Welcome to another fantastic Tech Connect presented by the Vision Forward Association!
This Tech Connect is our Deep Dive on Optaro by Eschenbach, that means a full examination and demonstration of everything this magnifier has to offer! On Deep Dive we build from the ground up! That means you'll hear all about this device's hardware, all the controls, each feature and every mode will be explored in detail by our Assistive Technology Specialists!
However, if you only want the main take-aways then maybe you should check out our Fast Facts on Optaro! You can find that link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLkA2s9Fp00
On today's Tech Connect, we demonstrate the various modes of the Optaro, a low vision magnifier designed for iPhone! Our Assistive Technology Experts will explain this device's controls and then test just how well it preforms in a variety of situations! This includes: close-up text and glossy print, contrast and color options, and its ability to preform OCR style functions. Our Assistive Technology Experts are excited to share their findings with everyone.
0:00 Start
1:05 Introducing the Optaro, compatible with iPhone 12 and newer
4:27 Assembling the device, variety of case options, Tips and Tricks for construction
7:45 Demo and explanation of button controls, Settings, color contrast options, Camera,
11:45 Using the "Tell Me Button," ( somewhat limited by similar capability to OCR)
13:30 Zooming in and out, pinch and reverse pinch, Flip between magnification levels
14:45 Reading Line controls, Expanded upon later in the video around 20:55
15:20 First Thoughts? How good does it look even at MAX magnification?
17:30 Settings Menu, Simple Operating Mode, False Colors Library, Reset to Factory Settings,
20:55 Insert of Reading Line settings and options, Windowing and Alt Colors for Focus
23:45 Wrap-Up Review, comparisons with Ruby Magnifier, hopeful improvements?
28:40 Upcoming Assistive Technology videos, livestreams, LMS for free ACVREP Credits!
If you have any additional questions about the Optaro, or any other magnifiers like the Ruby XL, please add those down in the comment section and we will endeavor to help! Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect
Contact Vision Forward Association:
Call us: (414-615-0103)
Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
This Tech Connect is our Deep Dive on Optaro by Eschenbach, that means a full examination and demonstration of everything this magnifier has to offer! On Deep Dive we build from the ground up! That means you'll hear all about this device's hardware, all the controls, each feature and every mode will be explored in detail by our Assistive Technology Specialists!
However, if you only want the main take-aways then maybe you should check out our Fast Facts on Optaro! You can find that link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLkA2s9Fp00
On today's Tech Connect, we demonstrate the various modes of the Optaro, a low vision magnifier designed for iPhone! Our Assistive Technology Experts will explain this device's controls and then test just how well it preforms in a variety of situations! This includes: close-up text and glossy print, contrast and color options, and its ability to preform OCR style functions. Our Assistive Technology Experts are excited to share their findings with everyone.
0:00 Start
1:05 Introducing the Optaro, compatible with iPhone 12 and newer
4:27 Assembling the device, variety of case options, Tips and Tricks for construction
7:45 Demo and explanation of button controls, Settings, color contrast options, Camera,
11:45 Using the "Tell Me Button," ( somewhat limited by similar capability to OCR)
13:30 Zooming in and out, pinch and reverse pinch, Flip between magnification levels
14:45 Reading Line controls, Expanded upon later in the video around 20:55
15:20 First Thoughts? How good does it look even at MAX magnification?
17:30 Settings Menu, Simple Operating Mode, False Colors Library, Reset to Factory Settings,
20:55 Insert of Reading Line settings and options, Windowing and Alt Colors for Focus
23:45 Wrap-Up Review, comparisons with Ruby Magnifier, hopeful improvements?
28:40 Upcoming Assistive Technology videos, livestreams, LMS for free ACVREP Credits!
If you have any additional questions about the Optaro, or any other magnifiers like the Ruby XL, please add those down in the comment section and we will endeavor to help! Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect
Contact Vision Forward Association:
Call us: (414-615-0103)
Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00TechConnect is known for one thing, Luke, and that's breaking news, and we have a brand
00:06new product that we're covering today.
00:16So Corey, what is the new product?
00:19Huh?
00:20I forgot.
00:21Welcome back to another TechConnect.
00:24Today we are taking a look at a brand new product from Eschenbach.
00:28It's called the Optaro.
00:30This thing is less than two weeks old at the time of recording, and it is a brand new product
00:35from Eschenbach.
00:36It is an electronic magnifier, but not what you would expect.
00:42This again is using an iPhone.
00:44If you saw our last video on the Maggi IVR, that was also using an iPhone, but that was
00:50a wearable.
00:51Yes.
00:52This is more of a traditional portable video magnifier.
00:55Stick with us.
00:56We're going to take a look at this brand new device.
00:59Make sure that you like and subscribe, comment, all those great things.
01:03Let's get into it.
01:05All right.
