Hello, this time the content will be concentrated on something related to my second passion – computers and software that after years of tinkering took me to another path in my life – to a software engineering profession. In order to be able to keep up with the quickly changing branch I try to acquire new knowledge constantly and to develop my skills. This time I’m going to dive into a new topic – creating a speech-controlled app for Amazon Echo.
Amazon had a bargain during the Cyber Monday week that made it possible to get the Amazon Echo smart speaker for a tempting price tag at under 60 EUR. Well, as of now I noticed the price seems to have dropped from the previous level of about 100 EUR so maybe we cannot talk about a bargain any longer… Anyway, I’m very pleased with the device: the sound quality is very good for my kitchen and I am able to set up basic alarms, reminders etc. easily, listen to some web radios, Spotify or Amazon Music as well get pieces of news whenever I want plus much more. Even if one would only use the device as speaker, it would not be a bad deal, as the sound quality and the available sound level should be adequate for most people.
I’m still just about to enter the world of speech controlled apps that are getting more and more sophisticated. As developer I naturally am interested in the possibilities of the device and how easy it would be to develop basic software for the platform and maybe get also minor enhancements to the every day life.
I will write a few posts about developing an Alexa app, that are called a skills. I’m still learning the basics so this will simultaneously be a kind of a diary of my path towards a basic set of skills required for developing an Alexa skill. I have already started the process by creating an Amazon Developer account and the tools are ready to be used, so let’s get started for real in the next post.
Cheers!