AI-Generated Transcript
Speaker 1
Hello everyone and welcome to Ask Bits for Saturday, December 6th, 2025. My name is Marci and I want to thank Travis for being our Zoom host today and Jane for connecting us to Clubhouse and streaming us on ACB Media 6. Today we want to answer your technology questions, so I’m going to turn it over to David Edick, our facilitator for the morning, and he will have an icebreaker question for you and allow you to ask your technology questions. Travis, if you could please announce the next two people that are going to speak like this person followed by that person, I would appreciate it. Thank you so much and look forward to answering your technology questions. David, it’s yours.
Speaker 2
Hey, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Ask Bits. I want to throw out an icebreaker question. What technology would you like for Christmas? Or if you buckled down and grabbed a Black Friday special, what was that? So what technology are you getting yourself or someone you know for Christmas? I want to thank our panelists.
Speaker 1
Darcy Bernard.
Speaker 2
And Ryan.
Speaker 1
And Ryan Mann. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2
Being here? Yep. Just reading the names. And so I’d like to start with the panelists, Darcy, and then Ryan. What technology do you want for Christmas? Or what did you get yourself on Black Friday?
Speaker 3
I didn’t get myself anything on Black Friday. But I think I would like either a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro because sometimes I like to play with Swift for developing iPhone apps.
Speaker 4
And you know what? Strangely, as it seems, being rolled into technology, I think I’m actually good. I got earlier, a couple months ago, I got the iPhone 17 Pro and I got the AirPods Pro 3. So I actually think I’m good right now. There’s not really much I’m in the market for at the present time.
Speaker 2
It sounds like Apple got you your Christmas wish list. Yeah, they generally do. And you were able to get that. All right. So Travis, can we go to our first participant?
Speaker 5
We have Lucy followed by Tanya. Hi, Lucy.
Speaker 6
Hello, everyone. Thank you for this presentation. So my answer to the icebreaker is that for Christmas, I bought myself one of the new, oh God, is it DJI wireless mics? And do I know how to use it? No. But I’ll work on it. So should I ask my question right now then?
Speaker 2
Yeah, go ahead and ask your question.
Speaker 6
Okay, this is a really simple question. And I should know this, but I don’t. So my computer all of a sudden in File Explorer has stopped telling me the file extensions of my files. And I don’t know how or why it did that because I didn’t change anything. It just doesn’t do it anymore. So how can I get that back?
Speaker 2
You’re going to want to go to the folder options or whatever they’re calling it now for File Explorer. And I believe you can just type folder options in the start menu. And then on the tree view that’s, I believe, in the second tab over, you’ll see a height extension for known file types. And if you choose that, that should turn that on.
Speaker 6
Okay, great. All right. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2
Marcy, do you remember by chance?
Speaker 1
No, you got it. That’s it.
Speaker 2
Okay, good. I thought so. It’s been a while since I looked there. So that’s that. All right, cool. Thank you. Well, thank you for the question. And Travis, who’s next?
Speaker 5
All right, next up we have Tanya followed by Allison.
Speaker 2
All right, go ahead and answer the icebreaker, and then go ahead and ask a question if you have one.
Speaker 7
Okay. My new device came recommended by my community policing officer. It’s a bit scary. It costs too much money, but it’s the upgraded version of the Ring stick-up camera that powers over cable, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth and works with Alexa. No, I do not know how to use it. I used to use the older version of the Ring stick-up camera, but the purpose of this camera is to document who is vandalizing the west side of my house and breaking my gate locks. So that’s my challenge, and that’s my new device.
Speaker 2
Sounds neat. Did you have a question as well?
Speaker 7
Oh, does anybody have any experience with these Ring stick-up cameras?
Speaker 2
I do not, personally.
Speaker 4
You’re not either. I don’t either.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 1
Nor do I.
Speaker 2
Let’s see if any of the audience, the listeners, have anything that can help you.
Speaker 7
Well, it has audio features, so the cops can pull up and talk to me through the camera. And I can record voices of some issues that are going on that they’re monitoring.
Speaker 2
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 4
And if we can’t answer your questions today, don’t forget there’s always the Ask Bits email address that you can write. And there’s even more people. I can’t remember what that address actually is, but I’m sure Mercy or David can do it.
Speaker 2
It’s ask at bits-acb.org. That’s A-S-K at B-I-T-S dash A-C-B dot O-R-G.
Speaker 1
So if you could get the model number for the doorbell you purchased and email us at that email address, we’ll do our best to help you.
Speaker 7
It’s not a doorbell. It’s a stick-up camera. And Ring had me on the phone for almost two hours just walking me through setting up the account.
Speaker 1
Wow. Yeah, so the email, the model number for the device that you purchased for the camera.