01:06The Optaro has a number of pieces that all come together, kind of like a transformer.
01:13Not transformer.
01:14What's the other one?
01:15Like the Power Rangers robot being assembled.
01:18Sure.
01:19Or Voltron.
01:20Yeah.
01:21What is it?
01:22Something to assemble?
01:23Oh, Avengers.
01:24Oh, that works too.
01:25All right.
01:26The Optaro has a bunch of pieces that we need to use in order to have it all come together.
01:31Number one, we need an iPhone.
01:34It works with any iPhone.
01:36No.
01:37No.
01:38No.
01:39What iPhone does it work with?
01:40iPhone 12 and above.
01:41And who told...
01:42Are you just making this up?
01:43No.
01:44Who told us?
01:45Big Matt from Eschenbach.
01:46Yeah.
01:47Big Matt.
01:48Yes.
01:49Thank you, Big Matt.
01:50Why are we calling him Big Matt?
01:51Because he has a big personality.
01:52Oh, okay.
01:53He's a nice guy.
01:54So we're going to get the iPhone 12 and up, not the SE model.
01:58So first of all, you're going to have your iPhones.
02:00Number two, you need the actual Optaro device itself.
02:04This is going to connect to the back of your iPhone.
02:07It has a built-in camera and battery, and it is going to provide the image that you
02:12need to then show up on your iPhone screen.
02:16Number two...
02:17No.
02:18Number three...
02:19I forgot to count there.
02:20You need some kind of case.
02:21So there are two options that you can do with the Optaro.
02:24Number one, you can get a specific case for your iPhone.
02:27So if you've got a 12 Pro, you can get a case that's going to fit the 12 Pro.
02:32If you don't know what phone you have, or maybe you're thinking you're going to get
02:35yourself a new phone in the near future, then you can get the universal case.
02:40This will allow you to use any iPhone model 12 or up with the same case, and you can just
02:47adjust as needed.
02:48The big difference, though, is that the universal case is not as secure as the case specific
02:55for your iPhone model.
02:57Now, Matt was telling us that the universal case was good and worked fine, but you just
03:04couldn't read upside down.
03:05Yeah, you couldn't turn it upside down because then the phone would fall out.
03:08Which, my question is, how often is Matt reading or doing things upside down?
03:13Well, since he knew that that would happen, I'm guessing quite a lot.
03:17Is that like the first thing he did when he put it in the universal case?
03:20I wonder what happens when you turn it upside down.
03:22I will say the universal case utilizes the magnet on the back of the iPhone in order
03:26to secure the iPhone in there.
03:28Apparently, it's not strong enough to take the weight when held upside down.
03:31It's actually quite a clever design.
03:32It's very clever.
03:33It is, but learn from Matt's mistakes.
03:35Don't tip your phone upside down if you're using the universal case.
03:40The last piece that we need is some kind of way to charge it.
03:44Eschenbach does sell separately a charging block that has two USB ports.
03:51The reason you want two ports is that then you're able to charge your Aptaro via USB-C
03:58and your iPhone at the same time just using that single block.
04:02If you don't want to purchase a double block from Eschenbach and you prefer to use your
04:07own, you can do so.
04:09Amazon or any other place is going to sell those, no problem.
04:13It's not like you have to use Eschenbach specifically.
04:16Stick with us.
04:17We are going to go over putting the phone into the case and actually doing a demo of
04:21the Aptaro device.
04:23Stick with us.
04:24Let's see what it can do.
04:25Okay, so the first thing we need to do is put the Aptaro together and the Aptaro consists
04:32of basically two different parts.
04:34We have the base, which is the Aptaro itself and that's what has the camera and the electronics
04:40in it.
04:41We also have the rubber adapters that are used for putting the phone in.
04:45Now I have two here.
04:46I have a rubber adapter for the iPhone 12, but that's not the phone we're going to be
04:51using, Corby.
04:52We're going to be using your phone, which is which type of iPhone do you have, Corby?
04:55I have the 15 Pro.
04:57Okay, now since we don't have the specific case for the 15 Pro, we are going to be using
05:01the universal case instead and this actually comes in two parts.
05:04There is a plastic part with a magnetic bit on it and then there is the rubber part and
05:09we have to put these together with the Aptaro, Corby.
05:12Now this is only my second time of ever doing this.
05:15The first time didn't go great, I'm going to be honest with you.
05:17So we'll see.
05:18That's why we're using a different phone.
05:19Sorry, Matt.
05:20So let's see if we can get this together.
05:24So I'm going to go ahead and try and figure out how to put these together.
05:27Now I know that the Aptaro camera obviously has to be poking out because it needs to see
05:32what's going on.
05:35I think I've got this the wrong way around, so we're going to try the other way and we'll
05:40see if we can get this together.
05:41I'm pretty sure there's a joke here, how many Aptaros does it take to put together an Aptaro.
