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Community Unmuted – February 15, 2025 With Adds

Feb 18, 2025β€’53 min
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Episode description

Community Unmuted – February 15, 2025

πŸŽ™οΈ Hosted by Marty, Michael, and Liz

This episode of Community Unmuted covers a wide range of tech-related questions, insights, and discussions from the community. We kicked things off with the Question of the Day:
πŸ’¬ What would you like to see in the rumored new iPhone SE? What features do you hope it includes (or doesn't remove)?

πŸ”Ή Listener Questions Covered in This Episode:

  • πŸ“Έ Photo Backup Options: How to transfer photos off an iPhone when iCloud isn't syncing.
  • πŸ“± iPhone SE 4 Rumors: What will the new SE look like, and will it have Apple Intelligence?
  • πŸ–₯️ JAWS Navigation Issue: Why does JAWS 2025 lose focus when using Alt + Left Arrow in browsers?
  • 🎧 Audible on BlindShell: Where do archived Audible downloads go?
  • 🏠 iPhone SE and the Home Button: Will the new SE keep a physical home button?
  • πŸ’» Windows & Keyboard Issues: Random focus jumping in JAWSβ€”could it be a keyboard problem?
  • πŸ₯ iPhone 13 Mini Rebooting Issue: Why does it keep shutting down randomly?
  • πŸ“ž WhatsApp & Dual SIM Usage: Can you use multiple numbers in one WhatsApp account?
  • 🎡 AirPods & Audio Preferences: Are AirPods Pro 2 muffled, or is it a settings issue?
  • πŸ”„ iCloud Contact Syncing: How to share contacts between two iPhones.
  • πŸ”Œ External Storage vs. Cloud Backup: Is relying on a flash drive a good backup strategy?
  • πŸ“ Cloud File Sharing: Can you generate direct download links like Dropbox in other services?
  • πŸ”Š New Powerbeats Pro vs. AirPods Pro 2: What’s different about Apple’s latest earbuds?
  • πŸ“ž Amazon Alexa Support: Why doesn't Amazon provide remote app support like Apple?

πŸ”Ή Special Mentions:

  • πŸ“» Michael Babcock will be on Double Tap this Tuesday to discuss the BlindShell 3.
  • πŸ› οΈ A listener recommended Walter 2 for transferring files between iPhone and Windows.

🎧 Catch the Replay
This episode will be available on the Unmute Presents podcast feed on Tuesday. Club Unmute members may get early access.

πŸ“© Got a question for the next show? Email feedback@unmute.show or visit unmute.show for more content.

πŸ”” Next Episode: Don’t miss our upcoming discussionsβ€”join us live and bring your questions!

Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/unmute-presents-on-acb-communi/5e73d055-29ff-430d-8577-de8f1c44ddba

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Transcript

Unmute is also available on After Sight along with other original podcasts such as Blindsight, the Mental health Podcast, Blind Level Tech, and Navigating Life with Vision Loss. Check us out@www.aftersight.org. this has been an ACB community. Today's community Unmuted, thanks to Club Unmute members, was originally hosted on Saturday, February 15, 2025.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Unmute. A couple announcements here at the top. We wanted to remind everyone that we're going to take all first questions and if we have time, then we will try to get through second questions. But we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to be able to get their question asked if they have one. And then please be respectful and everyone give the same respect that you would want asking your question. Let's see, the question of the day today is supposedly the rumor is there's going to be a new iPhone SE coming out possibly as soon as this upcoming week and there's going to be a lot of new features to it. So what would you like to see new in a new iPhone SE or what do you absolutely not want them to take away? And with that we have Liz here today. How are you doing, Liz? Doing fine.

How are you? Good, good. Awesome. Thanks for being here and helping us answer questions. And as always, we got Michael Babcock here. How you doing, Michael?

I am hoping that the NFC reader on my iPhone 14 Pro Max is not broken, but aside from that, doing good. I think the iPhone SE would be awesome. I don't think that I would buy it unless it has Apple intelligence and that might cause me to really look at that. Possibly. But I've grown fond of the Pro Max size phones because braille screen input is so much easier with a larger device. Awesome. How about yourself, Marty?

Let's see. I would agree with you. I think I'd like it to definitely have Apple intelligence and I'm hoping that with all new devices, you know, they're going to have the capability of at least being able to have Apple intelligence built into it. So I think that would be at least good for everyone to be able to experience that no matter what device you're on. Correct. Hey Holly, do we have any hands? We do. First up, we have Restoria that saying that correctly?

Yes. How can I get my photos off my iPhone? Are they syncing to the cloud? No. So you only have them on your phone and that's all? That's all. Do you have? Which phone do you have? I don't know. The. I don't know what phone she has. Do you know if it's an iPhone or an Android? It's an iPhone. Okay, so what I would do in this case is. And is she trying to get them to her computer anywhere? Because she's lose doesn't have enough memory and space.