Speaker 2
If you have the model number, that would help out a lot. A lot. And then we’ll see what you can do to help you figure that out. So let’s go to our next person.
Speaker 5
All right, next up we have Allison, and after her will be Petra.
Speaker 2
All right. Allison, what do you got for an answer?
Speaker 8
Good morning, everybody. To answer the icebreaker question, I would like to get the Smart Vision 3 phone for Christmas. And my question to you is I use Office 365 on my Windows 11 computer. And whenever I’m reading through a document, it’ll pause and say, this site can access your location. Change the setting in the address bar. is there a way where I can turn that off?
Speaker 2
I have not seen that yet. Marcy, have you seen that?
Speaker 1
I have seen that and I did come up with an answer from last time. So Allison, can you email us at ask at bits-acb.org and I’ll email you those steps that I got. Yeah, sure. Thank you. Thank you. Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2
Merry Christmas. All right.
Speaker 5
Next up is Petra.
Speaker 9
Good morning, everyone. To answer the icebreaker, I got myself a Victor Reader Stream 3. It’s the first time I’ve had a Victor Reader. I’m excited about it, but I’m sure struggling with the darn user guide. It’s not the easiest way for me to learn. My question this morning is about the Meta Ray-Ban glasses. I have the first gen. And they have done this before, but I don’t know how to fix it. I can’t seem to connect with WhatsApp or Messenger. When I try to call Ira, it says, you want me to call the, on phone, you want me to call the Aurora Salon? And I’m like, no. And then with Messenger, it tells me that I need to connect Messenger, but I can’t seem to find where to do that.
Speaker 2
I’m personally not experienced with metaglasses
Speaker 3
I actually have a pair of metaglasses and under if you go into the Meta AI app and there’s a section to set up communications like messages and Messenger and WhatsApp. So you would go under communications and you’ll find the options to set up Messenger and WhatsApp.
Speaker 9
Okay, so it’s actually called communications in the app?
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 9
Okay, very good. I called this morning for help. The man I got on the phone was not able to help He sent me a link to chat, which is all by text. And some of you folks have more than one computer. I don’t have any computer. And I’m not all that good at chatting by texting on the iPhone. So anyway, thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2
You’re welcome. No worries. And I totally understand where you’re coming from. All right. Who’s our next?
Speaker 5
Our next one is Cliff.
Speaker 10
All right. There we go. How’s it going? All right. How are you doing? You up early again, huh, David? Seven days a week, right? Anyway, my answer to the icebreaker question is I got myself a brand new iPad Pro M5 with the magic keyboard on Black Friday. So that’s what I’m actually on right now. Also, I wanted to tell that person that got the new Victory to Stream 3 to email that as Bits address because I won one at the convention this past July. And pretty much know that user manual at the back of my hand now. So if she wants to email me her questions or email the questions there, I can answer them for.
Speaker 2
Yeah, there’s several people that have those. And you could also join the chat this evening and we could help you in live as well. So, but yeah, that’s all I got for now. So, okay, great.
Speaker 5
Christine, can you unmute yet? There you are. I did that.
Speaker 11
Yeah. Every time they do an update to the OS on the Mac, they break music in some way. I don’t know why they have to pick on it. I use it all the time, and I often have it shuffled. I always have it shuffling. and I want to go to the current song which has always been doable with the command that they say which is command L doesn’t work anymore, it takes you into whatever that album is it takes you into a thing that’s called collection and it’s really hard to navigate and then if you do the command slash to back out of that you’re just like in the toolbar and then you have to go to the sidebar and go back to whatever playlist it was you might have been listening to. And it’s a pain, and I wondered if anybody has found a workaround. I often find workarounds for their breakage, but I haven’t for this yet.
Speaker 4
I honestly haven’t really used the music app a lot lately, but I do remember, like, I know what you’re talking about. The Command-L should just focus you right on the song, but…
Speaker 11
That used to be in the good old days.
Speaker 4
iTunes. When iTunes was, iTunes was great when it was, you know, first to make him accessible, but it, they, they have kind of made a mess of it. And it’s not just, it’s not just from an accessibility standpoint. I’ve heard sighted people say the same thing that, um, it’s, I think it’s a very old app that they’re just sort of, you know, bolting stuff onto that. Um, so yeah, unfortunately, I don’t, maybe, hope, maybe, uh, um, Ryan, I don’t know if you’ve got anything or not. Because I honestly don’t know. I haven’t used it for a while.
Speaker 11
I thought that might be the answer, but I was hopeful.
Speaker 4
I’m sorry, Christine. I’ll look at it, and I’ll let you know if I find anything, but I don’t off the top of my head.
Speaker 2
No worries. Who’s next?
Speaker 5
Next is Jules.
Speaker 2
Hello, Jules.
