Control your iPhone without Ever Touching it with the Hable One

Shaun Preece:
Smartphones are great. Of course, they are. We all know that. In fact, many of us have replaced our laptop or desktop computer with just a smartphone. But if you want to do anything more than just a short email or short text or insult your Facebook friend, the onscreen keyboard just isn't going to cut it. What you need is one of these, a Bluetooth keyboard. Oh, I love you, Bluetooth keyboard. These are great too. With one of these, you can write a novel on your smartphone if you want to. But more than that, because it's not just about text entry, you can also navigate and interact with your smartphone with a Bluetooth keyboard. They're great when you are commuting or travelling, and you want to get some real work done on your smartphone. There is one problem, it's huge. They're just too big. You can't just slip one in your inside coat pocket or in your jeans pocket. Well, not unless you are MC Hammer or Koko the Clown. It's just too big. Let me introduce you to the Hable. Shaun of the Shed, an AMI original podcast.

Welcome back to Shaun of the Shed. I am Shaun Preece. This is my shed, and this is the show where I talk all about the technology that can be so damn useful to us as blind or visually impaired people. And yes, in this episode, I want to talk about the Hable One. What is it, and why do you need one? They call it a Bluetooth controller or a smartphone keyboard, and that's exactly what it is. It's just the same as when you use a Bluetooth keyboard with your smartphone. You can use it to enter text or just navigate and interact with your smartphone, be it an iPhone or an Android phone. It's just like a Bluetooth keyboard, except there's far, far fewer keys on the Hable One. In fact, there's only eight buttons on the device. It's roughly five inches by two and a half inches, but it's just thicker than your standard iPhone or Android phone because it's about just under an inch thick, I would say. But still, it fits nicely in the palm of your hand. So let's take a look at this thing.

It's black in colour, and the buttons on the face of the device are white. Six buttons in the center on the front face of the device. These are Perkins-style Braille keys. Just to the left of those buttons is a longer button, which is button seven, and then there's also a longer button to the right of those central six buttons, which is button eight. On the top side of the device is the power switch. On the underside is a USB-C port for charging it and a little lanyard hull. Anyway, that's the description of the Hable One. I suppose, now, we should talk about the elephant in the room, and that is, how can eight keys possibly replace the keys on a Bluetooth keyboard? Again, I suppose, this takes us back to the discussion of is this a Braille device? Yes, this is a Braille device because the way you enter text and control it is through the Braille keys.

If you are not a braille user, don't be frightened off. At least, I would say, give it a go because it's surprising how you can pick it up, and if you are, then definitely you're going to love this thing. Now, to use it, you hold it between two hands with the buttons facing away from you. You'll find that your thumbs naturally rest on the top next to the power button. You also find that your fingers on both hands just naturally rest on those six braille buttons. Type in text as you would expect, fairly straightforward. Once you pick up grade 1 braille, it's okay, it's absolutely fine, but also use those keys to navigate around. For 99% of the things you want to do with your phone, I'm pretty sure the Hable One has a command for it, and it's all about the more you use it, the more you pick up these commands. And there's so many resources available on the Hable website.

They have a YouTube channel with lots of tutorials on it. Anyway, that's enough talk. Let's get on to actually using this thing. As I said, this does support both iPhone and Android phones. Out of the box, you simply power on, and you will see this device, the Hable One, in your Bluetooth settings of whatever device, your Android phone or your iPhone. Go to the Bluetooth settings, and in there, you will see the Hable One. Simply double-tap to connect to it, and the Hable One itself will determine and detect what operating system it's connected to, either iOS or Android, and set itself accordingly. I will say as well, which is something I really love, is that if you are switching between an iPhone or an Android phone, you'll find that most of the commands that you learn for navigating around are actually the same on both devices. So you don't need to learn separate commands for an iPhone or an Android phone.

It's great. Okay, then, a quick demo of Hable One in action. So I've got my iPhone 12 mini on my desk in front of me on a wireless charger. I have my Hable One in hand. So let's give it a whirl. Now, I'm going to have to put my special headphones on. Now, I feel like a proper DJ. Now, I can hear my phone. So let me get the Hable One here. So holding it between my two hands. So let's go to the home screen. Let's hold down H, the braille letter H, which is one, two, and five.

Speaker 2:
Home.

Shaun Preece:
There we go. Okay. Now, to move around your screen, this is where buttons seven and eight come into it. Hold down button seven, and then tap button eight.

Speaker 2:
Social networking folder, 5 apps, 51 new items.

Shaun Preece:
That's the same as swiping right on the screen with one finger. That's the move to the next item. So let's keep going. Hold down button seven, tap button eight.

Speaker 2:
Communication folder, 11 apps, 64 new items. Shopping folder, 14, apps, 6 new items. Smart tech folder, 13 apps.