Okay. So there are multiple ways to accomplish this. I'll tell you what I would do. Marty or Liz or someone else on here may raise their hand and tell you something totally different. So what I would do is I would go into icloud and turn on photos. If she doesn't have photo syncing, if she doesn't have enough space to do that in her icloud account, I would download the Google Photos app and then synchronize your photos with Google Photos and then she can go delete them off of her phone if she wants, and that'll add a backup of those photos into the Google Photos system.

Okay, so I go to Google, put the Google app on and transfer them to that. The Google Photos app. You want to look for Google Photos, not just Google? Yeah. Okay. Does she have a lot of pictures on there? Oh, yes. You could also do icloud. There is a 99 cent a month version that you could get that gives you 200 gigs. That might be an option also. And that would give her a little bit more space, but either way would work for you. Okay. Also to note with Google Photos, this.

May go without saying, but I'll just say it anyway. It does require, I believe, that you need a Google account, which you may already have one or the person may already have one, but if not, then that is something that would need to. Be set up prior to logging into Photos. Google Photos. Okay, she has one. Awesome. Then she's set. All right, who do we got next? Holly? All right. Darcy has somebody in clubhouse. All right, Mitchell, if you want to. Unmute and ask your question. Hey, Mitchell.

Hey, guys. How are you? I'm good. What can we do for you? Do you know much on what the on what this SE4 is going to look like? From what I understand, it's going to look similar to like an iPhone 14. So what that means is supposedly there is going to be a notch at the top and not a dynamic island, and just the shape and the body of it will look kind of similar to a 14 from what I understand. Okay.

And I have an SE second edition. Do you guys know by chance what version of iOS they're going to pull the plug on on that? Are you running 18 right now? Yeah, I've got 18 right now. I don't know what they're going to do in the future, but if you're currently running 18, then I would just go with it until it doesn't go anymore. Okay. They don't really say until they announce the next operating system what it will be compatible with. So is this episode going to be put on your.

On your podcast feed? It will be, yes. All right, thanks, guys. Yeah, no problem. Okay, Ted is up next. Hey, Ted. Hello. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Wonderful. All right, let me describe what I've got. I've got a Windows 10 desktop system. I have JAWS 2024 and JAWS 2025. I use for my. I use for my Internet access both Microsoft Edge and Firefox. Now, the reason I'm saying all this.

Is I'm having an unusual issue, at least as far as I know it's unusual. With JAWS 2024, everything works pretty much fine. And specifically, when I'm on a website and I click on a link and then I back away from that link, I go back to where I clicked on it. However, If I load jaws 2025 and then I click on a link on a website, regardless of whether it's Microsoft Edge or Firefox, when I click on the link, it goes into a link, fine.

But when I use alt left arrow to click back, instead of going to where I clicked on it, it goes up to. To the very top of the screen or the closest edit box to the top. And I'm wondering if there is a solution to that.

So I have read, and it may have been you, Ted, about someone else having this issue. I think there is a setting that can be changed. I'm going to look through here real quick and see if I can find that setting because I don't know offhand. I will say, though, it's third party, you could get leci, and the LECI scripts do give you the ability to make sure that your focus has moved back to the link when you go back. But I'm looking through the settings right now to see if I can find where that is. And if I do, I will share it in a few minutes.

Wonderful. Thank you. No worries. Who do we got next there, Holly? Anyone? Up next is Stacy. Hey, Stacy. Okay, I see with the audible on the blank shell that some files will just archive. And I'm wondering, then later on I saw that they say they're are no longer in downloads. Where do those archive files go? If you know anything about that, where do they go? They no Longer listed as. They're no longer listed as downloads on the system. Where do they go?

So if they're no longer there, then they're probably just getting deleted. Unless they're showing up. No, you can see them in your view for archives. There's still archives, but they're no longer listed as downloadable. Where do they go? Yeah, I have no clue. You'd need to email supportlineshell because I'm not certain about what file. What archive files you're talking about there, because I don't use Audible. Yeah, they're in the archive mode. Yeah, you can go into.

I can't access any of the folders on the SD card. Even with the file manager. No, I can't. Okay, so if you. But you can see the SD card, like, the SD card is in File Manager. I can see that there is an SD card in Settings. I can see that there's some folders, but I cannot access any of them. Interesting. Yeah. To me, that almost sounds like the SD card's not formatted, but I would hate for you to format it and lose anything that's on. Oh, the SD card chart is definitely formatted.

Okay. Can I help you more there, Stacy? You'll need to reach out to supportlineshell.com. thanks for joining in, Holly. Who do we have next? Up next, we have Janet. Hey, Janet. Hello. I just two things. Want to remind people that Michael Babcock will be on Double Tap on Tuesday Talking about the flagship 3 phone, as far as I know.