Speaker 12
My comment was only, I didn’t buy anything for Black Friday. and my comment was to the woman that was just recently on about the metaglasses I wanted to add that yes it is under communication but on your main screen you have to go to devices first on the bottom right and then go back to the top of your screen and you have to look for the one that says the name of your glasses, Wayfair or whatever, with some numbers. And it says setting button. You have to go to the devices and then to that button. Then you’ll find the communication. The communication thing you’re looking for is not on the main screen. And that’s all I wanted to say.
Speaker 2
Coolness. Did you have a question as well?
Speaker 12
I’m sorry?
Speaker 2
Did you have a question as well?
Speaker 12
No, I just wanted to add that to for the woman that was asking.
Speaker 2
Thank you very kindly.
Speaker 5
Carla.
Speaker 13
Oh, I’m so late because I lost the weekend list from community. I can’t find it anywhere on my computer to find this place. Anyhow, technology, and I didn’t do anything for Black Friday because I just put on a roof and sewage, a new pipe. So it might be a while, but I’d like Santa to bring me some kind of a digital recorder. And the problem is I can’t make up my mind which would be best. And that’s part of one of my questions, you know, which of the Zooms, you know, it’s so hard. What I want to do is I want to be able to, you know, have some mixing and reverb capabilities. But I also want to, you know, to be able to use it as a standalone and with the computer. And I just don’t know. I look at all the options of these recorders and I’m trying to upgrade my production studio. And so if anybody has any advice about that. And then the second real quick question I had, is there a way to use the recorder on the computer, you know, the Windows recorder or whatever that recorder is, to record things directly off of an outside source? Like if I wanted to record something off of Lady A or ACB Community or something, Is there a stream? Is there a way to do that? So those are my two questions for the day. And I want to also take this opportunity for those of you I don’t talk to in my travels to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, all the holidays you celebrate, and the best of New Year’s.
Speaker 2
Thank you. I had a couple of thoughts on that. I will say that the Zoom recorders, I don’t think you’ll find one that does everything that you want to do from the computer to the mixing and reverb and things like that. So it’d be a longer discussion that we could have. Feel free to send it to ask at bits-acb.org and I will be happy to help answer it. So will there other people as well? Or you could join us in chat. We could go to a breakout room and talk for a bit. Focused on that or whichever. Who’s our next hand?
Speaker 5
Right now we are clear.
Speaker 2
We are clear. Well, I will tell you guys if it’s okay. One of the things that I wanted for Christmas, it surprised me in October, and that was the Zoom pod track P4 Next. I had one for five years. I still have it, of the original. And it did have a couple of accessibility challenges, but once you get over that, it was usable. And the new P4 Next was very welcoming to see. Several people did reviews podcasts. I did an unboxing. I will be posting that shortly to a couple of different places. But that was what I wanted to get a hold of. Anybody else? Any other panelists? rc or anybody did you notice that or find it not interesting i think the the p4 does sound
Speaker 4
interesting i don’t know that i have a use for it but i i i kind of want to have a use for it because it you know you know what i mean like it sounds um you know it sounds like the a lot of the issues now that now that the um they have the the speech on it like the the voice prompts and it’s it’s just so awesome that zoom has done that that they really sort of embrace that and like all their it seems like all their models that have you know come since those initial um you know h recorders recorders came out a year ago have had the accessibility i think that’s that’s really cool
Speaker 3
yeah same here i wish more mainstream companies would do that yeah i would agree with you
Speaker 4
And it’s great. The thing that’s, that’s cool is, and I assume the P4 is like this because the only one I have personal experience with is the H1, but the accessibility is on by default, right? Like when you first start it, you don’t have to do anything. It starts out in the on and you can turn it off if you need it off. But that’s great because so many times, you know, it’s great that we have all this stuff that’s built in, but unless you know whatever sequence of buttons it is to turn the thing on, you’re kind of locked out. So it’s great that it’s on by default.
Speaker 2
Yeah. And did you get the upgraded firmware to yours?
Speaker 4
I haven’t done it yet, but I know that it’s there. I just haven’t had a chance to do it.
Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s kind of neat. It’s got the AI noise reduction if needed, and it’s direct to MP3, and I forget what the specific one on the H1 Essential is. There’s a third option, but it may not be for the H1 Essential.
Speaker 5
yeah did we get any hands yes we do have a couple now lucy followed by ann all right okay um so i
Speaker 6
was just gonna say i did buy the zoom p4 next and uh it’s very cool um i i had the the original you know p4 and just kind of memorized the menus and stuff um and was able to do things but it’s like yeah that’s cool now I don’t have to do that and I like the the speech because they’re actually pre-recorded phrases and they’re not that they’re not text-to-speech they’re actually recorded human voices and what else was I gonna say about it oh I know I bought the wireless mic and the Zoom P4 Next from Sweetwater. And I’ll tell you, those guys are awesome. Man, they really offer a lot of tech support. And, you know, I really haven’t taken advantage of it. But, you know, they email me about both things. And, you know, do you need anything? Is there anything we can help you with? And when I bought the P4 Next, they even sent me a little bag of candy, which was really cool. But no, I mean, they’re just really nice there and offer a lot of support. So, yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s their signature shtick that they have that they put in some candy in your shipment. So which wireless mics did you get?
