Don't worry if you were disappointed that Harley-Davidson's first e-bikes didn't include that eye-catching vintage model. As Electreknotes, Harley's Serial 1 brand now plans to sell a highly similar retro bike, the MOSH/TRIBUTE, in "late Q4" (read: December). Pre-order it for $5,999 and you'll get the MOSH/CTY's underpinnings with looks that would seem right at home in the 1950s, including fat white Schwalbe Super Moto-X tires, a honey-hued leather saddle and similar grips.
The functionality remains the same as the more contemporary-looking model, including the Gates carbon belt drive, built-in lighting and TRP hydraulic disc brakes. The removable 529Wh battery is estimated to deliver up to 105 miles of range, although that can shrink to 35 miles depending on your ride mode, biking style and road choices.
You'll have to act quickly if you want one. Serial 1 is making just 650 MOSH/TRIBUTE units split evenly between the US and Europe. The Harley brand has promised more special edition e-bikes "in the future," though, so you needn't give up hope if you're too late.
Valve didn't wait long to hold its second Steam Next Fest. The Vergereports the games extravaganza (formerly the Steam Game Festival) is now slated to take place October 1st through October 7th. You'll see a range of upcoming games, including livestreams and chats, but the highlight may be the demos. Most notably, IGNsays you'll get to try No Man's Sky creator Hello Games' Steam release of The Last Campfire.
Other game demos will include Ludomotion's Unexplored 2, The Artistocrats' Starship Troopers — Terran Command and Andrew Shouldice's action adventure Tunic.
Steam Next Fest, like Summer Game Fest and other virtual events, is a substitute for real-world gaming conferences and expos that can't happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This gives independent creators an opportunity to promote and refine games that might otherwise get little attention compared to blockbuster titles. It also helps Valve, of course — you may be more likely to buy these games and otherwise view Steam as a go-to source for indie releases.
While Apple announced new iPhones and iPads this week, a bunch of its existing gadgets remain discounted. The AirPods Pro are close to an all-time low at $180 and the iPad Air is still at the best price we've seen it — only $500 for the base model. You can also still get $100 off the MacBook Air M1 and the Mac Mini M1, so regardless of your computer-style preference, there are discounted options available. Also, Google's Pixel 4 has dropped to a new low of $379 and Amazon includes a free Samsung SmartTag when you buy the $150 Galaxy Buds 2. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
AirPods Pro
Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple's AirPods Pro are down to $180, or $70 off their normal price. These remain Apple's best sounding earbuds and we gave them a score of 87 for their comfortable fit, improved audio, good ANC and wireless charging.
The latest 10.2-inch iPad and the iPad mini just went up for pre-order this week and Walmart has both for a bit less — the base iPad is $299 instead of $329 and the iPad mini is $459 instead of $500. Both tablets have been updated with better processors, a 12MP front camera with support for Center Stage and now a minimum of 64GB of storage.
Apple's iPad Air is $100 off right now, bringing it down to $500. All five colors are on sale at Amazon. thanks to automatically applied coupons, although with various shipping times. We gave the Air a score of 90 for its speedy performance and WiFi, healthy battery life and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil.
Apple's MacBook Air M1 is back down to an all-time low of $850 thanks to an automatically applied coupon. It earned a score of 94 from us for its stellar performance, attractive, fanless design and its comfortable keyboard and trackpad.
Apple's Mac Mini M1 returned to its all-time-low price of $600 thanks to a sale and an automatically applied coupon. You're getting all of the performance boosts provided by the M1 chipset in a compact desktop package. This is a good machine to get if you have an older desktop that needs replacing, but you don't want to spend a ton of money.
One of our favorite internal drives, the Crucial MX500 SSD, is on sale for $85 right now, or $15 off its normal price. That's also a record-low, making now a good time to pick up some extra space if you know your machine is reaching its limits. This drive has read speeds of up to 560 MB/s, sequential write speeds of up to 510 MB/s, AES-256 bit hardware encryption and integrated power loss immunity.
Amazon has a bundle that includes the Galaxy Buds 2 and a SmartTag Bluetooth tracker for $150, so you're essentially getting the SmartTag for free. The Buds 2 are solid budget earbuds that earned a score of 84 from us for their improved sound quality, adjustable ambient sound mode, comfortable design and wireless charging.
Amazon has the Galaxy Note 20 series for up to $400 off right now, so you can grab a Note 20 for $750 and a Note 20 Ultra for $900. These are some of the most premium handsets Samsung has made as of late, and they are good options if you're not sold on foldables and you like the versatility that the S Pen provides.
Google's Pixel 4 smartphone is down to a new low of $379 at B&H Photo. We believe the launch of the Pixel 6 to be right around the corner, so you may want to wait if you want the latest phone from Google. However, the Pixel 4 remains a solid handset — we liked its speedy performance, lovely display and stellar camera experience.
Through September 18, Omaze is giving away another $20,000 to build your ultimate gaming PC. This sweepstakes is free to enter, but funds donated with purchased entries will benefit Schools on Wheels, an organization that provides free tutoring and mentoring services to children experiencing homelessness across Southern California.