Yep. And the other thing is, if you have a computer, you can also use an app called Walter2, which is kind of like itunes, but a lot easier to use with your iPhone connected to it. Right. I don't know if any of you have heard of that or not. That's to transfer files back and forth between your iPhone and Windows. Correct? Yes.

Yeah. Yep. And if you want to hear a demonstration of it, you can go search for Walter2Living blindfoldly.com. and that's where I send people to hear. I think he's got probably three or four demonstrations of it up there, so. Great resource. Thanks, Janet. Appreciate it. Yeah, I like it. I like it better than itunes. And the other thing I was going to say is, no, I'm not getting. An.

Iphone SE4, because I just got my iPhone SE3. So I would want Apple intelligence if I did get it. So you all have a great day. You as well. Thanks for watching it. All right, Doc, you're up next, Doc. Thank you. Well, I've been having a Strange problem that when I sometimes hit either an alt key or a down arrow key that I will jump focus from. You know, say for example, like if I was in Word, it might jump. To. The next item that would turn up. Like if I was doing an Alt.

Tab and I have to constantly hit alt tab to get back to where I was. I don't know if I've explained that clearly or not. It's because it's so weird. So does this happen consistently for you, Doc? I wouldn't say consistently, but I would say daily. Okay, so you can't make it happen on purpose? No. Okay. And if I'm understanding correctly, when you press is this specifically with Alt tab or you mentioned down arrow as well, if you're tapping.

Well, if I just hit an alt or a tab, when I hit. When I hit that button, it will jump. And then when I perform an action, I'm performing it, you know, in. In the wrong file. And you're using JAWS. Yes, JAWS 25, Windows 21, Windows 11.

The amazing Marcy gave me a keystroke that I should have known a long time ago, but I learned it in the last JAWS class she was teaching of jaws. Key up arrow to read your current line. It may be a pain, but I think there could be a couple of things that may be going on. What I would do is first of all get into the habit of using jaws key up arrow to verify where you are before you take the action because that will help ensure that mistakes don't happen. That doesn't help the problem that you're having though, right? Jumping around. Is this on a laptop or a desktop laptop? And does do you happen to have an external keyboard you can connect to the laptop to find out if it happens when you're using that External keyboard?

I use. Yeah, I have Zoom text keyboard that I use. I think I remember you had mentioned this was. This has been going on for a while, hasn't it? Yes, it has. Yeah. Although I don't think I've brought this to you before.

I remember you brought something about the ZoomText keyboard because we were surprised that it was still being made and this was a while ago. My mind goes to potentially thinking it's an issue with the keyboard is where my mind goes to. It would be interesting to find out if you used an alternative keyboard or the built in keyboard if you observe the same behavior. Because if you don't, then it tells you that it is the keyboard and there's nothing wrong physically with the keyboard, right?

Yeah. If it did it every time. That'd be a snap. Yeah, sure would. But it never does with technology, does it? Yeah. Nope. Well, appreciate it there, Doc. And I do see, we have no hands right now, which means that out of the roughly 19 other people, no one else has opinions about the iPhone SE. So, Holly, am I seeing that correct? No hand? No. Thank you, guys. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Appreciate it. Marty, did you get the new headphones that were announced? I did not yet.

Okay, what's the difference in them? Have you done any research? Because I haven't looked at them at all. I have. So they're very much like the AirPod Pro. Oh, we got another hand. So should I take that or you want me to finish? Go ahead and finish that question. Yep. And then we'll take. Nice try.

Okay, well, so the big. They're. They're a lot like the AirPod Pro 2s in the sense of the functionality and features that they have are very similar. They have transparency mode, they have noise cancellation mode, and the one in the middle, which I forget what it's called, and it's very, very similar. The sound is supposed to be equally as good. I would say the major differences would be from the AirPod Pro 2s is they do come with an ear hook that goes around the back of your ear. So it keeps them in and secure. More snug, less chance of them falling out of your ear. And they also have a heart monitor built into them. So if that's something like if you don't have an Apple watch, you can use those to do your monitoring. And they also come in colors. So I believe the colors they come in is black, white, a purple, and I believe there's an orange. So they come in four different colors. The case works the same way. They have USBC for charging, and it's a little bit bigger than the AirPod Pro 2 case because they have the hook on them and it opens up more in a flat instead of from the top. But otherwise, that's most of the things. They're exactly the same price as the AirPod Pro 2S. So if that's something you're looking for, then personally I'd like to try them because I have an issue sometimes with an AirPod falling out of my ear, and I would like to not have that issue. So the ear hook maybe makes that a little more solid so they don't fall out. So.

Awesome. Thanks, Marty. Holly, who's the first hand we have there? All right, up next, we have Petra. Hey, Petra. Hi, guys. Hey there. We can Hear you. Petra's up first. Sandra, sorry.

