Echo Tips

In this episode, we take a second look at Amazon's September Announcements. We learn that at least 25 new historical and other characters with associated voices are coming to Alexa devices in the future, along with more realistic voice inflections. We also surface, a key component in how that conversational mechanism works, an why a new Echo Show might be needed.

In this episode we take a look at Amazon's most recent September event, announcements, and hardware releases. We in particular scrutinize the AI features that are suppose to make Alexa smarter. Lastly, we tell you how to join the "Preview Program", so you can be on the bleeding edge.

In this episode we take a look at a seemingly new feature that allows you to get your reminders broadcast across all your Echos or a select number of them. We also revisit the options for repeating reminders, follow-up mode, and a few other options.

We delve into Timer settings that allow you to get those vital alerts on all your Echos and/or your telephone. Never burn that pizza again!

We delve back into our treasure chest of past episodes and pull out a oldie but a goodie, about Guard Mode. That's right the ability to use your Amazon Echo like a guard dog for your home, to alert you when something might not be right at home.

In this episode we take a deep dive into Amazon Music's Explicit Content Filters, Parental Controls, and utter lack of features compared to some 3rd party services. Did you know you can't block a song, album, or artist! Its true. Even if it was for benign reasons, for example two artist with the the same name, an you simply don't want to hear one but only the other. Or worse yet the Parental Controls don't give you any clear blacklist or white-listing options. No worries Spotify comes to the rescue or does it?

Submit Feature Requests for Amazon Music

https://bit.ly/AmazonMusicFail

In this episode we demonstrate how you can give feedback to your favorite music stations on iHeartRadio and discuss the price hike on Amazon Unlimited Music.

This concludes season 5 of the Echo Tips Podcast. We cover a variety of past demos, just in case you missed them. Also have a listen to our possible new theme music and vote on what you like best.

In this episode we revisit Blueprints. Blueprints allow you to create custom skills for yourself, your family, and/or your business! Formerly covered in episode 154.

What does Amazon's AI, Google BARD AI, and OpenAI's ChatGPT, mean for the A-Lady. After some recent announcements from Google and Amazon about AI an their Virtual Assistants we explore what the future might hold.

Show Notes:

BARD coming to the Google Assistant:

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/31/google-assistant-artificial-intelligence-news

AI Plus Alexa

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/26/amazon-alexa-ai-home

META's AI Personas

https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/meta-will-let-you-use-ai-chatbots-with-personalities-report-says/