This week on the TT Show, Lord of the Rings superfan (and also superfan) Jak and Kosta discuss Peter Jackson returning to The Lord of the Rings franchise with the new movie 'The Hunt for Gollum.' They discuss the potential story, timeline, and their hopes for a return to the magic of the original trilogy. And not, you know, The Hobbit.

Another big story this week is Apple's apologizing for its seemingly tone-deaf iPad Pro advertisement that quickly caused a massive wave of negative backlash. Is it as bad as some of the comments? As a fan of retro hardware who doesn't like seeing it get destroyed, Kosta thinks so, while Jak is more on the fence and 'meh.'

And it wouldn't be an episode of The TT Show without GPU news, with all of the latest GeForce RTX 50 Series, Radeon, and Intel graphics talk bundled into a new section of the podcast called 'GPU Corner.' Speaking of new sections, Jak and Kosta play a round of Guess the Headline for some fun.

There has been an awful lot of talk about Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update that will power the iPhone starting later this year and most of it has been about the new AI features that it will bring to the table. But it's also set to bring new emojis as well, and we now have a better idea of which we can start to look forward to making their debut.

The Unicode Consortium has shared details of a handful of new emojis that are set to be available this year, assuming that they gain final approval. If they do, Apple and other companies will start to release the new emojis via software updates this year and it's likely that iOS 18 will include them. However, it's possible that we will have to wait for a later 18.1 or similar release for them to break cover as has been the case in previous years.

The new emojis that have been previewed include a face with bags under its eyes, a fingerprint similar to the Touch ID logo, a leafless tree, a root vegetable, a harp, a shovel, and a splatter of something like ink or paint.

The latest hit to land on the Apple TV Plus streaming service appears to be Dark Matter, a sci-fi show that's based on a best-selling book of the same name by Black Crouch and starring Joel Edgerton alongside Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly.

The new show has only been available since its premiere on May 8 but it's already taking the streaming charts by storm. New figures shared by the data collectors at Reelgood have Dark Matter sitting at the top of the pile in terms of the TV show streaming chart for the week beginning May 9. To get there it beat out some big names including Fallout, Baby Reindeer, and a Man in Full. In fact, the show also came out at the top of the overall streaming chart which includes both TV shows and movies.

The Dark Matter book was hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade and follows Jason Dessen (played by Edgerton), a physicist, professor and family man who is abducted into an alternate version of his life. From there he's left to figure out what is going on and then try to get back to his real life all the while trying to figure out who was behind the whole thing. It's a gripping story, and one that is sure to prove popular as the later episodes begin streaming. The finale isn't due to arrive until June 26.

Ever wanted to run Windows XP on old hardware? Well, you might have done a couple of decades ago, when Windows XP was released - but probably not now, right?

Despite the apparently futility of the exercise, a challenge is a challenge, and getting Windows XP working on an Intel 486 processor from 1989 is certainly that - and it was one undertaken by a modder from Germany.

That modder is Dietmar on the MSFN forums, as Techspot noticed, and they successfully patched Windows XP to work on the 486 chip running at 90MHz (yes, the heady heights of clock frequencies back in the day).

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple more than fifty new patents and one may be a clue as to what the company is planning on implementing into its long-rumored foldable iPhone.

For quite some time, we have been hearing rumblings about a foldable iPhone, but rumors suggested Apple wasn't quite ready to jump into the emerging market due to limitations in display technology, particularly with the crease that is seen on other foldable devices. Additionally, rumors from supply chain insiders indicate Apple won't be releasing a foldable product until 2027, with the earliest being 2026. By then, engineers should have overcome the display hardware limitation.

Now, Apple is testing its revolutionary foldable panels, and one patent filed with the US trademark office reveals some key details about what could be in Apple's foldable device. The patent describes "self-healing material" that could be used across the entire display or just in the regions of the display that flex. Apple describes the technology as having healing capabilities when the material is dented or flexed. Additionally, this new material can also begin healing when heat, light or electrical current is applied.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled a new range of AI-powered Copilot+ PCs, which will arrive soon. These PCs are powered by Arm-based Snapdragon X chips running Windows 11 with a suite of new AI features and optimizations. In addition to Microsoft's latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, Copilot+ PCs are arriving from various partners, including ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and more.

They all run on Snapdragon X chips with a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, which provides 45 TOPS of AI performance to meet the Copilot+ PC requirement. This is all fine for running AI tools locally, but what about gaming performance? Well, Microsoft held a Windows on Arm gaming demonstration at the Build 2024 event to showcase the power of the Qualcomm Adreno GPU found in the Snapdragon X Elite chipset.

