Alexa In Canada: Amazon Alexa And Echo Skills, Tips, And Tricks For Canadians

In this special Cyber Monday episode, Teri will talk about some of the great deals that Amazon has put out this Cyber Monday on Echo devices. Being that there are so many great Cyber Monday deals on Echo devices, Teri decided to do this special podcast on all the deals that Amazon is offering. Some of the deals are new specifically for Cyber Monday while others were carried over from Black Friday. Here are some of the deals you can take advantage of!The Echo Dot 3rd GenerationThis is the latest Echo Dot and it’s packaged with one of the Amazon smart plugs. This would normally retail for $104.98 and it’s on sale for $39.99. That’s $65 off or 62% off.The Echo Dot with a ClockThis is also a good deal. The regular price is $115 and it’s on sale for $54.99. That’s 52% off.The Fire TV CubeThis is the Fire TV that allows you to plug the device into your TV and have voice control of your TV through the actual cube device. It normally goes for $150 and it’s on sale for $90.This is a perfect and inexpensive w

In this episode, Teri welcomes Ron Jaworski, the CEO of Trinity Audio, a company that enables users to easily audiofy the content on their websites or blogs.Trinity Audio is a content technology platform that allows publishers and content creators to enter the audio era by transforming their text content into audio, providing a new way to engage, grow, and monetize audiences. Welcome, Ron!Ron is a huge believer in voice technology, and shares his passion and thoughts about turning readers into listeners through Trinity Audio’s blog post, where he keeps in touch on a weekly basis. He’s also the CEO of TIM Media (formerly Meme Video), a leader in the field of video and display advertising that provides video distribution and management technologies to publishers and advertisers. He is currently based in Israel.He comes on to talk about Trinity Audio’s brilliant technology and how they're going to be tackling the process of making it easy for publishers to put out their content through Alexa skills.Trinity

In this episode, Teri dives into the state of Alexa in Canada by talking about the top ten skills in Canada in celebration of Alexa’s 5th birthday in the US. Alexa was released 5 years ago this month in the US while in Canada she’s only about 2 years old. Teri will talk about the current top ten Alexa skills that are in Canada, and they will not include the large number of awesome ambient sounds that are included in the top ten skills in the Canadian skill store because they form most of the top ten skills. Teri decided to focus more on the skills that are doing numerous functions beyond just the ambient sounds.    Here we go! The Top 10 Skills in Canada!#10: Skyrim Very Special Edition by Bethesda Game StudiosThis is an interactive game where users explore Skyrim using the power of their voice.It has different quests and users can go into dungeons, and use different weapons and spells.It’s given in Alexa voice, meaning that it’s text-to-speech, but it’s a very good experience.#9: Wor

In this episode, Teri welcomes Bradley Metrock of Score Publishing and Katherine Prescott of VoiceBrew, to talk about their incredible work in the voice space. Welcome, Bradley and Katherine!Bradley is the CEO of Score Publishing and the VoiceFirst.FM network while Katherine is the Founder/Editor of VoiceBrew.Bradley recently wrote a book about some of the things that we can do with our Echo devices, and Katherine wrote the forward for the book. Their work in the voicefirst world is geared towards helping regular non-techie people learn how to use Alexa and voice technology.VoiceBrewIt’s a daily email newsletter that helps people get the most out of Alexa. They also publish comprehensive guides on their website covering almost all of Alexa’s key features.They now have over 25,000 email subscribers.Brad’s Alexa BookBrad wanted to write an Alexa instruction manual because he saw a need for it, and it eventually morphed into the book called “More Than Just Weather and Music: 200 Ways to Use Alexa”The book s

In this episode, Teri has a conversation with Collin Borns of VoicePunch about voicefirst startups and the investment side of voice technology. Welcome, Collin!Collin Borns is a creator/host of the Voicing Startups Podcast and has a background in institutional investment consulting. He worked for VaynerMedia as a financial analyst, before finding a passion for audio, voice, and conversational technology a few years back.He now works with an early stage venture fund, VoicePunch.VC, and is trying to invest in and bring awareness to the different startups and founders in the voice space who are shaking up industries.Working with VaynerMediaHe was a financial operations analyst for VaynerMedia and had a great experience working there.He thinks the VaynerSmart team (the voice team at VaynerMedia) is doing fantastic work and recommends them for anyone looking at doing a voice related project.His Flash Briefing and PodcastHe was looking to do some things in the voice space and felt that a flash briefing was an

