Sennheiser's momentous

Family-run German company Sennheiser has won rave reviews for headphones like the Momentum On-Ears. Among music fans, however, they're not as well known as Beats, the rival company co-founded by rapper Dr Dre, adored by celebrities, and this year snapped up by Apple in a multimillion-dollar deal. By adding Momentum quality to in-ear headphones suitable for listening when you're out of the house, Sennheiser wants to change that.

The Momentum In-Ear headphones will cost £90 in the UK and $99 in the US, with Australian pricing yet to be announced (the US price converts to AU$106). There are two versions: one for Android or Windows smartphones and tablets, on sale in September, and one for Apple iOS devices hitting shops before the end of the year.

Of course, when any successful brand is translated to a new form, it remains to be seen -- or rather, heard -- whether they deserve the name or if it's just a shameful attempt to cash in on the cachet of the higher-end models. But for the new in-ear models, Sennheiser trumpets newly developed transducer technology, a stainless steel acoustic pipe and high-quality dynamic speaker system that it says gives a powerful bass response and detailed vocal projection.

Sennheiser has also introduced a new range of on-ear headphones this week, called Urbanite. The headphones will arrive in September, costing £150 and £200 from John Lewis in the UK, and $199 or $249 in the US, with Australian prices yet to be announced (the US price converts to around AU$215 or AU$265).

Buy an Xbox One, get any game free

Microsoft is offering a sweet deal over the next week to gamers looking to buy an Xbox One.

XBOX ONE

Between September 7 and September 13, Microsoft will give one free game to anyone who buys anXbox One, Xbox One with Kinect, Xbox One Madden NFL 15 bundle, or Xbox One Forza Motorsport 5 bundle, the company announced on Thursday.

Unlike some other past promotions from Microsoft and other console makers that required gamers to choose between a selection of titles, Microsoft is offering the free deal on any game that's available at the time of purchase. That means everything from Titanfall to the highly anticipated Destiny is included in the deal.

Despite the somewhat loose restrictions, there are some caveats. The deal doesn't apply to preorders, so any game launching later this year will not apply. Microsoft is also banning refurbished consoles or used games from the deal. Gamers must also buy the title on physical disc and its value must not exceed $59.99 before tax.

Microsoft's move is shrewd, if nothing else. Next week, Destiny, the first major non-Halo title released by Bungie, is hitting store shelves September 9 (Tuesday), and it's expected to make quite a splash. Since it's not exclusive to the Xbox One but could be a huge hardware-seller for both Sony and Microsoft, the software giant's decision to offer it for free with the purchase of an Xbox One makes choosing its console far more palatable to some customers. It also puts Sony on notice to respond.

Whether Sony will actually respond, however, remains to be seen. Sony has announced that it has sold 10 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide since the hardware's launch last year. It's believed, though not confirmed by Microsoft, that it has sold approximately 5 million Xbox One units in about the same time. The free game offer may be a ploy on Microsoft's part to inch closer to the PlayStation 4.

A Microsoft spokesperson told in an e-mailed statement that most major retailers will be participating in the free game offer, including Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Toys 'R Us. The company urged gamers to check with local retailers not listed to see if they're participating.

Samsung Gear Circle

Bluetooth headphones come in several different varieties, including the in-ear, around-the-neck version popularized by LG with its Tone stereo headsets. Now Samsung's come out with the Gear Circle, its own space-age spin on that wireless headphone design.

SAMSUNG GEAR CIRCLE

Available in October, the Gear Circle will come in black, blue, and white, though Samsung was only showing the blue and white models at an event in New York to announce its newGalaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge smartphones, along with the Gear S and Gear VR devices. No word on pricing yet.
That neck piece houses the electronics and battery, which is bigger than the battery found in earbud-only wireless headphones such as the Plantronics BackBeat Go 2 (the Circle's battery life is rated at 9 hours, which is decent).

Lenovo Y70 Touch

Lenovo's cult favorite gaming PC collection is getting a new entry in the form of the 17.3-inch Y70 Touch.

Like the 15-inch Y50 version, which has been one of the PCs most asked-about by readers in 2014, the Y70 version includes laptop features rarely seen together in a single system. Those include a slim 17-inch body, current-gen Nvidia discrete graphics, JBL speakers with a built-in subwoofer for better audio, and a high-resolution touchscreen.

Like the Y50, this version has a brushed black metal shell embossed in a crosshatch pattern, with a subtle chrome Lenovo logo on the back panel. Red accents include wedge-shaped speaker grilles and a red backlit keyboard.

lenovo y70 keyboard 

The specs top out at a current-gen quad-core Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU, and up to 1TB of hybrid drive storage, or a 512GB SSD. The display is a full-HD 1,920x1,080 panel, with no plans for a 4K version yet, despite it being an option on the smaller Y50 model.

The Lenovo Y70 Touch will be available beginning in October, starting at $1,300. Pricing and worldwide availability has not yet been announced, but converted pricing would be about £790, or AU$1,400.