Plug-&-play Alexa chip liberates Amazon assistant from the outlet

A new plug-and-play chip to give Amazon’s Alexa talents to anything with a speaker could also help cut the cord to new smart speakers. Currently, Amazon only offers a single completely wireless Alexa-powered speaker, the Amazon Tap. All of the other Echo speakers demand to be perpetually plugged into power. Third-party battery accessories have sprung up to temporarily cut that …