Audio Pizza

The gang returns for 2026 with CES chat, and predictions that will age like milk! What's inside: Kayaker freezes in New England; Sean freezes in the original England; Garth refuses to stop being sunny Steven Scott drops in from Double Tap and immediately turns "a quick chat" into "a feature-length film" AirPods Pro 3 praise, ear-tip rage, and the haunting tale of the "dog-processed" AirPods The Lightsaber Cane: brilliant, ridiculous, heavier than normal, and only sometimes practical "Does this confuse the public?" Spoiler: the public is already confused Keychron keyboards, accessibility quirks, and a CES announcement of a concrete keyboard (because why not) HP's keyboard-with-a-computer concept: Robot future: great in factories, questionable in living rooms, nightmare fuel for kids' toys AI glasses talk: open ecosystems, camera access, LiDAR dreams, and "Meta, please stop resetting" Braille label printer news: useful… if the app isn't a disaster 2026 predictions: Siri overhaul (again), Google wearables rising, AI hype deflating, and general tech chaos Overall, CES + accessibility + Star Wars + keyboards + mild existential dread. Exactly what you came for.

We're delighted to return with another Christmas audio drama. This time we're revisiting Dr Seuss's classic The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and giving it an accessibility twist. We truly appreciate all those who lent their voices to make this possible. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year from the Audio Pizza team!

In this holiday edition of Audio Pizza, Kayaker, Sean and Garth dive into what Sean saw at Sight Village London. They chat through new low-vision and blindness tech including the Angel Eye document reader, Luna night-vision glasses for RP, and HumanWare's upcoming BrailleNote Evolve Windows notetaker. Sean also gets hands-on with the ultra-light Svárovský cane, and shares updated impressions of the Glide autonomous mobility device. To top it off, Kayaker unveils an MIT-built "Uber car finder" iPhone app, available via TestFlight, that helps blind users locate the right vehicle in busy pickup areas. Join the test flight for Thing Finder here.

Audio Pizza's annual holiday gift guide is back, with Sean, Garth and Kayaker trading banter, bad weather reports and actually decent present ideas. They compare Meta smart glasses with newer AI-first options, talk through why Apple's AirPods Pro 3 and Apple Watch remain go-to tech gifts, and get surprisingly passionate about good iPhone cases, light-up white canes, and properly sharp kitchen knives. Garth throws in tactile Hanayama puzzles and UV-printed tactile photos as great options for blind and low-vision friends, and the trio round things out with a defence of gift cards, a detour into accessible jigsaws, and a spirited argument about cutting up food and eating with your hands.

This month, the globe spins faster than Sean’s excuses for not reading the manual as the Audio Pizza crew—Kayaker, Garth, and Shaun—check in from around the world with special guest Brett Halle and a surprise cameo from Jordie, freshly armed with a shiny new iPhone 17 Pro. The gang dives deep into Apple’s latest event—iPhones, Watches, AirPods, and a healthy sprinkle of sarcasm. • Shaun: Still refusing to upgrade because “thinness is overrated.” • Garth: Tempted by the Air, but only if it gets a second speaker. • Brett: Drops insider-level knowledge bombs about RAM, LiDAR, and AI headroom. • Jordie: Loves her 17 Pro, mainly because it can describe her baby’s outfit on command. Expect passionate debates about whether LiDAR is life-changing or just expensive potential, why every blind person’s favourite phrase is “depends how you use it,” and how battery life is the new religion. Shaun leads the charge on the Meta event, which somehow excited him more than Apple’s. The crew covers: • New Meta Ray-Bans and Oakleys with better cameras and longer battery life. • The wild new neural wristband that reads muscle signals so you can air-type like a Jedi. • Seeing AI and Be My Eyes coming to the glasses—accessibility in your face. • And of course, Kayaker’s existential crisis over whether using Meta violates his privacy vows. Last month’s cliffhanger returns: Shaun still can’t back up his iPhone. Cue a group intervention featuring Garth’s step-by-step fix, Brett’s “pay the 99 cents” wisdom, and a gentle reminder that losing your phone is worse than losing your morals to Meta. Got opinions? Email sgk@theblind.ninja and earn bonus points if you tell Garth he’s wrong.

After a four-year hiatus, we’re delighted to welcome you back to the Words Words Words podcast. Along with a couple of featured words from Douglas Adams' wonderful book "The meaning of Liff", this episode includes a listener-contributed word, Battersea Park. Thanks Sally for sending it through. If you have any ideas to contribute, please get in touch. Battersea Park (verb) - The act of assaulting a poorly parked car, by a blind person with their white cane. Whilst neither recommended nor encouraged, this can relieve ones frustration when suddenly coming across a car which has been left casually across a path, or somewhere else it should not have been. You can find earlier episodes in this series here.

In this episode of Audio Pizza, Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker try on the future—AI-powered smart glasses that promise to help us blind folk find our way without walking into quite so many lamp posts. After that, they swap specs for security, digging into the iOS settings that can keep your iPhone safer than a squirrel guarding its last nut. And remember: if you must steal an iPhone… Shaun’s is apparently the one to go for.

Fun and games? Not exactly. In this edition of Audio Pizza, Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker try to talk about what they do for fun and games… only to reveal they’re not all that fun and don’t actually play that many games. But what they lack in actual gameplay, they make up for with quick banter, questionable opinions, and spirited chats about entertainment, video games, blind sports, and the occasional board game.

