Category: Technology

Something Special About Apple and iOS

Kelli Richards December 18, 2012

Kelli Richards - All Access GroupThe special needs community is rarely the target demographic for the tech industry. Many of the wonderful new gizmos and gadgets that come out simply aren’t designed for them. There are an increasing number of companies that are developing products and technology to make computers and mobile devices more accessible for the special needs community, however – and one of those companies happens to be Apple, Inc.

Apple’s VoiceOver technology was introduced with OSX 10.5 – better known as “Tiger.” It’s an accessibility feature that allows blind or visually impaired users to interact with a computer through sound. A user can use the trackpad or keyboard to scroll through the applications on the docked menu at the bottom of the screen. It can literally read the user any text that’s displayed on the screen and allows users to edit text where applicable.

VoiceOver is also available on iOS devices such as the iPad. Visually impaired users have been incredibly receptive and appreciative of this, especially considering the fact that it’s a feature many other tablets and readers lack. As more and more publishing companies, universities, and corporations look to switch to readers and tablets in the future, accessibility features for the visually impaired certainly help Apple market its products as the superior choice amongst the competition.

Another feature that benefits the members of the special needs community is a new feature in iOS 6 called Guided Access. Guided Access allows parents and educators to “lock” onto an app so that children can’t accidentally exit out of it by pressing the home button. While this may seem like a very basic feature, it’s incredibly useful for children with Autism or learning disabilities who may become distracted or lose focus on tasks. There are a number of educational apps available in the App Store but it’s often hard for learning disabled students to stay focused on them long enough to actually benefit. With Guided Access, the task of keeping a child focused has gotten a little easier for teachers and parents.

While full accessibility is an on-going battle as technology continues to evolve, Apple is certainly taking steps in the right direction. Many other companies in Silicon Valley are taking their lead and continuing to improve accessibility features for different technologies and we hope to see this trend continue.

My own time at Apple saw many of these technologies discussed and drawn out on desks and white boards under the tireless leadership and direction of my colleague Dr. Alan Brightman, who was Director of Apple’s WW Disability Solutions for 12 years; and is now a VP at Yahoo focusing on Global Accessibilty. To see these things come to life and create impact all around the world is simply astounding (then and now).

Kelli Richards,
CEO of the All Access Group, LLC

The Cupertino Connection: iTunes 11 and iCloud

Kelli Richards December 10, 2012

 

iTunes may be one of the best products that Apple ever developed, or at the very least, one of the smartest. Just a few weeks ago Apple released iTunes 11 with a myriad of visual and technical changes and improvements. iTunes will turn 12 years old in January, and in those years Apple has found a way to streamline, connect, condense, and centralize a user’s content and multimedia experience. With that in mind, I think it’s worth looking at a few of the existing features, the new ones in iTunes 11, and the future ones planned for next year to see just how they’ll continue to do that.

First let’s look at how Apple already connects users and their content across multiple devices. One of the earliest features that did this was the “Library Sharing” feature that enables users to share their library across 5 devices connected to the same network using the same Apple ID. This was great because a user could have a whole collection on their desktop computer and access that same collection on their laptop. With this feature, users can also share content with other people on their WiFi network.

A similar feature that’s been out for a few years is AirPlay. AirPlay allows users to stream media from one device across multiple devices on their WiFi network. For example, a user can start listening to an album or playlist in one room and stream it to their home stereo in their living room. Users can even adjust which devices are playing at what time and the volume of those individual devices. Apple TV even lets users stream a movie from their computer on their Apple TV. Of course, all of these devices are controllable with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Finally, with iTunes 11 and the updated iTunes store, all of a user’s downloads are automatically synced to the iCloud and accessible by any other iCloud capable device. This means a song downloaded in the iTunes store on your computer will be available on your iPod or iPhone. A similar service, iTunes Match, was released last year and allows users to pay an annual fee to have any of their music in their library uploaded to the iCloud, whether it was purchased or available in the iTunes store or not. These services could prove to be interesting competitors for Spotify, Rhapsody, Amazon, and other streaming/cloud based music delivery services.

