On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

The press is to see more of the Windows Mixed Reality-- aka the Microsoft combination of virtual and augmented reality-- at a special event come 3 October 2017, ahead of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update launch.

The event should be an "opportunity to hear where Microsoft is headed next," and will have Kinect and HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman as speaker.

One can safely assume the event will host a variety of Windows Mixed Reality headsets, which should hit the market from 17 October. As seen at IFA 2017, Mixed Reality headsets come from a number of vendors, including Acer, HP, Dell and Lenovo. The trade show also hosted an Asus headset with unique polygonal design, but that one will only hit the market on Spring 2018.

Sleep technology company Eight adds further capabilities to its smart mattresses with an Alexa skill allowing one to control such products through Amazon-enabled devices and voice commands.

The "smart sleeping" products currently compatible with Alexa are the Smart Mattress collection and the Smart Mattress Cover. Users can state commands such as "Alexa, warm up the left side of the bed" or "Alexa the bed is too cold" to warm up the bed. In addition one can ask ask "Alexa, how did I sleep last night?" or "Alexa, what's my sleep score" to receive statistics related to their sleeping patterns.

Eight plans to add further Alexa commands later this year for more robust interactions between its products and the virtual assistants. Eight products already feature automation capabilities through If This Then That (IFTTT), but Alexa allows for perhaps simpler integration, not to mention control.

August presents a pair of smart locks-- the Smart Lock Pro and the next generation Smart Lock, both featuring DoorSense, a sensor allowing the locks to detect whether the door is open or closed.

As one might expect from the name, the Smart Lock Pro is the full-featured August smart lock offering. It supports wifi via included Connect bridge, as well as Bluetooth, HomeKit and Z-Wave Plus. It also includes Active Monitoring, a service providing users with "smarter" alerts for any activity at the door, including the aforementioned DoorSense feature.

Meanwhile the regular Smart Lock is a lower-cost version offering basic functionality, if with the addition of DoorSense to ensure the door is securely closed and locked.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8G claims something of a record-- it is one of the smallest versions of the Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card around, being all of 169mm long to fit mini ITX specifications.

Such dimensions come through a single-fan configuration with a semi-passive (turns off under certain loads/temperatures) 90mm fan. Further aiding cooling is a triple heat pipe cooling solution and 5+2 power phases. Power comes through an 8 pin connector on the top, while construction promises "ultra durable" chokes and capacitors.

The card runs at 1607MHz base and 1733MHz boost, and offers a preset overclocked mode with 1632MHz base and 1771MHz boost accessible via Aorus Graphics Engine app. The utility also allows users to tweak clock speeds, voltage, fan performance and power targets, and comes complete with monitoring functionality.