It's been another big week of news and happenings in the tech, gaming, and science space, and Jak and Kosta are back with a new episode of The TT Show - TweakTown's official podcast. From leaked GeForce RTX 5090 specs to more Nintendo Switch 2 rumors from leaked Activision documents, the duo also touches on a potential fossilized avocado found on Mars.

Of course, it's just a rock that looks like one. In addition, with the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion, Kosta went hands-on with the new Update 2.0 and was blown away by the improvements that have come with the new DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction update.

And then there's a closer look at the new INNO3D GeForce RTX 4070 Twin X2 OC with Stealth Cable Management - which sparks a chat about the abundance of cables. There are just too many. Plus, Intel's new 14th Gen CPUs get benchmarked, a Redditor digs into whether NVIDIA DLSS requires AI hardware, and more!

Alongside the full reveal of the new Meta Quest 3 VR and mixed-reality headset today at Meta Connect 2023, the company unveiled its second-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses collection, which "combines iconic style and cutting-edge technology." And they'll be here October 17, starting from USD 299.

Second-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses launch on October 17.

Although smart glasses have been around for a while and haven't taken off, Meta's new Ray-Ban collaboration improves on the company's first-gen efforts while adding AI capabilities and revamping the audio with redesigned speakers optimized for bass, higher volume, and directional sound to deliver calls, music, and podcasts in noisy environments.

According to Meta, you'll get "double the bass," which sits on top of the ability to capture POV media with the new ultra-wide 12 MP camera that can capture 1080p videos of up to 60 seconds each. Meta adds that the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 Platform enabled higher-quality photos and video processing and faster access to features.

At Meta Connect 2023, Meta CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg was on hand to confirm that the Meta Quest 3 all-in-one VR headset is also now a mixed-reality device and is launching on October 10 starting from USD 499.99 for the 128GB version and USD 649.99 for the larger capacity 512GB model.

The Meta Quest 3 launches October 10, starting from $499.99, image credit: Meta.

Yes, the new Meta Quest 3 headset features cameras on the front, with full-color passthrough to deliver mixed-reality experiences on top of serving as the next-generation all-in-one VR headset from the company. Meta notes that this full-color Passthrough presents your surroundings with 10 times more pixels than the Quest 2.

Of course, the main functionality of the Meta Quest 3 will still be as a VR headset. On that front, the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform delivers double the GPU processing power than what's possible with the Quest 2 - alongside other features like faster loading for games.

The Apple Car is fast becoming something of a myth at this point, and it now seems increasingly unlikely that we will ever see it hit the roads. Especially not in the next few years, we're told.

With the Apple Car presumably still under development inside Apple using the same Project Titan name that we've been hearing for years, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now hinted that the project has gone dark.

In a post on X, the social network previously known as Twitter, Kuo says that the Apple Car "seems to have lost all visibility," suggesting that there has been no movement on the project in terms of the supply chain and companies responsible for sourcing parts. The analyst goes on to hint that we won't see the Apple Car go into mass production within the next few years unless something dramatic happens.

Apple's 2024 lineup of new iPads and Macs will all use improved chips according to one well-connected supply chain analyst. But that might not be enough to make people actually buy them, they say.

Speaking in a larger Medium post about Apple's plans for next year, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple will use 3nm chips for its new models next year. That matches expectations that the new machines will all get upgraded M3 chips to replace the M2 family that is currently on sale. But the analyst also warns that a "lack of growth drivers" could mean that there will be a lack of growth for Apple's new products.

Growth drivers like the COVID pandemic and the initial switch away from Intel chips caused plenty of people to buy new Macs, especially of the laptop kind. But Kuo says that the lack of similar drivers could mean that the new Macs and iPads won't be as attractive.

When Apple announced the iPhone 16 Pro during the September 12 event it also announced that it would come with a new A17 Pro chip. The fastest chip it's ever put in an iPhone, the new silicon would power only Apple's best iPhones. The iPhone 15 would get the A16 Bionic of last year's iPhone 14 Pro, and things are set to continue in the same way next year - although with a slight twist.

Writing in a research note seen by MacRumors, Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu believes that Apple will give the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro new chips next year. They'll reportedly be called the A18 and A18 Pro, with the lineup split between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus and the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The analyst believes that both of the new chips will be based on the N3E fabrication process. That's chipmaker TSMC's new, second-generation 3nm process which is expected to be less expensive with improved yields compared to the current first-generation one. That first-generation 3nm fabrication process was behind the A17 Pro that powers the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

If you own an iPhone and live in the UK you could soon be able to see your bank balance in the Wallet app, according to a new report. While the feature is indeed coming, you'll need to be the proud owner of an account at one of a handful of banks to make use of the new feature.

The bank balance feature will be available to people who bank with HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, Monzo, and Starling, a 9to5Mac report says. What makes that interesting is that it's a mix of new fintech companies and traditional banks, with all of them using the UK's Open Banking API.

The use of the special API means that Apple never sees any of the data that is collected from the banks themselves, and all of it is stored on the iPhone in question. That means that it never touches Apple's servers either, something that will be a big positive for people who value their privacy.

Horizon Forbidden West is coming to the PC platform, and soon enough, Sony has just revealed.

The Complete Edition of Horizon Forbidden West will pitch up next year, and we're told it'll be early 2024, too. So, we haven't got that long to wait at all for the PC port.

This is, of course, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, the original PlayStation game which was ported to the PC back in the summer of 2020 (three years ago, now, shockingly - has it really been that long?).

Racing sim addicts who are after a dedicated chair, but don't have the space for a full setup - and maybe not the wallet capacity either - might be impressed by a new offering from Logitech in this space.

That would be the Playseat Challenge X racing chair, which folds away to be easily stored in a cupboard somewhere.

The chassis of the racing chair is nicely lightweight at just under 12kg in total, and you can, of course, attach a steering wheel and pedals. Crucially, as part of the compact setup, those peripherals can be left attached when you fold up the Playseat Challenge X, for a good deal of added convenience.

Apple's macOS Sonoma is finally available for everyone to download after going through months of beta testing and one of the big new features is called Game Mode. The feature is exactly what it sounds like, a mode that is designed to be turned on whenever playing a game. But what does it do?

Apple had already said that Game Mode would redirect system resources to make sure that games run at the best possible performance levels by reducing background processes. That hands over more of the CPU and GPU to the game, making it run better. We also see that the Bluetooth sampling rate will increase, reducing latency when using AirPods and game controllers. Now, Apple has shared details on how to use the feature and how to disable it if you don't want it to be used at all.

A new support document, spotted by MacRumors, details exactly how Game Mode works. It says that it'll turn on automatically whenever a game is run in full-screen mode by hovering the pointer over the green arrow button in the top-left corner of the game window and choosing the Full Screen option.

When Apple released watchOS 10 to the public last week it brought with it a ton of new features as well as tweaks to existing ones. But it turns out it also brought something else to the table - a bug that prevents the Weather app's complications from working properly.

So when Apple released watchOS 10.0.2 yesterday there was a lot of hope. Could this update fix the weird complication issue? It appeared that it indeed did, with people who downloaded the updated reporting that their complications were working once more. Except, soon enough, it all went wrong and the complications stopped working all over again.

The issue appears to be that Weather app complications simply stop working, refusing to display data even when there is data to be found. Tapping the notification opens the Weather app and weather data is indeed present and correct. But it seems that information isn't finding its way through to the complication, causing problems as a result.