Surface Adaptive Kit, Aira Priority Connect & A Typing T-Rex

Looking for an hour of top tech talk and news? Well, you’re in luck because here’s another episode of Double Tap Canada. 

The show kicks off with Steven’s latest trip to the Apple Store, but surely there can’t be anything left for him to buy? He tells us why he’s returned his new MacBook Pro. Next, it’s on to Microsoft and their new Surface Adaptive Kit. Although designed for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptops, this kit could be useful for any device. It consists of various tactile “bumps” and stickers that you can use to mark and identify keys, ports or cables. Obviously, this is very useful for us as visually impaired people, but it could be equally useful for anyone who has spent time crawling around the back of a computer trying to find a cable. 

Sticking with Microsoft, there’s the news that the long unchanged app Notepad is to get a refresh in an upcoming update to Windows. Featuring the new Windows 11 design, dark mode and multi-level undo, should we be excited that it’s finally got some attention, or is it a case of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”? 

In other news, Aira has announced its Priority Connect system. As the name suggests, this will give priority to Aira subscribers when it comes to answering calls during busy periods. If you don’t have an Aira subscription, then you may have to call back another time. Is this simply a sensible way of managing resources or does Aira have a responsibility to provide information to other services such as Be My Eyes or Seeing AI during these busy periods? 

All this plus your emails, Steven’s new keyboard setup for dinosaurs and why Marc and Shaun are destroying the planet.