05:47What did Matt say to us, Corby, about the rubber on the case here?
05:52He said something specific about it still being like...
05:55Oh, he said it was crusty.
05:57Crusty, yes, I do.
05:58A little bit crusty when you first get it, so you have to kind of put a bit of force
06:02into it.
06:03So I believe I may have gotten the rubber on.
06:05Now, I'm not saying that this is perfect, you know, I feel like there's room for improvement,
06:11but it may be sufficient.
06:12Now, when you say room for improvement, you don't mean for Mesh and Buck, you mean for
06:15yourself.
06:16Yeah, for myself, I'm not 100% sure how to get this on correctly, but I think I've done
06:22a decent job.
06:23Yeah.
06:24Okay, good.
06:25So the next part we're going to put in at the universal clamp part and this, the circular
06:30area, which is white, is the magnetic part and now we need to kind of slide this into
06:36the rubber as well.
06:37Cory, it's definitely a little on the crusty side, I'm going to tell you that right now.
06:40He said, put some oomph behind it.
06:41He did.
06:42There you go.
06:43I'm trying.
06:44Okay.
06:45Clicking is a good sign.
06:46Hey!
06:47I believe I've assembled it.
06:48Now, mine does not look as good as when Matt did it, I'm going to be honest with you.
06:52Now, we were using the, I think Matt put it in, did he have it in the universal case?
06:56Yeah, maybe he did.
06:57He tried both.
06:58He showed us both.
07:00He had a little bit more practice than you did.
07:01He had a little bit more practice.
07:02So I got, let's say, Cory, I got about 80% of the way there on my second try.
07:06Okay.
07:07So it might just take a few tries to really get it down.
07:09Now, of course, you might not actually need to do this.
07:11The only reason we're doing it is because we are putting on the universal, but you know,
07:17if you own one, you're probably just going to leave yours assembled all the time.
07:20So it's not like you're constantly disassembling and assembling this.
07:23Now, at this point, Cory, we should be able to put the phone onto the universal base.
07:29And this is our Optaro ready to go.
07:32Now, before we get into the demo part, this is my phone, please do not turn it upside
07:38down because this is a universal case.
07:41Okay.
07:42Well, here we go.
07:43Let's try it.
07:44Three, two, one.
07:45Okay.
07:46So now that we have put the Optaro together, it's time to put it through its paces.
07:50And in order to do so, we have brought in a special magazine from Cory's collection
07:54here.
07:55This is from Cory's People collection.
07:56That's his favorite magazine.
07:58And this is from the October 17th, 2022 issue.
08:00Cory, why is it that this is one of your personal favorite issues?
08:03Well, this actually ranks number six of my favorites.
08:05I mean, I wasn't going to bring you in the top five.
08:07No, obviously.
08:08That would be crazy.
08:09But this really highlights the relationship between Brad Pitt and Emily Ratajkowski.
08:14Yes.
08:15And so I really thought that our viewers would enjoy this exact issue.
08:21Yeah.
08:22I agree with you.
08:23Is that relationship still going on two years later, Cory?
08:25What's the situation with that?
08:26Yeah.
08:27They're called Bremily.
08:28They're called Bremily?
08:29Yeah.
08:30Brad and Emily together.
08:31It's Bremily.
08:32Semolina?
08:33Or it's Emma Rat.
08:34I can confirm.
08:35I don't know any of this.
08:36So I'm going to trust you.
08:37I don't think they ever were together.
08:38Okay.
08:39Anyway, it's good to use a glossy magazine in testing
08:45because electronic magnifiers can find those difficult because of the shininess of the pages.
08:49And I'm glad to report the Optaro is doing a very nice job.
08:52Now, we have eight buttons on the screen at the moment.
08:54We are in the advanced mode, Cory, because we are advanced technology specialists, after all.
08:58In the advanced mode, we get all of the different buttons.
09:01So that gives us eight in total, four to the left and four to the right.
09:04Cory, let's run through those buttons and find out what they do.
09:06Okay.
09:07So top left, we have settings.
09:08That will obviously allow us to go into our...
09:10Cory?
09:11Settings.
09:12Very good.
09:13So in settings, there's going to be various things that we can change.
09:14Sound it up.
09:15Yeah, that would have made sense.
09:18We'll dive into that in the next section.
09:20Let's not get caught up on that right now.
09:22The next button down, Cory, is our color mode button.
09:25And we only have a few colors engaged at the moment.
09:27There are...
09:28How many to choose from, Cory?
09:2914 total.
09:31Yeah, 14 total.
09:32But we only have a couple engaged at the moment.
09:33But we will see how to go into the settings and change that.
09:35Let's see what we've got right now.
09:36We have regular color.
09:37I'm going to go ahead and look...
09:38Oh, we're actually in black and white at the moment, Cory.