Lastly, Apple recently announced that it will launch its own streaming radio service to compete with Pandora in the first few months of 2013. Like the aforementioned services, it will be available across iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macs, and PC’s as part of iTunes.

With all of these developments that have made Apple products so seamlessly integrated into a person’s life, it seems Tim Cook is moving forward to fulfill Steve Jobs’ goal of having an Apple device in every home. Cloud storage and online streaming is all the rage right now, and Apple’s solutions could prove to be big problems for its competitors. With so many solutions to a user’s content needs, why would they bother going elsewhere?

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group

Cyber Monday – Digging for Digital Dollars

Kelli Richards November 27, 2012

The holiday season is upon us now that Thanksgiving has come and gone. If you’ve just surfaced from the post-Thanksgiving turkey overdose then you’ve already missed Black Friday, which is probably for the better. However, many e-commerce sites are extending Cyber Monday deals through the entire week. This blog isn’t going to tell you where to find the best deals or give you any general tips, but rather it will highlight the importance of Cyber Monday to the tech industry and its influence throughout the globe.

The term “Cyber Monday,” was first coined in 2005 by Shop.com as a parallel to Black Friday. Scott Silverman of Shop.com created the concept based on research that the Monday following Thanksgiving was the biggest online retail day of the year, presumably for anyone who missed out on Black Friday deals. In its first year, Cyber Monday generated over $600 million dollars in sales from U.S consumers. It has since grown to double that and is now “celebrated” in countries across the globe such as the U.K, Portugal, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia.

One of the reasons Cyber Monday has grown so steadily over the years is because the rapid advancements in tech. In 2005, few people were browsing Amazon.com on their cell phones, now however, more than 12% of Cyber Monday purchases are made from a mobile device. Similarly, the rate at which technology is released has sped up in every direction, meaning more cool new gadgets for people to buy. As online sales soar with Cyber Monday, some brick-and-mortar locations and small businesses have complained that the deals online are taking money away from local economies. The sad (and great) news is that really, as technology and e-commerce rapidly evolve, everyone along the retail trail will have to find a way to keep up.

So happy hunting! There are so many cool new products on the market – from the iPad Mini to the Kindle Fire to all the great new laptops that have come out. Hopefully you won’t go overboard and max out all your cards, though I know it can be tempting!

Kelli Richards
CEO of the All Access Group.

The New Myspace: All or Nothing

Kelli Richards November 1, 2012

Ah Myspace, the website that brought social networking and social media into the homes of the masses. Once the king of the internet, valued at $12 billion and becoming the most visited website in the world, it has since been dethroned and fallen from grace. Or has it? It was recently purchased by Specific Media and Justin Timberlake in June 2011 for $35 million with hopes of breathing new life into the company. But will they be able to reclaim the throne in a much more crowded kingdom? The answer to that remains to be scene but based on the preview it looks like something worth getting excited about.

The obvious issue is that there are already enough, if not too many, social networks for the average user. Between Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube, Google+ and the many others, the internet has become inundated with social media. Billed as a way to connect artists and fans, the MySpace team at Specific media has taken a smart approach by letting users integrate their Facebook and Twitter accounts rather than having to create a new one. With celebrities and artists already connecting with fans via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram perhaps integration and consolidating is something we need more of.

Seamless integration and creative design are two big things the new Myspace has going for it. Based on the preview video posted by Justin Timberlake, the website does look gorgeous and functional; 2 issues which plagued it in the past. Perhaps the biggest thing it has going for it is the music feature, which is something it actually always did exceptionally well.

Once a great way for big names and local bands alike to post songs, event info, pictures, etc, it will now let users create and share playlists, listen to whole albums, discover new music based on recommendations, and more. A cool feature for the artists is an analytics page which provides demographic breakdowns of their audiences by age, gender, region, etc. Myspace currently boasts one of the largest music catalogues on the internet, albeit from mostly unknown artists, at 42 million songs. If they can get some big artists and labels on board or even integrate with other services like Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, or Rhapsody then it could very well come back to life.

There’s still a lot that is up in the air for the new Myspace but if it can find a way to get over the hump, play nicely with the other social networks, and deliver great content then I think it will be a success. If it can’t create a pleasant, clutter-free, and unique experience for the user then it may be time to just let it die out.