Speaker 6
It’s the, oh, gosh. Is it DJI?
Speaker 2
I think that’s, if you said that earlier, I think that’s the one you mentioned.
Speaker 6
Yeah, and they have a newer version of the one I bought, but I bought the older one because it was $70 off.
Speaker 2
There you go.
Speaker 6
And Michael Babcock has it, and he liked it, and so I figured, ah, I can’t go wrong then. Right. But I haven’t figured out how to use it yet, but I wanted it because I broadcast a show on, you know, Herbie Allen’s radio station.
Speaker 2
Oh, cool.
Speaker 6
Yeah, so there.
Speaker 2
So both of those should help you with that. I have the road version, and I was looking recently, and the new version is $150, but the old version is $82. You can get the extra receiver you may need for, like, $8 shipping, free from road. You know, they just have to pay for shipping. Anyway.
Speaker 6
Yeah, because, well, the newer version of the one I got was like almost 300 bucks, I think. And I got this one for, I want to say, oh, geez, no, I don’t remember. I think it was less than 150.
Speaker 2
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6
Because of the $70 off. Yeah. So, yeah.
Speaker 2
Sounds great.
Speaker 6
Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 5
All right. Next is Ann.
Speaker 2
hello Ann
Speaker 14
good morning everybody I just got a 17 Pro iPhone 17 Pro oh I love it I set it up myself and so far so good everything’s going pretty good I’m a professional musician I attend a lot of music festivals and I have Zoom I have the professional account I don’t have a computer right now so I’m strictly on the iPhone. And one of the musicians who did a class, some of the people, they had the option of recording or not recording their sessions. And this one guy didn’t record the sessions. And gosh, I wish I could have recorded it myself. Is there a way to record on the phone with with Zoom, you know, so I could have a recording myself if the instructor isn’t going to record it.
Speaker 2
Directly on the phone? Yeah. I don’t know of a way to do that.
Speaker 14
I don’t think so. You can only usually record
Speaker 4
if the, but even that, like most of the time the recording is for like, you know, the host and all that. Like, I don’t know if anyone can just record a
Speaker 2
meeting. Not without internal hardware. Yeah.
Speaker 4
Yeah, like unless you’ve got it hooked up to something or unless you’re on a computer.
Speaker 3
The host could give permission for somebody to record, but I’ve never recorded using an iPhone. I’ve always used a computer. Yeah. So I’m not sure about that part of it.
Speaker 14
Oh. Well, after I get a computer, what would you use on a computer? That’s going to be the next purchase. Excuse me. We have an old, old Windows computer, and I’ve just got to get a new computer. So what would you use on the computer to record sessions like that?
Speaker 2
There’s a lot. There’s something called Total Recorder that will get both sides of the conversation, and there’s other that can capture the audio, like Gold Wave of the input you select or output you select. There’s a lot.
Speaker 14
So you’d have to have several kinds of recording to get fairly good music quality. That’s what I’m after also. Well, I do use voice memos on the phone a lot. They’re not for strictly speech. They’re wonderful for music. I used my phone up in North Carolina at a festival, and it was excellent. I can listen to it and feel like I’m right back.
Speaker 4
Oh, yeah, especially because it records in stereo now. Yeah. Oh, it’s great. It sounds very nice recording on the phone now with voice memos.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and whatever app you choose will do it as long as it’s going to capture. Whatever program, I should say, that you get on the computer will do it as long as it’s capable of hearing what you want it to hear.
Speaker 14
And also, I just left a quick message this morning. I needed a little outside help with something. If someone could call me back, I really want to get things done before the annual meeting Wednesday. So if someone could give me a call back, I would really appreciate it.
Speaker 2
Yeah, if you send it in. I’m sure they will. Back to you.
Speaker 1
Yeah, I left a message.
Speaker 4
Yep.
Speaker 1
They’ll definitely get back to you. Do you have any way of joining us at chat for us to break out into a breakout room to help you?
Speaker 14
Well, yeah, yeah, I can do that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I can do that, too. Yeah. I’ve joined in the chat several times. Yeah. So it’s really nice. Yeah.
Speaker 4
That’s a great way to get help because there’s lots of people there who can help you. And like Marcy said, they’ll go off into a breakout room and you can work one-to-one on whatever it is your issues are. That’s a really great, really great resource.
