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.

Microsoft has finally announced its huge AI PC push with its new Copilot+ AI PCs that are new Windows laptops that have built-in AI hardware -- NPUs -- that support AI features within Windows 11. Check it out:

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that all of Microsoft's major laptop partners will have Copilot+ AI PCs, including Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Acer, and ASUS. Not only that, but Microsoft is also introducing two new Surface laptops that are ready for the world of AI.

The company announced the news during its Build conference, with Nadella reiterating that Microsoft is pushing big time into the world of Arm chips on Windows laptops, with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite SoC being the first Copilot+ AI PC in the wild. Intel and AMD-based CPUs and laptop designs will be coming out later this year.

Apple's brand-new M4 iPad Pro is now on sale after months of guesses and delays in terms of its launch date. The tablet brought with it all of the high-end specs that we'd been told to expect including a powerful new M4 chip and a stunning OLED display. But according to a new report not everyone has been happy with that display since picking up their new tablets.

The iPad Pro comes with a stunning new OLED display, the likes of which Apple has never put in a tablet before. However, a MacRumors report cites buyers across Reddit and its own forums as having issues with that new OLED display. Some say that the display is grainy, for example, and the issue seems to be most pronounced on darker backgrounds.

Some users describe the issue as if it was a photo taken in the dark with a large level of noise, but it isn't yet clear just how widespread it is. It's also unclear whether this is actually an issue as such or simply a feature of the way these new displays work. The issues don't appear to be affecting everyone to be sure, and none of the reviewers who got their hands on the iPad Pro early reported any similar issues.

The M2 Ultra Mac Studio and Mac Pro are among the best Macs you can buy if you need raw horsepower and lots of cores, but we now expect that Apple will ship the M3 family of chips for these computers entirely and move on to the M4. Apple announced the first M4 device earlier this month in the form of the iPad Pro, and while there are no Macs with the chip yet that will change later this year. But in terms of the M4 Ultra and the Macs that will use it, there is no suggestion that they will arrive before 2025.

In fact, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has now reiterated that in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Gurman says that Apple's current roadmap has the company set to launch the new M4-powered Mac Studio and Mac Pro in the middle fo 2025 which means that we shouldn't expect anything any time soon. Thankfully, the M2 Ultra Mac Studio and Mac Pros are still extremely fast devices.

Gurman also says that he doesn't expect that Apple will announce any new Macs at the WWDC event that will kick off on June 10, allowing the company to instead focus on software. Given the expected focus on big AI features coming to the iPhone that could be the best decision, giving Apple the time needed to show off its new software updates to the fullest. Alongside the iOS 18 update, we also expect Apple to preview new updates for the Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

Apple's AirTag is a pretty solid item tracker as it is, but it hasn't been updated since its release back in April 2021. That means that the tracker is now more than three years old and a new report suggests that Apple is finally getting ready to release an updated model. But that isn't going to happen any time soon, it would seem, and we might have to wait another whole year.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who was writing in the weekly Power On newsletter when he suggested that mid-2025 might be the timeframe we should be looking at.

According to Gurman, the next-generation AirTag is being developed under the codename B589 within Apple. It's currently undergoing manufacturing tests with supply chain partners and the tracker is currently aiming for the middle of next year, although that could change before the updated AirTag is officially unveiled.

Apple released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to the public just a week ago but the company has now also released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1. The unusually quick turnaround comes because Apple needed to fix a particularly troubling bug that has been reported for the last few days and has proven to be a real source of concern for some.

That bug saw iPhone and iPad owners report that they sometimes encountered the return of previously deleted photos in the Photos app. Users reported that photos, sometimes as old as 10 years old, had made an appearance despite having previously been deleted. The photos popped up as if they had only just been taken and could potentially have been problematic for a number of reasons depending on their content. The bug could also resurface photos of people that the user did not want to see for various obvious reasons, too.

Now, Apple has released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to address the issue, saying that the update provides important bug fixes to address a rare issue where photos could reappear in the Photos app. The release notes say that this happened when photos had experienced a database corruption, but it isn't clear why that might happen or indeed what it actually means.

Apple isn't expected to announce the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max until much later this year, likely in or around September. But expectations are already starting to grow and a new report has detailed which colors we should expect to be choosing from when the big launch comes around.

