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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Every day, Macworld brings you the essential daily news and other info about all things Apple. But staying on top of that torrent of information can be a constant challenge. One solution: the Macworld digital magazine.

In the May issue

Are you curious about buying a new $329 iPad? This month we give you five compelling reasons to pick one up. We also review a formidable competitor to the Apple Watch: the Fitbit Versa. Get all of the details from Apple?s Education Event and find out why Apple will soon be a force in the classroom.

Also in this month?s issue:

? MacUser: You can now buy the coolest parts of the iMac Pro. Plus, how to download your Facebook data, or delete your account altogether.

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I know some of you have long justified not buying an Apple Watch out of a belief that the price is too high, but today Walmart has made it difficult to continue making that excuse. Right now the well-known retailer is selling the 38mm Apple Watch Series 1 with Sport Band for just $149, which means you?re getting it for a full $100 off the normal price of $249. For a bit of comparison, that?s $10 less than the retail price of a pair of AirPods, and you?re getting a device that does a lot more.

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Update 4/28/18: While these earbuds are still on sale, the price is now $199 instead of $179.10.

Truly wireless headphones keep you from tripping over cables while you?re jamming to your workout playlist. There are lots of options out there, but if you?re looking for top-of-the-line wireless earbuds designed for life in motion, you can?t get much better than Bose?s SoundSport Free sport headphones, our favorite true wireless earbuds for exercising. And you?re in luck ? they?re on sale at Amazon for $179.10, the lowest we?ve seen them and down $70 from their normal listing of $249.

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Apple on Tuesday released updates to iOS and macOS High Sierra that patches a few security holes. The macOS High Sierra update (which retains a version number of 10.13.4) only contains security patches. The iOS 11.3.1 update also addresses an issue where touch input didn?t work on iPhone 8 models that were repairs using ?non-genuine replacement displays.?

Apple

Apple has released support documents for iOS and macOS that details the contents of the security patches. According to the document, a memory corruption issue in Crash Reporter and a spoofing issue with LinkPresentation are both fixed. The updates also include WebKit patches for Safari in both iOS and macOS.

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