Speaker 14
Maybe I’ll do that. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather. But, you know, anyway, I’m feeling better today. I’ll consider that tonight. Thanks. Excellent. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Do we have another hand?
Speaker 5
Yes, we do. Lucy A.
Speaker 2
Hey, Lucy.
Speaker 15
Hello, everybody. So I didn’t get anything for Black Friday, but I do have a question. Has anybody experienced on the Apple Watch where if you add an extra voice, the volume gets distorted, like out of the blue? There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it? and I reset my phone or my watch and I used the last backup because I didn’t want to set it up as a new one I guess I’ll have to do that if there’s no fix to this but yeah I might just be using the watch as normal and the volume might be normal at one point and then it just gets really loud and just kind of goes back and forth.
Speaker 4
Is it when you’ve taken a call or used Siri? Because sometimes, you know, like when you take a call, the voice changes because it’s, I think, because it’s a lower quality or something, and then sometimes that is the case. But is it just anytime or is it specifically?
Speaker 15
Yeah, no, it’s anytime.
Speaker 4
Anytime, okay. Yeah. I’ve not seen that myself. And what voices are you using? Is it any voice specifically or is it just?
Speaker 15
Yeah, it’s any voice. seems to be when I’ve added voices to the rotor.
Speaker 4
I use Alex all the time so I don’t have that. I don’t really have any extra voices on the rotor. That’s interesting. So if you take them away, say you just go back to one voice,
Speaker 15
does it stop doing it? No. I tried that actually. That’s where I am right now because just last Last night I reset it, and I guess because I used the last backup, it’s still doing that because that’s what was happening on the last backup. So I think I’m going to have to go to a previous backup or just set it up as a new one to keep it from doing that. But, yeah, it’s doing it on just the one voice without having added more.
Speaker 4
You know what I would try? I would try and reset it and don’t use a backup and just do as little as you can with customizing it and see if it still happens, then you might as well go back and restore it from your most recent backup so you can have all your stuff back. But just to see, right? Like just to get it back to a neutral state and just see if that’s still happening. Because I’ve never seen like the volume just fluctuate like what you’re describing. But then I don’t use multiple voices, right? I just use the Alex and that’s it. So I don’t know. There could be something weird with watchOS when you have multiple voices. I don’t know. Have any of you all seen what Lucy’s describing?
Speaker 2
I have not. I haven’t put extra voices. I just use the whatever comes by default.
Speaker 4
Yeah. What about Marcy or Ryan? Either of you? Yeah, I just have the default voice.
Speaker 1
I have not added multiple voices. to my Apple Watch. Okay.
Speaker 15
It just seems like maybe that’s, at least for now, that’s what you have to have.
Speaker 4
That could be it. Yeah. And, you know, it’s actually not that, like, well, no, I shouldn’t say that. There are, if you, depending on how much you’ve customized your watch, you know, going back to, going back to a default may or may not be, be a challenge. Because, you know, it’ll, there’s so much of your stuff, like your fitness and everything comes from iCloud anyway, that it will just come back on. Even if you restore it you know without a backup that’s sort of what I was thinking as well yeah like there’s not as much configuring and it’s easier and then I actually find it easier to you know if you do go into the settings I find it easier on the phone although you can do it in both places but it’s easier to yeah I usually do it on the phone do you have a lot of like custom watch faces and stuff or do you
Speaker 15
have a lot of those or I use I mainly use one of them the one with the most the infograph one and So I think that’s the biggest reason I didn’t set it up as a new one, because I’d have to set all that up again. But, I mean, it’s not really that. I can do that.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 15
I think I’ll write down how I have the…
Speaker 4
How you have it, yeah.
Speaker 15
Yeah, what the setup is, and then redo it.
Speaker 4
Yeah, I’m like that, too. Lately, I’ve been using the Activity face, but I have used the Modular face, which has a lot of customizable elements to it.
Speaker 15
Well, thank you, guys.
Speaker 2
Yep. Sorry we weren’t more help. Yeah.
Speaker 15
That’s okay.
Speaker 2
Do we have another hand?
Speaker 5
We do, and that would be Joe, followed by Carla.
Speaker 2
All right. Joe?
Speaker 5
Let me allow her to talk. There we go.
Speaker 16
Hi. Hello. I wanted to follow up on the watch thing. I only have a Series 8, but I did notice that on mine a couple times, and I only have one voice on mine. The voice got real loud and distorted. And I can’t remember exactly, but in the settings for the watch, I also use the settings on my phone. It’s easier to manage for me. Under the voiceover settings and accessibility, there’s something about speech clarity or something down the bottom. And I turned that off and it stopped. Oh, interesting.
Speaker 2
So that was under, is that under accessibility?
