Technologies
The Gamesir G7 Pro Is Almost the Perfect Pro Controller… Almost
GameSir has delivered a nearly perfect pro controller in performance and features (and the price isn’t too bad either).
Pros
- Sleek design
- Great ergonomics
- Solid hardware
- Good accessories included
Cons
- Basic software
- Limited design customizations
- No wireless Xbox support
The term «pro» gets thrown around a lot, especially with tech gear, and it typically refers to a version of something with more features or more power than a stripped-down base model. When it comes to controllers, it’s generally used to describe one with features such as extra remappable buttons, the ability to connect to multiple platforms and, of course, Hall Effect joysticks. Well, kind of. More on that later.
GameSir has been making controllers for several years now. Unfortunately, they’ve been a bit hit-or-miss in terms of quality. Some, like the Super Nova, knock it out of the park, while others, like the Cyclone 2, just aren’t impressive. However, I’m happy to say its new G7 Pro controller has rightfully earned the «pro» in its name.
Design
The G7 Pro has a nearly identical design to the original G7, which in turn was similar to Xbox’s own controller. That’s a good thing, as the Xbox controller has been one of the best ergonomically designed controllers for many years.
The grips are one of the most noticeable upgrades from the G7. They made the top and bottom out of different materials for the Pro, which is genius. The plastic top makes it smoother to slide my palms around and less sweaty as I reach for different buttons. The rubberized bottom grips give me a firm hold on the controller. They aren’t the first ones to do this, but that attention to detail is welcome.
Another neat detail is that all the included accessories, including a docking station, wireless dongle, USB-C cable and cable retainer, all match the color of the controller. Not many companies do that, and I appreciate it.
The controller also looks clean. As nice as the Panda motif is on the original Xbox controller, the dual-tone gray and white of the G7 Pro is just cool. There’s also a black version with a red gradient faceplate if you want to go that route. The tops of the grips and the middle faceplate all magnetically detach from the controller, giving you a cool look at the innards.
One big miss in my opinion is the lack of RGB lighting, especially since the entire top under the faceplate, as well as the triggers, buttons and extra mini bumpers, are all transparent. That could have been an awesome extra addition, but there’s no additional lighting other than a ring around the Xbox button.
Hardware
The G7 Pro comes equipped with a lot of great hardware, including GameSir’s TMR, or Tunneling Magnetoresistance, joysticks. TMR is essentially an upgraded version of the Hall Effect, which supposedly offers greater durability and responsiveness. TMR thumbsticks are still fairly new, but so far I’m enjoying them.
While the thumbsticks use TMR, the triggers use Hall Effect, and there are even physical trigger stops to switch from analog Hall Effect triggers to micro switch triggers for faster response times. Ever since I first used a controller with physical trigger stops, I can’t play without them.
Speaking of micro switches, the «ABXY» buttons are optical micro switches, and the four-way D-pad has mechanical micro switches. The D-pad is the weakest part of the controller for me. It feels a bit too mushy, and even though GameSir includes three different caps, including a smooth circle hoping to mimic an eight-way D-pad, it’s just not great. It’s also insanely responsive, and I occasionally accidentally pressed one of the directions while gaming. It’s not a deal breaker, but something to note.
Rounding out the hardware are two mappable back buttons (which can be locked if you don’t want to use them) and two mini bumpers up top, much like the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, which is more than twice the price of the G7 Pro. At the bottom is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a mute button for the mic and a pairing button for the wireless connections.
Connectivity
The G7 Pro supports PC gaming via 2.4GHz wireless, Android over Bluetooth and Xbox over wired USB-C. It’s nice to see support for more than one platform, but GameSir could have done better here. The lack of Xbox Wireless support is likely a licensing issue, and not paying for it helps keep costs down, but I certainly would pay a few dollars more to have it.
The lack of iOS and Switch support is a big miss here as well. Again, I’m sure it’s partially a licensing thing and partially to encourage folks to buy another controller for different platforms, but it’s still not optimal. GameSir is absolutely targeting the Xbox gamers here, so it’s not a huge surprise that those other platforms miss out.
Software
Any controller attempting to call itself «pro» these days needs to have, at the very least, remappable buttons and trigger and joystick dead zones. Most, including the G7 Pro, give you quite a few more options than that in their accompanying software apps.
GameSir’s Nexus app is available for Android, PC and Xbox and gives you granular controls over almost every aspect of the controller. You can even store up to four different profiles for custom setups for your favorite games. The software is basic in terms of UI, but to GameSir’s credit, I’ve never had any issues with the app. Sure, it doesn’t look flashy, but it works better than some others I’ve used, and I’d rather function over form any day.
Easy to recommend
In the end, I have no problems recommending the G7 Pro to anyone looking for an upgraded Xbox or PC controller. The hardware is great, and while it’s not as colorful as some other options, the design is clean. It’s got all the features you could ever want, including TMR thumbsticks, Hall Effect triggers and extra remappable buttons. All that’s missing is wireless Xbox support. The included 10-foot USB-C cable was plenty long for me, however, so I didn’t mind. Plus: No recharging.
The best part is you get all of this for $80. While that’s still a lot of money, I haven’t come across many other controllers that give you such a complete package at that price. Sure, you can pay more for a couple of extra buttons, an eight-way D-pad or wireless Xbox support, but at the end of the day, the G7 Pro is a fantastic controller for anyone looking to explore the world of pro controllers.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 24, #927
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Dec. 24 #927
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. Ooh, that purple category! Once again, you’ll need to look inside words for hidden words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Hints for today’s Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Cash out.
Green group hint: Chomp
Blue group hint: Walleye and salmon.
Purple group hint: Make a musical sound, with a twist.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Slang for money.
Green group: Masticate.
Blue group: Fish.
Purple group: Ways to vocalize musically plus a letter.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is slang for money. The four answers are bacon, bread, cheese and paper.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is masticate. The four answers are bite, champ, chew and munch.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is fish. The four answers are char, pollock, sole and tang.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is ways to vocalize musically plus a letter. The four answers are hump (hum), rapt (rap), singe (sing) and whistler (whistle).
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
Toughest Connections puzzles
We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.
#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.
#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.
#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.
#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.
#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword
Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.
Mini across clues and answers
1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME
5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC
7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO
8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER
9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS
2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN
3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA
4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER
6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
Technologies
Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It
This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.
The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.
The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.
How and where to see Quadrantids
Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.
For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.
As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.
To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.
The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.
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