I braced for a flood of Echo gear at Amazon's Alexa event. It didn't happen

For me, one of the most surprising things at Amazon's lavish Alexa event earlier this week was what didn't happen. Oh no, Amazon goes big at these events, aiming a firehose of products at the quivering journalists in attendance. The parade goes at a breathless pace, one after another, so fast that you can barely keep up. Uncharacteristically, Amazon held its fire last fall, skipping its usual September event in favor of a smaller, Kindles-only gathering in October, featuring ex-Microsoft exec and new Amazon devices chief Panos Panay. So when Amazon announced it was having an "Alexa-focused" event this week, I braced myself.