In this episode, Teri has a conversation with Peter Stewart, an award-winning broadcaster, social media producer, and author, who has been doing some amazing things with voice technology and flash briefings. Welcome, Peter!Peter was visiting Vancouver from the UK and got together with Teri to talk about everything voice technology. He has worked in national and regional radio and TV for the BBC and commercial companies, and he really knows his stuff when it comes to audio content. He currently works for the digital unit at the BBC, creating videos on smartphones and smart speakers. He creates short videos that go into social media, and they occasionally get on the BBC website and BBC News. He has written several books on his expertise and is currently negotiating a contract for his eighth book. He has been working with Suze Cooper on some ideas of what to do with flash briefings and voice technology.Getting A Voice Like Peter’sHe doesn’t do any kind of exercises for his voice.He is passionate about teaching p

In this episode, Teri welcomes back Armel Beaudry Kembe, the founder of Trebble.FM, to update us about all things related to audio and flash briefings for both creators and audiences.Welcome, Armel!Trebble.FM is a free service that allows users with no technical experience to record byte-size “shortcast” voice messages (aka “capsules”) on Trebble.fm using your smartphone or internet browser. Then, anyone in the world with a voice-activated speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, will be able to listen to you instantly.Trebble allows you to create a series of short audio recordings or music selections, which can then be personalized with your commentary. Imagine being the DJ of your own smart radio station (i.e. your “trebble”), or sharing your knowledge of a topic in a series of short audio recording (i.e. “capsules”). This is exactly what Trebble allows you to do, without requiring any coding or technical knowledge.How Trebble.FM WorksThe platform’s main benefit is that it simplified the creation of a flash briefi

In this episode, Teri welcomes Tahsim Ahmed, the founder of Fanspoke, a company that alleviates the journey for the top dance-music artists in the voice-first world, by building innovative voice applications to engage their fanbase. Welcome, Tahsim!Tahsim has been in the voice space for the last two years and he comes on to talk about his new company, and how he is helping DJs get their message out there using voice technology. He will also talk about how the new announcements from Amazon, particularly about products like the Echo Studio; will benefit the audio/music industry.BackgroundHis start in the voice space was with a company called Tribal Skill where he helped build a venture studios practice, which was incubating companies that they saw as the future of innovation. One of those companies was in voice technology and Tahsim helped them build the company in that space to the point where it just took off.In the music space, he helped radio stations take their content into Alexa.His first experi

In this episode, Teri will talk about all of the incredible announcements that Amazon made at its recent event last week. Enjoy!For the last couple of years, Amazon has had a big event where they announce all their new products, and this year was no different. They launched a number of new services for Alexa, and also launched a huge number of new products. Some of the products are available for pre-order in Canada while others are only available in the US.The Different Features Coming OnlineMultilingual mode: This was a much anticipated feature in Canada, and it allows Alexa to be able to speak both English and French at the same time. Canada is one of the first countries that this feature is coming to. Canadians will be able to talk to their Echo devices in English or French. The Neural Text-to-Speech Module: It uses machine learning to help Alexa to be more expressive and to learn voices from voice recordings of celebrities. For example, Amazon just announced that the voice of Samuel L. Jackson w

In this episode, Teri will talk about the music options that we now have available to us when using our Echo devices with Amazon Alexa. Enjoy!There have been some big news coming out in Canada in the last week or so regarding the music options. One of the most requested features, which Teri has gotten lots of emails and questions about, is Apple Music being made available in Canada with the Amazon Echo Devices. The feature was recently launched and lots of people are very happy about it.The Different OptionsWhen you go into your Amazon Alexa app and click on the menu icon (hamburger icon), then you will see that you have an option to click on music.The options include Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Apple Music, and Deezer. The top three options in terms of popularity are Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Music.SpotifyIt’s the big goliath as far as music streaming services are concerned.It has a 3-month pre-trial that one can try for free. If one chooses to subscribe, there is a $9.99 per month individual