09:41So here's Emily in black and white.
09:43Let's go ahead and hit the color mode button.
09:45I'm going to hit it a few times.
09:46Okay.
09:47So here she is in her regular color.
09:49And we'll go look at Brad as well.
09:50Because, you know, it's only fair.
09:51So there's Brad.
09:52Now we're going to go ahead and change some of these colors.
09:54So I'll hit the color button.
09:55And we have high contrast black on white, Cory.
09:58And yes, it is nice and high contrast.
10:00Nice dark blacks and white whites.
10:02I'll hit it again.
10:03And now we have the reverse whites on blacks.
10:05Colors that are very common.
10:06These are probably the default colors, I'm guessing, Cory,
10:08because they are the most common ones.
10:10Yeah, I was going to say those are the ones that most people use.
10:13And I have to assume that the quality is probably pretty good.
10:17It is a 1080p camera.
10:19It is, yeah.
10:20And we're also using the high-resolution phone screen as well.
10:23Yeah, I was just going to say on the iPhone, especially the Pro,
10:26that combination has got to give you pretty good results.
10:29Yeah, it is a very nice image.
10:31I will say, though, maybe the screen of the iPhone is a little glary.
10:34And so that would be one thing to bear in mind.
10:36You know, these touch screens, they tend to be a little bit glary.
10:39But here, underneath the studio lights,
10:40we're definitely getting some glare on the screen.
10:42Whereas with a lot of other electronic magnifiers,
10:45that wouldn't be so much of an issue.
10:46So something to bear in mind.
10:48The next button down on the left side is our camera button.
10:50And we can go ahead and take a picture.
10:52Now, we have to allow the app access to the Photos app, Cory.
10:58So the Optaro app has to have access to the Photos app if we want to save photos.
11:02So I'm going to go ahead and allow access here.
11:04That will allow me to save my pictures.
11:07So I've just got a frozen image on the screen.
11:09Now we can zoom in on that image and do whatever we want with it.
11:12We can also go ahead and save the image to the photo gallery.
11:15And then there is a specific button that will allow us to open the photo gallery
11:18and review saved pictures if we want to.
11:21I'm not going to do that right now.
11:22So we'll go ahead and flip back out of here.
11:25And now we're back to our regular camera.
11:29There were some actually interesting buttons in there as well, Cory,
11:32for sharing our photos.
11:34So we're going to go ahead and snap a pic with our Optaro app
11:36and then go ahead and share those.
11:38And you can share in the usual ways via things like AirDrop or text messages
11:42or email, all of those different ways that we normally would.
11:45Next down on the left side, we have a green button with a speech bubble in it.
11:49Cory, any ideas what that might be for?
11:51I believe he called that the Tell Me button.
11:53And if I'm not mistaken, when we tap that, it will –
11:57I don't want to use the word OCR, although that is basically what it's doing.
12:01It's only going to speak out loud or perform OCR
12:04on whatever text is currently within the kind of the box.
12:09It's not even that. It's actually just within the center.
12:11Just whatever's on there.
12:12Yeah.
12:13Not even on – is it on the screen itself or just the center of the screen?
12:16Yeah, just the center, it seems to be.
12:17Well, let's give it a try.
12:18So at the moment in the center, I have In Hollywood Star.
12:20Now actually, Cory, I should mention if we tap the screen in the middle,
12:23the controls will disappear and then we'll get the full screen.
12:26Okay.
12:27So that's what I've done at the moment here.
12:28And it says In Hollywood Star 58.
12:31Okay, in the middle.
12:32Let's see if that's what's red when I hit the green button.
12:34Hollywood Star 58.
12:36Yeah.
12:37It didn't say the In, but it said Hollywood Star 58.
12:39So it's literally just the words in the center of the screen.
12:41Very limited area.
12:42Sure.
12:43But if you just need – let's say that you're reading,
12:45and oftentimes, Cory, we find that people when they're reading,
12:49they tend to kind of put the words together.
12:51They don't necessarily see the whole word,
12:53but they use their knowledge of vocabulary to infer what the word is.
12:57However, it's easy to make mistakes when doing that.
12:59Yeah.
13:00So if you're ever not sure about a word,
13:02this is a nice way just to have that word aloud to you,
13:04and then you can confirm that you are correct or not.
13:07And I have to assume being a product that's two weeks, you know, released.
13:11Yeah.
13:12And this is probably really the first stage of what OCR could look like.
13:16Yes, that's what we do, yeah.
13:18But that's kind of cool to be able to just to kind of tap
13:20and get a quick verbalization.
13:22It's very fast as well.
13:23And we found it to be very accurate too.
13:26Okay, so let's see what else we've got.
13:28On the right side, we have magnification control.
13:30We have a plus.
13:31We also have a minus button as well,
13:33and the minus button will allow us to zoom out again.
