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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Another week, another iOS beta bugfix release. The staggered and piecemeal release of iOS 13 has been anything but smooth. When iOS 13.3 was released, we thought Apple might be done fixing bugs and adding features for awhile (at least until the new year). But several important issues have cropped up, prompting the release of iOS 13.3.1.

Update 01/28/20: Apple has released iOS 13.3.1 and iPadOS 13.3.1.

What?s new in iOS 13.3.1

Networking & Wireless location

After some concerns that the new Ultra-wideband wireless chip allowed for tracking users? location, Apple has added a switch to disable location tracking for networking and wireless functions. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services to find it.

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Augmented reality (AR) is the next big thing. At least, that?s what Tim Cook believes, and he?s not alone. There are several companies betting on AR as the next great computing platform. Apple has been building tools for AR development for iPhone and iPad for a few years now.

AR is here today on our iPhones and iPads. Why isn?t it a bigger deal? Why aren't everyday users as excited about the potential of AR as Tim Cook is? Why aren?t all our everyday apps rushing to make it a core feature, or even an essential one?

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If it?s January, it must be time to start complaining about the fall iPhones. Waiting until February is for suckers.

The expected design of the iPhone 12 is a radical departure from every iPhone since the iPhone 6, doing away with the rounded edges in favor of a flat edge like that of the current iPad line. Further, Apple?s expected to add a smaller phone to the fall lineup, a 5.4-inch iPhone 12, that will be smaller than the iPhone 8.

Sounds like a big switch after six years with the same edge design and three without a new phone that can even remotely be considered small. So what?s the take over at the Forbes contributor network and lightly-used holiday ham resale outlet? Well, Gordon Kelly is ready to give us the 411 on the 12. (Tip o? the antlers to Todd.)

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