Amazon has extended its partnership with Amazon to bring Alexa to more third-party devices through a new four-microphone version of the AudioSmart Development for Alexa Voice Service (AVS).

The four-microphone version adds Conexant’s smart source locator (SSL) technology – giving the voice processor the ability to focus on where the user’s voice is coming from. This SSL tech combines with Conexant’s smart source pickup (SSP) – which provides 360° noise suppression – resulting in ‘higher speech recognition accuracy’.

“Were excited to continue our work with Conexant as they offer another quality solution for device makers looking to integrate with Alexa,” said Priya Abani, Director, Alexa Voice Service. “Conexants new AudioSmart 4-mic Development Kit for Amazon AVS broadens the selection of reference solutions available to OEMS, speeding up time to market and making it easier to integrate AVS into their products.”

While Conexant have been busy with the new Alexa dev kit, GE have created the first ever Alexa-embedded lamp. That’s right, you can now talk to your bedside lamp.

The C by GE Sol combines functional lighting with visual indicators for everyday tasks and all of the skills available on any other Alexa-enabled device.

The lamp will retail for $199.99 but consumers who sign up as Sol early adopters will get 20 per cent off when product ordering goes live.