13:36Now, Cory, if we tap the screen, the controls will disappear,
13:39and we can use pinch and reverse pinch instead if we want.
13:42And so that's pretty convenient if you're in the full screen view
13:45so the controls aren't up and you want to zoom in and out.
13:47It's nice to be able to use pinch and reverse pinch.
13:49Which makes sense because most of the time,
13:51once you sort of have your color contrast and things set,
13:53you probably aren't going to need those buttons.
13:55Exactly.
13:56So being able to still pinch makes sense.
13:58And I think at this point, I believe that's the only gesture available.
14:01Yes, that's the only one that we were told about,
14:03and whether there are others in the pipeline, we're not entirely sure.
14:06Let's bring the controls up again.
14:08There is a control here, Cory, and you're going to have to help me out
14:11because I know that I asked Matt about this,
14:13and it was some kind of picture-in-picture thing,
14:15but I forget exactly what the details were.
14:17Yeah, I believe he said it's similar to a feature they have on their other devices.
14:21No, it's a find feature.
14:23Find feature, where if you're at a 3 and you tap it,
14:26it'll zoom into a 5 or out to whatever, and it kind of, yeah.
14:30Yeah, so it will basically, let's say that you're zoomed into 5x
14:33and the minimum is 2x, then if you hit the button,
14:35it will zoom you back to the 2x.
14:37Hit it again, it'll zoom you back up to the 5x.
14:39Exactly.
14:40Yeah, pretty nice feature to have that.
14:42And then finally, at the bottom, we have a red line in a brownish box, Cory.
14:46What would that one do, do you think?
14:48That might be the reading lines and shades, maybe,
14:51or blinders, whatever you want to call them.
14:53Yeah, so if we hit that at the moment, we have our horizontal red line,
14:56and you can actually change the thickness of that line,
14:59the position of that line, and whether it's horizontal or vertical,
15:02and also between lines and windowing in the settings,
15:04which we'll get into in the next section.
15:06And change the color, red, black are great, too.
15:08Yeah, that's pretty cool to choose from.
15:10So I think that's really all of the basic features.
15:12It's got everything you would expect from a handheld electronic magnifier,
15:15just kind of utilizing the iPhone to do those things instead.
15:19Its max magnification is 15 times.
15:22I'm curious, maybe if you could do a little,
15:26how does it look at a kind of higher magnification?
15:30What's the quality look like?
15:32That's a good question, yeah.
15:34How much are we really getting on the screen because we are,
15:37and we'll talk about this in the wrap-up, too, but that is one limitation.
15:40The iPhone screen is only so big.
15:42So I'm just curious how much to expect.
15:44Yeah, so I'm guessing the magazine font is 11-point.
15:47That's only a guess.
15:49It looks like it might be around 11-point, though.
15:51The maximum magnification, I fit one six-letter word on the screen.
15:56The word is people, in case you were wondering.
15:58And the image looks good, but there is a little bit of artifact going on.
16:04I will mention that.
16:06It's nothing that would prevent you from being able to read like this.
16:10Not at all, but you can see a little bit of artifacting going on here.
16:13And what color contrast mode are you currently in?
16:15Currently white on black.
16:17If we switch through to, let's see, the regular color mode.
16:21Yeah, so that one actually doesn't look as good.
16:24Still got some artifacting going on there.
16:26Let's take a look at Emily up close here.
16:29Wow, I don't even know what I'm looking at.
16:31Okay, there's a wedding ring.
16:32Yeah, and it looks very pixelated, but that's actually the magazine printed.
16:36That makes sense.
16:37And this is the thing.
16:38This is going to depend on the quality of the print that you're looking at, too.
16:40It should be borne in mind.
16:41And if we do the high contrast and black text on a white background,
16:44that one looks really nice, actually.
16:46So, again, maybe a little bit of artifacting and ghosting.
16:49We were told this was 60 frames per second refresh rate,
16:51and it does seem pretty smooth as we're moving along.
16:54So there's a tiny bit of ghosting going on, but it's pretty minimal.
16:59So I would say this has got decent optics, and it's pretty easy to use,
17:03provided, Corey, you are able to see those buttons on the screen,
17:06although they are accessible with voiceover.
17:09However, if you are using voiceover,
17:11you're probably not going to be using this particular product.
17:13Even if you can use magnification,
17:15I think the screen on this might be a little bit too small.
17:17Yeah, I think so.
17:19All right, well, with that being said, let's jump into the settings menu,
17:21and let's see what additional features this app offers for us.
17:27So the last thing we need to do is take a look at the settings
17:29and what additional options they offer us, Corey.
17:32Now, when we hit the settings button,
17:34the phone at the moment is in landscape, as you would imagine,
17:37because that's the best way to use it as an electronic magnifier.
17:39But once we hit the settings button, it is going to go into portrait.
