I make it a policy not to review skills, because I’m a skill developer too and I feel it’s a conflict of interest. Still, I check in on the skills tab from time to time to see if any new, useful skills have popped up among the many trivia and just-for-fun skills, and I’ve got some to share with you today.

I’m not saying I personally recommend any of these skills or even necessarily use any of them myself, I’m just letting you know they exist. Also note, there are now hundreds of skills so this list is not exhaustive; I’ve picked out a sampling of new skills that seem like they’d be of interest to the most people, and will post more lists like this in the future from time to time.

If any pique your interest, look ’em up on the Skills tab in the Alexa app—there’s a search box available—, enable them and give ’em a try! Descriptions below are from the Alexa app, my own remarks are in italics.

News & Information Skills

Area Code – Area code lookup. You provide the 3-digit telephone area code and Alexa tells you where that area code is located.

USA Today – Keeps you informed 24/7 with the latest USA TODAY headlines.

Hacker News Stories – Gathers stories from Ycombinator’s hacker news web site and provides the latest headlines for multiple categories. Note that the recently-released Hacker News skill is another option in this area.

Market News – Get most recent financial market related top news headlines. We aggregate latest news postings from famous financial sites, such as Reuters, Market Watch, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and many other sources…

Lyrical – Lyrical helps you remember songs that you do not know the name to but you remember some of the lyrics…you can limit the results by providing Alexa with an artist name. All song information is being pulled from genius.com. Note that the newly-released MusixMatch skill is another option in this area.

Powerball – There are several Powerball-related skills now, some that provide the winning numbers and some that generate a list of numbers to play. You can view the whole list by searching on the word “powerball” in the Alexa app.

Tennis & Water Sports

Tennis MatchManager – Pros play tennis with a human umpire that coordinates flow of the match and keeps score. They get access to detailed stats to analyze and improve their game. With [this skill] you can get this kind of experience at the college, club and recreational player level. Every point you play is stored so you can review statistics and trends to improve your game.

TideGuide – Will give the tide report for most locations with a NOAA station.

Surfable – Get the surf reports for popular surfing areas in California.

For The Traveler

FlightSearch – Search DOMESTIC U.S. flights for lowest price, one way or roundtrip; top 5 flights sent to your Alexa app.

Email Assistant – Link your mail account and you can ask Alexa about travel information. Ask Alexa about your flight details or the time your flight boards.

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