Amazon's latest Alexa update means you won't have to lift a finger on Prime Day

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Aren't you sick and tired of clicking on the things you want to buy online? It's bad enough that we have to type in the URL to our favorite online store, after all. When is tech going to catch up and make sure we exhaust zero calories while shopping online?

Thank the AI geniuses at Amazon for what they've bestowed upon us next: ordering things online with just your voice. Amazon has issued another update to Alexa, its virtual assistant found inside its line of Echo speakers, that enables ordering things through Amazon Prime with voice commands.

And, what a coincidence that the new function has arrived just in time for Prime Day, one of Amazon's biggest deals days of the year. At this point, you're either wondering how it works or you've clicked through an online store for the last time – to buy an Amazon Echo.

For Prime customers only – natch

Naturally, you're going to need an Amazon Prime account to use this feature, though chances are that, if you own an Echo, you're already lining Jeff Bezos' coffers with 100 bucks a year anyway.

Furthermore, to order physical products through Alexa, you'll need a 1-Click payment method and a US billing address (duh). Once you have all of that set up, buying something through Alexa is as simple as saying, for example, "Alexa, order a Tauntaun sleeping bag."

Alexa's going to spit back a few items to make sure she gets the right one, including their prices, to which you reply with a simple "Yes" or "No".

Naturally, there's one major flaw here: browsing Amazon through Alexa has to be nigh impossible – unless Alexa can display holograms – R2D2 style – now, too. (Fat chance.) It's kind of tough to shop for things you can't see.

This function also works for ordering music from Amazon's Digital Music Store, which you can imagine is a much easier endeavor since you can't actually see music in the first place. (But, wait, people still actually "order" music?)

There are a bunch more functions related to online ordering through Alexa that you can find here. Just know that there are certain items that you can't buy with Alexa's help, listed here.

Finally, now we finally have somewhere to wag the finger at when we inevitably arrive at our future that Wall-E predicted years ago.

• Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day in one place