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đź“° News and Stories
Announcing Quick-Start Templates for Popular Skill Samples - We are excited to announce that skill developers can use new quick-start templates in the Alexa Developer Console to accelerate skill development for popular skill types. The templates include a fully configured voice interaction model and connection to a default backend service for interaction model testing. You can use the templates as-is to learn about voice interaction models. You can also modify and use the templates in your own Alexa skills. Quick-start templates are available for all English locales supported by the Alexa Skills Kit, with additional language support coming soon.
BJ HABERKORN
Sample Actions - following Amazon's footsteps Google releases several prebuilt actions to jumpstart the development process. By clicking the sample type links, you'll be presented with a wizard user interface. When the wizard completes, you get a working Dialogflow agent with intents and full source code for the fulfillment which you can modify for your own Actions.
GOOGLE
Samsung to challenge Amazon's Alexa by letting developers make apps for its Bixby voice assistant - Samsung will launch a software developers kit (SDK) and an application programming interface (API) for Bixby. This means developers can create apps for Samsung's voice assistant. The SDK and API will be launched at the Samsung Developer Conference in November. The news comes after Samsung announced the Galaxy Home smart speaker last month, its answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home and which will have Bixby built in, so users can ask it questions and request it to carry out tasks.
CNBC
Audio technology developed by the Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg used in Deutsche Telekom’s smart speaker - The Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg has developed the audio technology for Deutsche Telekom’s smart speaker. At the heart of the work is the optimized interaction of speakers and microphones for voice control even in a noisy environment. What’s more, the experts have achieved particularly good acoustics for telephony and music playback in a small enclosure. The product was launched on 31.08.2018 at IFA in Berlin, the trade exhibition for consumer electronics and home appliances.
IDMT
Alpine.ai Acquired by Headspace - Alpine.ai was founded in early 2016 as Voice Labs and by the end of 2017, it was the leader in voice app analytics with 3,700 voice apps using the solution. Along the way, the company built out, tested, launched and shut down a short-lived voice assistant advertising platform. Amazon policy changes quickly made that business untenable in the near-term. The analytics business continued to grow despite the lack of an ad monetization feature.
BRET KINSELLA
đź““ Tutorials and Opinions
Create an Alexa TIP of the DAY skill with Bottalk in minutes - Very thorough yet short tutorial on creating fairly complex Alexa Skill using BotTalk. All the way from the concept to deploy.
AlEXEY VIDANOV
Amazon Is Successful Because Of These Two Things - Great analysis of how writing at Amazon makes the "secret sauce" of the company. Be it the annual letter to the stakeholders which from Bezos, or the press release of the company's killer feature "Prime". Great, insigtful article. from the former executive of Amazon on the company's . It's all about laser focus on customers.
BRITTAIN LADD
PDF: The AI Perfect Assistant - Great long read about the future of voice, the addoption and more from one of the leading voice-first agencies out there.
RAIN AGENCY
Video: Voice Platform Wars, How and Why the Biggest Tech Companies are Competing for Voice Assistant Dominance - Consumer voice assistant adoptions trends. The role of smart speakers and smartphones. The motivations of and approach taken by Amazon, Apple, Google and other global players. The key assets at the disposal of these global tech giants
How to segment the key competitors.
BRET KINSELLA
📆 Upcoming Events
All About Voice (October 12th 2018, Munich) - The first German voice assistant conference. Great international speakers, for example - Max Amordeluso - Chief Evangelist EU, Alexa Skills Kit.