In this episode, Teri will talk about the ring light on Echo devices, why it’s there, and what type of information we can get from it.  Enjoy!The previous episode that Teri did on the interesting features that recently came to Canada got some very great feedback. Alexa in Canada listeners were very appreciative of being made aware of the features, tips and tricks. That prompted Teri to enlighten Alexa users about the ring light.What is the Ring Light?It’s a light that is formed like a ring which sits on top of the cylindrical shaped Amazon Echo devices.On the Echo Spot, there is a round light around the display. On the other visual display Echo devices, like the Echo Show and Echo Show 5, there is a band of light along the bottom, not a ring light.The Importance of the Ring LightAmazon put a lot of thought into developing the ring light because if a user is looking at their device, it is a way for them to get some feedback about what’s going on, and it also has some security implications.One of the

In this episode, Teri will talk about the newest Alexa features that are now available in Canada.  Enjoy!One feature in particular, Whisper Mode, is very new and Teri will update us on a couple of the other features. Some of them are really cool, some of them to add some nice functionality to Alexa, and some of them are more gimmicky, but people really enjoy them.AlarmsAlexa is often used for alarms. It can be an alarm in the morning, during the day, or any other time of the day.There is a feature that enables a user to choose a customized sound for their alarm, and the new feature now includes the option to choose celebrity sounds which are mostly excerpts from movies.RoutinesWhen a user is starting a new routine, they can now choose, “when this happens” where they can choose to use their voice to start a routine, schedule it, or have a smart device action trigger the routine.The new option in routines is, “alarm” which works by triggering a routine when an alarm is dismissed.PrivacyPrivacy with Al

In this episode, Teri is welcomed on the Alexa Dev Chat Podcast by the host, Dave Isbitski, to talk about flash briefings and what else he is doing in the voice first space. Enjoy the Conversation!Teri is a family physician by profession and works at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Three quarters of his practice is sports medicine and the rest is general family practice. Before medical school he had done an education degree which formed the basis for his interest in education technology.Getting into Voice TechnologyHe had always been interested in technology from a young age.The first time Teri was exposed to voice technology was through Gary Vaynerchuk.Gary Vee was talking about voice technology and flash briefings, and Teri found them as an interesting way to get a message across to a population.He started searching online for information on voice technology, but couldn’t find anything on the technology’s presence in Canada, so he thought he should combine his passion for technology, h

In this episode, Teri welcomes Sarah Andrew Wilson, the Chief Content Officer at Matchbox.io, a company that is producing some of the most engaging Alexa skills. Welcome, Sarah!Sarah was an educator and musician for 23 years before she joined Matchbox 2 years ago to oversee all of the content for their voice applications. Matchbox develops some of the most popular and highest rated voice games on Amazon Alexa, including Question of the Day and Kids Quiz.The Origin of MatchboxIt was founded in January 2017 by the CEO, Joel Wilson. As a curious developer, he bought an Alexa device and was wondering what he could create for it. He created a few skills including Question of the Day, but the content for the skill eventually became too much work for him, so he hired Sarah to help with the content.By 2018 they were expanding rapidly in terms of users.Their SkillsThey have Question of the Day which gives users one question a day and when they get it correct they get a bonus question. They also have a subscriptio

In this episode, Teri talks about the award winners at the recent VOICE Summit 2019. The VOICE Summit Awards were created to raise the bar for the voice first community and drive the industry forward by showcasing the next generation of voice tech pioneers. The inaugural VOICE Summit Awards went to individuals and organizations whose contributions to the emerging voice-tech community advances adoption and creates new, innovative experiences.The finalists selected for best voice-tech innovations in twelve categories included conversational design, brand interaction, banking experience, e-Commerce, educational experience, game, healthcare experience, in-car experience, IoT voice device, media experience, multi-modal experience, shopping/e-Commerce experience, and travel, leisure or hospitality experience.Ready? Here We Go! And the Award Winners were!#1 Best Banking/Financial ExperienceThe winner was Bond.ai Empathy Engine by Bond.aiBond.ai is powering the world’s first empathy engine, which relat