Speaker 16
Yeah, under the voiceover settings. Sorry, my voiceover keeps talking. It was under the accessibility options, and I think it was down toward the bottom.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I’ve seen that before, and turning that off does fix some things.
Speaker 16
So I don’t know if that would help, but I also have a weird thing that I wanted to ask, and it doesn’t make any sense to me, and my brother-in-law said it doesn’t make any sense either, But I live in kind of a rural area, and I was missing phone calls for the longest time. They weren’t even showing up in my recents, and some of them were important phone calls. And so I changed all these settings, and I didn’t have any do not disturb things on. I didn’t have any, you know, the silence callers, unknown callers and stuff like that. I didn’t have any of that on. And I was still missing calls. So all of a sudden I just got this idea because I thought, what’s it going to hurt? I turned off Wi-Fi calling and now I haven’t missed a call since I did that. And I don’t, my brother-in-law and I both don’t think it makes sense, but it worked. Does that make any sense to anybody?
Speaker 2
it shouldn’t make sense but it’s worth keeping wi-fi calling off if that’s going to help you
Speaker 16
get your calls i know i just i thought it was strange i don’t understand it but um yeah i i
Speaker 3
would have thought it would be the opposite like turning on wi-fi calls would make it
Speaker 1
yeah reception better it’s very weird joe were you completely missing them or did it like ring one time and then go straight to voicemail. No, I was completely missing them. And the weird thing
Speaker 16
is they didn’t show up in my recent calls when I would look, they weren’t even there. And a lot of them were from my sister-in-law and she’s having the same problem, but we have completely different carriers, cell phone carriers or providers. So, um, I don’t, I don’t know. It’s just weird, but it worked so I’m going to leave it that way because I’m going to try that mine rings once and
Speaker 1
goes straight to voicemail that’s what’s happening right now oh my I’m going to turn off wi-fi calling and see if that fixes that thank you you’re welcome Lucy may benefit from your apple watch
Speaker 4
I was just going to say I was looking at the the settings the watch settings and it does say that for speech clarity the description is it uses the microphone on the watch to you know listen to the you know ambient sounds in the room and adjust the the volume accordingly and that sounds exactly what’s happening with her like the volume’s fluctuating so yeah lucy if you’re still listening you might want to turn that off if that’s on it’s off for me but if it’s on for you turn it off and
Speaker 16
see if that fixes it yeah i hope that works yeah thanks so much i didn’t even know about that i just want to let you guys know i am going to join this um probably today so i’m excited and um we’re excited to have you. I had another quick question. Is it hard to learn NVDA? Is it a lot like dolls?
Speaker 1
So when you join Bits, as a member, you’ll be able to download the NVDA course that Bits had. You’ll see how wonderful it is.
Speaker 4
There really is a lot to offer in Bits. I’m glad you’re joining because there’s so much available.
Speaker 16
Thank you. Thank you guys for your help. I’m really excited to join.
Speaker 1
Thank you for yours. Yeah.
Speaker 16
Thank you.
Speaker 5
All right. Yeah, we could have some hands. Carla, then we’ll go to Matthew.
Speaker 13
All right. I just want you all to know I’m now a lifer. No, I didn’t murder anybody, but I am a life member of BITS, and I’m glad for it. Can you hear me? Okay, but I think we lost the second half of my question. I shouldn’t ask two questions at once. I know we talked about the Zoom recorders, and there isn’t one that will do it all. but my second half of it is with the sound recorder or windows voice recorder built into windows is does anybody know if there’s a way and i think the question i just got lost is there any way to record directly from another source i remember that and i will say if you
Speaker 2
i don’t use that sound recorder but if you tell it that you want to record or set your default input from um an external source that could line in if you have that on your computer you could do that What I don’t know is if there’s a time limit on the recording like there used to be on the old sound recorder. Does anybody have experience, any panelists have any experience using sound recorder on Windows? I haven’t really used sound recorder. Right, me neither. But Carla, if you send an email to ask at bits-acb.org or mention it in chat, I’ll do some research and figure it out.
Speaker 14
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5
All right. Matthew and then Tanya.
Speaker 2
Thank you.
Speaker 17
Hello? Can you hear me?
Speaker 2
Yeah, we hear you.
Speaker 17
Great. Good morning. My technology, well, on Black Friday, my wife got me a pair of AirPod Pros. the 3rd Air Pro 3s and I like them I think they’re really nice I haven’t set everything up I do like I am a little hard of hearing I do have some mild hearing loss so it’s kind of the reason I chose those or I wanted those and I’m glad I got them audio is really good out of them my question is I was listening to Lucy’s issue about her iWatch and the volume my issue is somewhat similar kind of I upgraded to an iPhone 16, and I forgot what the reason was, but I had to reset the watch and reset it up again, almost like a brand new watch. And when I did that, the volume went from high to low, and I have the volume at 100%. And I heard somebody say something about the volume. I lost the internet connection. I had to log off, so I came back, and I caught barely the end of it. Can you guys repeat? what was going on with him.