Shaun Preece:
There we go. You get the idea. Now, to go back, the equivalent of swiping to the left with one finger on your touch screen, you would hold down button eight, and this time, tap button seven.

Speaker 2:
Shopping folder, 14 apps, 6 new items. Communication folder, 11 apps, 64. Social networking folder, 5 apps, 51 new items.

Shaun Preece:
There you go. Easy. And let's say you want to jump to the first item on your screen, hold down buttons one, two, and three.

Speaker 2:
Facebook shortcut.

Shaun Preece:
There we go. And to jump to the last item on the screen, hold down buttons four, five, and six.

Speaker 2:
Dock, WhatsApp.

Shaun Preece:
There we go. How cool is that? So easy, right? You can jump to the status bar by holding down the letter S, which is buttons... Whoa, I'm testing myself here. Two, three, and four would jump you to the status bar. If I hold down the letter M, that will mute or unmute your screen reader. Let's try that one, actually. So that's buttons one, three, and four. Hold them down for a second.

Speaker 2:
Speech off.

Shaun Preece:
There we go. And again.

Speaker 2:
Speech on.

Shaun Preece:
I love that one for when you're watching Netflix or something or scrolling through your Facebook Watch. You can turn the speech off and just go through it. It's very handy. And again, there's so many more. Control Center is, for some reason, the letter J, which are buttons, two, four, and five.

Speaker 2:
Control Center, airplane mode, Switch button off.

Shaun Preece:
Here we go.

Speaker 2:
Actions available.

Shaun Preece:
Okay, calm down. Let's do H. Again, buttons one, two, and five.

Speaker 2:
Facebook shortcut.

Shaun Preece:
It takes us back to the home screen. Now, that's obviously just a really limited demo of the commands that are available. Honestly, it's so fully featured that I can't think of anything that I can't do on it. I'm sure there's something, but honestly, I haven't come across it yet. And again, there's so many resources available. It is surprising how quickly you pick up all of these commands. Holding down button three, for example, will perform a magic tap. So if you want to answer a phone call, end a phone call, start or stop playback of media, holding down button three will do that. Hold down the braille letter R, which is, oh, buttons one, two, three, and five, and that will start reading everything on the screen. Let's try that. Again, one, two, three, and five.

Speaker 2:
Facebook shortcut. Social networking folder, 5 apps, 51 new items. Communication folder, 11 apps, 64 new items. Shopping folder, 14 apps.

Shaun Preece:
And I press button one or hold down button one, and that will pause your screen reader speaking. How cool is that? So, there you go. There's a very, very limited demo of what the Hable One is capable of. But again, look, I just find this so useful. Of course, there's specific use cases for this. When would you want to remote control a really portable item like your smartphone anyway? Again, I use mine when it's on the wireless charger. When I'm in bed at night and my phone's charging up on the wireless charger, simply grabbing the Hable One to, whatever I want to do, go through my emails or whatever, social media. It's just so handy, and if you are out and about walking on the street and you quickly want to answer a email or message, then the Hable One is just so useful for that.
So, there you go. That was the Hable One. As you could probably guess, I love this device. I think it's so just useful, and it does what it's meant to do so well. They've done a great job in figuring out those commands and making it work in such a great way. There is one fly in the ointment if you will, and of course, you all know me, that's the price. This is 349 Canadian dollars. That's around, I think, 239 British pounds. That is a considered purchase, and when you compare it to something like a Bluetooth keyboard, which you can pick up for what? $30, $40, $50. Wow, then you really do need to think hard if this is for you because of that price.

Now, look, obviously, when it comes to all of these devices, which are specifically targeted at or designed for even the visually impaired, we all know there is a price involved. There's supply demand, a smaller market, R&D, smaller companies. I totally, totally understand that. But that doesn't take away from the fact that, yes, this can do everything a Bluetooth keyboard can do in a much smaller package, but then you are paying for that privilege. So it is something to keep in mind.
If you want to find out more, you can go to iamhable.com. That's their website, I-A-M-H-A-B-L-E.com. Now, I mentioned it will work on iPhone and Android smartphones, but also on that website it mentions, of course, it would work on tablets as well, which I don't see any reason it wouldn't, but I haven't been able to try that out. So any Apple tablet or Android tablet, you should be able to use this with as well. There you go. Thank you so much for watching. If you liked it, then hit the Like button. If you didn't, then don't. It's absolutely fine. Feel free to subscribe if you want to hear more in the next episodes of Shaun of the Shed. If you want to get in contact with me, any comments or any suggestions, you can email me. I've got my own email address now. It's shaun@doubletaponair.com. Thank you so much for listening. Take care, and I'll see you next time.