Kelli Richards, President and CEO
The All Access Group, LLC

Reminder to REGISTER for TUESDAY’s Apple’s Best Practices Webinar

Kelli Richards September 24, 2012

Tomorrow, September 25th at 2pm PST I will offer an exclusive Webinar on incorporating Apple’s 12 best practices to enhance your business, client experiences, and personal brand.

As we know, Apple is a global leader in creating an environment around achieving powerful goals, and boiling down how they became THE company to model, after experiencing one of the most well documented crashes in history, is an absolute MUST do for anyone in business today.

To hold your space at this exclusive webinar, sign up immediately at https://www.appleinsidersecrets.com

Warmly, Kelli Richards

 

Apple’s Laughing Straight to the Bank

Kelli Richards September 18, 2012

Iphone 5 UnveilingAs an Apple insider and alum, I always have an ear to the ground for what’s going on in their world.  The past month or so for Apple has been almost as eventful as the company’s first big success back in the late 70’s – early 80’s. With a landmark legal victory over Samsung for copyright infringement, the company not only gets awarded $1.05 billion in damages (which Samsung is appealing, of course), but they will also exclusive rights over certain design and software ideas on which they own patents.

While some have slammed Apple’s case as being too broad or overzealous, the decision will surely shape the mobile software and hardware markets from this point on. For the consumer it means two things: First, Apple’s patented designs and features will most likely be cross-licensed for quite a pretty penny to competing developers and manufacturers. Second, this means that in order to competitively price their technology, companies will have to become innovative once again, rather than copy an already successful formula. So you’ll either see iPhone and iOS-esque features on high-end electronics, or innovative new designs may become the way of the future. That chapter has yet to be written.

With so much focus and attention on these two battling giants, what better time for Amazon to announce its new reader / tablet offering, the Kindle Fire. Strategically placed in the same realm as the competing iPad, Nexus, and Galaxy tablets, the Kindle Fire looks to open the floodgates of revenue for its content delivery platform. The three-way race between Apple, Amazon, and Google’s media stores appears well separated for now, but the competition is certainly heating up as the markets and technology change so rapidly. And the solid winner in ALL of this is the pro-sumer.

One would think that the competitive innovation to come from the lawsuit against Samsung, along with the introduction of the rival Kindle Fire would be cause for concern at the Apple HQ here in Cupertino, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

On September 12th, Apple announced the iPhone 5 in grandiose Apple fashion, after the project had been shrouded in secrecy for almost a year. (An issue I cover at length in my recent bestseller, “The Magic and Moxie of Apple – An Insider’s View”.)  Thinner, lighter, faster, and overall cooler than its predecessor, the iPhone 4s; the iPhone 5 also boasts a number of new features, such as a new charging interface and new operating system (iOS 6).

Consumers are certainly on board for the new and improved iPhone, as evidenced by the 2 million+ pre-orders within the first 24 hours of its announcement. As a result, the cost of Apple’s stock has risen to over $700 for the first time in company history.

So while rival tech giants are out there trying to copy Apple products or create competitive alternatives in hopes of dethroning them, Apple is simply laughing it’s way straight to the bank.

Kelli Richards, President and CEO
The All Access Group

PS:  On September 25th, I will offer an amazing webinar on the 12 Best Practices of Apple Inc. This webinar is offered at NO cost to you.  I will offer it at a later date for $47 per participant, but for now, I simply want to extend this webinar and my expertise around what makes Apple the global leader it is to my own audience, colleagues and friends.

To save your seat, go tohttps://appleinsidersecrets.com/webinar.php and register.

 

 

Apple’s 12 Best Practices – Training Webinar

Kelli Richards September 12, 2012

How would you like to learn the single most important mind-set shift you need to guarantee that your billion-dollar ideas don’t get taken by your competitors?

How important is it to you to leave a legacy that makes a huge difference in the world?

