The best gaming keyboards

 Your keyboard is the first point of contact between you and your computer. It’s how you communicate, how you tell your PC to do what you need it to do. For PC gamers, it’s even more: the keyboard is your go-to tool for winning, fragging, conquering. It's the defining component of PC gaming, what separates it from being just another console. Most of the time, we don’t want some proprietary gamepad—we want WASD.

The right gaming keyboard ultimately comes down to the right feel while you’re playing. Membrane switches are familiar, but often spongy. Mechanical keyboards offer key switches that are responsive when typing or moving in a game, and feel good to push down.

Nvidia announces GTX 970M and 980M Maxwell mobile GPUs

 Nvidia’s GM204 “Maxwell” architecture, the graphics technology inside the GTX 970 and GTX 980, is coming to laptops. If you follow graphics hardware closely, this might be confusing. Wait, you’d ask. Weren’t there already Maxwell 800M graphics chips, like the 860M in our favorite budget gaming laptop? Right you are! The thing is, that was an older generation of Maxwell (GM108), and Nvidia’s brushing that aside with the release of the second-gen architecture in its latest desktop--and now mobile--GPUs.

The GTX 980M and 970M are being pressed into gaming laptops at this very moment, and Nvidia claims that the mobile chips will be able to run games at ultra settings, even beyond 1080p resolution. More dramatically, Nvidia claims the GTX 980M will be 75% as powerful as the desktop GTX 980 (

The best PC games of 2014

 2013 rapidly recedes, leaving only trace memories of pirates, guns, storied old mansions and always-online debacles. For now, a moment of peace. What better time to admire the onrushing tide of destruction soon to be wrought on our spare time? Here in 2014, more people are making games than ever. More than 1500 titles line Greenlight's shelves, dozens of Kickstarter projects are coming to fruition and almost everything is headed to early access.

 

iPhone and iOS: The Complete Beginner's Guide

There comes a time in almost every life where you put a computer in your pocket that's more powerful than anything that went to the moon. I'm speaking of course, of owning your first smartphone. And for many that first smartphone will be Apple's iPhone.

 2048 and 6 Other Games to Help You Survive the Commute

 Mobile gaming has come a long way since games of Snake II on a Nokia 3310. But the rise of smartphones paved the way for developers to create more immersive and addictive games that rivaled those found on popular handheld gaming consoles. 

In addition to catching up on an ebook or reading the latest news on an app, mobile gaming has become a popular method of passing time during the morning commute. You've probably spotted fellow commuters crushing candy, swiping numbers, or tapping dots.

 A First Look at Microsoft's Windows 10

  SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft introduced Windows 10 here on Tuesday as the successor to Windows 8, with an emphasis on going back to basics.

The operating system formerly code named Threshold is still in its very early stages, but Redmond has built enough new features into its prototype all-devices software platform to generate some buzz. Those include a revamped Start menu, some smooth new multi-tasking tools, and better modern app display parameters for full-screen PCs. From a technical perspective, the most interesting addition is probably virtual desktops, which let you run independent, partitioned desktops at the same time.

5 Apps You Should Sync to Apple Health

After a brief delay, several HealthKit-enabled apps went live last week, meaning they can connect to and share data with Apple's new Health app. Whether you're prepping for a marathon, trying to lose a few pounds, or trying to be more active, it should come as no surprise that there is indeed an app for that. And Apple would like to gather all your data via colorful graphs to show you just how well (or poorly) you are doing with your fitness goals.

 October's Hottest Video Games

  Summer is behind us, and fall's autumnal grip takes hold and brings with it cooler weather and a radical change of scenery. As the foliage shifts from green to gold and red, the video game industry changes, too; game publishers worldwide are lining up their biggest and best titles for the coming holiday season.

Truly, this October is a wealth of video game releases. September was the start of a great influx of games, with titles like Activision's Destiny and Nintendo's Hyrule Warriors hitting store shelves. October has an even greater list of great titles to offer eager gamers.
As well as being the first full month of fall, October is also associated with the Halloween, the nation-wide masquerade and celebration of all things haunting and spooky. Some game releases in October coincide perfectly with the atmosphere of the holiday: Sunset Overdrive throws players into a parkour-heavy shooter, and pits them against hordes of orange zombies. The Evil Within drops players into a terrifying asylum filled with powerful and twisted human abominations and little in the way of defense. Alien: Isolation is a callback to the classic Ridley Scott film, Alien, and has you evading a stalking beast on a chaotic space station. 

Which Browser is Best? Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

In the biggest shakeup in the browser industry since Microsoft was forced to uncouple Internet Explorer from Windows, Google's Chrome burst on the scene in 2008, forcing new standards in browser speed, streamlined design, and rapidly iterating software, forcing all the other players to overhaul their own sluggish software as they played catch up to the nimble newcomer. Chrome spent several years as PCMag Editor's Choice, but it's been surpassed in speed and features, and it has sunk to a three-way tie for second place as former favorite Firefox has reasserted its lead. With a beautifully redesigned interface, excellent performance, thrifty memory use, helpful browsing tools, and leading customizability, the independent open-source browser has reclaimed PCMag.com's Editors' Choice for browsers.