Through December 8, you can enter to win four-day passes to San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Along with the passes, you'll get access to a special preview night, reserved seating in Hall H, a personal concierge, a private tour of the Comic-Con Museum, dinner in Balboa Park and tickets to the "Night at the Comic-Con Museum" event. It's free to enter, but funds from this sweepstakes will go to the San Diego Comic Convention.
The 8-quart Instant Pot Duo Plus is on sale for $100 thanks to a $20 coupon you can clip on the product page. This multicooker has nine functions including slow cook, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, sauté pan, sterilizer and more, and its large capacity allows it to make more than enough food for big families or parties.
Dyson slashed $100 off its Pure Cool Link DP01 purifying desk fan, bringing it down to $300. This would be a good addition to a home office because it removes 99.97% of pollutants and allergens, oscillates up to 70 degrees, has a Night Mode if you decide to use it in your bedroom while you're sleeping and it can be controlled with its included remote or via Dyson's companion app.
WarnerMedia pulled HBO Max from Amazon Prime Video Channels this week, but it's hoping to entice fans to subscribe directly with a new offer. Through September 26, new and returning HBO Max subscribers can get six months of the service for 50 percent off, which comes out to $7.49 per month. You just have to pay for six months up front and you'll get a great deal on the ad-free service.
ThermoWorks knocked 40 percent off its tiny ThermoPop instant-read thermometer, bringing it down to $21. This is a limited-time sale, so we're not sure how long they'll be around for this discounted price. The Pop is a budget alternative to ThermoWorks' more expensive thermometers and we like its cute, splash-proof design, rotating display and speedy temperature reads.
One of our recommended VPNs is running a decent sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up for NordVPN for $99 for the first two years, which comes out to $49.50 per year, and get three additional months of access for free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
Ken Block's Hoonigan Industries has built a fully functional Warthog vehicle, and the team is showing us the process it went through in a new series on YouTube. While it's far from the first life—size version ever made of Halo's famous armored vehicle, this one actually works — it even debuted at the world premiere of the movie Free Guy, which stars Ryan Reynolds, a bank teller who discovers he's but an NPC in an open-world game.
The Hoonigan team created its real life Warthog using a custom rock crawler chassis. As Autoblog notes, it doesn't have a mounted gun, but it undeniably looks like the Warthog with its chunky body, futuristic shape, curved windshield and enormous tires. Even its interior is a replica of its virtual counterpart, and the team also made sure it has a four-wheel steering system. To power the beast, the team took a Ford V8 engine and added two turbos to it, giving it a 1,060 horsepower capacity.
The Warthog appears across games in the Halo franchise as a driveable military vehicle, and the Hoonigan team built a replica of it to promote the upcoming Halo Infinite game that's launching in December. Hoonigan, the brainchild of rally driver Ken Block who was also behind The Gymkhana Files, will upload new episodes showing how the Warthog was built every week until October 14th. You can watch the first one below:
Are you tired of game developers releasing launchers that feel redundant? Too bad, you're getting another one. Riot Games has revealed plans to roll out a launcher for its games, Riot Client. It's not strictly new (games have been quietly using a limited version of the launcher for a while), but you now have access to all of Riot's desktop titles with a single sign-in. You can hop from Valorant to League of Legends with little trouble, for instance.
The client will first be available on September 20th. All gamers should receive the new software on October 4th, assuming Riot is confident in the client's stability. You'll still see dedicated pages for each game, including news and events.
Riot stressed that your existing shortcuts to individual games will still work, and that this won't chew up significantly more drive space. It's not quite the classic case of inserting another layer between you and the games you want to play. At the same time, there's little doubt this helps Riot control the experience. A client like this will make it that much easier for Riot to keep you within its game universe — why jump to Counter-Strike when Valorant is that much easier to reach?
Ford's electric F-150 Lightning is clearly in high demand, and the company is determined to keep up. The automaker has paired news of pre-production work with a promise to invest an extra $250 million and create 450 new jobs to increase production capacity. That should help Ford build 80,000 Lightning trucks per year — little comfort when the company now has 150,000 reservations, but the move should reduce wait times.
Most of the jobs will go to workers assembling the electric F-150 at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, while others will build more batteries at the Rawsonville Components Plant and motors at the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center. The first trucks should be available in spring 2022.
The production numbers won't compete with conventional trucks for a while. As Autoweekobserved, Ford averaged sales of about 900,000 regular F-150 trucks per year before the pandemic and chip shortages came into play. While the Lightning may be more than a niche product, it's not yet at the point where Ford would have to reconsider its conventional truck production.
There's also a certain amount of posturing involved with the news. Ford is clearly eager to please a government promoting made-in-America EVs. However, it's still a recognition of pent-up demand for electric pickups, both from Ford and from the industry as a whole. Not that Ford might have much choice. With Rivian already producing its first trucks, Ford risks losing sales to competitors if it doesn't ramp up manufacturing.
