Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April 2010.

The importance of this news is that it will bring gaming to the Mac platform, something that Mac users have long awaited for years. Valve will have a major hold into the Mac market with this move, and will prompt other game makes to consider the Mac a solid gaming machine.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

“Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,” said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. “Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.”

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The Logitech Gaming Keyboard G110. Time to step up your game.

Ready to step up your game? With the Logitech Gaming Keyboard G110 on your side, you’ve got what you need to play faster, better and longer. Designed for serious gamers, this keyboard puts customizable controls right where you need them. Locate the correct keys—even in the dark—with backlighting colors you can select and assign. You also have 12 programmable G-keys to help you execute complex commands more rapidly than your opponents. Whether you’re running an epic raid or fragging an enemy soldier, the competition is no match for you and your Logitech Gaming Keyboard G110.

Logitech’s G110 Gaming Keyboard, as the name states, is designed to be a gaming keyboard first and foremost.The G110 definitely excels where gaming is concerned with multi color back-lit keys, headset-ready USB audio,high-speed USB 2.0 port, game mode switch, and 12 programmable G-keys with three macros each. This keyboard has a built-in macro recorder and comes with a “Key Profiler” program that is installed with the keyboard. The macro and quick key functions are easy to use and switching between macro modes as simple as pressing the M1-M3 keys. The Key Profiler program is designed to do an automatic game scan and create a profile for that game.

The microphone and audio jacks both work well. There is also a volume scroll wheel that will let you control headset volume while leaving Windows’ volume untouched. The G110 also has a set of multi-media keys designed to work with your multi-media player. The built in USB port is a powered port designed to support up to 100mA USB devices. The keyboard itself is very wide (19.5 inches) and may not fit some keyboard trays.

While the Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard is a keyboard that is designed for gamers that play complex RTS and MMO role playing games most users will have no problem using it as their standard keyboard. The Keys are a little smaller than your standard keyboard and are soft,smooth, and quiet when typing.

The G110 does a lot of things well, however it doesn’t do everything perfectly. The USB port does have intermittent problems powering certain mice and memory sticks. The Profiler automatic “ Game Scan” doesn’t recognize and automatically create a profile for several popular games both new and old. However you can open the Key Profiler and create a new profile and navigate to the game EXE for games not automatically recognized and assigned a profile. Others have reported that the multi-media keys do not work with WinAmp or Corel’s WinDVD, however, I use Windows Media Player 11 which does work with this keyboard.

Logitech’s G110 Gaming Keyboard shares a lot of features with the other G-Series gaming keyboards Logitech makes, because of this it makes it a solid gamers keyboard. But the G110 cost is less than the G15 and less than half the cost of the G19 making it a good choice for gamers that game in low light conditions and play games that lend themselves to the use of macro keys. If you don’t plan to use this keyboard for gaming but as a standard keyboard for word processing and office work then you are just wasting your money.

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The Eclipse II keyboard gives you a choice of backlighting colors – purple, red and blue – adjustable via a dimmer mechanism. Key characters and keypad illuminate making the Eclipse II ideal for use in any lighting environment.

Solidly constructed from high quality materials, including a stylish silver casing, the Eclipse II’s weighted base and large area rubber feet keep it firmly planted to the desk, while cushioned, silent keys mean hours of fatigue-free use.

Low cost and solid build make this a keyboard worth owning.

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High quality mechanical keys, and heavy construction with excellent response times makes this one of the better gaming keyboards out there. The click-clack that normally comes with mechnical keys isn’t there but it is louder than a normal switch based keyboard. The keyboard Numeric, Caps, and Scroll lock lights are bright white (we mean extremely bright) and can be annoying in darker rooms.

The letters on some of the more used keys are starting to fade due to lots of use. This is a bit unsual on such an expensive keyboard. The removal plastic keyboard wrist rest is a nice addition, but if you aren’t careful you could easily break it when it’s not around the keyboard itself.

Overall this keyboard is a solid well performing one. The price would be better around the $99.00 mark rather than the retail price of $149.00.

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