Join me on Tuesday, September 25, 2:00pm PT/5:00 pm ET.  I will share a detailed, insiders view into:

  • Apple’s 12 best practices to create the WOW factor that keeps your customers coming back and telling all their friends about why your product “kills” anything else on the market (my colleague Steve Jobs used every single one of these to great success)
  • How to inspire your team with an emotionally compelling cause so they become world-class superstars who are completely loyal to you and your vision.

This webinar is offered at NO cost to you.  I will offer it at a later date for $47 per participant, but for now, I simply want to extend this webinar and my expertise around what makes Apple the global leader it is to my own audience, colleagues and friends.

To save your seat, go to https://appleinsidersecrets.com/webinar.php and register.

Kelli Richards, President and CEO
The All Access Group,

Steve Jobs on Privacy and User Experience – An Apple Best Practice

Kelli Richards August 29, 2012

Even for me, as an Apple insider, seeing the Apple “Best Practices” in action is awe inspiring.  No one can deny that one of the most amazing things about Apple is how they embrace secrecy as an asset.  No entity keeps a secret better than Apple – AND the thousands and thousands of employees and alum in their tribe.  Quite simply it’s part of our Apple DNA.  And that idea translates far into how they work with their products, and especially, their users.  For Apple Inc., user experience goes far beyond what the customer can see, feel and touch.  It goes on behind the veil as well.

Steve Jobs talked about this himself when he was interviewed at the All Things D8 Conference in 2010.

“No, silicon valley is not monolithic. We’ve always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the valley, we take privacy extremely seriously. As an example, we worry a lot about location in phones and we worry that some 14 year old is going to get stalked and something terrible is going to happen because of our phone, and so as an example, before any app can get location data we don’t make it a rule that they have to put up a panel and ask because they might not follow that rule. They call our location services, and we put up the panel saying this app wants to use your location data, is that okay with you.  Every time they want to use it and we do a lot of things like that to ensure that people understand what these apps are doing. That’s one of the reasons we have the curated app store. We have rejected a lot of apps that want to take a lot of your personal data and suck it up into the cloud, a lot. So we’re really old, a lot of people in the valley think we’re very old fashioned about this and maybe we are, but we worry about stuff like this.

No, privacy means people know what they’re signing up for in plain English and repeatedly. That’s what it means. I’m an optimist, I believe people are smart and some people want to share more data than other people do – ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.”

Just another example of behind-the-scenes USER experiences – one of the best “best practices” that Apple does differently.

If YOU would like to learn more about Apple’s best practices and how those could work in YOUR company or work, sign up at https://AppleInsiderSecrets.com and become part of my own inner circle and get all of my insider, best practice tools and event invitations.

Kelli Richards, President and CEO
The All Access Group, LLC

A Peek Behind the Curtain… The Core Personal Interviews with Kelli Richards (and her Editor) that Became the Apple eBook…

Kelli Richards August 1, 2012

Tune in for this 15-minute interview with Kelli Richards, Apple Alum and author of the Amazon Bestseller, “The Magic and Moxie of Apple – An Insider’s View.” Kelli shares some of her very personal experiences and memories of being at Apple Inc. with her book editor to frame out the book…

 

 

Will we Retain our Confidence in Apple?

Kelli Richards July 29, 2012

The newly launched iBooks Store recently signed on its sixth major U.S. publisher in Random House, the world’s No. 1 English-language producer of books. Is there any doubt that iBooks is set on a course to become the world’s largest digital bookstore?

And then there is the legendary App Store, the heavily curated, tightly guarded walled garden that Steve Jobs envisioned as a parallel Internet. Whether apps have a long-term future is a matter of debate, but there is no doubt that they serve a purpose and are recognized for adding value to the mobile experience. Steve said in 2011 that “Mobile is the key to the post-PC world….We’re in a position now where the majority of our revenue comes from post-PC products.”

Whatever comes next must contain and continue all of this.

Is it possible? Will we as a society retain our confidence in Apple? I would love to hear your thoughts on this…

Kelli Richards, President and CEO
The All Access Group, LLC

PS: My Amazon Bestseller: “The Magic and Moxie of Apple – An Insider’s View” is now available in the iBooks Store at https://itunes.apple.com/book/id543952406?mt=11

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