Amazon confirms the existence of a long rumoured touchscreen-equipped Echo device-- the Echo Show, a connected home hub featuring a 7-inch touchscreen together with voice recognition capability.

“Echo Show brings you everything you love about Alexa, and now she can show you things," the online retailer turned cloud giant-slash-hardware maker says. "Watch video flash briefings and YouTube, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, and more. All hands-free—just ask.”

Another feature found in the Echo show is a camera, allowing for video calls, and Alexa skills are included for integration with smart home devices. This includes baby monitors from Ring and Arlo, Philips Hue smart lights, and thermostats from the likes of ecobee and WeMo.

Apple retail outlets get a new drone option in the shape of the Hover Camera Passport-- an ultra-portable number able to follow users around and take hands-free photos.

Developed by Zero Zero Robots, the Hover Camera Passport is a foldable drone built from carbon fibre material. It weighs just 242g and carries a 13MP camera with 4K video support and the ability to capture 360-degree panoramic video. Battery life clocks at around 10 minutes per charge, and the makers promise the Passport is very easy to use, with artificial intelligence allowing anyone to operate both indoors and outdoors.

Elgato announces a controller for streamers of all kinds-- the Stream Deck is a hardware device with 15 keys for users to access shortcuts to programs or features.

The Stream Deck connects to PCs via USB 2.0 and essentially is a miniature TV studio control board. Each of the 15 buttons has a tiny LCD display, allowing customisation with different icons for different functions. In total the Stream Deck handles up to 210 actions per configuration, since one can organise shortcuts into folders with the companion Stream Deck app.

"No more cold hands," the Kickstarter for the Heatbuff promises-- and just as well, since the crowdfunded device in question is a small heater designed to warm the hands of keyboard and mouse users.

The Heatbuff uses infrared as a "no-burn technology" in order to keep fingers toasty, all while not melting keyboards or mice down. The actual device is around 38cm wide, and features twin heaters one can adjust and angle from the centre to customise the amount of heat provided.