Echo & Alexa Forums
General Category => Amazon Echo Discussion => Topic started by: cdnirene on April 19, 2018, 02:16:33 pm
-
Wow! Just announced, and only available in the U.S.:
https://blueprints.amazon.com
There's no code to write, no files to upload, and really nothing to learn. Anyone with a web browser can create a custom skill in mere minutes that will be accessible to any Echo device in your home.
https://www.techhive.com/article/3269067/speakers/amazon-alexa-blueprints-skills-siri-google-assistant.html
-
Only way I could felt it to work is to open up a secondary skill and then ask your question. Even that was painful with mispronounced words and very rapid speech.
Not native to all devices.
More of a novelty function.
-
I like this. I wouldn't call it a skill, it's more like a custom Q&A. I can't think of a way that I'd like to use this right now though.
-
Snooze...
still waiting on more customizable routines
-
I read about this yesterday, went to investigate and then found it's not available in the UK. >:(
That sucks! Why not roll out globally? So typically, how long will UK users have to wait before Amazon deem us worthy?
-
I read about this yesterday, went to investigate and then found it's not available in the UK. >:(
That sucks! Why not roll out globally? So typically, how long will UK users have to wait before Amazon deem us worthy?
Look at it this way, Amazon is using those of us in the US as unpaid beta testers, so we can find all the bugs before you get a final product. :)
As others have said, it’s just a novelty. I looked at it and really have no use for it in its current form.
-
A few uses have occurred to me, today.
if you had a petter sitter or house sitter, programming alexa with the answers to important questions like:
where's the towels?
when should Fluffy be fed
What do I do if there's a water leak? (happens more than you think in my house)
might be handy. It's a bit of a stretch, considering it's stuff you'd hope to write down. But if toss the sheet after the sitter leaves, you've got to do it all over again.
I suppose it might also end the "we've always kept those there!" argument over where the standard place to put the towels is and somebody "moves" them.
I think it'd be weird setting up all the anal retentive things your household normally knows and does, but once done, it might be useful.
Or...a friend who is a realtor was telling me about how they set up an Alexa in a house they're showing and feed it answers to questions about the property. There's apparently a skill for that kind of thing, but it is probably just basic stats from a realtor or tax accessor's site.
I suspect the flashcard thing would be better as a proper skill, because if you load all that data in, you probably just taught your brain the answers, and you'd get more re-use letting the world use it.