In this episode, Teri will share his impressions of using the new Echo Show 5 that Amazon recently sold tons of during Prime Day (s). Let’s Begin!There are a number of Echo devices available in Canada including the Dot, Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Spot, Echo Show, and the new Echo Show 5. The Echo Show 5 is very well priced at $99.99 which offers great value.What is the Echo Show 5?It’s the second Echo device with a rectangular screen. Its name refers to the size of its five and a half inches screen.It has two microphones which helps in using the far field recognition.It has a volume up and down button on top of it, a micro-USB port, and a 3.5mm audio output which can used to plug into a higher quality stereo system or speaker.It has the power port at the back which plugs into the wall.It’s about 5.8 inches wide, 3.4 inches in height, and 2.9 inches in depth, and comes in either sandstone or charcoal color.Echo Show 5 Versus Echo ShowCompared to the Echo Show, the Show has double the screen size with a higher

In this episode, Teri shares the awesome talk he did at Voice Summit 2019 titled “Flash Briefings, The Prime Real Estate of Voice.”              Enjoy!Teri was very privileged to be asked to give a talk on flash briefings at Voice Summit 2019, where he talked about why it’s so important to consider creating a flash briefing, went through the steps to create a flash briefing, and went over some of the results from his Crack the Code gamified flash briefing. He received some very great feedback from the talk.What a Flash Briefing?It’s like a short podcast.Podcasts can vary in length from an hour to multiple hours. Flash briefings are typically one to two minutes long.It is short audio content and a subscription on Alexa. People subscribe by saying, “Enable [The Flash Briefing Name]”Once a person enables a flash briefing, they never have to worry about the invocation name again, because they simply say, “What’s my news?”It’s an intimate way fo

In this episode, Teri shares part 2 of his conversation with Bob Stolzberg, the Founder and CEO of VoiceXP, the most advanced Alexa skill building tool in the world.              Enjoy!Bob is a rabbid voice enthusiast and enjoys helping people turn their dreams into reality. They will talk about the process of creating the gamified version of the Voice in Canada flash briefing, the marketing aspects of it, and why it would be a valuable thing for marketers to reproduce.The Marketing FunnelTeri introduced a flash briefing to a marketing funnel, which VoiceXP had never done before. What they managed to create is a voice funnel.At the top of the funnel is the Alexa in Canada community, and the Alexa in Canada brand’s social media and web presence. Then there is the next layer made up of Teri’s podcast and flash briefing.The podcast and flash briefing have subscribers (listeners) and the core purpose of the voice funnel is to help convert the l

In this episode, Teri has a conversation with Bob Stolzberg, the Founder and CEO of VoiceXP, the most advanced Alexa skill-building tool in the world.              Enjoy!Bob and Teri will talk about how the idea for the gamified flash briefing came up, how Bob got involved in the project, the great experience they had creating it, and how amazingly well it’s done so far.Teri’s Idea for Crack the CodeHe has been very obsessed with flash briefings and has been doing them for more than 500 consecutive days.He wanted to do something special to celebrate his 500th episode and thank his listeners for supporting the flash briefing. He also wanted to thank the guests he had on the Alexa in Canada podcast.He came up with the idea of creating a gamified flash briefing and the first challenge to overcome was how to create a gamified flash briefing when a user can only interact one way with flash briefings. So he came up with the idea for an Alexa skil

In this episode, Teri welcomes David Ciccarelli, the Co-Founder and CEO of Voices.com, the online marketplace that connects business people with professional voice over talent. Welcome, David!Voices.com helps developers or anyone else that wants to create Alexa skills to have the best sounding voices for their skills. Creators of Alexa skills use different voices from the typical Alexa voice in order to differentiate their skills from others. David comes on to talk all about using voices for voice technology and much more.Voices.comThey started over 10 years ago and choose to focus being voice-oriented freelancer platform.David’s background is in audio engineering and his co-founder, who is also his wife, is a classically trained singer with a music degree specializing in voice. They are very passionate about the voice technology space.The Thought Process of Creating a SkillOne should think of it like a two-by-two matrix where on the horizontal axis is time (a shorter time period of voice prompts verses