voice assistant

Josh Centers looks at the new features in Apple’s latest mobile operating systems in new book, Take Control of iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. We start with small refinements in iOS 17, collaborative efforts in Apple feature set and limitations of the voice assistant, Josh also touches in changes in the camera zoom features, his experience with the iPhone 15 Pro as it relates to iOS 17, and the new Action Button. (Part 1) 

Show Notes:

Chapters:

0:02:01 iOS 17 and iPadOS 17: Small refinements and distractions
0:04:57 Sharing AirTags and enhancing the Apple ecosystem in iOS 17
0:06:43 The Shift to Ecosystem Features
0:08:34 Apple's Devices as a Unified Ecosystem
0:11:11 Confusion with Device Activation Commands
0:12:28 Naming Options for Amazon Devices
0:13:14 The Camera: The Big Feature in the New Release
0:13:34 Late Adopter: Upgrading to a New iPhone
0:15:17 An abundance of camera features on the iPhone.
0:17:35 The struggle with big and heavy phones
0:19:12 Confusion about iPhone 15's camera features and seeking advice
0:20:02 Action button: Step sideways or step up?
0:21:39 Experimenting with the Action button's functionality
0:25:28 Pro Button: Voice Memos and Note-Taking

Guests:

Josh Centers manages the TextExpander Blog and the Editor-In-Chief of Unprepared.life as well as a Take Control Books author. He iis a former Managing Editor of TidBITS and the publisher of Apple Buying Advice. He's also an occasional contributor to Macworld, Boing Boing, and The Sweethome. You can keep up with him on X/Twitter, and his blog at joshcenters.com.

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Dag Kittlaus is the CEO and co-founder of Riva Health, a company that has set out to revolutionize how patients manage hypertension and heart disease. We discuss the innovation behind Riva, which turns a smartphone into a health management assistant that collects data and connects patients with a proactive care team.

Hearing Dag talk, you can see how this might extend into traditional assistant functionality for managing chronic heart conditions. He breaks down the Riva journey thus far and we go back into his history as a co-founder of Siri (acquired by Apple) and Viv Labs (acquired by Samsung) and what he learned along the way about assistants, technology, and how users interact with novel solutions. 

We also go into depth on the rise of generative AI and ChatGPT. From a ChatGPT perspective, we spent considerable time discussing the new Plugins model to integrate third-party services. Kittlaus was doing this for the Siri app 15 years ago before the Apple acquisition. He did it again with Viv Labs and Samsung's Bixby assistant and knows the challenges of creating a plugin ecosystem. His observation is that the problems are largely the same and OpenAI is in for a rude awakening.

I am sure you will enjoy this wide-ranging discussion about innovation, technology adoption, and overcoming barriers to growth with someone that has been influential in shaping our views, experiences, and assumptions about intelligent assistants of all kinds.  

Today on the 5: The news items around the decline of the smart assistant don't show any signs of slowing down. While I'm not surprised by them, I am disappointed that this space never took off in better ways. 

John Campbell is the founder and managing director of the voice AI agency Rabbit & Pork, a division of TIPi Group. Previously he was head of performance marketing and SEO at another TIPi agency ROAST. The agency's start was automating the collection of answers from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for a variety of questions. That data led to several reports which captured the attention of brands, and from there, Rabbit & Pork began building Alexa skills, Google Actions, and other voice interactive experiences in addition to voice SEO projects.

Campbell goes into some detail in our interview about how Rabbit & Pork automated voice search result collection. He also discusses where voice assistants source their answers to common questions, the strategies brands use today to improve their ranking, and approaches that do not work. In addition, we discuss how the Alexa Answers service works today, how it is evolving, and what that indicates about voice search.

Beyond search, Campbell goes through the differences in building for Alexa versus Google Assistant and how Google's pullback from the third-party Conversational Action ecosystem has impacted how brands are approaching voice assistants today. We conclude by discussing a variety of industry use cases for voice and chatbot solutions.

Shiv Rao is a cardiologist that co-founded Abridge in 2018 to help patients and doctors get better results from their encounters. Abridge listens to the doctor-patient conversations, provides a transcription, and categorizes specific details such as medications, symptoms, diagnoses, procedures, and the care plan. Patients can access the conversation details through a mobile app that also highlights key words such as medications and procedures and provides click-through definitions. 

For doctors, the transcripts are packaged as physician notes which they can review and then automatically upload into the electronic medical record (EMR). Other solutions in the space focus on helping physicians get the right data into the right fields in the EMR. Abridge is focused on the rich data in the conversation beyond the required information. 