Speaker 4
Well, the thing that the last person just described is there’s a voiceover setting called Speech Clarity. And that uses the microphone on the watch to sort of listen to how loud the room is and adjust voiceover’s speech accordingly. And I have that off by default. And so I’ve never experienced it. So that might be what’s happening. I think there also is another setting in the watch, and I’m sorry, I can’t remember where it is, but there is a setting that does the same sort of thing but for the sounds the watch makes. And, like, the idea being that it doesn’t want them to be too loud. So, like, if you’re in… But then the problem I found, I ended up turning that off because the problem I found is if you’re in a really quiet room, the sounds are extremely quiet. So it kind of, you know…
Speaker 17
That means the purpose is kind of…
Speaker 4
I think that I personally, I don’t love any of that stuff that sort of tries to determine stuff like that for you. And I’d rather adjust it myself. But I can’t remember where. I’m terrible at remembering where settings are. But I think, I’m guessing it’d be under sound. If you go into settings in your watch, there’s like sound and haptics. I’m guessing it’d be there. So those are the two places you want to look. Voice over, like voice over speech, and sound. Look in both those places, and I think you’ll find what you need.
Speaker 17
And am I doing that on my watch itself, on the physical watch, and going to the settings there? Am I going to the watch app on my phone and going to the settings there?
Speaker 4
You can do either one. Most of the features you can do in both places. I find it easier to do it on the phone just because, you know, the screen’s bigger. Well, Navigator, yes. But whichever one is more comfortable for you, either one is fine. There are a few settings.
Speaker 17
And we’re not talking about also, just to get clarity, we’re not talking about the setting center on the phone itself. No. We’re talking about the Watch app. The Watch app, yes. Okay, cool.
Speaker 18
Thanks.
Speaker 2
Thanks, you guys. I have seen that there’s a few settings on the watch itself that you can’t adjust on the Apple app.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 5
All right. Since we haven’t heard from him next, we’re going to go with David Kingsbury next.
Speaker 2
All right. David?
Speaker 19
Hi, folks.
Speaker 2
Hey, how’s it going?
Speaker 19
Fine. Just a quick answer to the question of like recording stuff on your computer itself. Now, if you want to do really fancy, super high fidelity, whatever, that’s one thing. But if you just want to do simple recordings, I simply in Zoom, I just create an instant meeting for myself. I share the sound. Well, I share the sound and I do Alt-R to create a recording. And that’s how I do it. And that gives you an audio recording. It also gives you a video. So that’s one quick way to do it with an app you probably already have on your computer. That’s all I wanted to say.
Speaker 2
And David, do you know if Sound Recorder has a time limit? That’s the old one used to.
Speaker 19
I haven’t played with that because I just do my recordings with Zoom. So I haven’t used any of the Windows stuff myself.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, thanks for that.
Speaker 5
All right. Tanya.
Speaker 7
Well, hello. Can you hear me now?
Speaker 4
Yep, we can.
Speaker 7
Okay, I have some comments about Wi-Fi calls. I live about, well, half a block from a school, and my neighbor shares the driveway area with me. And I had problems with calls dropping and missing calls. And what I learned from my rehab counselor and from the AT&T technical department is I needed to increase my Wi-Fi speed. Because when that call comes over the Wi-Fi, it could bounce or hit another Wi-Fi pathway or router. And it became a problem. And it still is a problem sometime. And they even shipped me a new router with new settings and new device codes and things of that nature. But the students and the parents, they would be so close to my router in my house that I would lose calls. So what I have learned to do, it works for me, is turn it off and then reset it and turn it back on. And they gave me another device that I could connect to that used the cord. And because I was using the cord, I was able to change my settings. And then they gave me a faster Wi-Fi speed router that was very helpful. Just thought I’d share that.
Speaker 2
Thank you.
Speaker 5
And you got about 11 minutes and you’re clear.
Speaker 2
We’re clear. All right. do we have you know nobody else has any Christmas wishes let’s see
Speaker 1
so what I want to say David is that I got the P4 next and I am looking for some really good mics that go well with it. And so that’s what my wish list is right now. And since we are clear, we’re going to give you a last opportunity to raise hands if you have any questions. Otherwise, we want to thank everyone for joining Bits. We had a really good success with that half-off lifetime special. So congratulations to Carla. As she said, she’s a lifer. But we want to remind everybody to register. Ooh, I see a hand. Who do we have, Travis?
Speaker 5
That would be Scott.
Speaker 1
Hello, Scott.
