No, this isn’t some twist on the sexist “Go make me a sandwich” statement, because you can now, quite literally tell Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, to make you some popcorn. Launched at Amazon’s surprise hardware event last week, the Amazon Basics Microwave does two things. As a part of Amazon’s Basics series, it provides a reliable, competitively priced product that’s backed by Amazon’s brand name. It also comes with a dedicated Alexa button, making it probably the first microwave to be powered by Amazon’s AI voice assistant. Microwaves have, over the years, grown incredibly complicated with a variety of functions that confuse people more than empower them. There’s a separate setting for grilling, for defrosting, etc… and even with these features, a majority of microwave users use the appliance primarily for re-heating food, popping corn, or to cut down on the cooking time of something. Either way, it amounts to just estimating the amount of time the oven needs to run for and the power setting. With Alexa, that estimation gets taken out of the equation as the microwave oven now does the guess-work for you. All you need to do is tell Alexa what to do in the most natural terms, and the advanced AI assistant gets to work, acting on commands like “Alexa microwave popcorn” or “Alexa reheat my rice/vegetables”. Being able to distinguish between food-types now becomes the appliance’s job, and it does so spectacularly. It’ll apply the correct heat setting for microwaving popcorn, versus cooking broccoli, or heating up your coffee, or even baking a mug cake. The microwave does also come with traditional controls, if you’re the technologically independent kind, but I must admit, there’s a certain sense of accomplishment in getting your microwave to cook your food for you by just talking to it! Designer: (Available on 14th November 2018) (Available on 14th November 2018)