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).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple has several subscription services available, and now you can save some cash by signing up for Apple One, a pricing plan that bundles Apple?s services together for discounts. In effect, it replaces expensive a la carte pricing with cheaper pricing bundles.

Here?s what you need to know about Apple One.

Updated 9/17/20 with a report on how Apple One handles a user with multiple Apple IDs.

What services are available in Apple One?

All of Apple?s services are available for bundled pricing: Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple News, Apple TV+, and iCloud. (Apple Fitness+ will not be available until late 2020.)

To read this article in full, please click here

Apple?s latest flagship watch has arrived, and it is just as we hoped it would be: fast, packed with features, and iterative. Each new flagship Apple Watch brings just a little more than the previous model, and the Series 6 continues in the vein, according to the first people who have tried it.

If you?re wondering if the new Product Red color is just as bold and bright as it is on the iPhone, it is. Dieter Bohn of The Verge writes that the new hue is definitely ?not shy? while bringing ?a depth and complexity to the color?s finish.? Brenda Stolyar at Mashable found the red to be ?a nice shade? but would ?prefer a more neutral tone? like the silver or space gray. At iMore, Daniel Bader calls the new blue color ?striking.?

To read this article in full, please click here

Apple is planting its own flag in the streaming wars with Apple TV+, its in-house streaming service that focuses almost entirely on original programming rather than an extensive library of existing TV shows or movies.

Though the service has been available less than a year and and doesn?t yet have a lot of shows or films available, there?s a lot in the works. This is a list of all the Apple TV+ content we know of so far, along with details about prominent stars, directors, producers, and release dates.

Updated 09/17/20: Apple has announced two new childrens' shows to premiere this fall: Doug Unplugs and Stillwater.

To read this article in full, please click here

Barely 24 hours after Apple unveiled its newest member of the Apple Watch family, the Apple Watch SE, early reviewers have already begun strapping them to their wrists, and the first impressions are strong. Apple?s newest watch doesn?t have all the bells and whistles of the higher-priced Series 6, but it?s a great addition to the lineup that brings just enough high-end features to justify the price hike over the $199 Series 3.

Even though the Apple Watch SE uses the older S5 chip as compared to the S6 in the Series 6, the experience ?feels pretty consistently smooth now,? writes Chris Velazco of Engadget, and feels ?just as fast? as the Series 5. He adds that the SE ?a great entry point for all of the new features available in watchOS 7,? with an excellent mix of features, smarts, and performance. However, he laments the lack of the EKG sensor, a feature on the Series 5 that helped him diagnose an atrial flutter strike.

To read this article in full, please click here