Speaker 20
Hi. I’m not too familiar with XLR. I understand that it’s used in daily mixers and recorders and audio interfaces like the P4 and P4 Next. But I guess my basic question is, are there adapters available that, say, with one end being a male XLR connector and the other end being a female 3.5 millimeter? Yes, there are. So it is possible to use them. And all, you know, none of this, like the P4next, for example, none of this, it doesn’t come with any kind of extra cables, adapters, or anything by default, I presume. No, no.
Speaker 2
USB-C is the standard, so everybody’s got to hear. Yeah, of course. Microphones are so personal. Yeah. Headphones. All right. Okay, thanks a lot.
Speaker 4
The P4 has four XLRs, doesn’t it?
Speaker 2
Correct.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 5
Clear. No, we’re not. Cliff.
Speaker 10
How’s it going? I passed on the P4 Next because I spent $4,000 on a Mac Studio with 96 gigs of RAM earlier this year. So I figure Audio Hotty Jack and everything else that I can do with that will do fine, especially with Farago and the soundboard that I get. Also, Marcy, you have one of the best mics you can have with the P4 Nexon, that ATR 2100X, because that’s one of the best mics out there that we cannot find anymore. So tell Santa Claus not to bring you a mic and just use that one.
Speaker 4
They don’t make that mic anymore, do they?
Speaker 10
Well, we haven’t been able to find it. They got the 2500, but I’ve heard that it’s not as good as the 2100.
Speaker 4
Okay, yeah, because that’s still what I use, and I am really happy with it.
Speaker 10
Yeah, I’m mad that I got rid of mine a couple of years, well, not even a couple of years ago, earlier this year. But I do use the AKG mic, and I do love that one because it has a lot of features. I mean, it has like three knobs for different settings. It has a dedicated mute button, and it has a built-in metal stand where you can adjust. know can you tilt up tilt down you know move to the side so it has a lot of features that the atr 2100 doesn’t but the 2100 does sound good they both sound good they do that the akg is a great mic actually if you like a desktop mic that you can just put off to the side and you know pull in front of you when you need it that’s a great mic i mean like i said you don’t have to buy a boom arm for it or anything because the stand that it comes with is excellent so but uh so are you using
Speaker 4
farago clip are you using it now no you haven’t started because i i have played with it and i had that’s i think it’s the one rogue amoeba thing i haven’t oh do i use it oh yeah i use it day oh
Speaker 10
you use it all the time okay oh yeah i love it because you could have up to a thousand sounds in one sound board you can have multiple sound boards and it even has um sat a dedicated sound app i forgot what it’s called but they you can go in there and search for a sound and it and it downloads directly from a database from the internet i forgot what they use but it’s built right in so but but it’s great it’s it’s if you’re not if you have it you’re not and you’re not using
Speaker 4
it you’re missing out yeah i just that’s like i said it’s the one the one rogue me map i don’t i haven’t purchased yet but i’ve okay i’m looking for a reason it’s one of those apps like i want
Speaker 10
to have a reason to use this but like like how how are you playing the disclaimer and introduction
Speaker 4
and stuff i just play those in quick time like i’m queued up in quick time and okay and because
Speaker 10
Because Farago would allow you to have that on its own dedicated soundboard so you wouldn’t have to switch. Like one could be one, one could be two, and on down the line. So that’s what I do.
Speaker 4
I can definitely see some advantages there, and that may be something that I get at some point. The way I do it is fine, but that may be something to look at for sure.
Speaker 10
Them two apps are the two that I use the most in the Rogue and Neighbor Suite. a question to you uh david you you told scott that there was a 3.5 to xlr what about uh usbc or usb to xlr do they have those also yeah they have those also yeah okay okay because i may look into the p4 next at some point but right now what i’m doing with um the mac studio and the recording apps and setup that i have is is sufficient so yeah and then of course marcy talked me into buying go way for Wendell.
Speaker 2
They had a sale. I don’t know if it’s still on.
Speaker 10
Oh, they did. Yeah, we got it at the sale price. Me and her bought it at the same time on the night that we did our recording for the Sound Crafter. Alright, guys. I’ll talk to you later in chat. Have a good day,
Speaker 1
everybody. Thanks, Cliff. You too.
Speaker 2
Anybody else, Travis?
Speaker 5
Nope. We are clear
Speaker 1
and we’re five minutes. Go ahead, David.
Speaker 2
I want to thank everybody for joining us for Ask Bits, the first one of December 6th, and remind Bits members to register for the annual meeting coming up on the 10th. And also there’s chat this evening. You also have access to the ask at bits-acb.org email address anytime. You don’t have to wait until the next Ask Bits to remember your question. And thanks, Travis and Jane, for hosting and streaming, respectively.
Speaker 18
And I’ll turn it over to you, Marcy. Well, I think you covered it. So we would just want to invite everyone to join us again for Ask Bits on December 20th.