https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/20/amazon-launches-an-alexa-smart-plug/

Amazon wants to make it easier to set up your smart home. Today, the company introduced a new Smart Plug device that brings Alexa’s voice control capabilities to anything you want to control – a coffee pot, a light, or anything else that can be powered on or off at a power outlet. What makes the device interesting is that it won’t require a smart home hub in order to work – that is, something like the premium Echo Plus it introduced last year.

However, the price of this new device – $125 –  could be a breaking point for some potential smart home adopters, especially considering they could get a fancy Echo for not that much more. Pre-order starts today and the product starts shipping next month.