About the se. I'm curious about it, but I still have an iPhone 13 mini that I'm happy with and I really don't want to go bigger because I carry my phones in my pocket in person. Several different holders and they won't fit the bigger sizes. But my question is, lately, within like the last four weeks or so, my iPhone 13 mini and it's up to date, completely, keeps shutting down probably four or five times a day. When I have not locked it, I pick it up and I have to put in my passcode to get into my phone. Has anyone else noticed that problem? And do you know why that might be happening?

You just said it randomly. Is rebooting. Yes. Is your battery staying charged? You know? Yeah. Like when you. When it's rebooting, how much charge does the. Or I should say, how full is your battery? Is it pretty full or is it getting close to the end or.

Oh, no, it's. It's full. It can happen. In fact, it happens. Oh, I put it on a charger overnight, a MagSafe charger overnight, and I do not lock it. I don't shut it down. And in the morning when I pick it up off the charger, it's 100%, but I have to put in my passcode. So you. Do you not want to put your passcode in or just is rebooting on its own is what the issue is.

It's rebooting on its own so that I pick it up during the day and all of a sudden for no reason, I have to put my passcode in. Yeah, if you face id, right.

I would probably suggest two things. One is I would look at your storage and make sure that your hard drive is not all the way. Full would be the first thing, because sometimes it'll do funky stuff if you're getting close to being full on your hard drive. And honestly, the other thing that I would do is I would probably take it into the Genius bar at the Apple Store and have them run diagnostics on it just to make sure there's not any hardware issue going on with it, because there could be a hardware issue that's causing it to reboot. It could also be a software thing or maybe an app you're running in the background. But it's really hard to just start guessing on everything. So they can do software and hardware diagnostics and if they find a problem, then they can do something about it, because otherwise, if it's just randomly rebooting it Would be really hard to just guess why that's happening.

My nearest Apple Store is an hour and a half drive one way, so that's not going to work very easily. But thank you very much for your your help. I appreciate it. You guys are great.

Petra Also, one thing that can be done is if you reach out to Apple support and you call them, they can do remote diagnostics on the phone so you wouldn't have to go into your newer nearest store. They can do some, some initial testing to find out if there's something physically wrong with the hardware. I would also go into your battery under Settings and check the health of it and make sure that that battery health is above 80%. Okay, I will do that. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, Petra. Holly, who do we got next? All right, now Sandra's up next. Hey Sandra. Sorry guys. Multitasking, so sort of half listening to things. No worries. Anyway, I've got a few questions about WhatsApp. So in relation to sort of WhatsApp business or is it possible to. I suppose. Well, my first question is can you find a landline number to WhatsApp? Whether it's WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business, or does it have to be a mobile phone?

Not unless you can receive a text message to the landline. Okay, so you can't get them to send an email verification instead. To the best of my knowledge, and I don't have as much experience with WhatsApp business, but I believe that is the case. Someone else may have some feedback and can raise their hand and answer, but I believe they have to text in the code to the phone number.

Okay, and then my other question is, which is easier to run more accessible with a mobile phone number, a secondary SIM or a virtual mobile number?

Secondary sim. Okay, because then you're just using the. I presume you're using an iPhone or an Android. Okay, so iPhone. If you have a secondary sim, especially when it comes to esim, you just install that secondary SIM and then messages sent to that phone number when you respond to those messages will be responded to from that phone number automatically and then everything will go into your messages or your phone with all the phone app then. So it all still happens in the phone app?

Yes. Yep, yep. Everything's all in one. Now if you want your personal calls separated from your business calls, then going with a third party app might be what you'd want to do. But for me I just want it all one place so I don't have to remember how to use an interface of a different App. Yeah. And all of your stock apps like your address book and calendar, all that other stuff just cohesively all works with it. You don't have to try and go figure out other, you know.

Okay, and the spin off question, ESIM or second physical sim esim because it's. In gratification, you don't need any hardware. If you got the esim, you just plug it in and go. Okay. Because I've heard about, you know, in order to get the esim you've got to do QR codes or whatever. So there's, they're an easy way of doing it.

Then I think most carriers you. Well, I think I should say some carriers you have to use QR code with AT&T specifically. No, they're not sponsoring this call. But if they want to, I'd be open to it. I live in the uk so it really doesn't matter.

Yeah. So I think some of them will send the, you can download the esim. So what I would do is actually reach out to other people in the UK using the carriers you're looking for and ask them how their ESIM process works. And if you don't have any, send an email to feedbackoubletaponair.com and they can get the question out to a lot of people as well.

Feedback with the company that you're using already for your primary number. A lot of times they can just do it over the phone with you. And because they have, because they have already access to the phone to be able to do things off your primary phone number. So if you call them, they might be able to just add a second phone number on a second virtual SIM right over the phone. You might not have to really do much of anything.

