A great mouse mat is a must for gamers, reducing wear on wrists during hours of intensive play. Many modern ones use chemical coatings or specially engineered surfaces to improve sensor accuracy or reduce drag?a boon if you?re doing repetitive motion that requires high accuracy.

(Don't mistake mouse mats for the smaller mouse pads, once an absolute necessity in the era of mechanical mice. Because optical and laser mice can work on so many different kinds of surfaces, the humble mouse pad has largely disappeared.) 

Plenty of mouse mat manufacturers exist, but few provide clarity or consistency in describing their products. For example, most don?t report how much friction you?ll encounter when using their mats with the most popular mice. To help you find the best mouse mat for your needs, we?ve tested several from a few different companies that represent a range of surface types (metal, plastic, or cloth) and usage cases (business or gaming).

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Saint?s Row?s Achilles heel was always combat. It hid this fact by peppering each game with a handful of absurd weapons, from a recliner that fired missiles to the Dubstep gun to the iconic purple dildo bat?still the weapon I most associate with the series.

But even armaments that creative couldn?t hide the fact that combat was often a by-the-book affair. Enemies were brainless, and each encounter involved simply trying to get through it as fast as possible without dying. It?s telling that most of the memorable moments in Saint?s Row had nothing to do with combat, be it the Tron-esque ?Deckers Die? mission, singing Biz Markie in a car with your friends, or an Aerosmith-backed rocket ride into space.

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Choosing a gaming keyboard is a matter of personal taste. One person could be into Cherry Browns and white backlighting. Another might favor Razer Greens and a rippling RGB glow. Gigantic wrist pads, compact shapes, numeric keypads, macro keys, volume controls?a plethora of keyboards exists because everyone wants a different mix of features.

To help you sort through the many options, we?ve sifted through the latest and greatest planks to come up with our top recommendations. All of these are mechanical keyboards, and for good reason?they?re simply more comfortable to use over the long haul. But we?re open-minded, so if we encounter an alternative that works well, you may see it appear on this list. We?ll keep updating it periodically as we test new keyboards.

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Achievement badges are a funny thing. You know they?re just a simple little bit of visual flair, they don?t even do anything, and yet for some reason you just have to collect them. Achievements are great motivators, and the achievement badges for the activity tracking on the Apple Watch have inspired many users to get more exercise.

If you want to maximize your badge count, you?re going to watch to chase down as many activity achievements as you can. Most are available year-round, but there are also some time-limited special events to grab, too. Here?s a list of all the activity achievements for the Apple Watch and how to unlock them.

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Professional Mac users got a lot of good news on Wednesday. In addition to revealing the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple announced that the Mac Pro, the company?s workhorse tower computer, will begin shipping this December.

When specifically in December, Apple wouldn?t say. Regardless, the December shipping window comes after the Mac Pro was revealed at Apple?s Worldwide Developers Conference this past June. And it was way back in 2017 when the company announced that it was working on a whole new design for the Mac Pro, a design that replaces the cylindrical model that was first introduced in 2013.

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Apple on Wednesday took the wraps off of its latest high-end laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Targeted for professional use, the new machine features 6- or 8-core processors, a larger display, a new Magic Keyboard, a bigger battery, and a lot more.

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro replaces the 15-inch MacBook Pro, but Apple hasn?t jacked up prices: The two standard configuration 16-inch models are the same as the 15-inch versions, $2,399 and $2,799.

Display, keyboard, and speakers

The most noticeable feature of the new laptop is its display, which, as the name implies, is bigger than the one on the MacBook it replaces. To provide more usable screen real estate, Apple reduced the bezel around the display. Specifically, Apple says the horizontal and vertical bezels have been reduced 25 and 34 percent respectively, when compared to the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The display also has a native resolution of 3072x1920, boasts 500 nits of brightness, and supports the P3 color gamut.

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On Tuesday Apple announced the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, which replaces the 15-inch models in Apple?s laptop lineup?and delivers some welcome updates to boot. I have a loaner unit and have already begun testing, so stay tuned for my final review. In the meantime, check out my first impressions below. The short story? This new 16-inch MacBook Pro?which is available for order on Apple?s website, and will be selling in the Apple store later this week?doesn?t completely rewrite the MacBook story, but it?s definitely better in some key areas.

Keyboard changes

Critics, rejoice: Apple dumped the butterfly-mechanism keyboard that it?s been using in the MacBook Pro since 2016. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard uses a scissor mechanism, and is based on the keyboard for the iMac and iMac Pro.

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