Rao was formerly a senior executive at UPMC Enterprises and serves as faculty and a working cardiologist at the Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He earned his MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  

The Amazon Alexa Live event for 2022 introduced a couple of dozen new features for developers, new revenue-sharing agreements, and is ushering in a new era of simultaneous voice assistants. 

The Two Voice Devs, Allen Firstenberg (Google Assistant GDE) and Mark Tucker (Alexa Champion), along with Voicebot's Eric Schwartz and Bret Kinsella break down the announcements and sort through the type of impacts we can expect. 

Voice assistants are broadly adopted by consumers and for several consumer facing activities such as customer support. Kim Conti, vice president of product, and Chen Zhang, chief technology officer of RAIN Agency share their experience building custom voice assistants for enterprise processes and products in general and more recently for deskless workers. They also share the details behind their beta version custom voice assistant for auto mechanics which is expected to be generally available later this year. 

Conti has held product leadership roles at Travelers while Zhang was on the NLP software engineering team at Apple for the Chinese version of Siri and was later engineering director of AI speech and NLP for Midea. 

Braden Ream is CEO of Voiceflow, a leading conversational AI design collaboration solution combined with a no-code platform for deploying voice apps. Voiceflow was founded in 2019 and has tens of thousands of users and more than 400 companies. 

Today we discuss Voiceflow's evolution into enterprise solutions, its expanding feature base, and the top customer use cases. We also delve into how the conversational AI industry has changed including the shift to custom branded voice assistants as well as the impact of the recent Google Assistant news that it is shutting down Conversational Action developer support.  

Jaime Bosch is the co-founder CEO of Voicemod, a massively popular real-time voice manipulation, augmentation & soundboard application for Windows PC. He is joined by Alex Bordanova, Director of Audio Experience at Voicemod.

Based in Valencia, Spain, Voicemod has amassed over 17 million registered users & is the number one choice to create a unique & powerful sonic identity, whether it’s for gaming, content creation, dungeon-mastering, or just hanging out with friends online.

We hear samples of a range of voice changing effects made by Voicemod & discuss the applications of these in various industries. We also dive into the challenges of real-time audio programming & hear about the lessons learned while building this awesome voice startup.

Highlights

• Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep084

Sponsor Links

• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Conversation Design Institute << 25% off courses: VOICETECH25
• Voice Tech Pro listener upgrade << no ads
• Rumble Studio << create your free account

Links from the show

• Voicemod
• Download Voicemod for free
• Voicemod on Youtube
• Voicemod is hiring! hiring@voicemod.net
• Cyberpunk voicemod pack - ScreenRant
• Dark Vader voice - LifeHacker
• Voicemod raises 8 million - VentureBeat
• Voicemod on Windows Central
• The Golden Rules of Audio Programming, Pete Goodliffe
• Fabian Renn-Giles & Dave Rowland - Real-time 101
• Dave Rowland - Real-time Tradeoffs in Audio Programming
• Valerio Velardo Tutorials

Subscribe for more episodes

• Apple iTunes
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify

Read all about it

• Newsletter
• Medium Blog
• Write for us

Make your voice heard

• Twitter
• Reddit
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• Email: carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Show your support

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Muddu Sudhakar is the CEO of Aisera, the world’s first solution to use Conversational AI and Conversational RPA to transform the Service Desk in the Enterprise.

We discuss how enterprises are using Aisera’s A.I. to automate and auto-resolve service desk requests from both employees and customers.  Muddu predicts that service desk tools will be used less over the coming years, to be replaced by self-service AI-powered Conversational platforms on collaboration tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Sponsor Links

• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Conversation Design Institute << 25% off courses: VOICETECH25
• Voice Tech Pro listener upgrade << no ads
• Rumble Studio << create your free account

Links from the show

• Aisera
• Aisera Press Releases
• Aisera Case Studies

Subscribe for more episodes

• Apple iTunes
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify

Read all about it

• Newsletter
• Medium Blog
• Write for us

Make your voice heard

• Twitter
• Reddit 
• Facebook 
• Email: carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Show your support

• Go Pro 
• Advertise 
• Leave a review

Christian Mahnke is CEO of EarReality, which helps some of the biggest companies in the world such as Disney, Audible, and Vox create interactive stories for voice marketing. Their stories are published on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung Bixby and more.

Christian shares some of his best practices for interactive voice writers, including why it's important to write characters that people identify with.

EarReality is set for success with the upcoming launch of Twist, their interactive storytelling tool for voice technology. Find out more by giving this episode a listen!