That'd be amazing. I'll definitely look into that. And so, so do you guys know, I suppose WhatsApp and WhatsApp business. So are you able to, to have multiple phone numbers on the ordinary WhatsApp? I have no idea about that. Do you, Michael, know about business? No. No. And what about the I suppose colloquial WhatsApp, the ordinary one, the one we know. Can you have multiple phone numbers running. Off that you cannot? Right. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Sandra. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay, Jeff. Hey, Jeff.

Hey, good morning everybody. On the iPhone, on the next X, what's it se? I'm sorry, I don't think so. I mean partly because I just got a 16, but if I was to consider the SE, I would definitely want Apple intelligence, even though it doesn't seem Like, Siri is benefiting too much from Apple intelligence as of yet. But I found myself like, I had a. I think I would like the size. My first iPhone was at 12 Pro Max and I just got the 16 last year. And even though I like the form factor, the. The battery difference is, I mean, extremely noticeable. But Marty, I was wanting to ask you, were you talking earlier about the new. Were those the new powerbeats Pro? Yes. So I have, I guess, the first version and I love, I mean, it's probably a little dorky looking, but I don't care about that anymore. But that ear hook is awesome. I've kind of gotten used to the AirPods Pro 2, but they still do from time to time fall out. But that, that hook is a. That's a big deal. Do you. Yeah. If the new Powerbeats Pro would be, you know, have the AirPods Pro 2. I don't know if it's like, can they be used, the new powerbeats Pro be used as a hearing aid? They didn't say one way or the other, to be honest with you. So I'm not sure. I would probably say no because then it would just be so close to the AirPod Pro 2s, especially being at the same price. They have to differentiate different, make them different somehow, you know? Yeah. What's that? I said easy for you to say. Yeah, but other than that, they're pretty much the same thing, although with the ear hook and stuff like that, you know, so if that's something you like, then they're a great buy. And I don't know what the Pro twos are going to be yet, but I'm sure they're going to come out with new ones that are going to be the Pro threes, and there's going to be something about those that are going to be different that than these new Power Beats. All right, well, thanks guys. Hope you have an awesome rest of your weekend. Yep, you too. Thanks.

All right, next we have Shirley. Hey, Shirley. Oh, I'm impressed. I was. Okay, so I've got a couple things. First one is going to be real quick because I wasn't here at the very, very beginning. You talked about the iPhone 4. I'm sorry, the iPhone SE4. And I'm assuming by the things I did hear you say that that will not have a home button like the previous ones. Nope.

Button will be gone. No more home button. It's going to be current model phone. So my suggestion to you is if that's something that you want to have, like if the home button is super important for you, I would hurry up and get one or get a backup one because once they announce the new sesame, the ones previous models are going to probably be gone and they're not going to need it with a home button anymore. So. Okay, and when is that supposed to happen?

Well, they don't exactly say, but I have a feeling it's going to be very soon, like possibly this upcoming week. So that's going to be the end of the ones with the home buttons. Correct.

Okay, well, my next question is a little more complicated and not very tech savvy. So if, if it becomes complex, you might not even want to try way back when, like sometime in the last century. It's been a while for sure. My husband and I, and I don't know how it happened or why it stopped happening, but if he would put like a contact in his phone, I somehow automatically got it. And it was nice. We liked that because we, you know, share most of the, the friends and all family and everything and it was convenient, particularly since I'm not so good at doing these things. And somehow at some point it just stopped happening and we didn't do anything any differently consciously at all. It probably was at some point when we got new phones or something. But whatever reason, like I said, we were really surprised when, you know, I automatically started seeing the contacts and we were just as surprised when they didn't start showing up in my phone when he added them to his. So do any of you have any idea?

I'll make two suggestions. I'll make two suggestions for you. The first thing that I would do is if you go into your Settings app and then you go at the top where your name is, you click in there and then you'll see an icloud choice and you go in there and there you'll see a big huge list of things you can turn on and off that sync, or if you don't want them to sync, you turn them off. I would make sure in there that you actually have syncing contacts on and you'll see there's going to be a whole list of stuff. It'll say contacts, notes, calendar, and all the things that you can sync. And you turn those little levers on and off, depending on do you want to sync or not sync. My guess would be that possibly somehow your contact syncing got turned off. And if that's the case, you can turn it back on and it will sync everything back to your phone and make it like it, you know, whatever it was before. All the new things will sync and all the adjustments and whatever will sync. The other thing I would suggest looking at is making sure. It sounds to me like the reason why both of you are able to see everything is because you're signed into the same icloud account, is what I'm thinking. So when your husband puts something in, you'll also see it. So you want to make sure that you're also signed into your icloud account. And if you're not, then if you sign in and then you make sure that the contacts or syncing is turned on, then everything should start working again. Those are the two things I would look at.

Okay, I guess just, just real quickly, what's going to make it sync just to. To his phone rather than somebody else's? Is it just.

