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On Wednesday, at a press event at its Seattle headquarters, the company is expected to announce new products and services that will help it maintain its position as the market leader. (Credit: CNN) At a major media event on Wednesday, Amazon introduced a wide range of new products and services in its continuing effort to expand into every corner of the home and, now, on to every part of our body too. New to its Echo lineup is an Alexa-infused smart clock, smart oven, high-end speakers, glasses and earbuds. Most of the items are now available for pre-order, though a few, such as the glasses, will be sold on an invite-only basis for now.to The announcements come at a time when the popularity of smart speakers with virtual assistants has ballooned. According to data from tech market researcher Canalys, companies including Amazon, Google, and Baidu shipped 26.1 million smart speakers in the second quarter of this year. Amazon is sitting on top of this market and is working to keep its momentum. As expected, the company introduced Echo Buds — $130 earbuds with 5 hours of battery life and 20 hours via a rechargeable case. It uses Bose active noise reduction technology, are turned on with a double tap and gives users access to Siri or Google Assistant, whichever is native on their smartphone. A lets users ask questions such as “Where canned tomatoes?” in a Whole Foods location, and the earbuds will respond with what aisle they’re on. Amazon also unveiled a high-end Echo speaker, called Echo Studio, to compete with some companies such as Sonos that already offer Alexa-compatible premium speakers. It will cost $199. The company unexpectedly showed off Echo Frames, a set of eyeglasses with prescription lenses that features “very discrete directional microphones” that let only users hear Alexa. It also showed off the newest member of its Echo Show family: the Echo Show 8, which is slightly smaller in size than the Echo Show 10 and slightly bigger than the Echo Show 5. As with a previous Echo Show, the $130 device features a small physical shutter that you can use to cover the front camera. Because people primarily put these devices in the kitchen, Amazon will be rolling out a Food Network service for the Echo ShowG that lets you see instructional cooking videos and go through them step by step, while asking Alexa questions like, “Alexa, how many chicken thighs do I need?” and it will overlay details on the display. A new $59 Echo smart clock displays the outside temperature and the ability to snooze it by tapping the top, and a $250 smart oven that allows users to scan items from the Alexa app or Echo Show to automatically program the smart oven to cook them properly. $29 Echo Glow for kids is a smart small smart speaker that … well, glows. Other new hardware includes the Echo Flex, a tiny $25 speaker the size of a pack of cards that plugs into a wall outlet. It aims extend Alexa’s capabilities to other rooms in the house, such as the garage. Alexa is also receiving a few new bells and whistles, including “frustration detection” that can detect when users are starting to lose their nerve with the voice assistant. It will say “I must have misunderstood” before trying to fix what it got wrong. The feature will roll out first to music requests. Amazon is also adding an option to auto delete voice recordings in an apparent attempt to address recent privacy concerns. Other updates include Alexa’s first celebrity voice (Samuel L. Jackson), coming later this year for $0.99, and a service for parents that approves contacts who kids can talk to via an Echo Dot. The company also plans to add new controls for third-party routers, so users will be able to say, ” Alexa, turn on the guest WiFI” and “Alexa, pause Ryan’s tablet Wi-Fi”. It’s also getting smarter at helping users proactively, such as telling you when it’s time to change the battery in a smart lock or the printer is low on ink. A new feature called Alexa Guard can detect “human activity,” including footsteps or sounds of breaking glass if there’s an intruder. Last September, Amazon introduced Alexa-controlled products ranging from the expected (more Echo smart speakers) to the surprising (a $60 AmazonBasics microwave that can warm food via voice commands — such as, “Alexa, heat up one cup of coffee” — when used with an Echo device). The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.