We won't bury the lead, Garth is back! Yes, he's tired, but what else is new? Well, Garth, Shaun and Kayaker will tell you all about Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the key take aways from Apple. And, we respond to a listener's question regarding what we do when we get our new phones.

Kayaker, Shaun, Garth and Kayaker talk about the latest Apple product announcements including the new MacBook Air M4. Listener feedback offers additional AI tips using your own special files. But the biggest news is our very own Shaun travelled to the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference and offers his insights about what he found on the exhibit hall floor including his latest impressions with the Glide.

Kayaker, Garth, and Shaun crush Kayaker’s opinion on the need for free blind utility apps, but everyone seems to be against the subscription model. And the gang discusses the latest AI news and how it might help the blind AI app world.

Shaun, Garth, and Kayaker are back discussing news from the Consumer Electronics Show - everything from Barbie robots, shocking spoons to AI supercomputers . You’ll learn who was on the nice and naughty list over the holidays and hear the predictions for 2025 (aka things that, if predicted, are guaranteed not to happen). Oh, and you’ll learn more than you ever wanted about aftershave.

Shaun, Garth, Kayaker and friends perverse a Dickens classic tale for your holiday enjoyment. Consider this episode as the equivalent of the ugly Christmas sweater— it’s so over the top, you can only smile with holiday cheer. Merry Christmas from us to you. From Our Home to Yours Christmas Magic by Jordie Howell and Andhika Patrick

On this months episode we look at customising your iPhone and discuss some of the new features brought to us by iOS 18. There are many ways to improve your experience using voice over on iOS and we take a deep dive in to some of our favorite options.

On this Reaproducer episode of Audio Pizza, I will go over the basic workflow I use when recording and editing a podcast. Recording Typically, we use Zoom to connect with each other but then make our own local recordings of our ends. This way, we have good, pristine copies ready for editing. On the Mac, I use Audio Hijack or Reaper to do the recording. Once I have each of the individual files from the participants, I rename them with short filenames to cut down screen reader verbosity when navigating the project. I save a Reaper project and paste the files straight into the blank project, ready for editing. Project Settings To make navigating the audio easier for this type of editing, in the View menu, I change the Time unit for ruler to Minutes and Seconds, and Press Option+Return to access project settings, to adjust the tempo to 60, and time signature to 60 over 4. This may not make a lot of sense musically; however, it is useful for navigating by minutes with Page Up and Page Down, and seconds with Command+Page Up and Page Down. These can then be set as default project settings if you wish and it will also then retain your choice for the time ruler. Normalising After pasting the files into their own tracks in the project, I select all the items by first selecting one item, and then extending the selection with Command+A to all the items. I use Shift+U to bring up the SWS/BR - Normalize loudness dialog. This gives me the option to normalise each item to my preferred starting value of –23 LUFS. It is a good idea to add a limiter to your master track at this point, as it’s possible that some parts of the recording will be coming in above 0 dB and clipping. Item: Auto trim/split items (remove silence) Control+Accent will bring up this dialog. As the name suggests, it works on the items rather than the tracks and will split each selected item based upon the content of the item. Where the level is above the set threshold, in this case, where the particular person is talking, it will leave an item, and anywhere where the level falls below the threshold, it will remove an item. So in those locations on the track where the level was below, the track will be empty. In effect, if set correctly, it will split before and after each passage of speech and remove the rest. This has some significant benefits and can speed up the editing process. You can now quickly navigate to particular parts of the audio and make the desired change on that item. This might be adjusting the volume of a phrase, removing a section, or shifting around the content of the podcast. However, it’s important that your original files have a nice low noise floor, as when the quiet sections are removed, there is complete silence on that track. This can be disconcerting for the listener if there’s too much noise in the sections when the person is speaking and this cuts in and out. Basic Editing You can navigate to an item to be removed with Command+Left/Right Arrows, and delete, or cut and paste it to another location with Command+X and Command+V. Keep in mind your current ripple state: off, or all tracks. Usually, you would not want to use the ripple per track option as you are likely to make subsequent content go out of sync. If a particular item is too loud or too quiet, it can be quickly adjusted with Command+Up/Down Arrow. This will adjust the particular take within the item by 1 dB. Trimming Left or Right Edge of Item to Edit Cursor One quick way of cutting off the end of an item is to use the action found on Control+Shift+Period — Item edit: Trim right edge of item to edit cursor. Typically, you could split the end of the item off, select that item, and delete it. However, if you place your cursor in the same location you would have made the split, and trim the right edge to that point, you’ve accomplished the same thing with one keystroke. This can be used to extend an item as well. Place the edit cursor after the selected item, and again...

Join the Audio pizza team to discuss Apples newest releases - hands on hardware.

Clearly an un-caffeinated cranky Kayaker, an uncharacteristically calm Shaun and a chilled whisky-sipping Garth discuss the pros and cons of specialised blind technology versus everyday devices. Kayaker gives his opinion on the Victor Reader Trek against a iPhone 8 without a cell phone plan. Garth goes off on the prices on software features for braille devices, all while Shaun holds the fort down. Don’t forget to email your opinions to Garth (g@theblind.ninja), Shaun (s@theblind.ninja) and/or Kayaker (k@theblind.ninja).