Dot to Dot - the daily 5min Alexa demo show

Today we look at the relatively new feature that enables the A-lady to recognise your voice. If there are multiple users in your household then you may want to go to Settings > Alexa Account > Recognise voices, accept the terms and then simply ask the A-lady to "Learn my voice" (other family members will need to use the Alexa app on their own device, log in with the same Amazon account, follow the same steps but then choose the option 'I'm someone else'). Having a voice profile then gives you a personalised experience for calling and messaging, your flash briefing, for shopping lists and for your music - but only with the Amazon Music Unlimited family plan

Can you pick the false word from three valid ones? Patrick Steggle ([email protected]) has an heroic go at doing just so in today's great skill demo.

Brought to us by Pottermore and Audible, this skill's for absolutely everyone whose even remotely into HP. It's superb from the start until the very end - well, just before the very end, that is.

The third in our Earplay series today; we're finishing off with a festively-themed adventure that's a little out of season, but that's definitely up to the usual high fidelity we've come to expect from those stunning storytellers that brought us Codename Cygnus and a teensy-weensy bit of the doggy-dystopia that is barely Pugmire…

Another Earplay skill today; Office Hours. Dive into this immersive audio adventure and let the story swill around your ear-'oles. Can you solve the mystery of the missing AI?

Today Patrick Steggle ([email protected]) helps us revisit the Earplay skill. It includes a few audio adventures that are either in preview (the first chapter) or a full adventure. These include 'Codename Cygnus' (covered before) and 'Half'. We'll look at other Earplay adventures that, for whatever reason, are released in the skill store as separate adventures not available through the Earplay skill over the next couple of days. For info, the Earplay skil description says that all content that contains material of a restricted nature will be accessible only with a registered and linked Earplay account. You can unlink a registered account at any time by disabling and re-enabling the skill without linking it to your account.

Today we look at a few fantastic features that are built-in to Echoes with a touchscreen. Use 'Tap to Alexa', an accessibility feature available on Echo Show or Echo Spot, to interact with the A-lady. Use the touch screen to choose from a menu of popular pre-set options or input personalised requests through text. You can turn on Alexa Subtitles to add subtitles for weather, Q&A, timers/alarms, calendars, Smart Home, music and traffic. On your device, go to Settings > Accessibility and toggle to turn on Tap to Alexa and Alexa Subtitles. We then finish off with a fantastic demo of the built-in VoiceView screenreader for blind users of the Echo Show by the brilliant David Woodbridge (@dwoodbridge). The demo is a shortened version of a much more comprehensive review taken with kind permission from David's regular blindness tech podcast; 'iSee' - so please search for it wherever great podcasts are aggregated.

Do you dare to boldly split infinitives that scores with a scintilla of literary latitude have carelessly spliced before? Or do you choose prudently to pass over that grammatical asteroid field and give this far-out game a bit of a go instead?

Today a new contributor, Sanjeev Surati of Small Basket Studios/Whetstone Technologies, brings us a brilliant glimpse into the dark and harrowing world of their awesome audio adventure game; The Eye of the Elder Gods. Containing a warning of potentially disturbing content, are you up for listening to this skill with the lights off? I am! Also, please do check out their other excellent choose-your-own audio adventure skill (covered way back in episode 390) that's a whole lot of family fun; Animal Farm PI.

Got a games console as a gift this Christmas? If so then this skill, brought to us by the brilliant Patrick Steggle ([email protected]), may be right up your street. It provides tips and reviews, along with info on offers and freebies etc across all gaming platforms. Also covered are reviews of movies and TV shows. In the words of the skill description; "A daily update on the world of video games, movies, and television, featuring the latest news, previews, and reviews."