Well, first of all, you have to be signed into the icloud account. So you can't sync any data to anything unless the phone is signed into the icloud account. So you would have to put in your email and password in order to do that. And unless somebody else has his username and password, I don't see how anyone get that information. Otherwise it would just be the two of you. Unless he gives his username and password out to somebody. I don't know.

Right, right. No, I understand. Okay. All right, well, we'll. We'll try that and see what we can do. Just one second. We're going to move on to the next question. Hopefully that answered yours. Holy. Who do we have next? Up next. Thank you, by the way. You're welcome. Up next is Miriam. Hey, Miriam. Hello.

First, I just wanted to make a comment about Zoom. It keeps changing, of course. I. I always join these calls on my iPad and it keeps changing where you raise your hand and I found it under reactions today. Used to be under more. So it's a bit of a scavenger hunt. It's just like the grocery store, right? When you figure out where everything is and you roll around on you. Exactly.

I'm glad you get it. Thank you. Simplistic question. I know someone who uses a flash drive every time they are on their computer. And they only store everything on their flash drive. Nothing, well, nothing of importance is left on their computer because they say they do not want to ever lose something that they might need. And that way they can just take their flash drive to every computer that they go to and plug it in, use it, and then take it with them whenever they leave. What do you think about such a thing?

I think it's Good and bad. The reason why I say it's bad is because what happens if that flash drive breaks? Then all your data is gone. You should always have your data in multiple places. If you feel uncomfortable about keeping anything on your internal hard drive, then I would get either an external hard drive or a flash drive, like your friend is doing. But then also maybe use, like, Dropbox or Icloud so that you have a secondary backup. Or maybe get two thumb drives and do a redundant backup and have it on two hard drives. Because even though, yeah, backing up your data is great, but if you're only going to put it in one place, if that drive fails, then he loses everything.

Okay, got it. Thank you very much. I didn't know if it was just a paranoid thing or if it actually was a legit thing, so thank you. I mean, it's a good idea, definitely, but, I mean, you should have your stuff in multiple places. Thank you. Okay. Robin. Hey, Robin.

Hi. So I have, I think, an easy question. I have an old iPhone 12 and I'm trying to hold on to it until the 17 comes out because I don't like the 16. I don't. I've. I've. I don't like the feeling of it in my hand. I don't like the fact that the battery is kind of iffy on it. I. I just don't like it. So. So I'm holding out. I also use. I have two sets of AirPods. I have the AirPods Pro, which I love, but they're dead. They hold a charge for maybe an hour. And I use one at a time, so one ear doesn't have an AirPod in it. And then I switch over because I like to have one ear concentrating on my environment. Okay. And I don't like noise reduction, so I don't use a lot of that stuff. Anyway. Now I also have a pair of AirPod Pro 2's the Twos, I find them very muffled. I cannot get the sound to be. I can't get it to stay in a more treble sound. It comes out very muffled. Or maybe these AirPods, which I've been using for the last eight years, are messing around with my hearing. I have no idea either way. I would like to try a pair of headphones, but I want something that I can turn off the sound in one ear and, you know, make it so that only one side is working at a time. I tried the bone conduction. I tried these sh. What is it called? Shocks. The after shocks. And hated them, returned them. So what do you recommend?

How long ago did you try the shocks? And have you tried the meta ray bans? I have not tried the meta ray bans because I don't want to wear. I don't want to wear glasses on my face. I don't see enough to do that. But I tried those shocks last about a year and a half ago. The only reason I asked that is are you specifically looking for the open ear experience? So your ears are opened up? Is that what you're looking for, or.

I'm just. I'm basically looking for something that acts like an AirPod but sounds better than what I've got. I got a question. Have you ever cleaned. Tried cleaning out the tips on your AirPod Pros at all? Do you ever do it? All the time. Okay. And when I put. And when I. When I use the pros, the sound is perfect. But when I use the twos, from the very beginning, I've never liked them. Gotcha.

And I paid a lot of money for them, so they're. I'm not getting rid of them. I'm just gonna put up with it. But I. You know, the reason I don't like the. The aftershocks, there's two reasons. One, because they don't. I have a. I'm a small woman, so they fall off my head. And the other one is they. They put too much pressure on the. On the. The. What's the bone that they're sitting on? Yeah, the. The. That right there in front of your jaw. I don't know the name of it. I, I completely get that.

It's. It's. It's probably your temporal bone. So it's. Or. Or it's your cheeks, but. But that's why I don't like them. So I don't know what to do.

So I have two suggestions that I'll make because there's a lot of things you can try because the earbud market is very crowded and convoluted, which doesn't help the consumer. What I would try, especially if you kind of like that ability to have your ear somewhat open, is Shokz makes a new earbud. They're called the Open4Fit, and they also have the Open Fit Air. Open fit Air is $99. Open fit is 190. 119, I believe. If I recall those prices right, those have a hook that go over the top of your ear. So it doesn't matter how big your head is or how small it is. And then there are rectangle boxes that hang just outside your ear, so it leaves your ear open so you can hear things around you, but it doesn't. Pressure. There's no pressure on any bones or anything. And they have pretty. You might think they wouldn't have low, mid or highs on them, it would be heavy in one or the other. But they're actually pretty. Pretty well balanced. So I would try those and you're going to get about 30 hours of battery life out of them. With the case just the buds themselves, average battery life is about. Is about.