The information comes via the usually well-connected supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a post on the X social network. According to the post, it seems that Apple is getting ready to ditch the popular blue titanium color in favor of its complete opposite - a new rose color that could be similar to the rose gold that was popular on previous devices.

In that X post, Ming-Chi Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is expected to offer the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max in black, white or silver, and a natural titanium finish as well as that rose color we mentioned earlier. However, it's also worth noting that we could see some of the colors change even if they have the same name given the way Apple likes to tweak finishes. We only need to look at the various different space gray finishes of iPhones past.

If Apple sticks to a familiar pattern we can expect the company to announce a slew of new iPhones this coming September, starting with the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. Both handsets are set to go on sale alongside the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max and it's thought that they'll be powered by iOS 18, complete with a big new AI focus that is set to be announced at WWDC on June 10. Now, a new report appears to have outed the colors that iPhone 16 buyers can expect to be choosing from this fall.

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is normally extremely well-connected which means that it's always worth paying attention when he shares details about upcoming iPhones. Now, he's shared details about the iPhone 16 colors in a post on the X social network.

According to the post, Apple will launch the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus in black, green, pink, blue, and white. However, he does note that it's possible that the colors will have different names - as an example, he says that white could be called Starlight as has been the case previously. It's also worth remembering that it's possible that even if an iPhone has the same color name as a previous model, it could actually be a very different color when you see it in person.

With Apple's WWDC event set to kick off on June 10, we're starting to hear more and more about what we can expect to be unveiled. For some time now the rumors have pointed to a big AI presence at the event, with iOS 18 in particular set to benefit from some new smarts that will be a big upgrade over what we're already familiar with. Expectations are high, and now a new report has added additional detail on what we should expect from Apple's big event.

The iPhone is one of the devices that is expected to benefit greatly from the new features and Apple is expected to preview iOS 18 at WWDC. That update isn't going to be released to the public until September, but WWDC will give us a flavor of what to expect while a developer beta will also be released for testing on June 10, too. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple intends to add features that will improve Siri's voice capabilities, among other things.

The Siri upgrades are set to include an improved, more conversational feel, we're told, while services like auto-summarizing of notifications will also be part of the unveiling. There's also talk of the ability to get a synopsis of news articles while voice memos will also be transcribed upon request. Gurman also believes that there will be improvements to existing features like the ability to auto-popular calendar data as well as suggestions for apps.

The current-gen iPhone SE has been around since 2022 and while it's a solid option for people who want to be able to get into an iPhone without spending too much money, there's no denying that it is starting to show its age. Even when the handset was released in 2022 the phone looked aged thanks to the use of a Home button and the relatively small 4.7-inch display. That's all expected to change when the iPhone SE 4 arrives and while we've been told to expect a price hike, a new report suggests that anyone concerned about a potential $500+ device need not worry too much.

This is according to a new post by the X leaker Revegnus which claims that the US price of the iPhone SE 4 will see a price increase of around 10%, although there is still the possibility that the price won't increase at all. However, if it does, Apple is reportedly very keen to ensure that the price doesn't increase beyond $499.

The reasons for the iPhone SE to get more expensive for this fourth generation are pretty obvious. The rumors currently have the handset coming with a large 6.1-inch OLED display while Face ID is also thought to be part of the spec sheet. Both of those things will cost Apple more to produce than the Touch ID and LCD display combination that is currently in use.

ASUS has launched a new gaming monitor and the company has claimed its the world's first WOLED gaming monitor to come to market.

The company has just taken to its YouTube channel to share a trailer for the ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMG, the world's first glossy WOLED gaming monitor. The XG27AQDMG arrives with a 2560 x 1440p resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms (GtG) response time, and a 20% brighter image in SDR mode, according to ASUS. Additionally, ASUS also claims the XG27AQDMG will have deeper blacks and more vibrant colors.

Notably, the XG27AQDMG packs ASUS's third-generation OLED technology, which includes a custom heatsink, a clear pixel edge algorithm to clean up any text fringing, and "extreme low motion blur". As for color, ASUS claims the XG27AQDMG supports 99% of the DCI-P3 color space, or 135% of the RGB color space. There is also support for 10-bit color.