Get ready for the Alexa microwave: Amazon may release smart home items with built-in voice assistant

Amazon could be planning to seriously beef up its line of Alexa-enabled devices. The internet giant is mulling the launch of eight new devices that can be controlled just by using your voice and its digital assistant technology, Alexa. It could release a microwave, amplifier, receiver, subwoofer and an in-car gadget, CNBC reported, citing sources close to the situation. Smart speakers are becoming a fixture in our households. That's according to Adobe, which found in a poll of US consumers that nearly half could own one by the end of the year Amazon could reveal these new devices at an event by the end of this year, an internal document indicated, CNBC said.