Is there a lag? Because I don't use them for music. I use them to listen to audiobooks and move backwards and forwards and it's all for verbal.

Yeah, yeah, Yep. And they'll sound great for spoken word for sure as well. There is a slight lag, notoriously, with any Bluetooth device that isn't necessarily Apple's. And one could even argue that Apple's AirPods have this as well. There is a lag because you're going from your phone wirelessly to the earbuds. So when you touch your screen you are going to notice that. Now some earbuds are very much worse than others. I would say that the Shokz Open fits. They do have a slight delay. There's slightly more of a delay than what the AirPods are. You could also try. Sony has several different styles of earbuds that might be worth exploring as well. So those are my two suggestions.

And by the way, I don't notice any lag on my earbuds on my Apple AirPods at all. Never.

I was gonna also let you know that on your AirPod Pro 2s, the ones that sound muffled, if you are truly having that kind of an audio issue with them and everything that you've tried is not working, I would have them diagnosed by Apple because if there is actually physically something wrong with them, they will replace them or replace the one you have a problem with. Or at least you know you will get your money out of them. Oh, yeah, they're two years old now. I don't know if they'll do that if.

Do you have AppleCare on them or. No, no, no, no, no. I got them as a gift. My husband bought them for me for Christmas two years ago and I'm just waiting for them to die. I believe there's also equalization features in the AirPod settings itself.

Yes, there is. I've tried every which way to do it. I played with the. I played with it for like hours on end and I. I'm using Them now. And I can't hear the high ends of anything. It's crazy. But anyway, I will look into the airfit. I will look into the Aftershock. What is it called? Airfit. Open Fit. Open Fit. I'll look into it. Perfect. Thank you very much for your help. Thanks, Robin. Holly, who do we got next? All right, up next we have Ristoria. Hello, Ristoria again.

Hello. In regards to my last question, a lady came on and she said that you could also transfer it to your laptop or your computer, but I didn't get the beginning of that. Can she repeat it? Yeah. The name of the program that she was recommending is Walter W, A L T R and the number two. And there's some audio tutorials@livingblindfully.com I don't know how I know. Walter 2 is usually used for moving audio media back and forth. I believe you should be able to pull your photos as well from those.

Thanks. No worries, Holly. Who do we got next? All right, Marcy is up next. Hey, Marcie. Hello. I enjoy the file sharing experience, especially through Dropbox, where we can copy the. Link, change the 0 to a 1. And automatically everybody can download what you're sharing. Right. Is that possible with the other cloud services at all, where they can download. The content that you want to share. With the Google Drive? With the OneDrive, I mean, I know you can share files, but the direct download.

Is that a possibility?

There are hacks out there. It is not as simple as what Dropbox is just by changing that zero to a one, but there are some tools out there that will let you do it. Also, if you Click on a OneDrive link or you click on a Google Drive link often, there's either a download button or a more actions button that if you hit space or enter on that, that'll pop up one of those virtual menus that you can down arrow to download and hit enter. I believe OneDrive. Well, I know Google Drive will, and I believe OneDrive will as well. Allows the user to pick if you want people to be able to download these files or not.

Okay. And then there's a. There's an alternative like Open Drive. I don't know if you guys have heard about that one. It's a little bit less expensive than Dropbox. I guess the same would. Would apply to that, maybe where you can download or copy a link and download.

Yeah, I've not used that specific one. There's also nextcloud and there's. There's several of them out There that you could do. I am real intrigued on a. I want to eventually get a Synology nas, which would then let you store all of your files on your hard drives because you connect it to your network and then you can use tools in the Synology software that work like Dropbox, so everything's kept locally to your network and it doesn't have to go out to the cloud. And those do also offer the ability to set it up. It is a bit more set up, but you have set up and then you can share a file with a link that comes directly from your Synology. So then you don't have to use Dropbox or OneDrive or any of those.

I'll check that out. Thank you. No worries, Marcie. Thanks a lot. And Darcy, who do we got? I'm sorry, Holly, who do we have next? I was reading Darcy's name. It's all good. Up next is Stacy. Hey, Stacy.

Okay, I have a question. And that is since I guess you said iPhone, well, for the disabled, or you said somebody will actually go into the app for people, you know, and all that stuff and help people, you know, manipulate their app or something like that. I was wondering why you can't get Amazon to do the same thing. I mean, I would like to call them up and have them help me manipulate my app on certain problem issues or something, but I don't, I don't see cooperation.