According to Windows Central, which was present during the presentation, Baldur's Gate 3 can run on a Surface Pro at around 30 FPS at 1080p. This is comparable performance to high-end PC gaming handhelds, which is encouraging for the future of Arm gaming on Windows devices.

GeForce Game Ready Driver 555.85 - WHQL is now available. You can download and install it via the NVIDIA App, the GeForce Experience app, or directly from NVIDIA here. The latest driver supports two big new game releases this month: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II and EA SPORTS F1 24.

Both titles support DLSS 3 for upscaling, Frame Generation, and Reflex, with F1 24 also including ray tracing. F1 24 has stepped up its RT action this year, with the latest entry supporting in-race Ray-Traced Reflections, Ray-Traced Shadows, and the new Ray-Traced Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination to improve the overall lighting when racing at breakneck speeds.

Running on Unreal Engine 5, Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is one of the most visually impressive games we've ever seen. It pushes the limits of fidelity while telling a personal, action-packed, and dramatic story. On an Xbox Series X, it only manages to hit 30 FPS upscaled from around 1080p. With a GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, you can play in 4K with Max Settings and DLSS 3 at triple that frame rate or around 150 FPS with a GeForce RTX 4090.

Ninja Theory and Xbox Game Studios just released the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, with Senua's Saga: Hellblade II now available on PC and Xbox consoles.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was a highly anticipated release from Ninja Theory, as the game was in development for nearly five years and any trailer or screenshots showcasing the title left fans in awe at the phenomenal graphics - particularly the motion capture. But, with intense graphics there is a cost to performance, or framerate, and that is now being reported by players on the Xbox Series X|S.

According to an analysis by ElAnalistaDeBits, Hellblade II runs at a dynamic 2560x1070p with an average res of around 2304x963p on Xbox Series X and a dynamic 1920x803p with an average of 1472x615p on Xbox Series S. If you are wondering why the resolutions aren't familiar it's because Ninja Theory chose to run the game in a cinematic aspect ratio of 2.39:1, which means black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

A new report from Bloomberg has revealed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, is prepared for China if the nation decides to take Taiwan by force.

In the event of Chinese military going boots on the ground in Taiwan, TSMC and Dutch company ASML, who makes the machines TSMC uses, have reminded their respective governments of their preparedness, as Bloomberg has learned from people "familiar with the matter" that both companies have built hardware-level kill switches into their machines that can be remotely activated.

The report states US officials approached ASML with concerns about a Chinese invasion, which ASML assured the officials that it's extremely valuable machines can be remotely disabled if required. Furthermore, the Dutch company is already running simulations of such an event to learn more about how a real-world scenario would play out if it ever occurred.

Elden Ring players will be glad to know that some new details have been revealed about the villain they will be facing in the upcoming DLC expansion titled "Shadow of the Erdtree".

The long-awaited expansion of the critically acclaimed FromSoftware title Elden Ring has just received a new story trailer that reveals some new details about the villain, Messmer the Impaler. Reports indicate the new villain is a powerful demigod that is linked to the characters from the original Elden Ring story. As for the story trailer, there are hints at what sent the demigod Miquella to the new land that she sacrificed himself for.

Additionally, the trailer ends with followers of Miquella joining forces and requesting new warriors fight for their cause to be rid of Messmer and his burning legions. Notably, the new story trailer may appear confusing to the casual Elden Ring player who didn't really pay much attention to the lore of the game and was just there for the extremely tight and rewarding gameplay, but for self-proclaimed Elden Ring scholars, the new story trailer is certainly a rich piece of information to obtain just a few months before the DLC releases.

GIGABYTE is preparing a huge wave of next-gen Z890 motherboards ready for Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors... most of them with AI, of course.

In a new leak from Persian news outlet Faceit.ir who sourced their data from a local GIGABYTE distributor, multiple new Z890 motherboards are in the works using the new LGA 1851 socket and ready for Intel's next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs. We should expect Intel to detail its new processors at Computex 2024 in just a couple of weeks time, as well as GIGABYTE (and other motherboard makers) unveiling new 800-series motherboards.

GIGABYTE has at least 8 new motherboards based on the Z890 chipset alone, with the new flagship GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS EXTREME AI TOP motherboard, as well as the new Z890 AORUS MASTER AI TOP motherboard, while the third board is the Z890 AI TOP. Notice a trend? AI, AI, AI, baby.