Amazon Finds Many New Ways to Get ‘Smart Devices’ in the Home

Amazon announced several new smart devices, including an Alexa-powered microwave and clock. If you don’t buy into the company’s vision of “thousands of these things in the home,” Amazon might just make sure they are built into the next house you buy.

Popular Science explains that the microwave, which costs $60, has “Alexa compatibility built-in,” which will allow a “nearby Echo device” to “send commands to the microwave.”

Other devices announced by Amazon included an Echo Wall Clock, an Echo Smart Plug, several Echo audio devices, and an Amazon Echo Auto for your car.

“There are already ways to get Alexa in your car, but now there’s officially an Echo device designed to chill in your automobile. The $50 device will be invitation-only at first, and will cost just $25 for early adopters,” reported Popular Science. “Its primary function is to enable the new location-based Routines, which are groups of actions that happen when you’re in a specific place. So, if you wanted lights to turn on or music to play when you get home from work, this extra Echo would help enable that.”

In a statement, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Devices, Dave Limp, expressed the company’s vision of the future, declaring, “Just think, one day there will be thousands of these things in the home.”

As Bloomberg noted, Amazon “has shown a boundless desire to put its Alexa smart-home devices in every nook and cranny of people’s houses,” making its data-logging smart products inescapable.

According to a report, Amazon “is investing in a $6.7 million fundraising round for Plant Prefab, a California company that manufactures modules that can be assembled quickly into a home at a job site.” This investment could be a move towards homes with built-in Amazon devices and Alexa compatibility.

“The wager is being made through the Alexa Fund, a pool of capital Amazon created in 2015 to back startups working on new uses for voice technology,” it continued.