Well, I cannot, as I tell my younger brother and my son, we can only control our own actions. So I'm not sure why Amazon doesn't allow this ability or why you can't work with them to get that. Aside from it could be a hardware related issue. So, to the best of my knowledge, someone cannot control an iPhone remotely. Is that correct, Marty?

Not exactly. It depends on who you're talking to. So, for example, if you call Apple Accessibility or you are talking to Apple Care, they can remote into your device as long as you give them permission. But I don't know, I'm talking about Amazon. I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Alexa app. I would like somebody to be able to control that remotely for me a little bit.

Yeah, that's a third party thing. You'd have to take that up with Amazon. I don't know if they have the tools to do it or how that would work. But you need to take that up with them, obviously, for sure. Thank you, Stacy. Sorry we couldn't provide a direct answer. Holly, who is, what looks like to be the last hand we have. Sandra is back. Welcome Back, Sandra.

Hello, guys, this is a quick question based on someone else's question earlier on. I've got an iPhone SE 2022 and I got that in 2023. I did think that was the last home button phone. So are there more recent home button physical home button phones?

I think there's one newer than the one you have. I think there's actually three is what the current model is right now. But once this new one comes out, which I believe if they keep the name scheme that they've been with, this will be the fourth generation of that and that does not have a home button. So three is the last generation of the home button. Once this new one comes out, there will not be an iPhone with a home button any longer. So is that SE3 or is it something else? 3.

SE3 is the current SE model with a home button that's out right now. If they keep that same naming scheme when the 4 comes out, SE4, if that's what they name it, there will no longer be a home button, which could be as soon as this upcoming week.

So I think you guys are talking about the same thing. It's just worded differently. So the SE3 was released in March of 2022. So, Sandra, the phone you have right now is currently the latest SE phone that's been released, if not the one that was released in 2022. Okay. Right. Yeah, I thought I was correct in, in that. And how messy is the phones without the home button to get used to? I know people kind of. I've heard people kind of point it.

Takes a little bit of work and kind of muscle memory in my experience. But honestly, I thought it was going. To take longer than it did. And now actually, in switching, I have. Need, just because of what I need to do sometimes to switch between a. Device that has a home button and one that doesn't. And I am actually more frustrated when I have the one with the home. Button because it's just. It's not muscle memory that I'm used. To anymore on a regular basis.

At the end of the day, it's really only about two or three different gestures. Other than that, it's really not that much different. Okay, three gestures instead of one. Fine. And paying attention to the haptic feedback that your device is giving you, that's the other aspect I feel like, that. That is involved in devices without a home button. Okay, thanks so much, guys. Okay, it's tantal. And you do have one more hand if you want to take it. Yep, we'll take It. Let's take this last hand.

All right. Monica. Hi. Hello. Hi.

So I just wanted to give Sandra some confidence. I did not want to switch out of the home button, and my husband and the person at the store said you would have so much better options if you switched because you'd be able to upgrade easier. And it took me about a week to get used to it. And I did get frustrated. I did yell at the phone. I didn't throw it, though. And the people are very helpful and patient in helping you learn to do it first before you actually buy it. I went to a store to do it, and so that helped me a lot, and my confidence got better.

So if that helps you, awesome. Thank you, Monica. The feature is not bleak, right? It's not. It's. It's. You'll get used to it. You do get. I got frustrated at first, but I got used to it. So. Yeah. And listen to the haptic feedback with the tones too, because they change. They make little beeping sounds that'll get you used to the different things, if that makes sense. It does. Okay. Thank you, guys. Yep. Thanks, Monica. Okay. We do have one more hand, if you want. Yeah, we'll take it.

Okay. Petra. Hey, Petra.

Hey there. I just wanted to give encouragement to people who are afraid of losing the home button. I've tried not to have not to give up the home button as long as I could, but I did graduate to the iPhone 13 mini and the home button being gone is not a problem at all. I really didn't even get frustrated with it. I like the feature. It works great. So everyone get ready for their no home button. Sometimes I wish they had touch ID or fingerprint ID with the screen, but the lack of the home button doesn't bother me anymore for sure.

Well, thank you, Petra. We greatly appreciate it. And at that note, I'm going to remind you that this podcast replay will come out on Tuesday on the podcast feed. If you're subscribed to your Club Unmute podcast feed, you may get it earlier, depending on when I actually get it cleaned up and published. And then tomorrow on the regular Unmute Presents podcast feed, we have our weekly digital bites news to come about that good news coming the first weekend of March. If you're a club member, you got a hint of that last week with that. Marty, you want to go ahead and wrap it up?

Yep. Just want to thank Holly and Darcy for all your help today. We always appreciate you and thanks everyone else for coming and participating. If you want to get a hold of us. You can check out what we have going on at our website, which is Unmute show. And if you have questions, comments, or if you have a suggestion for question of the day, you can always email us at Feedback show everybody. Have a great weekend and we'll see you next time. That.

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