you want to do. And of course, you can customize the controls. It sounds great, except the one thing I'm interested in is accessibility. Can I use that using a screen reader on my smartphone? Can I customize those controls for these Anker Soundcore frames? Sadly, no. Now, when I'm using my voiceover screen reader on my iPhone, the app isn't accessible. I can't change those controls whatsoever. I have been in touch with Anker and said, "Have you got any plans to make these this app accessible at all?" And they did actually get back to me and said, No, we haven't, Shaun." The only thing I can say to that is, "But Anker, no, you can't do that." So I am going to keep in contact with them. I am going to keep pushing them to make their app accessible because there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be.
Shaun Preece:
But for right now, it isn't. Now, with that said, the silver lining if you like, is that you only have to do this once. So once you customize the controls, if you get someone to help you, do that, then pretty much you can set and forget it. Once you set the controls how you'd like them, you never need to go back in to that app again, but it still is a pain to get someone else to help you with that. Anyway, that's it when it comes to the controls. Let's see or hear what they sound like. I'm going to use the AMBEO headphones I've got here which have a microphone built in that will pick up the sound coming from the Anker Soundcore sunglasses I'm wearing. Now, it's not going to be a totally a hundred percent reproduction of how they'll sound when you are actually wearing the audio sunglasses, but it's going to be pretty damn close. Anyway, let's start off with some vocals, so I'm going to play the Double Tap podcast. Here we go.
Speaker 5:
Hey, guys. Welcome along to episode number 19 for Saturday the 24th of September 2022. It is Double Tap. It is the weekend. Marc Aflalo is here, I hope. I can't do it alone, can I? Or can I?.
Shaun Preece:
You get the idea. Now, let's try some music to avoid any copyright issues, I don't want any strikes. I'm going to play the Double Tap theme music. Here we go. Okay, that's enough of that. So there you go, and I know the first thing you are thinking is, "Where's the bass, Shaun? It's all about the treble, no bass," and you're absolutely right. The audio coming from these Anker Soundcore frames is definitely missing that punch. It's missing the body of the music, and to be fair, the other audio sunglasses that I've tried, such as the Bose frames, they are a little bit better when it comes to the Bose, but not a whole lot.
Shaun Preece:
Now, when it comes to listening to vocals such as my audiobooks or the radio or a podcast or the screen reader from my phone, getting turn-by-turn directions, it's absolutely fine. It's perfectly clear, it's perfectly recognizable as hearing the vocals, but when it comes to music, if you want to immerse yourself in that Pink Floyd album, these aren't really going to work for you. Audio sunglasses aren't really for music. I mean, even comparing them to the cheapest pair of regular headphones, they probably can't compete. So are they for you? Are you going to pick up a pair? Well, again, at 179 US dollars at the time of recording, it is a considered purchase unless you've got a real use case, then probably headsets or earbuds or headphones may be a better choice.
Shaun Preece:
For me, I find them really useful for commuting and being out and about, but there's no getting away from that price tag and that lack of audio quality. That's it for audio sunglasses. Thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. Thank you so much for watching my first YouTube video. Hopefully, they will get better. But if you did like it, then please find the like and subscribe buttons. I mean, I don't know where they are, they're around here somewhere. Just tap around, keep swiping and you will find them, but please like and subscribe. Thank you again, and I will see you next time. Take care.