Recorded asynchronously on Rumble Studio

Highlights

• Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep081a

Links to click

• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Conversation Design Institute << 25% off courses: VOICETECH25
• Rumble Studio << Create your podcast for free
• EarReality
• kontakt@ear-reality.de
• Iron Falcon
• LinkedIn l Christian Mahnke 
• Amazon Alexa Games Skill Challenge Winners Announced for Europe l Voicebot.ai (1st prize)
• EarReality wants to help storytellers find their voice l Bixby Developers
•  Why Obsidian uses AI voices for game development l Sonantic

TWIST - Tutorials

• YouTube Playlist

Subscribe for more episodes

• Apple iTunes
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify

Read all about it

• Newsletter
• Medium Blog
• Write for us

Make your voice heard

• Twitter
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• carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Show your support

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Christian Petroske is President of Shoutworks, a new Wordpress plugin that lets you publish content to Amazon Alexa with the push of a button. ShoutWorks lets you send notifications through Amazon Alexa, with a 90 percent plus open rate. This helps publishers grow their audience, get more leads, and boost sales in a few clicks.

In this episode, Christian and host Carl Robinson discuss the Shoutworks Wordpress plugin, what it is, and how it helps you create an Alexa skill in just one click. Christian also discusses why the pandemic is a good time to launch a voice start-up, and what’s currently holding the voice tech industry back. 

Christian discusses why his team took a template-first approach, and the benefits to developers and end-users. Voice Tech finds out what Christian believes is holding back the voice industry right now, along with why launching a voice startup during a pandemic is a very smart move!

This sophisticated Shoutworks plugin allows smaller publishers to use the content from their blog, and then through the plugin send notifications to Alexa seamlessly. 

Until now, this accessibility has only been available to larger publishers, including NPR, Coca-Cola, because megabrands such as these can spend thousands of dollars on creating Alexa skills. This has allowed big-name brands to drive significant traffic to their Wordpress sites via Shoutworks. 

Shoutworks’ goal is to democratize access to Amazon Alexa. It is super easy to use, and takes away the expensive and time-intensive aspects of building an Alexa skill. 

The real problem Shoutworks is solving is for small businesses and entrepreneurs to build an audience and drive engagement over this new voice tech medium. With voice tech, businesses definitely have less competition, and the possibilities for deeper engagement are actually greater. Shoutworks is changing the playing field for smaller publishers with limited resources, opening up new opportunities for massive engagement.

Highlights

• Available at  http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep080

Quotes from the show

[06:49] Shoutworks is a WordPress plugin, creating an Alexa skill from a WordPress site in one click.

[07:39] Large brands spend $10,000s to create custom skills. We make that available to anyone.

[20:29] It's about getting your content out there with the least amount of effort.

Links to click

●     Shoutworks.com

●     Shoutworks.com/affiliate 

●     Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19

●     Conversation Design Institute << 25% off courses: VOICETECH25

●     Digital Assistant Academy << 25% off courses: DAVID25

●     World Class Business Leaders EU conference << 30% off tickets: VoiceTech30EU

●     Voice Tech Pro listener upgrade << no ads, early access, bonus content 

Simon Landry is the founder of Voice Market Data, a service that makes voice market data more accessible to voice developers. We discover how a macro view of the Alexa marketplace can help us measure app success in different markets, spot new product opportunities and feature ideas, and highlight discoverability issues.

Simon’s extensive academic background has given him a unique ability to unearth rich data, and present it in an accessible format that can be understood by all. This is a fascinating look at the true nature of the Amazon Alexa marketplace and makes for essential listening for all voice app developers and creators.

Highlights

●      Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep079 

Links to click

●     Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19

●     Robocopy Conversation Design Course << 25% off with this link

●     Voice Tech Pro listener upgrade << no ads, early access, bonus content

●     Rumble Studio

●     Voice Market Data

●     Simon Landry on LinkedIn

●     Simon’s book: The Science of Conversational Design

●     Simon et Guy Cours en Francais

●     Empathy Engine

●     Poop Detective Alexa Skill

●     Alexa in Canada Podcast with Simon

Subscribe for more episodes

●     Apple iTunes:https://apple.co/2LqW4ol

●     Google Podcasts:http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google

●     Spotify:https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm

Read all about it

●     Newsletter:https://voicetechpodcast.com/newsletter

●     Medium Blog:https://voicetechpodcast.com/medium

●     Write for us:https://voicetechpodcast.com/publish

Make your voice heard

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●     Reddit: https://voicetechpodcast.com/reddit 

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https://vurbl.com/station/761sLjFMpE6/

This episode was created by Roger Kibbe, senior developer evangelist for Viv Labs/Samsung, for the Bixby Developers Chat podcast. Roger interviewed me, Carl Robinson, about my new project, Rumble Studio. It’s an innovative new tool for recording podcasts and audio content asynchronously; and yes, we used Rumble Studio to record this podcast!