17:42Now, we can, the Optaro has its own stand to tilt the phone toward you.
17:46At this point, I'm going to go ahead and push that stand down
17:49and rotate the phone so I can see the screen a little bit better.
17:52So let's take a look at, I don't want to look at all of these, Corey,
17:55but we'll take a look at some of the main features in the settings.
17:58And the first one we have is operating mode.
18:00I did mention before, we had been in the advanced operating mode.
18:04If we switch that into the simple,
18:06then that will actually reduce the buttons to only four in total,
18:10so two on either side.
18:11And those buttons are the settings menu button,
18:14the color button, plus and the minus buttons.
18:17So if you have somebody who is less confident with their technology,
18:20then that might be the mode that they should be using.
18:22We also can set the maximum zoom level.
18:24So if you don't want to be able to zoom up to 15 times,
18:27maybe you don't want somebody, again,
18:29accidentally zooming up too far and getting confused,
18:32then you can actually limit the maximum zoom level.
18:34So a pretty nice feature there.
18:36We also have some options for the lighting.
18:39So this device does have its own lighting on the back, as you would expect,
18:42and you can adjust how bright that is.
18:44There are three intensity levels.
18:46We have lighting off, then we have a medium lighting,
18:50and then we have a bright lighting.
18:51Now Matt did recommend, Corey, that we used which lighting mode?
18:54He said to start at bright, and then if it's too much,
18:57we can always bring it back.
18:59I think that's decent advice.
19:00Now we were actually on medium, Corey, because that's the default,
19:04and we hadn't changed it,
19:05but actually that worked very well for the magazine here.
19:07So if you are looking at something glossy,
19:09then maybe something in the medium range might be a little better for that.
19:13The next option we have, which is interesting,
19:16is the false colors option,
19:18and that will allow us to choose which false colors are available
19:21when we press the false color button.
19:23Again, Corey, how many in total are there?
19:24Fourteen.
19:25Very nice. Fourteen in total.
19:26We only have black, white, and white, black at the moment.
19:28Those are the default ones,
19:29but some other ones we could choose from.
19:31Black, yellow, yellow, black, blue, yellow, yellow, blue, black, purple, purple,
19:34black, red, white, white, red, black, green, green, black, black, orange, orange, black.
19:38That was pretty good, actually.
19:39Thank you, yeah.
19:40Did you want to repeat that, Swiss guy?
19:45Yes. Fourteen.
19:48So there's plenty to choose from,
19:49and of course if you enable any of those,
19:51they're going to be available when you switch through the colors
19:53using the color button.
19:55We also have an update firmware.
19:57So this is pretty cool.
19:58This being an iPhone, it obviously can connect to the Internet,
20:02and so we can download firmware updates.
20:04I believe the firmware at the moment is 1.0.0,
20:07so it is like the very initial release,
20:09but as they update it and maybe possibly add features, who knows,
20:12then you will be able to update those right through the settings here.
20:16We can also reset to factory settings.
20:18So if you have messed around with things
20:19and now it's just not what it used to be
20:21and you're not sure why,
20:22you can reset to factory settings and get yourself out of trouble.
20:26So all of the stuff that you would expect, I think, really, Corey.
20:29Yeah, it's got everything that you need in there to customize it for you
20:33and pretty simple to use as long as you have the vision
20:37to get into the settings and mess about with this stuff,
20:39or alternatively you could ask somebody else to help you get it set up.
20:43But I think the default settings are pretty well chosen, Corey.
20:46So you can pretty much just take it out of the box
20:47and you don't have to worry about any of this stuff necessarily.
20:50All right, well, should we wrap it up?
20:52We should.
20:53All right, let's do it. Time to wrap.
20:56Just a quick insert because I forgot to mention one of the settings
20:59which could be important,
21:00and that is the option to change the reading line and the windowing settings.
21:05Now, the reason I missed this is because in the menu,
21:07it's labeled reading support settings,
21:10which doesn't, to me, scream reading line.
21:13Is it me?
21:14Well, I mean, 50% of the words is in the menu option.
21:18No, I get what you're saying.
21:19I probably wouldn't have guessed that either.
21:22Yeah, I guess it makes sense, though,
21:23because reading line and windowing are two things,
21:25and maybe they couldn't fit reading line slash windowing,
21:28and so they just went reading support.
21:30Anyway, doesn't matter, does it?
21:31Let's go into the settings and find out what they do.
21:34So I'm in the reading support settings,
21:36and now, actually, I have to turn the phone into the landscape view again
21:41because it's showing us this menu in the landscape view.
21:44I'm going to go ahead and pop open my stand
21:46so I can see the screen more clearly.
21:48And in the reading support settings, we have five different buttons.
21:51No, six different buttons.
21:52The first ones are arrows,
21:54which allow us to adjust the positioning of the line.
