After Sony dropped the Playstation 4’s price to $349.99 in October, Microsoft is firing back for Black Friday and the holidays with a $50 discount on all of its Xbox One bundles.
Of particular note are packages including ‘ Gears of War: Ultimate Edition ‘ or ‘ The Lego Movie Videogame ;’ those will cost just $299, which is the lowest the Xbox One has ever been. All twelve bundles are getting the price drop, however:
Xbox One Limited Edition ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ Bundle – $449
Xbox One Elite Bundle – $449
Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle – $349
Xbox One ‘Gears of War: Ultimate Edition’ Bundle – $299
Xbox One ‘Fallout 4’ Bundle – $349
Xbox One ‘The LEGO Movie Videogame’ Bundle – $299
Xbox One ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ Bundle $349
Xbox One ‘FIFA 16’ 1TB Bundle – $349
Xbox One Special Edition ‘Gears of War’ Bundle – $299
Xbox One with Kinect Bundle – $349
Xbox One Limited Edition ‘Forza Motorsport 6’ Console – $349
Xbox One ‘Madden NFL 16’ Bundle – $349
In addition, Microsoft is offering Xbox Gold subscriptions for just $1 for the first month from today to November 30th, giving you early access to Black Friday deals on individual games.
The Xbox One has lagged against the Playstation 4 until recently – which has traditionally simply had a stronger games lineup – but the holiday season is looking good for Microsoft.
Recently the console was updated to a Windows 10 core , bringing a much-improved interface and some notable features – backwards compatibility with certain Xbox 360 titles in particular. And with a selection of games that now includes exclusives like ‘ Rise of the Tomb Raider ,’ ‘ Forza Motosport 6 ,’ and ‘ Halo 5: Guardians ,’ the Xbox One is looking pretty good at its new price point.
It’s not a permanent deal, however. The price drop will run through November 26 to November 30 in stores and online, after which it will likely return to its previous entry price of $349.
➤ Black Friday Deals: $299 Xbox One Consoles, 150+ Discounted Games and Gold for $1! [Xbox Wire]
This solar-powered backpack could end your battery woes forever
After a week using BirkSun’s solar-powered bag exclusively, I can honestly say I’m hooked. Why we don’t have solar panels on all our backpacks is beyond me, but the ability to charge a device without having to worry about first charging an external battery is a godsend — especially here in California.
A single solar panel on the face of BirkSun’s bag sucks power from the sun and stores it in a small battery inside a zipper pocket. While the power station isn’t a large one, it’s fully capable of completely charging a dead iPhone. In fact, BirkSun says it can charge it one-and-a-half times. That wasn’t a problem for me though, the backpack’s power station never actually died while I was using it due to the panel constantly grabbing more energy from the sun.
I would be curious, however, to see how the backpack performs in less-sunny locales — although there is the option to charge the built-in battery with a standard wall charger.
The battery is also smart enough to charge devices at the optimal speed.
Aside from the ability to charge your devices using a multi-purpose battery capable of handling anything you can throw at it — laptops, mobile devices, cameras, etc. — the bag is rather devoid of cool features. In fact, that’s my one gripe.
As a fan of organizational tools in backpacks, this one is essentially a large main pocket a slightly-smaller front pocket and a laptop sleeve in the rear. The laptop sleeve is a nice touch, but using the other two storage areas would quickly lead to a tangled mess of cords and a lot of digging to find any specific device.
At $249, it’s probably priced out most of the people looking for a simple laptop bag, and the lack of storage options aside from throwing everything into one large space shows it’s probably not designed for that anyway. Instead, it seems the bag is best suited for the outdoorsy types (it’s waterproof and durable) or those that find themselves traveling with some regularity.
The bag is available in six color options and you can purchase yours at the BirkSun website.
Sony’s virtual reality headset has a name: PlayStation VR
Despite still having no release date, Sony announced that its virtual reality headset has a name: PlayStation VR.
The device was only known as ‘Project Morpheus’ before today. Sony announced the new name at its SCEJA Press Conference in Japan today , but didn’t give any further details outside of a brief promotional trailer .
The company said that attendees at the event will be able to try the new headset, and it’ll be demonstrating it around Japan beginning in late September.
No pricing or availability was announced outside of the vague 2016 release date , so the wait for gamers continues.
➤ PlayStation VR is the official name for the PS4 virtual reality system [PlayStation blog]