Here’s what Roger wrote in the original podcast description:

We discuss how Carl got involved in podcasting and what he has learned 70+ podcasts in. Carl gives some very valuable advice for both beginning podcasters and more experienced podcasters.

We then discuss Rumble Voice, the innovative new way to record podcasts and other audio content. Using Rumble Voice, the questions and answers (host and guest) can be recorded asynchronously. This podcast was recorded using Rumble Studio and I recorded all of the questions from my home office in Walnut Creek, California at my leisure. Carl recorded his answers from Paris, France at his leisure. Rumble studio takes care of the logistics and then stitching everything together at the end. It's truly a different way of creating audio content like podcasts.

We discuss the high costs/effort required to create quality audio content and how Rumble Studio was created to alleviate this problem. We also discuss how Rumble Studio unlocks creating short-form audio which can be recombined into new content and the exciting possibilities for web search engines to index audio content.

We finish by discussing the state of the voice industry. What is working right now and what needs improvement. And where voice can go.

Roger gives a short 2-minute review of Rumble Studio at the end of the podcast. 


Links from the show:
Rumble Studio - https://rumble.studio/

Rumble Studio LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/rumble-studio/

All Bixby Developers Chat Episodes available at:

bixbydev.buzzsprout.com/

Carl Robinson - Twitter: @VoiceTechCarl

Carl Robinson - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlrobins0n/

Carl Robinson - carl@rumble.studio

Voice Tech Podcast - https://voicetechpodcast.com/

Voice Tech Newsletter - https://voicetechpodcast.com/voice-chops-tuesday-newsletter/

Support Voice Tech Podcast Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/voicetechpodcast

More about Bixby
Samsung Bixby is a next-generation, AI platform that enables developers to build rich voice and conversational AI experiences for the Bixby Marketplace, and Bixby devices including phones, watches, televisions, smart appliances, and more.

Bixby Developers Homepage - https://bixbydevelopers.com/
Bixby Developers Github - https://github.com/bixbydevelopers
Bixby Developers YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/bixbydevelopers
Bixby Developers Twitter - twitter.com/BixbyDevelopers
Bixby Developers Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BixbyDevelopers/

This is a time-limited preview. To hear the full episode, and access the full catalogue of episodes and bonus content, become a Voice Tech Pro 

Design Sprint was greeted by Jake Knapp, and the idea is to build and test a prototype in only five days. A small team works for a week to rapidly progress from problem to tested solution, using a proven step-by-step checklist. Jake describes it as fast-forwarding into the future so you can see how customers react before you invest all the time and expense of building a real product. 

The Design Sprint is a method that has been adopted across digital industries to make better product designs in a faster period of time. The sprint goes from a challenge to a prototype for users. The sprint has strength in the fact that it allows input from users from the very start, and the intense period of everyone working together inevitably results in success.

Maaike has been consulting in voice since the beginning. At the start there were challenges because no one knew how much artificial intelligence could do for voice technology. Next, everyone had diverse ideas and team alignment around projects was difficult. Not everyone had the same knowledge, and there was not enough user knowledge. 

Because of these challenges, Maaike began to look at the methodology around team alignment and speed. That’s where Design Sprint came into play. Maaike Coppens began doing some Design Sprint and quickly saw it solved a lot of problems, but it did not solve the learning gap or learning gap for participants when it came to artificial intelligence. 

The Voice X Design Sprint was borne of these different elements. It is platform-agnostic and takes into account all different variations and domains voice can be a part of. Voice X Design Sprint leverages what voice technology is about, so that people can not only understand with their mind what voice technology is about, what users are experiencing with their brand. Voice X embodies these things through serious plan, through role play.

Highlights

●     Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep077

Quotes from the show

[07:16] Design Sprint is both good for companies, and for end users.

[13:28] Voice X Design Sprint is platform-agnostic.

[19:47] If you live in siloes what happens is that frustration comes about.

[28:00] The “understand” phase gets a lot of focus in the spring.

[59:36] We must ensure this complex thing is worth building.

Links from the show

• Voice of Money 2020 Conference << 30% off with VOICETECHCARL
• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Robocopy Conversation Design Course << 25% off with this link
• Voice Tech Pro listener upgrade << no ads, early access, bonus content
• Greenshoot Labs
• Maaike Coppens
• Maaike Coppens on LinkedIn
• Stephane Crouchon, founder, Design Sprint
• Heidi Culbertson - Promptful.ai
• Become a Voice Tech Pro
• com
• GM Voices