21:57So if it's in the horizontal position,
22:00then we can move it up and down the screen.
22:02If it's vertical, we can move it left and right,
22:04and the same with the windowing as well.
22:06The next button, the third one,
22:07will go ahead and put us into the windowing mode,
22:11and so I can, again, use those arrows
22:13to adjust the thickness of those windows.
22:17And in the windowing mode, we actually have different buttons now,
22:20so as well as the arrows,
22:21we have a button that will switch us back to the line mode,
22:25and there's also a button that will rotate the windows
22:28so they are vertical.
22:29Corley, for those who don't know about lines and windowing,
22:32what's the point?
22:34Well, basically, if you want to block off things that you—
22:37if you only want to focus in specifically on the line you're reading
22:41or a column you're reading,
22:43the windowing and line will allow you to block out
22:47some of that other information on the screen.
22:49Yeah, exactly.
22:50So it just helps keep you focused,
22:51which people can kind of lose track of the sentences they're reading
22:54when things are magnified,
22:55and so this is a way to keep on track.
22:57You've even got the windowing, which cuts off part of the screen,
23:00and then you've got the line,
23:01which is literally just a line across the screen.
23:03If you're reading standard text,
23:04you might want that to be horizontal,
23:06but if you're reading columns,
23:07you might want it to be vertical,
23:09and so that's the idea here.
23:10Oops, let me go back into the support settings here.
23:13We also have the option to change the thickness of the reading line,
23:18and so there are three thicknesses,
23:19going from thin to medium to thick,
23:21and then finally we have the color palette.
23:23Corey had mentioned this before.
23:24We can change the color of our reading line
23:26in between red, black, and gray.
23:29So there you go.
23:30If you are a reading line fan,
23:32then there's plenty of reading line options here,
23:34more than most devices, I would say.
23:36Yeah, more than meets the eye.
23:38More than meets the eye.
23:39So with that being said,
23:40now it is actually time to wrap up.
23:42Let's do it.
23:44All right, we have covered the device pretty in depth.
23:48We know how to use it.
23:49We know how it works.
23:51What do we think about it?
23:53I think it's a cool idea that it's utilizing a device
23:56you might already have in your pocket, your iPhone.
23:59The iPhone obviously has a good screen, which is cool,
24:03but I do think there are some limitations to it.
24:06One of the limitations that we haven't yet talked about, though,
24:09is price.
24:11So what is it currently retail pricing?
24:14Okay, so if you get it with the iPhone case
24:17for your specific phone,
24:18then you're looking at $714.95.
24:21If you get it with the universal stand,
24:24which is what we have been using here, $732.50.
24:27And then you can buy additional cases.
24:29So if you change phones,
24:31you can get a different case for $20.
24:33You can get just the universal stand on its own for $37.50,
24:37and the charging head is $19.95.
24:40So basically, for most people, probably $715,
24:44but then you've got to buy the charging head
24:46if you don't have a charging head already.
24:48And you obviously have to have the phone already.
24:51So you may or may not want to include that price altogether.
24:54But I do think if we compare that,
24:57let's talk about a Ruby.
24:59That's probably screen size-wise similar.
25:04Well, here's one of the weird things, Corey.
25:06The iPhone screen is very long and fairly thin.
25:10That is true.
25:11So it's a very different shape to the Ruby,
25:13even if screen size is ultimately the same.
25:16That doesn't really tell you everything.
25:18You're right.
25:19The iPhone is like, what, six inches by widescreen,
25:23where the Ruby might be six, but it's more square.
25:26It's taller, yeah.
25:27So you're right.
25:28I guess that's not a true comparison,
25:30but I would say from a portable standpoint,
25:33it's one of your closer comparisons.
25:35Price-wise, definitely.
25:36And it's what, $835, $8 something?
25:38Well, I think the Ruby XL HD might be $895.
25:42And I'm not sure if they still sell...
25:44Yeah, I'm not sure what the regular Ruby price is.
25:46But I think the point is you're in the same ballpark
25:48as actually buying a regular electronic magnifier.
25:52And so the question is,
25:54does this offer any benefits
25:56over buying a regular electronic magnifier?
25:58Now, I think, Corey,
26:00I think the most appealing potential for this was price
26:04because potentially it should have been way cheaper,
26:08and that could have been really appealing
26:09because you're using your own phone
26:10in order to make it operate.
26:11But actually, it hasn't come in that much cheaper
26:13than a regular handheld electronic magnifier.
26:16And so are there any other benefits
26:18that this offers that those don't?
26:20What do you think, Corey?
26:21Yeah, I mean, today, maybe not,
26:24but I do think that you potentially
26:27are open to more possibilities
26:31for firmware updates and adding features
26:34because it's app-based.
26:36Yeah.