It's been a few years since the last Wipeout game, so fans may be pleased to hear there's a new title on the way. However, Wipeout Rush is quite different from what long-term fans might expect. It's a card-based mobile game in which you'll manage a team of competitors instead of controlling any anti-gravity ships directly.
“If I want that visceral, immersive, intense racing experience, I’ll find it waiting on PlayStation," Matt Casamassina, CEO of developer Rogue Games told IGN. "But at the same time, we’re delighted that we could rethink Wipeout for mobile with some fun new play mechanics and gorgeous visuals."
Wipeout Rush features more than 60 ships from across the Wipeout series. The single-player campaign contains 12 championship cups that take place across five environments with unique tracks, as well as a story told through comic book-style visuals. There's also an electronica soundtrack from long-standing Sony composer Alastair Lyndsay, while Rogue says you'll be able to play at up to 60 frames per second.
It might not be the full-on Wipeout experience that veteran players might have been hoping for on, say, PS5, but it could kickstart the revival of a series that's been part of PlayStation's DNA for over a quarter of a century. Wipeout Rush will hit iOS and Android in early 2022.
Harman may be best known for its audio products, but the Samsung subsidiary is now expanding into the world of charging accessories. On Thursday, the company announced the launch of InfinityLab, a new brand under which it plans to sell a line of "sustainable" wall chargers, power banks and cables. With today's announcement, the company is debuting nearly a dozen new accessories.
According to Harman, the "core" products in the lineup are made from 90 percent recycled plastic. Like parent Samsung, the company is also trying to avoid using plastics for any packaging and to source cardboard from responsibly managed forests. Additionally, Harman will make any cables it includes with its new products from recycled polyester.
Harman
Taking a look at the accessories themselves, the one that caught our eye is the GaN charger Harman plans to sell. The company will offer three different wall chargers capable of outputting 20, 30 and 65 watts of power. They'll be priced at $19.95, $29.95 and $49.95, with the last one featuring gallium nitride circuitry.
If you know something about gallium nitride chargers, it's that they're smaller than their silicon counterparts but also tend to cost more. Razer, for instance, recently announced a 130W model that it's selling for $180. Harman's GaN charger isn't as powerful, nor does it include as many ports, but at $49.95, you're still getting a model with interchangeable plugs included. It also comes from a brand that many people trust, and that's not something you can say about a lot of the more affordable GaN chargers you'll find through Amazon and other retailers.
Almost exactly a year ago, IKEA announced it was partnering with ASUS’ Republic of Gamers unit to create an affordable collection of gaming furniture and accessories. After debuting in China and Japan, those products are finally making their way to the US and UK on October 1st.
IKEA
The collection is made up of six product families: Uppspel, Lånespelare, Matchspel, Gruppsel, Utespelare and Huvudspelare. Of those, IKEA designed the first one in direct collaboration with ASUS, while the others it created on its own with insights it gleaned from working with the company.
The collection includes everything from furniture like gaming chairs and desks to handy accessories like a mouse bungee and ring light. Pricing starts at $6.49 for the most affordable item, a mouse pad with a polyester top layer, and goes all the way up to $599 for an adjustable gaming desk.
IKEA
In practice, some of the items in the collection represent “gamified” versions of existing IKEA products. Take the Uppspel pegboard, for instance. It features the same dimensions as the company’s Skådis pegboard, but you’ll pay an extra $3 for it because of its more aggressive finish. That's the kind of upsell that comes with a lot of gaming products (see: every RGB-infused device ever), but most of the collection does live up to IKEA's affordable billing.
Sony has revealed a second color option for its Pulse 3D headset: Midnight Black. It complements the Midnight Black DualSense controller Sony released for PlayStation 5 in June — the products share the same color scheme.
The headset's original white and black colorway matches the PS5's design. Here's hoping Sony is working on first-party black plates for the console to mirror the look of the newer peripherals.
The latest version of the headphones will be available on October 22nd. Pre-orders for the $100 headset are open on PlayStation Direct.
The company created the headset to take advantage of the PS5's spatial audio tech, which aims to place sounds in places that match what you're seeing on screen. There are dual microphones built in, which will come in useful for speaking with your teammates or if you're streaming your gameplay (though a dedicated mic is probably a better option).
The headphones are primarily designed for PS5 and will work with PS4, PCs and Macs via the wireless USB transmitter. There's no Bluetooth, but you can connect the headset to other devices through a 3.5mm headphone port or by using an adaptor.
Sony is rolling out a major update for PS5 today that not only unlocks the console's expansion slot, but adds equalizer settings for Pulse 3D. There are three presets: Standard, Bass Boost and Shooter. The latter puts more emphasis on shots being fired and footsteps. You can craft your own presets and save up to three for easy access. You'll be able to change the equalizer settings through the Control Center, so you don't need to access the console's main menu system to switch things up.
Meanwhile, the latest PS5 system software adds support for 3D audio through built-in TV speakers. So, if you prefer to play without headphones and don't have a surround sound audio system, you may still get some of the effects of spatial audio.
