skills
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Alexa can now tell you if your washing machine stops or water is running
Amazon is introducing two new specific Alexa sound detectors for "water running" and "appliance beeping" that can be used to set up routines or reminders.
Splice's music creation plans are going on sale for Black Friday
Newcomers can get $20 off a 12-month Sounds+, Creator or Creator+ subscription.
Splice launches new Creator plans with exclusive plugins and educational videos
Astra and Beatmaker are the company's first VSTs, but the Skills lessons are the star of the show.
Facebook will help military veterans become AR and VR engineers
Facebook has launched a new resource hub to help veterans and serving members of the military improve their digital literacy and find new employment opportunities. As part of the venture -- undertaken in partnership with mentoring organization SCORE -- Facebook will be launching a 12-month career development program focused on AR and VR engineering, aimed at veterans with backgrounds in electrical and mechanical engineering, and computer science.
LinkedIn's new quizzes can prove you're not lying on your resume
Starting today, LinkedIn is rolling out Skills Assessment quizzes. The short, standardized tests will allow you to prove your knowledge of everything from coding languages to Photoshop and Microsoft Excel. If you score in the 70th percentile or above, you'll have the option to add a "verified skill" badge to your profile. The change, LinkedIn hopes, will benefit both job seekers and recruiters.
Microsoft’s Mixer game streaming service adds new ways to interact
Microsoft's game streaming service and Twitch competitor, Mixer, is entering its second season, and with it comes a slew of new features to help fans engage and allow streamers to make more money. The first addition is Skills, which will let viewers send animated stickers and GIFs, launch effects like fireworks and laser shows or keep digital beach balls bouncing. Skills can be bought, and using it will help streamers financially. But for users that don't want to drop cash, they can use Sparks (new, earnable tokens) instead. Sparks can be earned by watching streams, and those Sparks can then purchase Skills.
Alexa skills can talk to you using different voices
Do you wish Alexa would respond to your commands with different voices? You'll get your wish soon. Amazon has released a developer preview that lets Alexa skill developers use a selection of voices from Polly (Amazon's text-to-speech service). An adventure story can give each character a different voice, for instance. Creators could already 'hack' additional voices in through MP3 recordings and similar techniques, but this is decidedly more elegant.
Amazon lets every Alexa developer offer in-skill purchases
Now that it's easier to ask Amazon's Alexa follow-up questions, it's only natural that its shopping options are getting a boost. Soon you'll be able to ask Alexa to buy even more things, as Amazon opened up in-skill purchasing to all developers today. While some microtransaction applications are obvious -- buying items in games, for example -- others could be upgrading from a free to a paid tier or, heck, simply browsing goods.
Alexa's DVR controls will finally let you record a show
For all the recent talk of using Alexa to control DVRs, there's been a conspicuous inability to record to a DVR using the voice assistant. That won't be a problem for much longer: Amazon has bolstered Alexa's Voice Skill programming kit with recording features. Tell the AI helper to record a favorite show or sports extravaganza and you'll capture the show without having to touch a remote or your smartphone. You'll have to wait for TV and set-top providers to take advantage of this, but DirecTV, Dish, TiVo and Verizon are already lining up to provide support "soon."
Amazon offers free sound effects to Alexa skill creators
Amazon is making it easier for developers to add a variety of sound effects to their Alexa skills. The tech giant has launched a library full of built-in audio clips people can use to add -- in Amazon's words -- "unique sounds" to their creations. Of course, by the time most developers are done tweaking their skills to add the audio clips, they'll no longer seem unique. In fact, you should probably probably get used to hearing the same thing again and again. But developers do have quite a wide selection to choose from with 14 categories that include sounds you'd usually hear in cartoons and sci-fi shows, as as well as sounds of nature, humans and animals.
Amazon's Alexa and Prime Music service arrive in Canada
The absence of Amazon's Alexa and Prime Music services in Canada has been a strange oversight, given that the nation's share a border and (one of two) common languages. That has now been corrected, as Amazon has finally launched the Echo family, Prime Music and Alexa Voice services and skills in the land of hockey and poutine. "We're excited to bring [Alexa] to Canada with an experienced designed from the ground up for our Canadian customers," said Amazon Senior VP Tom Taylor in a statement.