26:37So I think that in the long run,
26:39the Aptaro probably has more opportunity
26:42to add new features and improve it
26:45more than you would see on a traditional portable.
26:48The other thing they talked about, too,
26:50is that they are potentially working on an Aptaro
26:54that will be specific to iPads,
26:57really kind of going after the school population.
27:01Although, to be honest, I think that's a key market,
27:04but I think working age and seniors would benefit, too,
27:09because now you're talking about an iPad mini
27:11that's like a 7.9-inch screen
27:14or even all the way up to like an iPad Pro
27:17that you talked about.
27:18You're almost 13 inches at that point.
27:21That's a whole different ballgame at that point
27:25because it's much easier to read, I think.
27:27Yeah, I worry that the regular iPhone screen
27:31is a little small for this type of application,
27:33but the iPad could definitely be really cool.
27:36I think the Aptaro does have some benefits.
27:39It does simple OCR, should we say.
27:41Yeah.
27:42It's not reading a whole document,
27:43but it does kind of allow you to read out
27:45a word or a few words very quickly.
27:48So again, you can get confirmation
27:49of things that you're reading.
27:50It also has the ability to do things like
27:52take pictures and just share them.
27:55So there are some things it has going on.
27:57Another thing might be that
27:59because you're using your iPhone,
28:00maybe you prefer to do that than using
28:02a dedicated low-vision device.
28:04So that could be something to bear in mind.
28:06But ultimately, I would like to see
28:08this device come in cheaper
28:09because I think it would make a lot more sense
28:11than at the price point it is.
28:13It's kind of battling against the thought
28:15of just getting a regular handheld
28:17electronic magnifier instead.
28:19So yeah, I don't know.
28:21I guess ultimately, Corey,
28:22it's up to the individual.
28:23It is, and I applaud Eschenbach
28:25for trying something new.
28:26I always think it's cool when a company
28:29releases a product that's not yet,
28:31that there's nothing like it on the market.
28:33For sure.
28:34And maybe Gen 1 isn't the home run
28:36they want it to be, and maybe it will be.
28:37Who knows until it really hits the market.
28:39But I love that they tried something new.
28:42Throw it down in the comments.
28:43Let us know what you think of this device.
28:45How do you think it might compare
28:47to your traditional portable video magnifier,
28:50or if it's something that you think
28:51you would dive into and want to use.
28:54Put that down in the comments.
28:56Make sure you subscribe to the channel.
28:58We're always releasing breaking
29:01assistive technology products.
29:03Heard it here first.
29:04Heard it here first.
29:05We literally did, though.
29:06The Maggi.
29:07Yes.
29:08And now the Optimum.
29:09Back to back.
29:10I know, wow.
29:11We are just changing the whole landscape
29:13of assistive technology.
29:14Not sure about that.
29:16Yeah, so if you want to find out more
29:18about things that we do,
29:19well, we have a few things going on.
29:20We have a learning management system.
29:22You can go there to check out webinars,
29:24and those are kind of produced webinars
29:26where you can earn on-demand ACVREP credits,
29:29and they cover various topics.
29:30We're about to do one on artificial intelligence,
29:32so that should be fun.
29:33And in order to get to that,
29:34Corey, you can go to...
29:36Head over to techconnect.vision-forward.org.
29:40techconnect.vision-forward.org.
29:43Set up a free account,
29:44and right on the homepage,
29:45you'll actually see a link to a survey
29:48that we are asking people to quickly complete.
29:52We are in the midst of designing
29:54a screen reader course
29:56really geared towards teachers and trainers
29:59to make it really easy for you
30:01to learn how to use a screen reader
30:03and, more importantly,
30:04how you can train your students or clients
30:07on that screen reader
30:09in the very little bit and limited time
30:11that you have in your professional
30:13and personal life.
30:14Exactly, yeah.
30:15Yeah, so do check that out,
30:17and we also have a podcast,
30:18which is basically an audio version of our live show.
30:21Go to your favorite podcatcher
30:23and look for Vision Forward Tech Connect.
30:25And talking of the live show, Corey,
30:26we have a live show as well.
30:27That will be every other Thursday,
30:2911 a.m. Central Time.
30:31And, yes, I'm not sure what the next topic will be,
30:33but it will be something exciting, no doubt.
30:35Always.
30:36And we don't even have to give you a topic
30:38because all we have to say is that it is what it is.
30:41Oh, there you go.
30:42It's always exciting.
30:44So, again, 11 a.m. Central.
30:45You can find that on the homepage of our YouTube channel,
30:47youtube.com forward slash Vision Forward Tech Connect.
30:50Corey, my stomach is rumbling.
30:52I think it's time to get out of here and eat some lunch.
30:54What do you say?
30:55I could not disagree with you.
30:58Okay, that sounds like a double negative.
31:00So, okay, he agrees with me.
31:02Time to get out of here.
31:03See you later.