Amazon's latest Alexa devices ready to extend company's reach into your home

Amazon, hoping to replicate the success of its Echo device, is poised to extend its eyes and ears into every part of your life with the launch of new voice-controlled and camera-equipped Alexa devices designed for bedrooms, living rooms and even your car. "Voice control in the home will be ubiquitous," predicted David Limp, Amazon's vice-president in charge of the Echo devices, at an event in Seattle on Wednesday. "Kids today will grow up never knowing a day they couldn't talk to their houses." The Echo has been Amazon's surprise hit in the three years since it launched, finding its way into tens of millions of kitchens around the world, offering internet radio, timers, weather and news reports and voice calls. Now Amazon will start selling a smaller, cheaper version of the original Echo, with fabric and wood veneers, as well a new flagship device called the Echo Plus that promises to work instantly with dozens of smart home devices, such as locks, lights and electric sockets. "Setting up your smart home is still just too hard," Limp said.