Amazon offers $250,000 prize fund for Alexa skills aimed at kids
Amazon's latest bid to boost its smart assistant's skill set is centered around kids. Oh, and a big pile of money. Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids wants Alexa tricks aimed at kids under the age of 13, with the best ones claiming cash prizes from a fund of $250,000. The overall winner will claim $25,000, so a farm yard animal noise generator won't cut it. All eligible participants in the challenge will also pick up a limited-edition Echo Dot, and there's dedicated prizes for high school and university student devs.
Alexa will recommend third-party skills for things it can’t do
When Amazon's Alexa doesn't know how the answer to a question, the digital assistant typically just says so. Now, though, instead of "Hmmmm. I don't know that," Alexa may start to recommend third-party skills to help you out more effectively. In a video shot by Voicebot's Bret Kinsella, you can clearly hear Alexa recommending a non-Amazon skill to answer his question about Apple stock prices. According to Kinsella, after Alexa asked if he wanted to use a skill to answer his stock query, it went straight to a genera listing of prices instead of addressing the specific question he originally asked.
Alexa's new kid-friendly skills have a layer of parental control
Amazon's Alexa skills let you add all sorts of functionality to your Echo devices, and there are more coming every day. You can order a pizza, manage your video streaming binges, find out when your package has shipped and even book a hotel with your voice. But why should grown-ups have all the fun? Amazon has just announced kids skills in the US, which have a layer of parental permissions to help adults feel safe in adding them to their children's Echo devices.
Amazon may give developers your private Alexa transcripts
With new rivals on the market, Amazon has to do something to help its Alexa devices compete. Until now, Amazon has not given third-party developers access to what you say to the voice assistant. Google Home, though, does. According to sources reported by The Information, Amazon is currently looking at opening up this private transcript data to its developers, which could help them build better voice apps for Alexa. It would also raise serious privacy concerns for users. It's a delicate balancing act between user privacy and developer access, of course, but with rivals like Google and Apple getting into the smart speaker game, Amazon needs to keep its early lead.
Alexa is learning more new skills every day
Just two months after Amazon announced it was "doubling down" on its Echo ecosystem, the company has confirmed that its Alexa voice platform has passed 15,000 skills. Impressive, especially in comparison to Google Assistant's 378 voice apps and Cortana's meager 65 -- but what's more impressive is the rate at which Alexa is gaining these skills. Alexa reached 15,000 skills in June -- during this month alone new skill introductions increased by 23 percent. The milestone also represents a 50-percent increase in skills since February, when Amazon officially announced it had hit 10,000 -- and even that figure was triple what it was the previous September.
Ads are coming to Amazon Echo skills
If the Beauty and the Beast and Burger King debacles were anything to go by, owners of smart speakers like the Google Home aren't big fans of ads. But that won't stop marketing companies like VoiceLabs from trying to make them happen. The voice analytics company has announced a new platform called Sponsored Messages, which will let developers monetize their Amazon Echo skills by inserting ads at the start and end of conversations.
Microsoft takes aim at Alexa with Cortana Skills Kit
Amazon's Alexa is miles ahead of rivals like Microsoft and Google with its "skills" -- around 10,000 mini-apps that let you use your voice to control your lights or music, order an Uber, learn first aid and more. To help close that gap, Microsoft has finally launched the Cortana Skills Kit in a public preview, allowing developers to build new skills or convert them from Alexa or Microsoft's new Bot Framework.
The best commands for Amazon Echo and Alexa
Researched and written by Libby Plummer Powered by Alexa, the Amazon Echo and smaller Echo Dot speakers can carry out scores of tasks from setting alarms and giving weather reports to checking sports scores and ordering an Uber. But there's plenty more on offer, including a wide range of fun easter eggs. Here are some tips and tricks for Alexa that you might not know about.
Amazon puts Alexa inside your iPhone
Now you can talk to Amazon's intelligent assistant whenever you use the Amazon app on your iPhone. Alexa will be able to do much more than just deal with your Amazon account, like play songs from Amazon Music, give you news updates, or even tell a (bad) joke or two. You'll also be able to use any of your previously enabled skills that are available within the Alexa ecosystem. According to Amazon, the one thing you won't be able to do just yet is to ask Alexa to open your door locks with your voice.
